Editing Paul Kruger (section)

==Diamonds and deputations==

===Under Burgers===
[[File:The Cape Colony - 1878.jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|South Africa in 1878|alt=]]
Burgers busied himself attempting to modernise the South African Republic along European lines, hoping to set in motion a process that would lead to a united, independent South Africa. Finding Boer officialdom inadequate, he imported ministers and civil servants en masse from the Netherlands. His ascent to the presidency came shortly after the realisation that the Boer republics might stand on land of immense mineral wealth. Diamonds had been discovered in [[Griqua people|Griqua]] territory just north of the Orange River on the western edge of the Free State, arousing the interest of Britain and other countries; mostly British settlers, referred to by the Boers as [[uitlander]]s ("out-landers"), were flooding into the region.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 72–75}} Britain began to pursue [[federation]] (at that time often referred to as "[[confederation]]") of the Boer republics with the Cape and Natal and in 1873, over Boer objections, annexed the area surrounding the huge [[Big Hole|diamond mine]] at [[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]], dubbing it [[Griqualand West]].<ref>{{harvnb|Blake|1967|pp=666–672}}; {{harvnb|Meintjes|1974|pp=72–75}}.</ref>{{#tag:ref|This followed the annexation of [[Basutoland]] to the Cape Colony in 1868.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|p=81}}|group = "n"|name = "basutoland"}}

Some Doppers preferred to embark on another trek, north-west across the [[Kalahari Desert]] towards Angola, rather than live under Burgers. This became the [[Dorsland Trek]] of 1874. The emigrants asked Kruger to lead the way, but he refused to take part. In September 1874, following a long delay calling the volksraad due to sickness, Burgers proposed a railway to Delagoa Bay and said he would go to Europe to raise the necessary funds. By the time he left in February 1875 opposition pressure had brought about an amendment to bring religious instruction back into school hours, and Kruger had been restored to the executive council.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp=72–75}}

In 1876 hostilities broke out with the [[Pedi people|Bapedi]] people under [[Sekhukhune]]. Burgers had told the Acting President [[Piet Joubert]] not to fight a war in his absence, so the Transvaal government did little to combat the Bapedi raids. On his return Burgers resolved to send a commando against Sekhukhune; he called on Kruger to lead the column, but much to his surprise the erstwhile commandant-general refused. Burgers unsuccessfully asked Joubert to head the commando, then approached Kruger twice more, but to no avail. Kruger was convinced that God would cause any military expedition organised by Burgers to fail—particularly if the President rode with the commando, which he was determined to do.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 75–78}} "I cannot lead the commando if you come", Kruger said, "for, with your merry evenings in laager and your Sunday dances, the enemy will even shoot me behind the wall; for God's blessing will not rest on your expedition."{{sfn|Kruger|1902|p = 110}} Burgers, who had no military experience, led the commando himself after several other prospective generals rebuffed him. After being routed by Sekhukhune, he hired a group of "volunteers" under the German Conrad von Schlickmann to defend the country, paying for this by levying a special tax. The war ended, but Burgers became extremely unpopular among his electorate.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 75–78}}

With Burgers due to stand for re-election the following year, Kruger became a popular alternative candidate, but he resolved to stand by the President after Burgers privately assured him that he would do his utmost to defend the South African Republic's independence. The towns of the Transvaal were becoming increasingly British in character as immigration and trade gathered pace, and the idea of annexation was gaining support both locally and in the British government. In late 1876 [[Henry Herbert, 4th Earl of Carnarvon|Lord Carnarvon]], [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]] under [[Benjamin Disraeli]], gave [[Theophilus Shepstone|Sir Theophilus Shepstone]] of Natal a special commission to confer with the South African Republic's government and, if he saw fit, annex the country.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 78–81}}

===British annexation; first and second deputations===
Shepstone arrived in Pretoria in January 1877. He outlined criticisms expressed by Carnarvon regarding the Transvaal government and expressed support for federation. After a joint commission of inquiry on the British grievances—Kruger and the State Attorney [[E. J. P. Jorissen|E&nbsp;J&nbsp;P Jorissen]] refuted most of Carnarvon's allegations, one of which was that Pretoria tolerated slavery—Shepstone stayed in the capital, openly telling Burgers he had come to the Transvaal to annex it. Hoping to stop the annexation by reforming the government, Burgers introduced scores of bills and revisions to a bewildered volksraad, which opposed them all but then passed them, heightening the general mood of discord and confusion. One of these reforms appointed Kruger to the new post of vice-president.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 81–83}}

