Editing Jameson Raid (section)

== Background ==

What later became the nation of South Africa was not politically unified in the late nineteenth century. The territory had four distinct entities: the two British colonies of Cape Colony and [[Colony of Natal|Natal]]; and the two [[Boer]] republics of the [[Orange Free State]] and the [[South African Republic]], more commonly referred to as the Transvaal.

=== Foundation of the colonies and republics ===
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The Cape, more specifically the small area around present day [[Cape Town]], was the first part of South Africa to be settled by Europeans. 

The [[Dutch East India Company]] (''Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie'', VOC) officials did not favour the [[Settler colonialism|permanent settlement]] of Europeans in their trading empire, although during the 140 years of Dutch rule many VOC servants retired or were discharged and remained as private citizens.<ref name="VanGoor">{{cite book |last=Van Goor, Jurrien |title=Prelude to Colonialism: The Dutch in Asia |publisher=Verloren B.V., Uitgeverij |year=2004 |isbn=978-9065508065 |edition=2005 |pages=9–83}}</ref> A small number of longtime VOC employees, however, expressed interest in applying for grants of land with the objective of retiring at the Cape as farmers. In time, they came to form a class of former VOC employees, ''vrijlieden'', also known as ''vrijburgers'' (free citizens) who stayed in Dutch territories overseas after serving their contracts.<ref name="Britannica19333">Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1933. James Louis Garvin, editor.</ref> Over generations, this settled European population came to form a distinct identity as [[Afrikaners]] (formerly sometimes {{lang|af|Afrikaander}} or {{lang|af|Afrikaaner}}, from the Dutch {{lang|nl|Africaander}}<ref>{{Cite OED|Afrikaner}}</ref>) or [[Boers]] (farmers).

In 1806, the Cape was colonised by the British Empire. Initially British control was aimed to protect the trade route to the East from [[Napoleon]], however, the British soon realised the potential to develop the Cape colony further.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Britain takes control of the Cape {{!}} South African History Online |url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/britain-takes-control-cape |access-date=2023-12-29 |website=www.sahistory.org.za}}</ref> Antipathy towards British control and the introduction of new systems and institutions grew amongst a substantial portion of the Afrikaner/Boer community. Between 1834 and 1840 about 15 000 Boers left the Cape Colony in parties of [[Ox-wagon|ox-wagons]], in seek of sovereignty beyond British-claimed territories. These emigrants primarily consisted [[Trekboers]], frontier farmers in the East who had been at the front of the colony's eastward expansion. The emigration became known as the [[Great Trek]] and the emigrants ''[[Voortrekkers]]''. Details on the various motives behind the Great Trek are laid out in the Voortrekker leader, [[Piet Retief|Piet Retief's]] 1837 manifesto.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Manifesto of the emigrant farmers By Piet Retief, 1837 {{!}} South African History Online |url=https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/manifesto-emigrant-farmers-piet-retief-1837 |access-date=2023-12-29 |website=www.sahistory.org.za}}</ref> 

The Voortrekkers first moved east into the territory later known as Natal. In 1839, they founded the [[Natalia Republic]] as a new Boer homeland. Other Voortrekker parties moved north, settling beyond the [[Orange River|Orange]] and [[Vaal River|Vaal]] rivers.

Disregarding the Voortrekkers' effortful attempt to claim independence, Britain annexed the Natalia Republic in 1843, which became the Crown colony of Natal. After 1843, British government policy turned strongly against further expansion in South Africa. Although there were some abortive attempts to annex more territories to the north, Britain formally recognised their independence by the [[Sand River Convention]] of 1852 and the [[Orange River Convention]] of 1854, for the [[Transvaal Republic|Transvaal]] and the [[Orange Free State]], respectively.

[[File:Matabeleland.png|300px|right|thumb|South-East Africa, 1887]]
After the [[First Anglo-Boer War]], [[William Ewart Gladstone|Gladstone]]'s government restored the Transvaal's independence in 1884 by signing the [[London Convention (1884)|London Convention]], not knowing that the colossal gold deposits of the [[Witwatersrand]] would be struck two years later by Jan Gerrit Bantjes (1843-1911).

=== Economics ===
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In spite of the political divisions, the four territories were strongly linked. Each was populated by European-African emigrants from the Cape; many citizens had relatives or friends in other territories. As the largest and oldest state in [[Southern Africa]], the Cape was economically, culturally, and socially dominant; the population of Natal and the two Boer republics were mostly subsistence farmers.

The fairly simple agricultural dynamic was upset in 1870, when [[Kimberley, Northern Cape#Discovery of diamonds|vast diamond fields]] were discovered in [[Griqualand West]], around modern-day [[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]]. Although the territory had historically come under the authority of the Orange Free State, the Cape government, with the assistance of the British government, annexed the area.

