[Contents]CHAPTER XII.THE AFRICANDER REPUBLICS AND BRITISH POLICY.The surprising policy pursued by the British government in arbitrarily annexing the Transvaal in 1877, and in restoring its independence in 1881, after a brief and indecisive conflict at arms, and when strong re-enforcements had placed the imperial troops in position to crush the Africander uprising, caused widespread dissatisfaction and bitter controversy both in England and in South Africa. Why had the country been annexed at all? And seeing it had been annexed, why was it so ignominiously yielded up immediately after the disgrace of Majuba Hill? There were many at home and in the South African colonies who would have been satisfied to restore the independence of the Transvaal—but only after having inflicted on the Africander forces at least one crushing defeat.The only reply of the Liberal government[179]was to the effect that the annexation, and the refusal to reverse it, had been due to misapprehension of the facts; that the officers of the crown in South Africa, partly through ignorance and partly through prejudice, had reported that there was no such passionate desire for independence among the Africanders as was pretended by their leaders, and as was proved to exist by the uprising; that as soon as the facts were known it became the duty of a liberty-loving people like the English to honor their ownprinciplesby the immediate retrocession of the Transvaal without waiting to first avenge defeats and vindicate the military superiority of Great Britain; and that a great country better illustrated her greatness by doing justice and showing mercy, even at great cost to herself, than by taking a bloody revenge for reverses suffered on the fields of war in trying to enforce a policy now seen to be morally wrong.Moreover, associated with these moral considerations were reasons of statecraft that made it appear wise as well as right to let the Transvaal go. The Africanders of the Orange Free State, of Cape Colony, of Natal, were known to be in warm sympathy with their brethren of the Transvaal. Of course, the power of Great Britain could crush, in time, a rebellion as extensive as[180]the whole Dutch-speaking population of South Africa, but at what cost of treasure and blood and bitter disloyalty to the British crown! In comparison to the inevitable results of a general civil war the loss of the Transvaal was as nothing. How well grounded were these fears of a general uprising in 1881 may be seen in the earlier events of the second Africander War of Independence in 1899. With no late grievance against Great Britain to redress, the Orange Free State made common cause with the South African Republic from the first, and the Africanders of Cape Colony and Natal were more than suspected of aiding and abetting in a covert way the cause for which the two republics had taken the field.If the British ministers counted upon some recognition of the magnanimity displayed in making the retrocession immediately after defeat—of the humanity which renounced revenge for the humiliation of Majuba Hill when it was within easy reach—they were disappointed. The Africanders saw not generosity, not humanity, but only fear as the motive for the sudden and easy yielding of the British; and to their natural exultation they added contempt for their late antagonists, and so became and have continued very unpleasant neighbors for so proud-spirited[181]a people as the English. And this is the principal reason why the English in all South Africa have always condemned the restoration of independence to the Transvaal—and, most of all, the time and manner of the act. They have not been able to forget the fact that the terms of peace were, in a way, dictated by the Africanders as victorious invaders and holders of British territory in the colony of Natal.In order to view intelligently the causes of the second Africander War of Independence, it is necessary to consider the general trend of events in South Africa, and the conflicting policies sought to be carried out there during the few years following the restitution of independence to the Transvaal.The South African Republic emerged from its brief and successful struggle for independence impoverished and in a state of political chaos, but rejoicing, nevertheless, in a sense of national freedom, and more than ever confident that it enjoyed the special favor of Heaven. The old constitution, or Grondwet, was revived, the volksraad was convoked, and an election was held, resulting in the choice of Mr. Paul Kruger to be president. Mr. Kruger immediately[182]planned for bold and far-reaching movements on three sides of the republic’s territory.A great trek to the north for the occupation of Mashonaland was projected but never carried out. To the south Zululand was now open, and into it went a number of adventurers as trekkers, followed, a little later, by others who took service under one of the warring native chiefs. When these took steps to set up a government of their own in the northern districts of Zululand the British authorities interfered and restricted their claim to a smallterritoryof about three thousand square miles, which enjoyed an independent existence as the New Republic from 1886 to 1888, when it was annexed by the Transvaal.Other bands of Africanders raided parts of Bechuanaland, to the west, taking forcible possession of territory or obtaining grants