The impression of Kruger garnered by the British envoys in Pretoria during early 1877 was one of an unspeakably vulgar, bigoted backveld peasant.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp = 76–79}} Regarding his austere, weather-beaten face, greying hair and simple Dopper dress of a short-cut black jacket, baggy trousers and a black top hat, they considered him extremely ugly. Furthermore, they found his personal habits, such as copious spitting, revolting. Shepstone's legal adviser William Morcom was one of the first British officials to write about Kruger: calling him "gigantically horrible", he recounted a public luncheon at which Kruger dined with a dirty [[pipe smoking|pipe]] protruding from his pocket and such greasy hair that he spent part of the meal combing it.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp = 78–79}} According to [[Martin Meredith]], Kruger's unsightliness was mentioned in British reports "so often that it became shorthand for his whole personality, and indeed, his objectives".{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp = 78–79}} They did not consider him a major threat to British ambitions.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|pp = 78–79}}

[[File:Jorissen, E J P.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[E. J. P. Jorissen]], Kruger's colleague in the first deputation to London, pictured in 1897|alt=A grey-haired man with a dark jacket and a tie]]
Shepstone had the Transvaal's annexation as a British territory formally announced in Pretoria on 11 April 1877. Burgers resigned and returned to the Cape to live in retirement—his last act as president was to announce the government's decision to send a deputation, headed by Kruger and Jorissen, to London to make an official protest. He exhorted the burghers not to attempt any kind of resistance to the British until these diplomats returned.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 83–85, 89}} Jorissen, one of the Dutch officials recently imported by Burgers, was included at Kruger's request because of his wide knowledge of European languages (Kruger was not confident in his English); a second Dutchman, [[Willem Eduard Bok]], accompanied them as secretary.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 6, 85}} They left in May 1877, travelling first to Bloemfontein to confer with the Free State government, then on to Kimberley and [[Worcester, Western Cape|Worcester]], where the 51-year-old Kruger boarded a train for the first time in his life. In Cape Town, where his German ancestor had landed 164 years before, he had his first sight of the sea.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 85–86}}

During the voyage to England Kruger encountered a 19-year-old law student from the Orange Free State named [[Martinus Theunis Steyn]].{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 85–87}} Jorissen and Bok marvelled at Kruger, in their eyes more suited to the 17th century than his own time. One night, when Kruger heard the two Dutchmen discussing celestial bodies and the structure of the universe, he interjected that if their conversation was accurate and the Earth was not flat, he might as well throw his Bible overboard.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 85–87}} At the [[Colonial Office]] in [[Whitehall]], Carnarvon and Kruger's own colleagues were astonished when, speaking through interpreters, he rose to what Meintjes calls "remarkable heights of oratory", averring that the annexation breached the Sand River Convention and went against the popular will in the Transvaal.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 87–88}} His arguments were undermined by reports to the contrary from Shepstone and other British officials, and by a widely publicised letter from a Potchefstroom vicar claiming that Kruger only represented the will of "a handful of irreconcilables".{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 87–88}} Carnarvon dismissed Kruger's idea of a general plebiscite and concluded that British rule would remain.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 87–88}}

Kruger did not meet [[Queen Victoria]], though such an audience is described in numerous anecdotes, depicted in films and sometimes reported as fact.{{#tag:ref|The statement in Manfred Nathan's ''Paul Kruger: His Life and Times'' (1941) that the deputation received a royal audience at [[Windsor Castle]] is specifically refuted in the first volume of D&nbsp;W Krüger's ''Paul Kruger'' (1961). Meintjes agrees with D&nbsp;W Krüger that no audience occurred.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp=87–88}}|group = "n"|name = "victoria"}} Between August and October he visited the Netherlands and Germany, where he aroused little general public interest, but made a potent impact in the Reformed congregations he visited. After a brief sojourn back in England he returned to South Africa and arrived at Boekenhoutfontein shortly before Christmas 1877.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 88–89}} He found a national awakening occurring. "Paradoxically", [[John Laband]] writes, "British occupation seemed to be fomenting a sense of national consciousness in the Transvaal which years of fractious independence had failed to elicit."{{sfn|Laband|2014|p = 23}} When Kruger visited Pretoria in January 1878 he was greeted by a procession that took him to a mass gathering in [[Church Square, Pretoria|Church Square]]. Attempting to stir up the crowd, Kruger said that since Carnarvon had told him the annexation would not be revoked he could not see what more they could do. The gambit worked; burghers began shouting that they would sooner die fighting for their country than submit to the British.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 89–90}}

