The second Anglo- Boer war of 1899 to 1902 has been termed as the bloodiest human conflict which has ever happened on South African soil. It is an event which is of epic dimension in making the history of South Africa in the 20th century. Little the end of the war marked the onset of colonization of South Africa by the British on both the people of color and the whites alike. There have numerous attempts to determine the causes of the war, and as many of the wars fought during the colonial period, it was largely dominated by attempts to control and exploit natural resources and human capital[1]. There have been long term causes of the war and the trigger events of the war. These causes are interrelated, and were primarily conflicting political issues of republicanism and imperialism. Also, it included the tension which was upon the political leaders, the discovery of gold, the Jameson raid, and the franchise of outlander. All of these factors are interrelated and made the bulk of the prime causes of the war.
The long term causes, include the conflicting political ideologies which from both sides of the divide. The first Anglo-Boer war ended with the British still nursing the ambition to unify the South African territory under the imperial British rule. Some of the states of the Boers still desired there independence in Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The Boers in this case were the stumbling block for the unification of the colonial British rule at South Africa[2]. The other long term event was at Witwatersrand where gold had been discovered. Gold in South Africa had been mined in South Africa since the 1870s but was rediscovered at Witwatersrand in the province of Transvaal in 1886. Thousands of whites and blacks by 1890 were already employed at the mines making south Africa the largest producer of Gold in the world and it meant a great deal of development of a bore government. This made the Transvaal very important in the global finance due to the influence of gold. Gold was an important commodity in world’s international monetary system[3].
In this time, the British were at the center of world trade and economy and therefore felt it should control the economy of South Africa, especially the Transvaal province. This arrangement and ideology was not welcome to the Boers, who felt their government would benefit more from the proceeds of the war. Neighboring independent states to the Transvaal would benefit from the riches of gold mining and the investment which will be brought by the gold boom. The cape colony was not the economic powerhouse at time and therefore, the Boer Transvaal was in a position to take that place[4]. The mining was not easy because the gold was deep into the reefs and individual miners could not manage it alone. Therefore, companies were formed and this squeezed individual miners out of the business. The steaming in of prospectors from all over the world to take part in the gold business was not welcome by the Boers. They were seen as intruders and a threat to independence. In an attempt to create a control over the situation, the province of Transvaal instituted voting rights infringement upon the foreigners. This caused friction between the British government and the Transvaal.
The other long term factor which led to the war with the long standing political leaders who held diverse opinions on the direction the country should take. In the 1890s Paul Kruger was the president of the Transvaal province and Cecil Rhodes had become the premier of the cape colony. Rhodes had made his fortune in South Africa by mining diamonds and supported the British idea of unifying the whole of South Africa under the imperial British rule[5]. Therefore, tension between Cecil Rhodes and Paul Kruger was imminent. Rhodes was of the opinion that if the Transvaal province was to be left alone, it would grow financially and eventually topple the British rule over the territory of South Africa. He was specifically concerned in making the Transvaal province from gaining sea access because it was detrimental to the economy of the British in South Africa.
The other long-term event was the Jameson raid, because by 1895, Britain were getting confident that they will win the Transvaal province and succeed in winning the unification of south Africa. Between September and October 1895, the tension between the Transvaal and the cape colony was on the brink of exploding[6]. The cape had finished building its railway line through Johannesburg and was determined in reducing the rates of the railway of the Transvaal. In response to the rates, Kruger increased the tariff rates on goods which were passing through Transvaal. This led to traders seeking alternative means in reducing the rates, and good were transported first by the train and then by wagons, to avoid the paying the high taxes. Kruger blocked the drifts that accessed the Transvaal. The British demanded that Kruger open up the drifts, which he resisted and in response, Rhodes planned a raid with Dr. Leander Starr Jameson a raid which was meant to coincide with the invasion of the Transvaal from Bechuanaland[7]. The Jameson raid was a failure and resulted to Cecil Rhodes resigning as the premier of the cape colony. The planned government raid on the Transvaal made the relations between the cape colony and the Transvaal government even more severe.
The trigger events came about in the process of mending the relations between the Transvaal government and the cape colony. In 1899, there was a meeting by Paul Kruger and the high commissioner of the British to South Africa, Mr. Milner. Milner had rejected the proposal of Kruger that the Uitlanders will gain there independence in 7 years’ time in return for the independence of the Transvaal province from the Great Britain. The Uitlanders franchise became a so integral part of the outbreak of the war when a British soldier shot Uitlanders. The officer had claimed that it was in self-defense but the Uitlanders understood it as a direct provocation[8]. Kruger was of the opinion that all the British government wanted was their land. In the autumn of 1899, the British government had come to a conclusion in support of Milner’s idea that the province of Transvaal was to be taught a lesson. The cape colony sent troops and the Boers were given a choice, to surrender or to fight, and the Boers chose to fight. In October, Kruger sent a telegram asking the British troops to get out of the boarder or he will declare war. The Great Britain did not even reply so the Boers attacked much to the surprise of the cape colony[9]. In this regard, the Salisbury was at ease because; they had no responsibility of justifying the attacks to the British public.
The end of the war in 1902 had serious effects on the British was that its reputation was adversely dented because of the concentration camps where children and women were kept in an attempt to separate the Boer guerrillas and the peasant. It was also vilified due to the atrocities of war and the British inability to subdue 60000 farmers in armed combat. The British public opinion was fractured based on the ways in which the British government used to finish of the war[10]. The Australians were bitter on the conviction of three men from two units from partaking in a rather ambiguous war and Germany was disappointed was with the fact that Britain was useless in combat unless with the help of the navy. This made Germany organize her own navy and be the master of the world. Britain was isolated diplomatically and was forced to enter into an alliance with Japan in 1902 to assist in handling the Russians in the Far East[11].
In conclusion, the second Anglo –Boer war was a turning point on the making of South African history. It was a culmination of the desire to be independent and the other desire to exploit and control natural resources and human capital. The effects of the war were adverse to the British, since most of what they fought for was take n away. Boers became the future leaders of South Africa and became the largest voters in election. Racial discrimination became rife and Transvaal the Orange Free State became autonomous. This war marked the advent of full domination of imperialism, in South Africa.
REFERENCES.
Tweddell, C. H., and Carman Miller. Charlie's First War : South Africa, 1899-1900. Montreal & Kingston: MQUP, 2014. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2017). P 112- 154.
Huigen, Siegfried. Knowledge and Colonialism : Eighteenth-century Travellers in South Africa. Leiden: Brill, 2009. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2017).p 43- 76
Foster, Jeremy. Washed with Sun : Landscape and the Making of White South Africa. Pittsburgh, Pa: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2017).p. 14- 23.
Porter, Bernard. Critics of Empire : British Radicals and the Imperial Challenge. London: I.B.Tauris, 2008. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), EBSCOhost (accessed March 21, 2017) p 203- 245.
[1] Tweddell, C. H., and Carman Miller. Charlie's First War : South Africa, 1899-1900.p 133 [2] Foster, Jeremy. Washed with Sun : Landscape and the Making of White South Africa. p 14 [3] Ibid p.14 [4] Ibid p.15 [5] Ibid p. 15 [6] Porter, Bernard. Critics of Empire : British Radicals and the Imperial Challenge. P. 203 [7] Ibid. p. 205 [8] Tweddell, C. H., and Carman Miller. Charlie's First War : South Africa, 1899-1900. P 117 [9] Ibid p. 117 [10] Porter, Bernard. Critics of Empire : British Radicals and the Imperial Challenge. London: p 232 [11] Ibid p. 233
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