of land by devices not always honorable. These intimidated the native chiefs into an acknowledgment of their authority and established two small republics, Stella and Goshen, to the north of Kimberley.These proceedings opened the eyes of the British government to the policy upon which the South African Republic had entered—to annex Bechuanaland and close the way of British communication[183]with regions still farther north in which the nation had become interested. To check these designs in time, a military expedition under Sir Charles Warren entered Bechuanaland toward the end of 1884, expelled the Africanders without bloodshed, and proclaimed the whole region a crown colony under the name of British Bechuanaland. This territory was annexed to Cape Colony in 1895. In 1885 a British protectorate was established over a still more northerly region, covering the whole country as far as the borders of Matabeleland. In 1888 the British hold was made yet more secure by a treaty with the king of the Matabele, Lo Bengula, by which he bound himself to cede no territory to, and to make no treaty with, any foreign power without the approval of the British High Commissioner.The raising of the British flag at St. Lucia Bay, on the Indian Ocean, in 1884, and a treaty with the Tonga tribes, binding them to make no treaties with any other power than the English, completed the hold of the British crown on the eastern coast line up to the southern border of the Portuguese possessions.The Africanders, denied expansion on the north, sought compensation in the acquisition of[184]Swaziland, to the east of the Transvaal republic—a small but fertile region and possessing considerable mineral wealth. It was inhabited by some 70,000 Kaffirs, near of kin but hostile to the Zulus. After long negotiations, in which the South African Republic, Cetawayo of the Zulus, and the British authorities took part, the Africanders secured a concession of right to build a railway through the marshy region lying between Swaziland and the sea to the coast at Kosi Bay; this concession was granted in 1890 and laid in abeyance awaiting the acquisition of Swaziland itself, through which the railway must run. In 1894 the whole territory of Swaziland was placed under the control of the South African Republic, subject to a formal guaranty of protection to the natives.It is difficult to determine whether it was Africander dullness or British sharpness, or both, that omitted from the Swaziland convention of 1894 the concession to the South African Republic, granted in 1890, of a right to construct a railway to the sea through the marshy district of Tongaland lying next the coast line. But it was omitted from that instrument, and it was held that, as the later convention superseded and voided the earlier one, the provision for access[185]to the sea had lapsed. Whereupon the British government promptly secured the consent of the three Tonga chiefs concerned, and proclaimed a protectorate over the whole strip of land lying between Swaziland and the ocean, up to the southern portion of the Portuguese territory. Thus by a stroke of statecraft the access of the Africanders to the sea by railway communication entirely under their own control was effectually stopped.Within nine years the British control established in Bechuanaland in 1885 was extended over the whole unappropriated country as far north as the Zambesi. By a new treaty made with Lo Bengula in 1888 the sphere of British influence was further expanded to embrace not only Matabeleland, but Mashonaland also—a partially explored territory to the eastward, over which Lo Bengula claimed some authority.The next step in working out the policy of the British in South Africa was the granting of a royal charter to a corporation known as the British South African Company, formed to develop this eastern and undefined region of Lo Bengula’s territory. Mr. Cecil Rhodes was conspicuous as the leader in this movement. The purpose of the company was twofold: To develop[186]the gold fields supposed to exist there, and to forestall the Transvaal Africanders in taking possession of the country. The charter not only invested the company with the rights of a trading corporation, but also with administrative powers as representative of the British crown. In 1890 the pioneer emigrants under this management began to arrive in the chartered territory and commenced to found settlements and build forts along the eastern plateau.With the conflicts which arose between the British South African Company and the Portuguese—complicated by alliances with the natives, with the wars which arose therefrom, and with the final adjustments and treaties that followed—we have nothing to do in these pages. The one fact that is of interest to us in closing this chapter of conflict in statecraft is that at last the British succeeded in isolating the Africanders from the sea, and in throwing around them a perfect cordon of British territories and pre-emptions. By chartering the British South African Company to the north of the Transvaal the last link in the chain that inclosed the two Africander republics was completed. For there had been left no possibility of advance toward the sea eastward on the part of the Transvaal Republic—in the Arbitration[187]Treaty of 1872 Great Britain had obtained pre-emption rights over the Portuguese colonial possessions.[188]
