Word: transvaalers
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...auspices of the Mining Club, by Mr. John H. Hammond, a mining engineer. Mr. Hammond is a graduate of the Sheffield Scientific School, and of the Mining School at Freiburg, Germany. He has been identified for many years with the development of the Rand gold district of the Transvaal, having acted as consulting engineer for the large English mining companies in that region. He was also a member of the famous "Reform Committee," which was tried after the Jameson raid. He will tell about the South African gold mines, taking for his subject, "The Physical Geography and Commercial Importance...
After the settlement of the Cape by the Dutch East India Company, affairs rapidly went from bad to worse. A harsh rule, combined with slavery and forced labor, soon drove out many of the Dutch inhabitants, who worked northward and finally settled down in the Transvaal. A large French Huguenot element had come in at this time, and as a result nearly two thirds of the Boers today are of French descent...
England soon realized the possibilities in the Cape and purchased it from the East India Company. Slavery was abolished, and affairs took on a better aspect. Meanwhile, the Boers who had gone to the Transvaal were oppressing the natives cruelly, and frequent complaints began to be heard. The Boers, however, soon formed an independent government and refused all allegiance to any outside power. A claim on the Orange Free State, made in 1857 by the Boers, was followed by years of internal strife and native revolts. In 1877 the government was deeply in debt and wholly without resources...
...policy of land grabbing. More trouble with the natives ensued, and a commission was sent from England to investigate. The trouble was staved off for a time, and in 1883 Kruger even obtained some concessions from the home government. It was in 1885, when gold was discovered in the Transvaal, that serious trouble began. The Uitlanders at this time numbered 150,000; there were less than half that number of Boers. The foreign element possessed all the mining and much of the property interests, and were taxed most unreasonably by the officials in power. Taxation, then...
Careful plans were laid, and for months arms were smuggled into the Transvaal. Everything seemed prosperous and Cecil Rhodes had agreed to time his raid so as to help out the rebels. He was too hasty, however, the plot was discovered, and the whole scheme ended in failure. The leaders were captured, but were released later on payment of a large ransom...