4/C PROCESS MATTE UV LAMINATION HISTORY The British, the Boers, and the “[An] accessible, nimble and moving account of the creation of pre-apartheid South Africa.” Making of South Africa —Washington Post Book World S A OUTHERN FRICA was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world’s richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the region. It culminated in the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and left the Boer republics devastated. In this gripping history of the turbulent years leading up to the founding of the modern state of South Africa in 1910, Martin Meredith portrays the great wealth and raw power, the deceit, corruption, and racism that lay behind Britain’s empire-building in southern Africa. Diamonds, Gold, and War is a tale of high adventure, high fi nance, and high politics that also shows the massive impact of white expansion on indigenous African societies. And it explains the rise of the virulent Afrikaner nationalism that eventually took hold, with repercussions lasting nearly a century. “ [An] astute history...Meredith expertly shows how the exigencies of the diamond (and then gold) rush laid the foundation for apartheid.” —The New Yorker The British, the Boers, “ Raw power, corruption, racism, and the debacle of the Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) are well covered in this distinguished account. Throughout, Meredith intertwines and the and exposes the roles of diamond titan Cecil Rhodes and Boer leader Paul Kruger, who defi ed the British for nearly a quarter of a century. Underlying this story is the Making of horrible cost to Africa’s native peoples....Meredith thoroughly involves us in this South Africa gripping history.” —Library Journal, starred review Martin Meredith is a journalist, biographer and historian who has written extensively on Africa and its recent history. His previous books include Mugabe and The Fate of Africa. MARTIN He lives near Oxford, England. MEREDITH COVER DESIGN : KARI BROWNLIE $17.95/19.50 CAN Visit www.publicaffairsbooks.com ISBN 978-1-58648-641-9 51795 Sign up for our newsletter Author of The Fate of Africa 9 781586 486419 D I A M O N D S, G O L D, A N D WA R ALSO BY MARTIN MEREDITH The Past Is Another Country: Rhodesia—UDI to Zimbabwe The First Dance of Freedom: Black Africa in the Postwar Era In the Name of Apartheid: South Africa in the Postwar Era Nelson Mandela: A Biography Coming to Terms: South Africa’s Search for Truth Elephant Destiny: Biography of an Endangered Species in Africa Mugabe: Power, Plunder, and the Struggle for Zimbabwe The Fate of Africa: A History of Fifty Years of Independence D I A M O N D S , G O L D, A N D WA R The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa MARTIN MEREDITH PublicAffairs NEW YORK First published in Great Britain in 2007 by Simon & Schuster UK Ltd. A CBS COMPANY. Published in the United States by PublicAffairs™, a member of the Perseus Books Group. Copyright © 2007 by Martin Meredith. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address PublicAffairs, 250 West 57th Street, Suite 1321, New York, NY 10107. PublicAffairs books are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the U.S. by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, call (800) 255-1514, or email [email protected]. Typeset in Bembo by M Rules Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress ISBN-13: 978-1-58648-473-6 ISBN-10: 1-58648-473-7 First Edition 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 I speak of Africa, and golden joys ... Shakespeare Henry IV, Part 2, Act v, Sc. iii CONTENTS Map xii–xiii Author’s Note xv Introduction 1 PART I 1. Diamond Fever 13 2. Blue Ground 22 3. Kimberley 33 4. The Diggers’ Revolt 41 5. Enter the Magnates 50 PART II 6. The Imperial Factor 63 7. Oom Paul 74 8. The Washing of Spears 85 9. Majuba 95 PART III 10. The Diamond Bubble 107 11. The Stripping Clause 113 12. Dreams and Fantasies 125