Background

In the late 19th century, Great Britain extended its commercial interests northeastward from its Cape Colony at the southern tip of Africa. The British constituted a threat to Boer control of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, which had gained their independence from Britain in the 1850's. The two countries were afraid of being dominated by the large numbers of British immigrants settling within their borders. Tension increased when Britain briefly annexed the Transvaal, 1877–81.

In spite of Boer hostility, British settlers continued to move in, especially after the discovery of vast gold deposits in the Transvaal in 1886. Its president, Paul Kruger. wished to develop his country's newfound wealth while staying independent.

Cecil Rhodes, British diamond and gold merchant, led mining companies and other industrial enterprises that were established in the Transvaal. He hoped to create a federation of British, Boer, and possibly native African states. It was to be a self-governing country, but under the sovereignty of Britain. Rhodes helped establish British authority in territories north of the Transvaal and to colonize them with British settlers. In this manner, he hoped to encircle the Transvaal and force it to cooperate with Cape Colony.

Although British settlers rapidly grew in numbers and wealth within the Transvaal, the Boers would not let them participate in the government. These uitlanders (outlanders, or foreigners), as the Boers referred to them, were denied citizenship and taxed heavily.

In 1895 the resulting friction led to an attempt, organized by Rhodes, to start an uprising against the Transvaal government. Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, administrator of Rhodesia, crossed the western Transvaal border with some 500 men, but was quickly surrounded by Boer troops and had to surrender. ( War threatened for four years after that, but did not break out until 1899, after a change in British colonial administration. In that year Sir Alfred Milner, high commissioner for British South Africa, urged Britain to demand citizenship for the uitlanders. Provocative diplomatic and military maneuvering followed. By October, British and Boer troops had mobilized near the Transvaal borders with Cape Colony and with Natal, another British colony. Milner rejected a Boer ultimatum demanding withdrawal of British troops from the borders, and the war began on October 11, 1899.