SOUTH AFRICAN WAR, a conflict (1899 1902) between Great Britain and the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State. A considerable body of the Dutch population of South Africa has never been reconciled to the rule of the British, and rea sonable grounds for discontent have not been wanting. (See Boots). The settlement agreed to by Gladstone's government in 1881 after Majuha Hill (q.v.) — followed in a modified form by that of 1884—was generally looked upon by the Boers of the Transvaal as a triumph for them. "Majuba day" was annually celebrated as commemorating a great event in their history, and this tended to keep alive a spirit of hostility to Great Britain, and perhaps to foster thoughts of a greater triumph that might be attained in the future. The wars with the natives, continued even after 1884, had made the Boers on the whole a military people, and about 1893 President Kruger (q.v.) began to increase the Transvaal armaments, seeing that nothing but force could ultimately keep the Uitlanders—the non-Boer settlers in the Trans vaal, especially in Johannesburg (q.v.)—from gaining political rights, and that force would also be necessary to enable him to get rid en tirely of British suzerainty, and to secure, what he had long desired, free access to the coast. The Jameson Raid (see JAMESON, Sim LEANDER STARR), an ill-advised attempt made at the close of 1895 by a handful of British subjects, who invaded the Transvaal with a view to gaining some advantage for the Uitlanders— furnished ground for increasing the warlike equipments of the country, and the gold mines of the Rand (see WITWATERSRAND) supplied the funds which were spent on rifles, artillery, ammuni tion, etc., all of the newest and best types. These funds had to be provided in great part by the Uitlanders, who, though they bore the bulk of the taxation, and owned a great share of the property in the Transvaal, were excluded from any share in the government, and were treated in a harsh and domineering spirit.
Early in 1899 a numerously signed petition from British residents in the Transvaal was forwarded by Sir Alfred (now Lord) Milner (q.v.), the high commissioner, to the home gov ernment, setting forth the grievances of the petitioners, and declaring their position to have become ("intolerable." It was then arranged, on the invitation of President Steyn (q.v.) of the Orange Free State, that matters should be dis cussed between the high commissioner and President Kruger at the Free State capital, Bloemfontein. The parties held meetings from 31 May to 5 June, but no agreement was reached. President Kruger now submitted to the Transvaal Volksraad a franchise scheme of his own, professedly meeting all legitimate or reasonable claims of the Uitlanders. To this many of his friends gave their approval, dough Sir A. Milner thought it came far short of what was required. Then followed more negotiations, which sometimes seemed to give hope of a satisfactory result; but, apart from the franchise question, the claim of the South African Republic to the status of a perfectly independent state still barred the way to a settlement. Meantime the war spirit was ris ing in the Transvaal. On 8 September the British Cabinet deckled to raise the garrison in South Africa to a strength sufficient to protect the colonies. On 9 October the South African Republic presented an ultimatum, delivered to the British agent in the Transvaal, for answer within 48 hours, demanded that all matters in dispute should be settled by arbitration or in some other way to be agreed on; that all troops on the borders of the republic should be in stantly withdrawn; that reinforcements which had arrived in South Africa since 1 June should be removed from South Africa within a rea sonable time; and that the troops then on their way to South Africa should not be landed. War at once followed, the Orange Free State, by a previous arrangement, joining the neigh boring republic.