[Contents]CHAPTER XII.THE AFRICANDER REPUBLICS AND BRITISH POLICY.The surprising policy pursued by the British government in arbitrarily annexing the Transvaal in 1877, and in restoring its independence in 1881, after a brief and indecisive conflict at arms, and when strong re-enforcements had placed the imperial troops in position to crush the Africander uprising, caused widespread dissatisfaction and bitter controversy both in England and in South Africa. Why had the country been annexed at all? And seeing it had been annexed, why was it so ignominiously yielded up immediately after the disgrace of Majuba Hill? There were many at home and in the South African colonies who would have been satisfied to restore the independence of the Transvaal—but only after having inflicted on the Africander forces at least one crushing defeat.The only reply of the Liberal government[179]was to the effect that the annexation, and the refusal to reverse it, had been due to misapprehension of the facts; that the officers of the crown in South Africa, partly through ignorance and partly through prejudice, had reported that there was no such passionate desire for independence among the Africanders as was pretended by their leaders, and as was proved to exist by the uprising; that as soon as the facts were known it became the duty of a liberty-loving people like the English to honor their ownprinciplesby the immediate retrocession of the Transvaal without waiting to first avenge defeats and vindicate the military superiority of Great Britain; and that a great country better illustrated her greatness by doing justice and showing mercy, even at great cost to herself, than by taking a bloody revenge for reverses suffered on the fields of war in trying to enforce a policy now seen to be morally wrong.Moreover, associated with these moral considerations were reasons of statecraft that made it appear wise as well as right to let the Transvaal go. The Africanders of the Orange Free State, of Cape Colony, of Natal, were known to be in warm sympathy with their brethren of the Transvaal. Of course, the power of Great Britain could crush, in time, a rebellion as extensive as[180]the whole Dutch-speaking population of South Africa, but at what cost of treasure and blood and bitter disloyalty to the British crown! In comparison to the inevitable results of a general civil war the loss of the Transvaal was as nothing. How well grounded were these fears of a general uprising in 1881 may be seen in the earlier events of the second Africander War of Independence in 1899. With no late grievance against Great Britain to redress, the Orange Free State made common cause with the South African Republic from the first, and the Africanders of Cape Colony and Natal were more than suspected of aiding and abetting in a covert way the cause for which the two republics had taken the field.If the British ministers counted upon some recognition of the magnanimity displayed in making the retrocession immediately after defeat—of the humanity which renounced revenge for the humiliation of Majuba Hill when it was within easy reach—they were disappointed. The Africanders saw not generosity, not humanity, but only fear as the motive for the sudden and easy yielding of the British; and to their natural exultation they added contempt for their late antagonists, and so became and have continued very unpleasant neighbors for so proud-spirited[181]a people as the English. And this is the principal reason why the English in all South Africa have always condemned the restoration of independence to the Transvaal—and, most of all, the time and manner of the act. They have not been able to forget the fact that the terms of peace were, in a way, dictated by the Africanders as victorious invaders and holders of British territory in the colony of Natal.In order to view intelligently the causes of the second Africander War of Independence, it is necessary to consider the general trend of events in South Africa, and the conflicting policies sought to be carried out there during the few years following the restitution of independence to the Transvaal.The South African Republic emerged from its brief and successful struggle for independence impoverished and in a state of political chaos, but rejoicing, nevertheless, in a sense of national freedom, and more than ever confident that it enjoyed the special favor of Heaven. The old constitution, or Grondwet, was revived, the volksraad was convoked, and an election was held, resulting in the choice of Mr. Paul Kruger to be president. Mr. Kruger immediately[182]planned for bold and far-reaching movements on three sides of the republic’s territory.A great trek to the north for the occupation of Mashonaland was projected but never carried out. To the south Zululand was now open, and into it went a number of adventurers as trekkers, followed, a little later, by others who took service under one of the warring native chiefs. When these took steps to set up a government of their own in the northern districts of Zululand the British authorities interfered and restricted their claim to a smallterritoryof about three thousand square miles, which enjoyed an independent existence as the New Republic from 1886 to 1888, when it was annexed by the Transvaal.Other bands of Africanders raided parts of Bechuanaland, to the west, taking forcible possession of territory or obtaining grants of land by devices not always