Bechuanaland Expedition

The Bechuanaland Expedition or Warren Expedition, of late 1884/1885, was a British military expedition to Bechuanaland, to assert British sovereignty in the face of encroachments from Germany, the Transvaal and to suppress the Boer freebooter states of Stellaland and Goshen.

In December 1884, Major-General Charles Warren was sent as HM Special Commissioner to command a military expedition to Bechuanaland, to assert British sovereignty in the face of encroachments from Germany and the Transvaal, and to suppress the Boer freebooter states of Stellaland and Goshen, which were backed by the Transvaal and were stealing land and cattle from the local Tswana tribes. Warren's force of 4,000 British and local troops headed north from Cape Town, accompanied by the first three observation balloons ever used by the British Army in the field. On 22 January, Warren met the Boer leader Paul Kruger at the Modder River where Kruger sought to bring the expedition to a halt on the basis that he would take responsibility for maintaining order in Bechuanaland. Warren did not abandon his march, however, and on reaching Bechuanaland he dissolved up the republics of Stellaland and Goshen without bloodshed and Bechuanaland became a British protectorate. Warren was recalled in September 1885.

Scottish missionary John Mackenzie (1835–99), who accompanied Warren, described his experiences with the expedition in an 1887 work, Austral Africa: Losing It or Ruling It.