The Jameson Raid, South Africa 1895

at the very end of 1895 a private army put together by british imperialist and mining magnate cecil rhodes invaded the independent state of transvaal in south africa with the intention of overthrowing its government and incorporating it into the british empire led by rhodes close ally leander star jameson the jameson raid was not only an unprovoked attack on a friendly country but was seen by many as the catalyst for the boer war that broke out just a few years later the jameson raid brought to a head the simmering tensions between the two white communities for domination of south africa the british and the buzz the buzz were descended from principally dutch and french huguenot settlers who had fallen out with their british colonial masters in south africa in the 1830s many boers simply packed their wagons and moved beyond british control establishing their own republics of the transvaal and the orange free state in an event celebrated by their afrikaner descendants as the great trek and there they lived in their two republics in an agricultural frontier life until gold was discovered in 1886. suddenly thousands of prospectors from all across the world joined the gold gold rush and settled at the town at the center of this rich goldfield johannesburg within three years johannesburg had a population of 40 000 which is four times the sleepy capital of the transvaal pretoria this influx of foreigners or eight londoners as the boers called them threatened to undermine the boer way of life and their very independence the eight lenders on the other hand complained that despite paying their taxes they were denied any say in the running of the country and that was a deliberate policy of the boers under their president paul kruger kruger might have looked like an uncouth old testament prophet who believed that the world was flat but he was a wily political operator and he recognized that the eight londoners could outnumber the boers in elections in the non-too distant future and if that happened the boers would lose control of their own country and worst as the majority of the eight londoners were british they would seek to join the british empire and this put paul kruger on a collision course with the arch imperialist cecil rhodes rhodes had come to africa as a teenager from britain in the 1870s for health reasons and over the next decade he had taken control of the world's largest diamond mine at kimberley in 1895 he stood at the pinnacle of his power not only in control of south africa's diamond wealth but with a significant interest in the gold mines in the transvaal as well by 1890 just aged 37 he was the prime minister of the cape colony and had in the previous year age 36 established a private company the british south africa company to further his ambition of painting africa british red in 1890 this company had occupied modern-day zimbabwe as a private venture on behalf of the british empire there was only one barrier to rhodes's dream of a block of british red in southern africa the two boer republics now the boers might be white but they had no desire to be dominated by the white british after all that's the whole reason they tricked inland away from british rule half a century ago which brings us full circle as to why paul kruger refused to give the eighth londoners the vote he feared just as rose rhodes desired that an eight under government would paint the transwall and the orange free state british red whilst most eight londoners wanted reform some believe that kruger would never cede to their demands and they started to plan with cecil rhodes an armed uprising to achieve their aims and then in july 1895 rhodes gained an ally in the british government when arch imperialist joseph chamberlain became colonial secretary nicknamed pushful joe chamberlain shared rhodes's vision for expanding the british empire and forming a british federation in southern africa something akin to the way canada was was developing in north america as fellow imperial travelers rhodes offered to let chamberlain into his secret plans to overthrow kruger's government but chamberlain refused to hear any information which he couldn't make official exactly how much chamberlain knew is still a matter of debate although he always insisted that he had no official knowledge which is a phrase which gave a wily politician like joe chamberlain a lot of room to maneuver if nothing else rhodes was convinced that chamberlain was taking no steps to actively prevent his plans rhodes plan was simple first the eight lunders would launch an armed uprising in johannesburg next rhodes would send an armed force drawn from his british south africa company police to reinforce the rebels and overthrow the transwell government and finally sir hercules robinson the british high commissioner in south africa would arrive from cape town to restore law and order and protect civilian lives and property and declare the transpile a british protectorate job done in november 1895 chamberlain granted the british south africa company a strip of land in the becca wanna land a bachuana land protectorate ostensibly to protect the railway that was being constructed from the cape colony to rhodes's colony of rhodesia did chamberlain really believe that the railway needed protecting from local tribes or was he just turning a blind eye to what was going on we'll never know a force of british south africa company police pitched camp in the strip just three miles from the transpiled border and less than three days ride from johannesburg and rhodes gave command of this force to his old friend and ally leander star jameson a doctor by training jameson had become rhodes right hand man in rhodesia leading the initial invasion and then administrating administering the private colony crucially he'd instigated a war with the nabila or matabila nation which had led to the british south africa company taking over the western half of modern day zimbabwe so jameson has a track record of successfully waging unprovoked wars and overthrowing friendly governments tensions were rising in johannesburg many eight londoners were leaving uh for the safety of the cape colony there was a run on food supplies and there was wild talk of over 20 000 rifles having been smuggled into the city and hidden down the gold mines ready for the uprising president kruger decided to play a waiting game he declared that if you want to kill a tortoise you must wait until it puts its head out of its shell the eight london leadership sent jameson a letter to be used when the uprising started stating that thousands of women and children were at the mercy of the boers and urging him jameson to come with his armed men to their rescue this so-called women and children's letter would be uh used to give jameson the pretext and justification for his invasion a date was set for the rising 28th of december 1895. it was now at this late stage that the eight london leadership started to lose their nerve on the 26th of december just two days before the rising was planned jameson's brother and leading eight lunar conspirator sam telegram jameson telling him cryptically to postpone the flotation that same day two further representatives arrived in cape town to advise rose that there was no support for a rising crucially rhodes didn't order jameson to stand down in fact two days later 28th of december jameson rushed off a telegram telling rhodes that if he didn't adhere to the country he would invade on the evening of the 29th for reasons unknown there was a delay in sending the telegram and it only reached rhodes on the 29th and by then events had moved out of rhodes control on sunday the 29th of december jameson gathered his armed men and read out the women and children letter he added that they were