honorable. These intimidated the native chiefs into an acknowledgment of their authority and established two small republics, Stella and Goshen, to the north of Kimberley.These proceedings opened the eyes of the British government to the policy upon which the South African Republic had entered—to annex Bechuanaland and close the way of British communication[183]with regions still farther north in which the nation had become interested. To check these designs in time, a military expedition under Sir Charles Warren entered Bechuanaland toward the end of 1884, expelled the Africanders without bloodshed, and proclaimed the whole region a crown colony under the name of British Bechuanaland. This territory was annexed to Cape Colony in 1895. In 1885 a British protectorate was established over a still more northerly region, covering the whole country as far as the borders of Matabeleland. In 1888 the British hold was made yet more secure by a treaty with the king of the Matabele, Lo Bengula, by which he bound himself to cede no territory to, and to make no treaty with, any foreign power without the approval of the British High Commissioner.The raising of the British flag at St. Lucia Bay, on the Indian Ocean, in 1884, and a treaty with the Tonga tribes, binding them to make no treaties with any other power than the English, completed the hold of the British crown on the eastern coast line up to the southern border of the Portuguese possessions.The Africanders, denied expansion on the north, sought compensation in the acquisition of[184]Swaziland, to the east of the Transvaal republic—a small but fertile region and possessing considerable mineral wealth. It was inhabited by some 70,000 Kaffirs, near of kin but hostile to the Zulus. After long negotiations, in which the South African Republic, Cetawayo of the Zulus, and the British authorities took part, the Africanders secured a concession of right to build a railway through the marshy region lying between Swaziland and the sea to the coast at Kosi Bay; this concession was granted in 1890 and laid in abeyance awaiting the acquisition of Swaziland itself, through which the railway must run. In 1894 the whole territory of Swaziland was placed under the control of the South African Republic, subject to a formal guaranty of protection to the natives.It is difficult to determine whether it was Africander dullness or British sharpness, or both, that omitted from the Swaziland convention of 1894 the concession to the South African Republic, granted in 1890, of a right to construct a railway to the sea through the marshy district of Tongaland lying next the coast line. But it was omitted from that instrument, and it was held that, as the later convention superseded and voided the earlier one, the provision for access[185]to the sea had lapsed. Whereupon the British government promptly secured the consent of the three Tonga chiefs concerned, and proclaimed a protectorate over the whole strip of land lying between Swaziland and the ocean, up to the southern portion of the Portuguese territory. Thus by a stroke of statecraft the access of the Africanders to the sea by railway communication entirely under their own control was effectually stopped.Within nine years the British control established in Bechuanaland in 1885 was extended over the whole unappropriated country as far north as the Zambesi. By a new treaty made with Lo Bengula in 1888 the sphere of British influence was further expanded to embrace not only Matabeleland, but Mashonaland also—a partially explored territory to the eastward, over which Lo Bengula claimed some authority.The next step in working out the policy of the British in South Africa was the granting of a royal charter to a corporation known as the British South African Company, formed to develop this eastern and undefined region of Lo Bengula’s territory. Mr. Cecil Rhodes was conspicuous as the leader in this movement. The purpose of the company was twofold: To develop[186]the gold fields supposed to exist there, and to forestall the Transvaal Africanders in taking possession of the country. The charter not only invested the company with the rights of a trading corporation, but also with administrative powers as representative of the British crown. In 1890 the pioneer emigrants under this management began to arrive in the chartered territory and commenced to found settlements and build forts along the eastern plateau.With the conflicts which arose between the British South African Company and the Portuguese—complicated by alliances with the natives, with the wars which arose therefrom, and with the final adjustments and treaties that followed—we have nothing to do in these pages. The one fact that is of interest to us in closing this chapter of conflict in statecraft is that at last the British succeeded in isolating the Africanders from the sea, and in throwing around them a perfect cordon of British territories and pre-emptions. By chartering the British South African Company to the north of the Transvaal the last link in the chain that inclosed the two Africander republics was completed. For there had been left no possibility of advance toward the sea eastward on the part of the Transvaal Republic—in the Arbitration[187]Treaty of 1872 Great Britain had obtained pre-emption rights over the Portuguese colonial possessions.[188]
CHAPTER XII.THE AFRICANDER REPUBLICS AND BRITISH POLICY.
