The first Boer War was a war that was fought between 1880 and 1881 with the Transvaal (that is a South African Republic) on one side and Great Britain on the other. The primarily Dutch settlers who were white natives belonging to Cape Province were called Boers. The war mainly broke out because of rapid expansion of the British Empire; the internal problems of the Transvaal government; the annexation by the British of the Transvaal; and opposition to any rule by the British in Transvaal. It was the annexation by Sir Theophilus Shepstone that precipitated the war. It started as a revolt by the discontented Boers where Transvaal made a formal declaration of its independence from Great Britain. This war is also called the Transvaal War. The British emerged triumphant in this war.