riding in the name of the queen which was a complete fabrication in high spirits jameson's force of 500 men crossed the border heading for johannesburg just 180 miles away he planned to be in the gold city in three days where their presence would either finally ignite the uprising or they could take out the troops of paul kruger by themselves but this was not matabila land kruger didn't command warriors armed with assage and shields but with the latest rifles and artillery as they crossed the border jameson ordered the telegraph wires to be cut but unfortunately for his invasion one line wasn't severed and local boar farmers were therefore almost immediately able to inform kruger in pretoria that his country had been invaded the tortoise had put its head out down in cape town rhodes received the news that his trusted subordinate had launched a private war using his own company police the colossus of the british empire moaned that he was a ruined man joseph chamberlain was told the invasion at highbury hall his home in his political heartland of birmingham in england he immediately repudiated the invasion of a friendly country with the words if this succeeds it will ruin me despite this flagrant act of aggression the british press actually swung behind the audacious bid the times published the women and children letter with a new date on it and used it to defend jameson's actions that even if they were technically incorrect he was acting honorably the poet laureate uh alfred austin defended jameson in verse he published a poem which said there are girls in the gold reef city there are women and children too and they cry hurry up for pity so what can a brave man do well meanwhile the brave man jameson was two days into his invasion he now received a telegram from sir hercules robinson the british high commissioner in south africa ordering him ordering him to stop and retire from transwall jameson pressed on it was new year's day 1896. by midday he was just outside the small town of krugersdorp a mere 30 miles from johannesburg and there he found his way blocked by entrenched boers under the command of general pete cronier and suddenly his force were pinned down by accurate boar fire the firing went on sporadically through the day and into the night jameson's men were exhausted they were hungry and they only had muddy water to drink they were losing comrades and it was quite obvious they were going to get no help from the eight londoners in johannesburg they were on their own in the morning jameson attempted to outflank the boers but found himself instead surrounded by boer infantry and artillery around a vlad fontaine farm the situation was hopeless and just after 9 a.m on the 2nd of january 1896 jameson surrendered to pete cronier his force had lost 16 killed and 15 severely wounded further 41 men had received minor injuries the boers had lost four men killed one of whom was shot by mistake by his own side the jubilant boers descended on the invaders rounding them up and leading them to the main jail in pretoria within 24 hours kruger had received a telegram from kaiser wilhelm ii germany conveying his congratulations that without calling on the aid of friendly powers kruger had succeeded and his boys had succeeded in defending their independence it shocked wilhelm's grandmother queen victoria and the rest of britain there was no doubt whom the kaiser meant when he spoke of friendly powers he was openly supporting the boers and positioning himself as no friend of britain jameson and 13 of his senior commanders were deported from the transvaal to britain where they were put on trial under the foreign enlistment act for preparing a military expedition against a friendly state jameson kept a tight lip during the trial as he later said since a scapegoat was needed i was willing to serve my country he was sentenced to just over one year in jail only five of the 14 defendants went to jail and all for similar periods to jameson his stoic attitude inspired roger kipling to write his poem if the rest of his raiding party the minor players were released by the transvaal authorities when the british south africa company paid a million pounds in compensation for the damages of the raid by their employees leading eight lunders suspected of conspiring in the revolt that never actually had happened were arrested by kruger and put on trial four were sentenced to death but kruger almost immediately commuted these sentences to prison sentences and then you reduce them further to hefty fines in britain a parliamentary inquiry was set up to investigate the raid and how complicit the colonial office and its boss joseph chamberlain were in the events chamberlain maintained his no official knowledge line rhodes refused to point the finger at the colonial secretary but interestingly he did withhold the content of seven telegrams between the two men in the end the inquiry blamed rhodes for conducting a private war chamberlain was completely exonerated despite the role played by their police the british south africa company retained its royal charter to run the colony of rhodesia was that the price chamberlain had paid roads for holding back those telegrams and saving his political career probably we'll never know for a minor military event with almost well very few casualties the jameson raid had major repercussions politically rhodes was forced to resign as prime minister of the cape it sent britain and the boer republic's relationships into freefall kruger the arch conservative was now even more hawkish towards both the eight lunders and the british afrikaner opinion in the cape colony suddenly swung bit swung behind their brethren in the transpile and the orange free state one young afrikaner lawyer in the cape was so disgusted by the jameson raid that he moved to the transwall where he shortly became the attorney general and helped kruger draft the ultimatum that led to the boer war three years later his name was jan smutz spots was to write in 1906 after the boer war in which he had served very successfully as a general that the jameson raid was the real start of the boer war a feeling shared by his opposite number winston churchill who wrote during the ball war i date these violent times from the jameson raid there was another repercussion in rhodesia the departure of a huge proportion of the british south africa police force encouraged first the nimbila and then the shona to rise up against white rule ultimately the risings were viciously suppressed but many zimbabweans refer to this event as their first war of independence and finally the kaiser's telegram of congratulations to kruger shocked the british public it alerted britons to the fact that germany was not a friend but increasingly a dangerous enemy who posed a threat to her security that suspicion and rivalry would lead to a naval arms race between britain and germany and a direct way leading less than 20 years to the first world war thanks for watching i hope you enjoyed it please subscribe to my channel if you haven't before and i look forward to seeing you very soon 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Channel: The History Chap

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Keywords: the history chap, military history, the jameson raid of 1895, the jameson raid, the jameson raid 1895, the jameson raid south africa, the jameson raid south africa 1895, the jameson raid 1895 south africa, jameson raid, boer war, history of south africa, paul kruger, british empire, cecil rhodes, joseph chamberlain, leander starr jameson, anglo-boer war, anglo boer war, rudyard kipling if, second boer war, dr leander starr jameson, 1895 the jameson raid south africa

Id: IhNyd9iEl2w

Length: 17min 12sec (1032 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 23 2022