The surprising policy pursued by the British government in arbitrarily annexing the Transvaal in 1877, and in restoring its independence in 1881, after a brief and indecisive conflict at arms, and when strong re-enforcements had placed the imperial troops in position to crush the Africander uprising, caused widespread dissatisfaction and bitter controversy both in England and in South Africa. Why had the country been annexed at all? And seeing it had been annexed, why was it so ignominiously yielded up immediately after the disgrace of Majuba Hill? There were many at home and in the South African colonies who would have been satisfied to restore the independence of the Transvaal—but only after having inflicted on the Africander forces at least one crushing defeat.The only reply of the Liberal government[179]was to the effect that the annexation, and the refusal to reverse it, had been due to misapprehension of the facts; that the officers of the crown in South Africa, partly through ignorance and partly through prejudice, had reported that there was no such passionate desire for independence among the Africanders as was pretended by their leaders, and as was proved to exist by the uprising; that as soon as the facts were known it became the duty of a liberty-loving people like the English to honor their ownprinciplesby the immediate retrocession of the Transvaal without waiting to first avenge defeats and vindicate the military superiority of Great Britain; and that a great country better illustrated her greatness by doing justice and showing mercy, even at great cost to herself, than by taking a bloody revenge for reverses suffered on the fields of war in trying to enforce a policy now seen to be morally wrong.Moreover, associated with these moral considerations were reasons of statecraft that made it appear wise as well as right to let the Transvaal go. The Africanders of the Orange Free State, of Cape Colony, of Natal, were known to be in warm sympathy with their brethren of the Transvaal. Of course, the power of Great Britain could crush, in time, a rebellion as extensive as[180]the whole Dutch-speaking population of South Africa, but at what cost of treasure and blood and bitter disloyalty to the British crown! In comparison to the inevitable results of a general civil war the loss of the Transvaal was as nothing. How well grounded were these fears of a general uprising in 1881 may be seen in the earlier events of the second Africander War of Independence in 1899. With no late grievance against Great Britain to redress, the Orange Free State made common cause with the South African Republic from the first, and the Africanders of Cape Colony and Natal were more than suspected of aiding and abetting in a covert way the cause for which the two republics had taken the field.If the British ministers counted upon some recognition of the magnanimity displayed in making the retrocession immediately after defeat—of the humanity which renounced revenge for the humiliation of Majuba Hill when it was within easy reach—they were disappointed. The Africanders saw not generosity, not humanity, but only fear as the motive for the sudden and easy yielding of the British; and to their natural exultation they added contempt for their late antagonists, and so became and have continued very unpleasant neighbors for so proud-spirited[181]a people as the English. And this is the principal reason why the English in all South Africa have always condemned the restoration of independence to the Transvaal—and, most of all, the time and manner of the act. They have not been able to forget the fact that the terms of peace were, in a way, dictated by the Africanders as victorious invaders and holders of British territory in the colony of Natal.In order to view intelligently the causes of the second Africander War of Independence, it is necessary to consider the general trend of events in South Africa, and the conflicting policies sought to be carried out there during the few years following the restitution of independence to the Transvaal.The South African Republic emerged from its brief and successful struggle for independence impoverished and in a state of political chaos, but rejoicing, nevertheless, in a sense of national freedom, and more than ever confident that it enjoyed the special favor of Heaven. The old constitution, or Grondwet, was revived, the volksraad was convoked, and an election was held, resulting in the choice of Mr. Paul Kruger to be president. Mr. Kruger immediately[182]planned for bold and far-reaching movements on three sides of the republic’s territory.A great trek to the north for the occupation of Mashonaland was projected but never carried out. To the south Zululand was now open, and into it went a number of adventurers as trekkers, followed, a little later, by others who took service under one of the warring native chiefs. When these took steps to set up a government of their own in the northern districts of Zululand the British authorities interfered and restricted their claim to a smallterritoryof about three thousand square miles, which enjoyed an independent existence as the New Republic from 1886 to 1888, when it was annexed by the Transvaal.Other bands of Africanders raided parts of Bechuanaland, to the west, taking forcible possession of territory or obtaining grants of land by devices not always honorable. These intimidated the native chiefs into an acknowledgment of their authority and established two small republics, Stella and Goshen, to the north of Kimberley.These proceedings opened the eyes of the British government to the policy upon which the South African Republic had entered—to annex Bechuanaland and close the way of British communication[183]with regions