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Siege of Mafeking: Difference between revisions
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== Prelude == | == Prelude == | ||
Shortly before the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, | Shortly before the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, Lord Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of the [[British Army]], who had failed to persuade the British government to send troops to the region, instead sent Colonel (later Lord) [[Robert Baden-Powell|Baden-Powell]], accompanied by a handful of officers, to the Cape Colony to raise two Regiments of Mounted Rifles from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Their aims were to resist the expected Boer invasion of the Natal Colony (now KwaZulu-Natal Province), draw the Boers away from the coasts to facilitate the landing of British troops, and, through a demonstrable British presence, deter the local people from siding with the Boers. | ||
Like the British government, the local politicians feared that increased military activity might provoke a Boer attack, so Baden-Powell found himself having to obtain many of his own stores, organise his own transport and recruit in secret. With barely trained forces and aware of the Boers' greatly superior numbers, commando tactics and the failure of the earlier Jameson Raid, Baden-Powell decided that the best way to tie down Boer troops would be through defence rather than attack. Consequently he chose to hold the town of Mafeking due to its location - both near the border and on the railway between Bulawayo and [[Kimberley, South Africa|Kimberley]] - and because of its status as a local administrative centre. As well, the town had good stocks of food and other necessities. | Like the British government, the local politicians feared that increased military activity might provoke a Boer attack, so Baden-Powell found himself having to obtain many of his own stores, organise his own transport and recruit in secret. With barely trained forces and aware of the Boers' greatly superior numbers, commando tactics and the failure of the earlier Jameson Raid, Baden-Powell decided that the best way to tie down Boer troops would be through defence rather than attack. Consequently he chose to hold the town of Mafeking due to its location - both near the border and on the railway between Bulawayo and [[Kimberley, South Africa|Kimberley]] - and because of its status as a local administrative centre. As well, the town had good stocks of food and other necessities. | ||
