In 1818, King Moshoeshoe I, who was the son of
Mokhachane, chief of the Ba-Mokoteli branch of the
Koena (Crocodile) clan, helped to gain power over small clans who had been displaced during the
Mfecane. Mfecane is a
Zulu word and in the
Sesotho language it's called Difaqane, which means "the crushing" or "scattering". It describes a period of warfare and famine in southern
Africa between 1815 and about 1840. In 1820, King Moshoeshoe became the king of the Basotho Nation, who had fallen under his centralized authority due to competition for resources, which was intensified by a drought. Morena e Moholo (the Great King), as he was called by his Basotho Nation, owned larger areas of Free State and accommodated the different ethnic groups of the
Nguni tribes that escaped
Shaka's attacks during the Mfecane. He extended and strengthened his Basotho Nation by integrating these ethnic groups and named them a single Basotho Nation. He offered land, food, and protection to the
Boers and Nguni tribes which led to the formation of
Phuthaditjhaba ("meeting place of tribes" in Sesotho) in the
Qwa-Qwa region. King Moshoeshoe allowed the British, Boers and Nguni escapees to settle on his designated settlements with the notion of giving them land and food for survival. However whenever either of them attempted to claim his land without his authority then war would ensue, which would lead to the Basotho Nation claiming victories to protect their land and resources. The
British, who controlled the area between the Orange and
Vaal Rivers eventually proclaimed the Warden line (after Major
Henry Douglas Warden). This line divided territory between British territory and the Basotho under Moshoeshoe, and stretched from Cornetspruit and the Orange River through Vechtkop to Jammerbergdrift on the Caledon. The Warden line caused much resentment, as the fertile
Caledon River Valley served as a vital area in terms of agriculture for both the British and the Basotho. This border line was therefore not acceptable to the Great King Moshoeshoe, and hostility followed, which led to conflict between the Basotho Nation and the British, who were defeated by King Moshoeshoe at the battle of Viervoet in 1851. In 1851, King Moshoeshoe also offered Boer leader
Andries Pretorius an alliance against the British in the sovereignty. To punish Basotho,
British General
Sir George Cathcart then brought troops to the Mohokane River, and King Moshoeshoe was ordered to pay a fine. When he did not pay the fine in full, a
battle broke out on the Berea Plateau in 1852, where the British suffered heavy losses due to the armed Basotho cavalry. This sealed the fate of the sovereignty of the Basotho government, even though Cathcart was initially in favour of withdrawal. In 1854, the cost of maintaining the sovereignty became too much for the British and they therefore handed over the territory to the Boers through the signing of the Sand River Convention. The Boers therefore claimed the land beyond the Caledon River, naming it the
Republic of the Orange Free State. This began further conflict over land and undefined boundaries with the Basotho, who regarded themselves as the rightful owners, and who continued to use the land for grazing. ==Senekal's War==