Battle of Blaauwberg and the capture of the Cape Colony
A British landing force under General David Baird defeated the troops of Governor Jan Willem Janssens at the Blaauwberg hill north of Cape Town. Ten days later the Cape Colony, which belonged to the Batavian Republic, an ally of Napoleon, finally capitulated.
- Date
- 8–18 January 1806exact date · duration: 10 days
- Place
- Blaauwberg (near Cape Town)approximate locationtoday: Bloubergstrand, Cape Town, South Africa · Africa
- Participants
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Batavian Republic, David Baird, Jan Willem Janssens
- Threads
- The world in the Age of Revolution, French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars
- Also known as
- Сражение при Кейптауне; Battle of Blaauwberg
The British had already held the Cape of Good Hope in 1795–1803 but had returned the colony to the Dutch under the Treaty of Amiens. When war with France resumed, this halfway station on the route to India became a target again: in early January 1806 Commodore Home Popham’s squadron landed several thousand soldiers at Melkbosstrand.
On 8 January Janssens’s force — about two thousand men, including local militia and French sailors — gave way before the attack of the Scottish regiments and retreated; Cape Town soon surrendered, and on 18 January Janssens himself signed the capitulation. The Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814 confirmed the colony as British, which largely shaped the subsequent history of South Africa.
Connections
Related events
- British conquest of Java4 August – 18 September 1811 · Southeast Asia and OceaniaJanssens, who had surrendered the Cape Colony to the British in 1806, capitulated again in Java five years later
- Congress of ViennaSeptember 1814 – 9 June 1815 · Western and Central Europethe postwar settlement of 1814–1815 left the Cape Colony to Britain
Same participants
- French invasion of Egypt and Syria19 May 1798 – 2 September 1801 · Middle East and Egyptvia David Baird
- Battle of Trafalgar21 October 1805 · Western and Central Europevia United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- Slave Trade Act 180725 March 1807 · Western and Central Europevia United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
Adjacent events in the thread
- Lewis and Clark Expedition14 May 1804 – 23 September 1806 · North America
- Jihad of Usman dan Fodio21 February 1804 – 1808 · Africa
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Western and Central Europe
- Battle of Austerlitz20 November (2 December) 1805
- Battle of Trafalgar21 October 1805
- Battle of Jena–Auerstedt14 October 1806
- Premiere of Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony7 April 1805
- Continental System21 November 1806 – 11 April 1814
Eastern Europe
- First Russian circumnavigation26 July (7 August) 1803 – 7 (19) August 1806
Balkans and Anatolia
- First Serbian Uprising14 February 1804 – 7 October 1813
Middle East and Egypt
East Asia
- Rezanov’s embassy to Japan26 September (8 October) 1804 – April 1805
North America
- Lewis and Clark Expedition14 May 1804 – 23 September 1806
Latin America
- Balmis Expedition30 November 1803 – 14 August 1806