Colin Ahern
POLI 161
Last paper we investigated how the British were the instigators of the First Boer War. Here we will explore these reasons deeper.
A good example of British meddling occurred in 1815. British authorities attempted to arrest a Boer farmer, Bezuidenhout, for mistreating his slaves. the farmer resisted, and was slain in the struggle. The farmers friends and family set out to avenge his death, leading to a number of deaths and, later, executions. The Boer saw this as the British meddling in Boer affairs (Selby 29).
The British themselves narrowly avoided making peace with the Boer. Sir George Grey, appointed governor of the Cape in 1854, proposed a treaty between the Boer states and the British colonies. At this point in time, the Boer states were having trouble either with internal politics or skirmishes with the local natives. It is liekly they would have welcomed a modicum of British support. However, it was not to be. This proposal met stiff resistance and was eventually abandoned (Selby 32).
Lord Carnarvon, Colonial Secretary, in a fit of arrogant reasoning, became convinced that the Boer would welcome British rule as an alternative to constant siege by the natives. This absurd notion led him to send Shepstone to parlay with them in 1876, offering the federation modeled on the Canadian federation, which Carnarvon himself had presided over. The outcome apparently made little difference to the British, because Shepstone went ahead and annexed the Transvaal anyway (Selby 35).
Interestingly, Bartle Frere, High Commissioner under Carnarvon, was sympathetic towards the Boer cause, and even attempted to grant the Transvaal a degree of self-government. However, Frere's term of office was short-lived, due to his failures erly in the Anglo-Zulu War. He was censored by the British government and there was even talk of impeachment. He receded to the position of Governor of the Cape (Selby 36).
The British people were fairly ignorant of the whole ordeal. Lehmann states “South Africa, 'a faint telescopic object', was viewed by the British people 'mainly through glasses of the missionary and the philanthropist'.” (15) The British peoples distance from the “faint telescopic” region of the South African colonies compounded with the filtration by the “missionaries and philanthropists” made the casual British citizen mostly unaware of the Boer side of the conflict.
Another interesting factor is that the English government had a predisposition to side with the native. Since the banning of slavery in 1828 empire-wide, London had become more and more responsive to the cause of the native people. Bishop Colenso of Natal was a staunch supporter of the “abused natives” and traveled to London to stir up acrimony against the Natal Government. The Queen herself informed Carnarvon that the native races should be treated “with every kindness and affection, as brothers not – alas! as Englishmen often do – as totally different beings to ourselves, fit only to be cursed and shot down.” While the majority of Southern Africa was slave-free and the African people mostly equal to the white colonists, the Boer Republics were staunchly not, thus making them the object of unwanted scrutiny (Lehmann 30).
When diamonds were found on the borders of the Transvaal, miners from all over flocked to stake out a claim on the riches. Initially, the area was claimed by the two Boer republics. However, “in order to preserve order,” the British government stepped in. At the governments request, a local native chief, Waterboer of the Griqua, laid claim to the entire diamond-producing area. Since this claim was backed by the British, it naturally won, and the British followed up by annexing Griqualand in 1880. Although it was later proven that the claim was false, the 90,000 pound sum that was paid to the Orange Free State in compensation did little to soothe the hurt feelings of that state (Lehmann 24-25).
Kruger, the Transvaal spokesman, asked Gladstone, the British Prime Minister, when the Transvaal might expect its freedom from British rule. Gladstone was quoted as saying, “Our judgment is that the Queen cannot be advised to relinquish her sovereignty over the Transvaal.” A wordy way of saying, “We are here to stay.” Those of the Transvaal came to realize, to their horror, that they would have to secure their freedom through use of arms, not words (Selby 37).
Works Cited:
Selby, John. The Boer War. Bristol Typesetting Co Ltd
Lehmann, Joseph H. The First Boer War. Cape