still farther north in which the nation had become interested. To check these designs in time, a military expedition under Sir Charles Warren entered Bechuanaland toward the end of 1884, expelled the Africanders without bloodshed, and proclaimed the whole region a crown colony under the name of British Bechuanaland. This territory was annexed to Cape Colony in 1895. In 1885 a British protectorate was established over a still more northerly region, covering the whole country as far as the borders of Matabeleland. In 1888 the British hold was made yet more secure by a treaty with the king of the Matabele, Lo Bengula, by which he bound himself to cede no territory to, and to make no treaty with, any foreign power without the approval of the British High Commissioner.The raising of the British flag at St. Lucia Bay, on the Indian Ocean, in 1884, and a treaty with the Tonga tribes, binding them to make no treaties with any other power than the English, completed the hold of the British crown on the eastern coast line up to the southern border of the Portuguese possessions.The Africanders, denied expansion on the north, sought compensation in the acquisition of[184]Swaziland, to the east of the Transvaal republic—a small but fertile region and possessing considerable mineral wealth. It was inhabited by some 70,000 Kaffirs, near of kin but hostile to the Zulus. After long negotiations, in which the South African Republic, Cetawayo of the Zulus, and the British authorities took part, the Africanders secured a concession of right to build a railway through the marshy region lying between Swaziland and the sea to the coast at Kosi Bay; this concession was granted in 1890 and laid in abeyance awaiting the acquisition of Swaziland itself, through which the railway must run. In 1894 the whole territory of Swaziland was placed under the control of the South African Republic, subject to a formal guaranty of protection to the natives.It is difficult to determine whether it was Africander dullness or British sharpness, or both, that omitted from the Swaziland convention of 1894 the concession to the South African Republic, granted in 1890, of a right to construct a railway to the sea through the marshy district of Tongaland lying next the coast line. But it was omitted from that instrument, and it was held that, as the later convention superseded and voided the earlier one, the provision for access[185]to the sea had lapsed. Whereupon the British government promptly secured the consent of the three Tonga chiefs concerned, and proclaimed a protectorate over the whole strip of land lying between Swaziland and the ocean, up to the southern portion of the Portuguese territory. Thus by a stroke of statecraft the access of the Africanders to the sea by railway communication entirely under their own control was effectually stopped.Within nine years the British control established in Bechuanaland in 1885 was extended over the whole unappropriated country as far north as the Zambesi. By a new treaty made with Lo Bengula in 1888 the sphere of British influence was further expanded to embrace not only Matabeleland, but Mashonaland also—a partially explored territory to the eastward, over which Lo Bengula claimed some authority.The next step in working out the policy of the British in South Africa was the granting of a royal charter to a corporation known as the British South African Company, formed to develop this eastern and undefined region of Lo Bengula’s territory. Mr. Cecil Rhodes was conspicuous as the leader in this movement. The purpose of the company was twofold: To develop[186]the gold fields supposed to exist there, and to forestall the Transvaal Africanders in taking possession of the country. The charter not only invested the company with the rights of a trading corporation, but also with administrative powers as representative of the British crown. In 1890 the pioneer emigrants under this management began to arrive in the chartered territory and commenced to found settlements and build forts along the eastern plateau.With the conflicts which arose between the British South African Company and the Portuguese—complicated by alliances with the natives, with the wars which arose therefrom, and with the final adjustments and treaties that followed—we have nothing to do in these pages. The one fact that is of interest to us in closing this chapter of conflict in statecraft is that at last the British succeeded in isolating the Africanders from the sea, and in throwing around them a perfect cordon of British territories and pre-emptions. By chartering the British South African Company to the north of the Transvaal the last link in the chain that inclosed the two Africander republics was completed. For there had been left no possibility of advance toward the sea eastward on the part of the Transvaal Republic—in the Arbitration[187]Treaty of 1872 Great Britain had obtained pre-emption rights over the Portuguese colonial possessions.[188]
The surprising policy pursued by the British government in arbitrarily annexing the Transvaal in 1877, and in restoring its independence in 1881, after a brief and indecisive conflict at arms, and when strong re-enforcements had placed the imperial troops in position to crush the Africander uprising, caused widespread dissatisfaction and bitter controversy both in England and in South Africa. Why had the country been annexed at all? And seeing it had been annexed, why was it so ignominiously yielded up immediately after the disgrace of Majuba Hill? There were many at home and in the South African colonies who would have been satisfied to restore the independence of the Transvaal—but only after having inflicted on the Africander forces at least one crushing defeat.
