In the past, they were faced with the strong pressure of the black kingdom Zulu Kingdom, but they were still able to accept British protection in Britain. However, Britain was also pursuing colonial expansion. A few years ago, Zulu Kingdom was eliminated. Now the Boers not only relieved the threat, but also made a windfall. Their ambitions expanded again.
Because they moved from the port of Putton to the land, the farther away the Boers were from the British, the farther away they were from the sea. Before that, the Boers had been trying to open a road to the coast, and they kept expanding eastward, grabbing land from the blacks and owning their own coast.
The British don’t want to see the Boers become countries with coastlines. Every time, those black kingdoms sign protection agreements or give support to cut off the Boers’ greedy claws. The British have formed a huge containment network around the Boers, surrounded by some black forces with British weapons, including the Zulu kingdom, which was an English rifle before it died. The British trained troops and the British broadcast Christianity to arm the black kingdom.
After the Zulu kingdom was personally destroyed by Britain, the Boers planned to expand again. At this time, they discovered a huge gold mine. Gold mining brought them economic benefits beyond imagination. The Transvaal government of the Boer country can get 1 million pounds of tax revenue only from imported mining machinery, life and other taxes. They can also get a dividend of 600 thousand pounds through monopoly franchise.
The huge golden bonus makes the Boers have great purchasing power and can import weapons to strengthen their armaments.
At the same time, the Boers also tried their best to exclude the interests of British expatriates. The Transvaal government imposed heavy taxes on foreign funds and mines. In terms of financial expenditure, the Transvaal government allocated 63,000 pounds to foreign schools every year, and the municipal construction in Johannesburg was in tatters and there was no water system. The whole city was filthy and corrupt, and the golden bonus was used to build the Boer city Pretoria, which made it a clean and beautiful city comparable to that in Europe.
In 19 years, the Transvaal government once again applied to settle in Johannesburg. Although foreign nationals have to pay taxes, they are not conducive to participating in the presidential and legislative elections unless they have lived in Transvaal for 14 years and have been naturalized. In addition, all foreigners cannot hold government office and their daughters cannot be subsidized by the government, regardless of whether they are British, Protestants, Jews or Catholics.
To put it bluntly, the Boer government implements a policy of discrimination against immigrants, but the degree is obviously much lighter than that of American exclusion from China. But how can the British accept such discrimination against British expatriates? The British capitalists keep lobbying the government to crack down on the Boers, which is even more an excuse to encourage the government to annex the Boer country.
But just because Imbr people exclude British expatriates in financial expenditure and elections obviously does not make Britain determined to destroy this country, because the British government values South African gold, but it is still mined by British companies, so it is not necessary to use force against them.
What really made the British government determined to crack down on the Boers was German intervention.
Germany was invited by Boers. Of course, they themselves wanted to come. During Bismarck’s period, Germany had considerable benefits in Africa. From 179 to 13, Germany’s exports to Africa increased from 27.92 million marks to 4.22 million marks, while only African goods imported from Hamburg Port soared from 519.65 million marks to 91.52 million marks in the same period. Although it was a deficit, exports to Africa were mainly made of industrial products and imports were mainly raw materials. This trade was obviously beneficial to Germany.
The most important thing is that the largest exporter to Africa is spirits, which accounts for 4% of Germany’s exports to Africa, and the German spirits operators are both the landlord class and the German ruling class, so Germany has a strong tendency to occupy African colonies
Among them, southwest Africa and southeast Africa, which have not been carved up by foreign powers, have become German colonies. Germany has always wanted to integrate the colonies in southeast Africa and southwest Africa, and the two colonies are Boer homes. As early as Bismarck’s time, German colonial promotion organizations were encouraging the government to establish colonies in Boer land.
As a result, when the Boers became rich, they planned to build a powerful Boer empire in Africa, hoping to build a Boer Federation of Great South Africa from the Cape of Good Hope to the Zambezi River. Their ambition was supported by Germany.
The Boers chartered the construction of the three-section railway from the British-controlled seaport to the Transvaal Republic to the German backing, and the Dutch South African Railway Company squeezed out the British capital. Then, from 1993 to 1995, the Transvaal government funded the construction of a railway from Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal Republic, to Drago Harbor, a Portuguese territory, which freed the Boers from the constraints of the Puton Railway and the port, and this railway was also connected to the German East African colony.
