Beginning in the mid-1870s however, the British Colonial Office became interested in more direct control of the Cape, mainly for the purpose of pushing an ill-advised plan to annexe the remaining Black African lands, and to impose a system of confederation on the various states of southern Africa. This involvement sparked conflicts across the region, culminating in the 9th Xhosa War and the First Boer War. Brownlee and the Cape government strongly opposed both the disastrous confederation scheme and the British policies in the frontier war, leading to a political collision between the Cape government and the British Empire.