Great Britain and the Boers in South Africa. — The original white population of South Africa was a colony of Dutch farmers, called Boers (from the Dutch term for peasant), who settled at Cape Colony in the latter part of the 17th century. The region was permanently oc cupied by the British in 1806. On account of re hgious and linguistic differences, the extension co political equality to the native blacks, and, above all, the arming of the natives, the Boers found existence under British domination in tolerable, and in 1836 under the leadership of Peter Retief they began their •Great Trek* across the Orange and Vaal rivers toward Natal, where they established a Boer republic in 1838. After some vicissitudes respecting political in dependence two Boer republics, the Transvaal and Orange Free State, had emerged by 1854. Nothing of consequence happened in South African politics from 1854 to 1877, when Dis raeli, in the first enthusiasm of the new British imperialism, annexed the Transvaal. This led to the first' Boer War of 1881 which ended in the complete defeat of an insignificant British force at Majuba Hill in 1881. This victory. combined with Gladstone's grant of indcpend e, produced a great inflation of Boer na tional pride and did much to create that intlex ibk Boer stubbornness which furnished the thief pretext for British intervention in 1899. The significant background of the Boer War was provided through the great influx of for eigners following the discovery of the rich gold and diamond mines in the Boer republics in the '80's.• By 18% these foreigners or •Uitland ers' had come to own two-thirds of the land and about 90 per cent of the personal property in this region, and paid about 95 per cent of the taxes. In spite of this they were excluded from political rights and subjected to extortionate taxes and irritating economic restrictions. De spairing of their efforts to secure enfranchise ment by legal means some of the more daring Litlanders, encouraged by Cecil Rhodes and led by Dr. J r. Leander S. Jameson, attempted in an ill starred raid to overthrow the Boer government and supplant it by Uitlander control. While this wild escapade failed miserably, it had con sciuences of the utmost importance for South African history. The Boers grew more sus picious and intolerant, and the Uitlanders came to put their trust more and more in the hope of British intervention in their behalf. Matters were still further complicated by the German kaiser's ill-considered congratulatory telegram to President Kruger following the capture of Jameson, which did much to create greater ten sion between Germany and England. In Match
of Isvr) the Uitlanders appealed to Great Brit ain for relief, and the British commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner, advised intervention. When it was too late Kruger agreed to the lung sought reforms, but Great Britain had then re solved upon war. To crush the Boers Great Britain was compelled to put more soldiers in the field than ever before in her history and the war was the most expensive she had ever undertaken, with the sole exception of the se ries of conflicts in the Napoleonic period. tier action was bitterly opposed at home by liberal statesmen like Lloyd George and by progressive publicists like J. A. Hobson. The triumph of the British Liberal party in 1905, however, brought into power the group that had opposed the war, and a liberal policy of conciliation was immediately adopted. A constitutional conven tion for South Africa was held from October 1908 to June 1909. It drew up a constitution for the Union of South Africa, which was ap proved by Great Britain on 20 Sept. 1909, and the Union —a new self-governing colony was thereby created out of Cape Colony. Na tal, Orange Free State and the Transvaal. While the Boers have dominated the govern ment, their interests have been in the hands of moderate and statesmanlike leaders, most no tably Gens. Louis Botha and Johannes Smuts, who have recognized that the future prosperity and peace of the Boer people depend upon an avoidance of the narrow intolerance of the Kruger regime. Their loyalty was vindicated when in the autumn of 1914 they speedily re pressed a nationalist revolt, encouraged by the German emperor and led by Hertzog, Beyer', De Wet, Maritz and other irreconcilable.. Botha and Smuts participated with credit in the conquest of the German colonies in Africa and General Smuts was generally recognized as easily the ablest and most far-sighted repre sentative of the Allied powers at the Peace Conference. The economic prosperity of South Africa still rests chiefly upon the gold and dia mond products, though livestock and wool have become prominent products in recent years and some considerable development of manufactur ing industry has taken place. Immense coal reserves exist, but iron ore is lacking. The economic expansion of the colony has been handicapped by the lack of an adequate and competent labor supply. Native labor has been inefficient; the introduction of Chinese labor proved an unsuccessful experiment in 1904-05; and the importation of labor from In dia which followed was abandoned in 1911. See Bons; GREAT BRITAIN — FOREIGN POUCY us