The only reply of the Liberal government[179]was to the effect that the annexation, and the refusal to reverse it, had been due to misapprehension of the facts; that the officers of the crown in South Africa, partly through ignorance and partly through prejudice, had reported that there was no such passionate desire for independence among the Africanders as was pretended by their leaders, and as was proved to exist by the uprising; that as soon as the facts were known it became the duty of a liberty-loving people like the English to honor their ownprinciplesby the immediate retrocession of the Transvaal without waiting to first avenge defeats and vindicate the military superiority of Great Britain; and that a great country better illustrated her greatness by doing justice and showing mercy, even at great cost to herself, than by taking a bloody revenge for reverses suffered on the fields of war in trying to enforce a policy now seen to be morally wrong.
Moreover, associated with these moral considerations were reasons of statecraft that made it appear wise as well as right to let the Transvaal go. The Africanders of the Orange Free State, of Cape Colony, of Natal, were known to be in warm sympathy with their brethren of the Transvaal. Of course, the power of Great Britain could crush, in time, a rebellion as extensive as[180]the whole Dutch-speaking population of South Africa, but at what cost of treasure and blood and bitter disloyalty to the British crown! In comparison to the inevitable results of a general civil war the loss of the Transvaal was as nothing. How well grounded were these fears of a general uprising in 1881 may be seen in the earlier events of the second Africander War of Independence in 1899. With no late grievance against Great Britain to redress, the Orange Free State made common cause with the South African Republic from the first, and the Africanders of Cape Colony and Natal were more than suspected of aiding and abetting in a covert way the cause for which the two republics had taken the field.
If the British ministers counted upon some recognition of the magnanimity displayed in making the retrocession immediately after defeat—of the humanity which renounced revenge for the humiliation of Majuba Hill when it was within easy reach—they were disappointed. The Africanders saw not generosity, not humanity, but only fear as the motive for the sudden and easy yielding of the British; and to their natural exultation they added contempt for their late antagonists, and so became and have continued very unpleasant neighbors for so proud-spirited[181]a people as the English. And this is the principal reason why the English in all South Africa have always condemned the restoration of independence to the Transvaal—and, most of all, the time and manner of the act. They have not been able to forget the fact that the terms of peace were, in a way, dictated by the Africanders as victorious invaders and holders of British territory in the colony of Natal.
In order to view intelligently the causes of the second Africander War of Independence, it is necessary to consider the general trend of events in South Africa, and the conflicting policies sought to be carried out there during the few years following the restitution of independence to the Transvaal.
The South African Republic emerged from its brief and successful struggle for independence impoverished and in a state of political chaos, but rejoicing, nevertheless, in a sense of national freedom, and more than ever confident that it enjoyed the special favor of Heaven. The old constitution, or Grondwet, was revived, the volksraad was convoked, and an election was held, resulting in the choice of Mr. Paul Kruger to be president. Mr. Kruger immediately[182]planned for bold and far-reaching movements on three sides of the republic’s territory.
A great trek to the north for the occupation of Mashonaland was projected but never carried out. To the south Zululand was now open, and into it went a number of adventurers as trekkers, followed, a little later, by others who took service under one of the warring native chiefs. When these took steps to set up a government of their own in the northern districts of Zululand the British authorities interfered and restricted their claim to a smallterritoryof about three thousand square miles, which enjoyed an independent existence as the New Republic from 1886 to 1888, when it was annexed by the Transvaal.
Other bands of Africanders raided parts of Bechuanaland, to the west, taking forcible possession of territory or obtaining grants of land by devices not always honorable. These intimidated the native chiefs into an acknowledgment of their authority and established two small republics, Stella and Goshen, to the north of Kimberley.
