- The march to war
During
30 years, the Boers lived in peace in their new republics. The
re-built their rural society around the towns of Bloemfontein,
Pretoria and Johannesburg. The migration of the Boers was so
important that in the Orange free state, yet founded in heart of Zulu
territory, the whites represented 50% of the population in 1880.
Boers republics were egalitarian republic of small land-owners,
farmers and soldiers. The blacks were (of course) excluded of this
messianic protestant society.
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| A Boer farm |
But
the British, in their desire for expansion and annexation of the
entire South African territory, will again try to annex the Boer
lands, where diamonds and gold had been discovered.
In
1880, taking advantage of the permanent war between Boers and Zulus,
they invaded the Boers republics. The inadaption of their technical
of war and their unknowing of the land forced the English to sign the
peace with the Boers in 1881 (winning this war would have needed
numerous reinforcement and an important financial effort that the
metropole was not ready to consent yet).
After
this “first boer war”, and faced with the influx of British
miners, the Transvaal government refused them the right to vote ; the
level of tension was high and the peace was very precarious.
Then comes a new character, who is a very important character : Cecil
Rhodes, the man of the banks and of the big colonial business, the
man of the Empire. His ambition was to capture the gold of Transval,
to destroy the Boer republics for founding a big South african
federation under the British rule and a railway between Cairo and the
Cape. He despised this boer peasant who wanted to live as their
ancestors lived, who were proud of their culture and of their
identity.
With
his friend Alfred Milner, governor of the Cape, he causes a series of
diplomatic incidents (especially the revolt of the british citizens
of Transvaal) which led to the war in 1899.
Paul Kruger,
president of Transvall, said to the British ambassador during
diplomatic discussions : “This is our country that you want !“
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| Paul Kruger |
