Scramble for Africa: The Great Trek to the Boer War

This is the dramatic story of the scramble by the European powers, and in particular England, for power and influence in Africa during the 19th century. Though the author ranges over much of the huge continent, the principal focus of Anthony Nutting's narrative is South Africa, where the struggle was sharpest and the stakes highest.
The Dutch had been in Africa since the late 16th century and the Portuguese, with their missionary settlements, long before. The British did not arrive till the period of the Napoleonic Wars, when the possibility of a hostile French presence at the Cape was not one England could lightly overlook, for Holland had joined France in declaring war against her. On June 11th, 1795, nine English men-of-war anchored in False Bay and landed a small force of redcoats with an order signed by Holland's refugee king, bidding the Dutch garrison to allow them to occupy the Cape. Thus began the long period of British hegemony in South Africa.