These proceedings opened the eyes of the British government to the policy upon which the South African Republic had entered—to annex Bechuanaland and close the way of British communication[183]with regions still farther north in which the nation had become interested. To check these designs in time, a military expedition under Sir Charles Warren entered Bechuanaland toward the end of 1884, expelled the Africanders without bloodshed, and proclaimed the whole region a crown colony under the name of British Bechuanaland. This territory was annexed to Cape Colony in 1895. In 1885 a British protectorate was established over a still more northerly region, covering the whole country as far as the borders of Matabeleland. In 1888 the British hold was made yet more secure by a treaty with the king of the Matabele, Lo Bengula, by which he bound himself to cede no territory to, and to make no treaty with, any foreign power without the approval of the British High Commissioner.
The raising of the British flag at St. Lucia Bay, on the Indian Ocean, in 1884, and a treaty with the Tonga tribes, binding them to make no treaties with any other power than the English, completed the hold of the British crown on the eastern coast line up to the southern border of the Portuguese possessions.
The Africanders, denied expansion on the north, sought compensation in the acquisition of[184]Swaziland, to the east of the Transvaal republic—a small but fertile region and possessing considerable mineral wealth. It was inhabited by some 70,000 Kaffirs, near of kin but hostile to the Zulus. After long negotiations, in which the South African Republic, Cetawayo of the Zulus, and the British authorities took part, the Africanders secured a concession of right to build a railway through the marshy region lying between Swaziland and the sea to the coast at Kosi Bay; this concession was granted in 1890 and laid in abeyance awaiting the acquisition of Swaziland itself, through which the railway must run. In 1894 the whole territory of Swaziland was placed under the control of the South African Republic, subject to a formal guaranty of protection to the natives.
It is difficult to determine whether it was Africander dullness or British sharpness, or both, that omitted from the Swaziland convention of 1894 the concession to the South African Republic, granted in 1890, of a right to construct a railway to the sea through the marshy district of Tongaland lying next the coast line. But it was omitted from that instrument, and it was held that, as the later convention superseded and voided the earlier one, the provision for access[185]to the sea had lapsed. Whereupon the British government promptly secured the consent of the three Tonga chiefs concerned, and proclaimed a protectorate over the whole strip of land lying between Swaziland and the ocean, up to the southern portion of the Portuguese territory. Thus by a stroke of statecraft the access of the Africanders to the sea by railway communication entirely under their own control was effectually stopped.
Within nine years the British control established in Bechuanaland in 1885 was extended over the whole unappropriated country as far north as the Zambesi. By a new treaty made with Lo Bengula in 1888 the sphere of British influence was further expanded to embrace not only Matabeleland, but Mashonaland also—a partially explored territory to the eastward, over which Lo Bengula claimed some authority.
The next step in working out the policy of the British in South Africa was the granting of a royal charter to a corporation known as the British South African Company, formed to develop this eastern and undefined region of Lo Bengula’s territory. Mr. Cecil Rhodes was conspicuous as the leader in this movement. The purpose of the company was twofold: To develop[186]the gold fields supposed to exist there, and to forestall the Transvaal Africanders in taking possession of the country. The charter not only invested the company with the rights of a trading corporation, but also with administrative powers as representative of the British crown. In 1890 the pioneer emigrants under this management began to arrive in the chartered territory and commenced to found settlements and build forts along the eastern plateau.
With the conflicts which arose between the British South African Company and the Portuguese—complicated by alliances with the natives, with the wars which arose therefrom, and with the final adjustments and treaties that followed—we have nothing to do in these pages. The one fact that is of interest to us in closing this chapter of conflict in statecraft is that at last the British succeeded in isolating the Africanders from the sea, and in throwing around them a perfect cordon of British territories and pre-emptions. By chartering the British South African Company to the north of the Transvaal the last link in the chain that inclosed the two Africander republics was completed. For there had been left no possibility of advance toward the sea eastward on the part of the Transvaal Republic—in the Arbitration[187]Treaty of 1872 Great Britain had obtained pre-emption rights over the Portuguese colonial possessions.[188]