Jameson Raid
Jameson Raid, an incident in 1895 preceding the Boer War, the war in South Africa between the British and the Boers. Dr. Leander Starr Jameson (1853–1917) was then British administrator of Rhodesia. He and Cecil Rhodes, premier of Cape Colony, were concerned about the rights of British settlers—called uitlanders (foreigners) by the Boers—in the Transvaal. Rhodes, Jameson, and others conspired to overthrow the Transvaal government, but a planned uprising, scheduled for December, 1895, was postponed. Jameson, however, ignoring instructions, led some 500 men into the Transvaal on December 29. He and his troops were quickly captured. Jameson was turned over to the British and was briefly imprisoned in England. The incident created worldwide sympathy for the Boers.
Jameson later returned to Africa and was premier of Cape Colony, 1904–08.