Military

The Disaster at Majuba, 1881

The Battle of Majuba Hill during the First Boer War, had immense political and military significance to British armsand not only in South Africa. Its chief cause, writes Brian Bond, was a gross underestimation of the Boer’s tactical aptitude and courage.

Louis Riel: Defender of the East

The Confederation of Canada was not achieved without protest and bloodshed. In the Red River rising of 1869 and the Saskatchewan rebellion of 1885, writes George Woodcock, Louis Riel led the French-Indian hunters of the North-West against the advance of Canadian federal authority.