[[File:Pjjoubert.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Piet Joubert]], Kruger's associate in the second deputation|alt=A man with a huge beard and a dark jacket]]
According to Meintjes, Kruger was still not particularly anti-British; he thought the British had made a mistake and would rectify the situation if this could be proven to them.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 89–90}} After conducting a poll through the former republican infrastructure—587 signed in favour of the annexation, 6,591 against—he organised a second deputation to London, made up of himself and Joubert with Bok again serving as secretary.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 90–91}} The envoys met the British [[High Commissioner for Southern Africa|High Commissioner]] in Cape Town, [[Henry Bartle Frere|Sir Bartle Frere]],{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 90–91}} and arrived in London on 29 June 1878 to find a censorious letter from Shepstone waiting for them, along with a communication that since Kruger was agitating against the government he had been dismissed from the executive council.{{#tag:ref|Kruger had remained in the executive under the British and accepted a salary, even successfully requesting a raise, though he did not take the new oath of allegiance. This was in stark contrast to Joubert (outside the government at the time of the annexation), who refused to have anything to do with the British authorities. Some burghers denounced Kruger's actions as hypocritical.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp=91–92}}|group = "n"|name = "salaryunderbritish"}}

Carnarvon had been succeeded as colonial secretary by [[Michael Hicks Beach, 1st Earl St Aldwyn|Sir Michael Hicks Beach]], who received the deputation coldly. After Bok gave a lengthy opening declaration, Hicks Beach muttered: "Have you ever heard of an instance where the British Lion has ever given up anything on which he had set his paw?" Kruger retorted: "Yes. The Orange Free State."{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 92–93}} The deputation remained in London for some weeks thereafter, communicating by correspondence with Hicks Beach, who eventually reaffirmed Carnarvon's decision that the annexation would not be revoked. The deputation attempted to rally support for their cause, as the first mission had done, but with the [[Eastern Question]] dominating the political scene few were interested.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 92–93}} One English sympathiser gave Kruger a gold ring, bearing the inscription: "Take courage, your cause is just and must triumph in the end."{{sfn|Meredith|2007|p = 81}} Kruger was touched and wore it for the rest of his life.{{sfn|Meredith|2007|p = 81}}

Like its predecessor, the second deputation went on from England to continental Europe, visiting the Netherlands, France and Germany.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 93}} In [[Paris]], where the [[Exposition Universelle (1878)|1878 ''Exposition Universelle'']] was in progress, Kruger saw a [[hot air balloon]] for the first time and readily took part in an ascent to view the city from above. "High up in mid-air", he recalled, "I jestingly asked the aeronaut, as we had gone so far, to take me all the way home."{{sfn|Kruger|1902|p = 132}} The pilot asked who Kruger was and, on their descent, gave him a medal "to remind me of my journey through the air".{{sfn|Kruger|1902|p = 132}} The deputation composed a long reply to Hicks Beach, which was published as an [[open letter]] in the British press soon before they sailed for home on 24 October 1878. Unless the annexation were revoked, the letter stated, the Transvaal Boers would not co-operate regarding federation.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 94}}

===Drive for independence===

Kruger and Joubert returned home to find the British and the Zulus were close to war. Shepstone had supported the Zulus in a border dispute with the South African Republic, but then, after annexing the Transvaal, changed his mind and endorsed the Boer claim.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 94–95}} Meeting Sir Bartle Frere and [[Frederic Thesiger, 2nd Baron Chelmsford|Lord Chelmsford]] at [[Pietermaritzburg]] on 28 November 1878, Kruger happily gave tactical guidance for the British campaign—he advised the use of Boer tactics, making laagers at every stop and constantly scouting ahead—but refused Frere's request that he accompany one of the British columns, saying he would only help if assurances were made regarding the Transvaal.{{#tag:ref|Kruger also refused a subsequent request from Shepstone to raise a Boer commando to help the British in Zululand.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp=94–96}}|group = "n"|name = "commandoforbritish"}} Chelmsford thought the campaign would be a "promenade" and did not take Kruger's advice.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 94–96}} Soon after he entered Zululand in January 1879, starting the [[Anglo-Zulu War]], his unlaagered central column was surprised by [[Cetshwayo kaMpande|Cetshwayo]]'s Zulus at [[Battle of Isandlwana|Isandlwana]] and almost totally destroyed.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 94–96}}

[[File:Garnet Joseph Wolseley, 1874.png|thumb|upright|[[Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley|Sir Garnet Wolseley]], who headed the British Transvaal administration from 1879 to 1880|alt=A moustachioed man with closely cropped hair and a chest covered in military medals]]
The war in Zululand effectively ended on 4 July 1879 with Chelmsford's decisive [[Battle of Ulundi|victory]] at the Zulu capital [[Ulundi]]. Around the same time the British appointed a new Governor and High Commissioner for the Transvaal and Natal, [[Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley|Sir Garnet Wolseley]], who introduced a new Transvaal constitution giving the Boers a limited degree of self-government.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 96–100}} Wolseley blunted the Zulu military threat by splitting the kingdom into 13 chiefdoms, and crushed Sekhukhune and the Bapedi during late 1879. He had little success in winning the Boers over to the idea of federation; his defeat of the Zulus and the Bapedi had the opposite effect, as with these two long-standing threats to security removed the Transvaalers could focus all their efforts against the British.{{sfn|Laband|2014|p = 22}} Most Boers refused to co-operate with Wolseley's new order;{{sfn|Laband|2014|p = 23}} Kruger declined a seat in the new executive council.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 100}}