=== Discovery of gold ===

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| image1    = Alfred Beit00.jpg
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| caption1  = [[Alfred Beit|Beit]], associate of Rhodes and privy to Jameson's plans, financed the revolutionists to the order of £400,000<ref name=Bower2002>{{cite book|last=Bower|first=Graham |author-link=Graham John Bower|editor1-last=Schreuder|editor1-first= D |editor2-last=Butler|editor2-first= J|title=Sir Graham Bower's Secret History of the Jameson Raid and the South African Crisis, 1895-1902|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VFYFZKRBXz0C&pg=PR8|year=2002|publisher=The [[Van Riebeeck Society]]|isbn=978-0-9584112-9-5|location=Cape Town}}</ref><ref name=trev/> and was subsequently censured in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] and British press.<ref name=fein>{{cite book |editor-last1=Feingold |editor-first1=Mordechai |title=History of universities |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0199652068 |page=222}}</ref>
| image2    = Julius Wernher02.jpg
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| caption2  = [[Julius Wernher|Wernher]], Beit's business partner, was not drawn into the investigation, and his role, at least in the raid's initial stages, remains unproven.<ref name=trev>{{cite book|last1=Trevelyan|first1=Raleigh|title=Grand Dukes and Diamonds: The Wernhers of Luton Hoo|publisher=Faber & Faber, 2012|isbn=978-0571290307|date=13 March 2012}}</ref>
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| image1    = Cecil Rhodes portrait LAC CANADA.jpg
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| caption1  = In the raid's aftermath [[Cecil Rhodes|Rhodes]] was severely censured and had to resign as chairman of the [[British South Africa Company|Chartered Company]] and [[Prime Minister of Cape Colony|Cape prime minister]].<ref name="Hammond2012">{{cite book|last=Hammond|first=Ronnie |title=White Stones and Little Crosses|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nVacAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|year=2012|publisher=Hammond|isbn=978-1-4716-1334-0|pages=3–}}</ref>
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| caption2  = To re-engineer the subjugation of Transvaal, [[Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner|Milner]] was appointed [[List of High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to South Africa|High Commissioner to South Africa]] and Lt.-Governor of the Cape in 1897.<ref name="Hammond2012" />
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In June 1884, [[Jan Gerrit Bantjes]] (1843–1914) discovered signs of gold at Vogelstruisfontein (the first gold sold directly to Cecil Rhodes at Bantjes's camp for £3,000) followed in September by the Struben brothers at Wilgespruit near Roodepoort which started the [[Witwatersrand Gold Rush]] and modern-day Johannesburg. The first gold mines of the Witwatersrand were the Bantjes Consolidated Mines. By 1886 it was clear that there were massive deposits of gold in the main reef. The huge inflow of ''[[Uitlander]]s'' (foreigners), mainly from Britain, had come to the region in search of employment and fortune. The discovery of gold made the Transvaal overnight the richest and potentially the most powerful nation in southern Africa, but it attracted so many Uitlanders (in 1896 approximately 60,000) that they quickly outnumbered the Boers (approximately 30,000 white male Boers).

Fearful of the Transvaal's losing independence and becoming a British colony, the Boer government adopted policies of protectionism and exclusion, to include restrictions requiring Uitlanders to be resident for at least four years in the Transvaal to obtain the franchise, or right to vote. They heavily taxed the growing gold mining industry which was predominantly British and American. Due to this taxation, the Uitlanders became increasingly resentful and aggrieved about the lack of representation. President Paul Kruger called a closed council, including Jan Gerrit Bantjes, to discuss the growing problem and it was decided to put a heavy tax on the sale of dynamite to non-Boer residents. Jan G. Bantjes, fluent in both spoken and written Dutch and English, was a close confidant of Paul Kruger with their link dating to the [[Great Trek]] days. Jan's father, Jan Gerritze Bantjes, had given Paul Kruger his elementary education during the trek and Jan Gerritse was part of his inner core of associates. This closed council would be the committee which set the Transvaal Republic on a collision course with Great Britain and the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 and which set German feelings toward Britain at boiling point by siding with the Boers. Because of this applied dynamite tax, considerable discontent and tensions began to rise. As Johannesburg was largely an Uitlander city, non-boer leaders there began to discuss the proposals for an insurrection.

[[Cecil Rhodes]], Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, had a desire to incorporate the Transvaal and the Orange Free State in a federation under British control. Having combined his commercial mining interests with [[Alfred Beit]] to form the [[De Beers|De Beers Mining Corporation]], the two men also wanted to control the Johannesburg gold mining industry. They played a major role in fomenting Uitlander grievances.

Rhodes later told the journalist [[W. T. Stead|W.T. Stead]] that he feared that a Uitlander rebellion would cause trouble for Britain if not controlled by him:{{r|stead1901}}

{{Blockquote|It seemed to me quite certain that if I did not take a hand in the game the forces on the spot would soon make short work of President [[Paul Kruger|Kruger]]. Then I should be face to face with an American Republic—American in the sense of being intensely hostile to and jealous of Britain—an American Republic largely manned by Americans and ''[[Sydney Bulletin]]'' Australians who cared nothing for the [Union Jack]. They would have all the Rand at their disposal. The drawing power of the Outlander Republic would have collected round it all the other Colonies. They would have federated with it as a centre, and we should have lost South Africa. To avert this catastrophe, to rope in the Outlanders before it was too late, I did what I did.<ref name="stead1901">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/americanizationo01stea#page/56/mode/2up | title=The Americanization of the World | publisher=Horace Markley | author=Stead, W. T. | year=1901 | pages=56–57}}</ref>}}

In mid-1895, Rhodes planned a raid by an armed column from [[Rhodesia]], the British colony to the north, to support an uprising of Uitlanders with the goal of taking control. The raid soon ran into difficulties, beginning with hesitation by the Uitlander leaders.

=== Drifts Crisis ===
{{Main|Drifts Crisis}}
In September and October 1895, a dispute between the Transvaal and Cape Colony governments arose over Boer trade protectionism. The Cape Colony had refused to pay the high rates charged by the Transvaal government for use of the Transvaal portion of the railway line to Johannesburg, instead opting to send its goods by wagon train directly across the [[Vaal River]], over a set of [[Ford (river)|fords]] (known as 'drifts' in South Africa). Transvaal president [[Paul Kruger]] responded by closing the drifts, angering the Cape Colony government.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jameson Raid|url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/topic/jameson-raid|publisher=South African History Online|access-date=26 July 2013}}</ref> While Transvaal eventually relented, relations between the nation and Cape Colony remained strained.