What makes Boers close to Germany is mainly due to cultural factors. Boers are descendants of Dutch colonists, and Dutch and German are interchangeable. They are naturally close to the increasingly powerful Germany and pin their hopes for independence on Germany.
What do Germans support the Boers? They hope to integrate the East and West German and African colonies through the Boer country, and they also reject the golden interests of the Boers.
In the Johannesburg Golden Hair, not only the Boers benefited from the British, but also the Germans, probably more than the British.
Large-scale trade is also carried out in Transvaal, Hamburg. Most of the equipment for gold mining in South Africa comes from German companies. Before the outbreak of the war, Germany exported more than 10 million pounds to Boers every year, and the prospect is very good. In 16 years, Germany imported 30 thousand pounds to Transvaal merchants, and after 195, it exported 120 thousand pounds to Transvaal merchants every year, which increased 39 times. It can be said that Germany has controlled almost all export trade in Transvaal.
Germany also controlled the Boer financial system. After the discovery of the world’s richest gold mine in Transvaal, Rhodes, a British colonist, set up the "South Africa Unified Gold Mine Company" in 17 years, and German capital infiltrated into the Boer financial system. William Knape Bank in Berlin manipulated the Transvaal National Bank.
In addition, there are quite a few German immigrants in the Boer countries, and there are nearly 15 German immigrants in Johannesburg, and the contact German immigrant clubs are all over Transvaal, and every year, German immigrants entering the Boer countries far exceed British immigrants.
It can be said that if the British do not take practical measures, the Boer country will sooner or later become a German colony or at least an ally of Germany in Africa, which is absolutely unacceptable to Britain.
Britain has always established a north-south colony in Africa, and it must also pass through the Boer homeland and gradually encroach on Britain. Before the war, Britain surrounded the Boer Republic from the west, north and south.
In this case, Britain can’t stand the possibility that Germany controls the Boer country through the railway. When the railway was opened to traffic, Britain also decided to annex the Boer country.
However, this war is not as simple as it seems, and it is not just a battle for gold. In fact, it is also a game between Britain and Germany, and the game between Britain and Germany is inevitable.
In June 1999, Transvaal refused to give British citizens an excuse to form troops at their borders and send reinforcements from China to put pressure on the Boers.
The Boers didn’t take the British threat seriously, because as early as four years ago, they had a conflict with Britain, and that time they defeated Britain greatly.
In December 1995, Rhodes, a British mining magnate, encouraged his friend, Dr. Zhan Sen, a senior staff member of the South African company, to lead five South African company policemen with several machine guns on an expedition to Transvaal, intending to overthrow the Boer President Kruger. As a result, Zhan Sen and his team entered Transvaal and were led by the Boers around the mountains and hills near Johannesburg for three days. After that, 134 people were killed and the rest, including Zhan Sen, were captured in the Ministry.
The Boers fined each prisoner 25,000 pounds, and then Kruger built two huge armored forts in the area of Johnsburg, where foreigners were most concentrated, and sent the bill for building the forts to the British government, saying that this was a fine that caused "spiritual and moral damage" to Britain.
This victory made the Boers full of confidence and believed that their weapons and equipment were excellent and they were not lost to Britain. Not only did they not accept the threat from Britain, but they also issued an ultimatum to Britain, demanding that Britain stop sending more troops to South Africa and retreat. All troops arriving in South Africa should submit all controversial issues to diplomatic arbitration, and reply within 4 hours.
After Britain refused, the Federal Parliament of the Boer countries Transvaal Republic and the Free State Republic of Orange declared war on the British Empire. The Boer general Delary immediately launched an attack and intercepted a British armored train on the Xipu Railway in the British Bettenaran territory.
The Boer War finally broke out. Look relaxed and go to [vertex network O]
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Section one hundred and six German blackmail
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The outbreak of war can make public opinion that both the British and the Boers can think of such a war * pop-up? @++wwｗ* C
But no one expected the war to go that way. The Boers were confident that they could gain independence from Britain, while Britain thought they could easily handle the Boers.
What surprised the British even more was that this war actually caused opposition from almost the whole of Europe.
In the Netherlands and Belgium, a huge wave of monks opposed to the British invasion of Boer countries was launched. In these two countries, many civil organizations were formed out of their national feelings for their Dutch compatriots in South Africa, and articles were published to collect donations. A foundation was established to donate wartime mobile hospitals and medical equipment to Transvaal.