At Wonderfontein on 15 December 1879, 6,000 burghers, many of them bearing the republic's ''[[Flag of the South African Republic|vierkleur]]'' ("four-colour") flag, voted to pursue a restored, independent republic.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 101}} Pretorius and Bok were imprisoned on charges of [[high treason]] when they took this news to Wolseley and [[Owen Lanyon|Sir Owen Lanyon]] (who had replaced Shepstone),{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 101}} prompting many burghers to consider rising up there and then—Kruger persuaded them not to, saying this was premature.{{sfn|Laband|2014|p = 23}} Pretorius and Bok were swiftly released after Jorissen telegraphed the British [[Liberal Party (UK)|Liberal]] politician [[William Ewart Gladstone]], who had met Kruger's first deputation in London and had since condemned the annexation as unjust during his [[Midlothian campaign]].{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 88, 101–102}}

In early 1880 Hicks Beach forwarded a scheme for South African federation to the [[Parliament of the Cape of Good Hope|Cape Parliament]].{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 102–103}} Kruger travelled to the Cape to agitate against the proposals alongside Joubert and Jorissen; by the time they arrived the Liberals had won an [[1880 United Kingdom general election|election victory]] in Britain and Gladstone was prime minister.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 102–103}} In Cape Town, [[Paarl]] and elsewhere Kruger lobbied vigorously against the annexation and won much sympathy.{{#tag:ref|He spoke of the kind of self-government the British were offering in derisory terms: "They say to you, 'First put your head quietly in the noose, so that I can hang you up: then you may kick your legs about as much as you please!' That is what they call self-government."<ref>{{harvnb|Meredith|2007|p=80}}; {{harvnb|Meintjes|1974|p=103}}.</ref>|group = "n"|name = "noose"}} Davenport suggests that this contributed to the federation plan's withdrawal, which in turn weakened the British resolve to keep the Transvaal.{{sfn|Davenport|2004}} Kruger and Joubert wrote to Gladstone asking him to restore the South African Republic's independence, but to their astonishment the prime minister replied in June 1880 that he feared withdrawing from the Transvaal might lead to chaos across South Africa. Kruger concluded that they had done all they could to try to regain independence peacefully, and over the following months the Transvaal burghers prepared for rebellion.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 102–105}} Wolseley was replaced as governor and high commissioner by [[George Pomeroy Colley|Sir George Pomeroy Colley]].{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 102–105}}

[[File:PACronje CHM VA2863.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Piet Cronjé]], pictured later in life|alt=A balding man with a large beard, wearing a dark suit]]
In the last months of 1880, Lanyon began to pursue tax payments from burghers who were in arrears.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 105}} [[Piet Cronjé]], a farmer in the Potchefstroom district, gave his local [[landdrost]] a written statement that the burghers would pay taxes to their "legal government"—that of the South African Republic—but not to the British "usurper" administration. Kruger and Cronjé knew each other; the writer Johan Frederik van Oordt, who was acquainted with them both, suggested that Kruger may have had a hand in this and what followed.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 105}} In November, when the British authorities in Potchefstroom were about to auction off a burgher's wagon that had been seized amid a tax dispute, Cronjé and a group of armed Boers intervened, overcame the presiding officers and reclaimed the wagon.{{sfn|Laband|2014|p = 50}} On hearing of this from Cronjé, Kruger told Joubert: "I can no longer restrain the people, and the English government is entirely responsible for the present state of things."{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 106}}

Starting on 8 December 1880 at [[Krugersdorp|Paardekraal]], a farm to the south-west of Pretoria, 10,000 Boers congregated—the largest recorded meeting of white people in South Africa up to that time. "I stand here before you", Kruger declared, "called by the people. In the voice of the people I have heard the voice of God, the King of Nations, and I obey!"{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|p = 106}} He announced the fulfilment of the decision taken at Wonderfontein the previous year to restore the South African Republic government and volksraad, which as the vice-president of the last independent administration he considered his responsibility.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 106–107}} To help him in this he turned to Jorissen and Bok, who respectively became State Attorney and State Secretary, and Pretorius and Joubert, who the reconstituted volksraad elected to an executive [[triumvirate]] along with Kruger.{{sfn|Meintjes|1974|pp = 106–107}} The assembly approved a proclamation announcing the restoration of the South African Republic.{{sfn|Laband|2014|p = 51}}