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Buller fought in a number of wars during the 1870s to try to bring British colonies, Afrikaner republics and independent African peoples in southern Africa under unified British control.  The Ninth Cape Frontier War  In 1878 the British attacked the Gcaleka Xhosa. The Rharabe Xhosa chief Sandile, already absorbed within the Cape Colony, rose in… Continue reading South Africa

The following year, 1883, Buller was part of an expeditionary force to rescue General Gordon from Khartoum. The Mahdi, a religious leader, had launched a jihad (holy war) against Egyptian control of Sudan. General Gordon had been sent to Khartoum to oversee the withdrawal of Egyptian troops but had chosen to remain there and become… Continue reading Soudan (Sudan)

In 1882 Egypt was governed by a pasha who had become indebted to the British and French governments. The Suez Canal played a vital role connecting Britain with India and other colonies, so when Urabi Pasha led a rebellion against foreign control, the British government sent troops to suppress it. After British ships had shelled… Continue reading Egypt

In 1873 the British government incorporated the port of Elimina (now in Ghana) within its Gold Coast Colony. Elmina was the Asante kingdom’s main trade outlet to the sea. Fearing the loss of independence, Kofi Karikari, the Asante king, ordered his army to reclaim it. Buller was head of intelligence for the ‘punitive expedition’ sent… Continue reading Ashante (Asante)

Buller’s opportunity to show leadership came in the Red River Expedition of 1870, against Métis people (of mixed French colonial and Indigenous descent), in what is now Manitoba. The recently unified Canadian government had purchased the territory from the Hudson’s Bay Company and appointed a governor to allocate the land to British settlers and integrate… Continue reading Canada

Buller served in China during the Second Opium War, which also began in 1857. When the Chinese authorities arrested the crew of The Arrow, a ship formerly registered as British for piracy, Prime Minister Palmerston seized upon the excuse to provoke a long-intended war. The intention was to force the Qing Dynasty to legalise British… Continue reading China

In 1857 a rebellion against the rule of the East India Company broke out across a swathe of northern India. It began with the mutiny of Indian soldiers who felt that they longer had the respect of their British commanders and spread among civilians angered by loss of sovereignty, taxation and their experience of British… Continue reading India