Free State-Basotho Wars were a series of wars fought between Moshoeshoe I

Moshoeshoe I

Moshoeshoe was born at Menkhoaneng in the Northern part of present-day Lesotho. He was the first son of Mokhachane, a minor chief of the Bamokoteli lineage- a branch of the Koena clan. In his early childhood, he helped his father gain power over some other smaller clans. At the age of 34...

, the ruler of the Basotho

Basotho

The ancestors of the Sotho people have lived in southern Africa since around the fifth century. The Sotho nation emerged from the accomplished diplomacy of Moshoeshoe I who gathered together disparate clans of Sotho–Tswana origin that had dispersed across southern Africa in the early 19th century...

 kingdom and the Orange Free State

Orange Free State

The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa. It is the historical precursor to the present-day Free State province...

 of the Boer

Boer

Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer, which came to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century, as well as those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State,...

s. These can be divided into the Senekal's War of 1858 and the Seqiti War, which included two conflicts, in 1865−1866 and 1867−1868, separated by a short armistice. The wars resulted in the Free State acquiring large tracts of land from Basotho and Basotho eventually accepting annexation as a part of the British Empire

British Empire

The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...

 and being placed under Crown protection. Moshoeshoe still remained one of the rare kings of Africa who was never defeated fully by the colonial powers.

Senekal's War

Tensions first rose over disputes over land claims between the Basotho and the Free State and the conflict formally began in 1858 with a declaration of war from the Free State. In the resulting battles the Free State tried storming Moshoeshoe's stronghold at Thaba Bosiu

Thaba Bosiu

Thaba Bosiu is a sandstone plateau with an area of approximately 2 km2 and a height of 1,804 meters above sea level. It is located between the Orange and Caledon Rivers in the Maseru District of Lesotho, 24 km east of the country's capital Maseru....

 with no success while the Sotho

Sotho

Sotho may refer to:*The Sotho people , an African ethnic group principally resident in South Africa and Lesotho.*The Sotho language , a Bantu Language spoken in southern Africa, an official language of both South Africa and Lesotho.*The Northern Sotho language , a group of related Bantu dialects...

 conducted raids in Free State territories. When a peace treaty was signed on October 15, 1858, little had been settled.

Seqiti War

The war again broke out in 1865 and the Boers met with considerable success. After an unsuccessful appeal to aid from the British Empire, Moshoeshoe was forced to sue for peace in 1866 and the treaty of Thaba Bosiu was signed, with Basotho ceding large territories to the Free State. However, the Basotho weren't satisfied with the terms of the treaty and conflict again arose in 1867. During this third war, the Free State stormed most of the Basotho strongholds, with Thaba Bosiu alone remaining impregnable. When things looked bleak, Moshoeshoe again appealed for aid from the British, and eventually accepted annexation from the British Empire on March 12, 1868. Basutoland

Basutoland

Basutoland or officially the Territory of Basutoland, was a British Crown colony established in 1884 after the Cape Colony's inability to control the territory...

was placed under British protection, ending the conflict. In the final treaty, Basotho had to again cede territories, but still retained enough land to remain a viable state.