Initial Boer attacks were successful , and although British reinforcements later reversed Change these , the war continued for years with Boer guerrilla warfare , until harsh British counter-measures brought Bringing the Boers to terms .

The Boers were well armed Bearing_arms and struck Attack first , besieging Ladysmith , Kimberley , and Mahikeng in early 1900 , and winning important battles at Colenso , Magersfontein and Stormberg .

The onward marches of the British Army , well over 400,000 men , were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland .

The Boers refused Agree_or_refuse_to_act to surrender Surrendering .

The Boers were attempting to break out Process_start of a British encircling manoeuvre .

Their attack was repulsed Defending at some cost Earnings_and_losses to the Boers in killed Killing and injured Bodily_harm .

One reason for the continued Boers successes was the poor quality of some of the British troops in the theatre .

It was a resounding victory Earnings_and_losses for the Boers and the battle Military_operation is considered to have been one of the most humiliating defeats Earnings_and_losses of British arms in history .

Colley 's motive for occupying Control Majuba Hill may have been anxiety that the Boers would soon occupy Control it themselves , Colley having witnessed Know their trenches being dug in the direction of the hill .

The Boers believed Know that he might have been attempting to outflank Besieging their positions at Laing 's Nek .

The hill was not considered to be scalable by the Boers , for military purposes , and hence it may have been Colley 's attempt to emphasise Statement British power and strike fear into the Boer camp .

The British had already fought Quarreling a series of battles Hostile_encounter with the Boers , most recently at Modder River , where the advance Self_motion was temporarily halted Preventing_or_letting .

This allowed Preventing_or_letting the Boers to survive Preserving the initial British artillery bombardment Attack ; when the British troops failed Agree_or_refuse_to_act to deploy from a compact formation during their advance Self_motion , the defenders were able to inflict heavy casualties .

The Boers attained Achieve a tactical victory and succeeded in holding Defending the British in their advance Self_motion on Kimberley .