Rhodesia

RHODESIA).

On the eastern border the policy of expansion was also followed by the Boers, and in this instance with more success. Following the downfall of the Zulu power after the British conquest in 1879, several parties of Boers began intriguing with the petty chiefs, and in May 1884, in the presence of io,000 Zulus, they proclaimed Dinizulu, the son of Cetywayo, to be king of Zulu land (see As a "reward" for their services to the Zulus, the Boers, under Gen. Lukas Meyer, then took over from them a tract of country in which they established a "New Re public." In 1886 the "New Republic," with limits considerably narrowed, was recognized by Great Britain, and the territory be came incorporated with the Transvaal in 1888. A similar policy eventually brought Swaziland almost entirely under their dominion (see SWAZILAND). At the same time Kruger revived the project of obtaining a seaport for the State, one of the objects of Boer ambitions since 186o (vide supra). Kruger endeavoured to acquire Kosi bay, to the north of Zululand and only 5om. east of the Swazi frontier. In this endeavour he was foiled, for the British annexed Tongoland and with it Kosi bay, but that was not until 1895.

Gold Discoveries : Influx of Uitlanders.

In 1884, the year of the London Convention, the Sheba gold mine in the de Kaap valley—where gold had been found as far back as 1875—had at tracted a population of about i,000. For the first time gold dig ging in the Transvaal ceased to be a precarious method of earning an existence. Barberton was founded, there was a rush to the fields from Europe as well as South Africa. Soon, however, came collapse; by the end of 1887 the Barberton fields were mostly deserted. In the meantime, gold had been discovered on the Witwatersrand. The gold fields there were proclaimed and Johannesburg founded at the end of 1886. In a very few years it was seen that here was the richest gold field in the world; and a republic composed mainly of cattle and sheep farmers of very limited outlook and education was speedily faced with a difficult problem. Thousands of whites poured into the Transvaal so that in a few years the uitlanders came to outnumber the native white population. The newcomers included a large proportion of South Africans, both Dutch and English speaking, from the Cape, Natal and the Free State ; equally with Europeans and Americans they were regarded as uitlanders. This new population was concentrated in one region—the Rand.

President Kruger and the raad had two points to consider: (I) economic ; political. The Boers gained by the develop ment of mining, both individually and as a State. Land went up enormously in value; so attractive were the prices realized that a third or more of the area of the country was sold to uitlanders.

But with speculation and wealth came also corruption and pecula tion; vices to which many members of the Boer executive suc cumbed. But the Boer was shrewd and at once grasped the need of railway transport from the mines to the sea. From their first crossing of the Vaal the Boers had sought an outlet at Delagoa bay—its great attraction being that it was not under British con trol. Alternatively, or additionally, they had sought a seaport of their own—hence the effort to secure Kosi bay. In 1884 Kruger granted a concession to Hollander and German capitalists of all rights to build railways in the Transvaal; this led to the forma tion of the Netherlands South African Railway Company. The grant of monopolies, as an easy way of raising revenue, had become a feature of Transvaal methods from the time of the retrocession in 1881. In 1882 a monopoly was granted for the manufacture of spirituous liquor. By 1889 the list of things under monopoly grants, besides railways and spirits, included dynamite, iron, sugar, wool, bricks, jam and paper. The dyna mite monopoly, a necessity for the mines, pressed particularly heavily on the gold industry.

The political policy of the Boers was animated by a lively distrust of everything British. With many of his people Kruger came also to distrust the Cape Dutch, whose interests suffered with those of other uitlanders, from the policy of rigid exclusion of the newcomers from political power in the Transvaal. In 1882 a law had been passed raising the period of residence necessary to obtain full franchise rights from two to five years— a reasonable requirement ; but the Boers soon foresaw that before long under that law many uitlanders would qualify for the f ran chise. Other measures, then, must be tried to maintain Boer supremacy. In 1887 Kruger endeavoured to induce the Orange Free State to enter into an offensive and defensive alliance with the Transvaal against the "common enemy." President Brand, who did not see an enemy in Great Britain, refused, but in 1889 Kruger got his treaty with the new president of the 0.F.S."—F. W. Reitz. Next came, in 189o, a raising of the franchise qualification, followed in 1894 by other laws, the effect being that no foreigner under 4o could obtain the franchise, and then only if he had lived 14 years in the Transvaal. Kruger's object was the preser vation of the independence of the country; that is the main tenance in full power of the Boer burghers; his distrust of the British had led him to open relations with Germany, which country, with her colonial fever then at the full, responded at once, but with a natural regard to German rather than Boer interests.