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The Boer War Turns the Century
In 1899 the Second Boer War started. Cecil Rhodes instructed Dr Jameson to invade the Transvaal and overthrow the President, Paul Krugger. This invasion failed but relations between Britain and the Afrikaners worsened. Rhodes wanted a United South Africa and a Cape to Cairo Railway running through British territory all the way. Krugger wanted the Transvaal to remain Afrikaner.
Krugger and the Boers felt their way of life was threatened by the British and war broke out in 1898. The Boers laid siege to Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley. They tried to capture the towns but failed and retreated. The British gained the upper hand and annexed The Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Krugger fled. The British thought they had won but the Boers now embarked on a guerilla campaign. The war finally ended in 1906.
Cecil Rhodes |
CECIL RHODES (1853-1902)- Born in East Anglia
- Father was a clergyman
- Sent to Southern Africa because of ill health
- Tried to grow cotton in Natal but failed and went to Kimberley to look for diamonds in 1871
- He made a fortune
- Went to England to study at Oxford, returned to South Africa and founded the de Beers diamond company in 1880
- In 1887 founded the Consolidated Gold Fields Company
- Fortune made he went into politics
- Helped win Bechuanaland for the Cape Colony in 1884
- In 1887 set up the British South Africa Company which was given a royal charter in 1889
- In 1890 Rhodes became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony but resigned in 1896 over the Jameson Raid
- The territories of the British South Africa Company were renamed Rhodesia in his honourIn his will he set up Rhodes scholarships at Oxford for colonial students
Lord Kitchener set up concentration camps in South Africa from 1900-1902. In 14 months more than 20,000 inmates of these camps died - mostly as a result of the conditions in them.
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1837 | Victoria becomes Queen
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1859 | Palmerston becomes Prime Minister
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1861 | Prince Albert dies
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1865 | Palmerston dies Russell becomes Prime Minister
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1868 | Disraeli becomes Prime Minister Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
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1870 | Franco-Prussian War First Irish Land Act
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1874 | Disraeli becomes Prime Minister
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1877 | Victoria becomes Empress of India
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1880 | Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
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1881 | Disraeli dies Second Irish Land Act
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1885 | Salisbury becomes Prime Minister
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1887 | Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee
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1892 | Gladstone becomes Prime Minister
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1894 | Rosebery becomes Prime Minister
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1895 | Salisbury becomes Prime Minister
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1897 | Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee
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1898 | Gladstone dies
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1899 | Second Boer War breaks out
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1901 | Queen Victoria dies Edward VII becomes king
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POPULATION FIGURES AT THE END OF VICTORIA'S REIGN IN 1901 | | London 6.5 million |
| Cardiff 160,000 |
| Bolton 168,000 |
| Glasgow 900,000 |
| When Victoria came to the throne the population was 27 million when she died it was 41 million. |
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