Editing Jameson Raid (section)

=== Discovery of gold ===

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| caption1  = [[Alfred Beit|Beit]], associate of Rhodes and privy to Jameson's plans, financed the revolutionists to the order of £400,000<ref name=Bower2002>{{cite book|last=Bower|first=Graham |author-link=Graham John Bower|editor1-last=Schreuder|editor1-first= D |editor2-last=Butler|editor2-first= J|title=Sir Graham Bower's Secret History of the Jameson Raid and the South African Crisis, 1895-1902|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VFYFZKRBXz0C&pg=PR8|year=2002|publisher=The [[Van Riebeeck Society]]|isbn=978-0-9584112-9-5|location=Cape Town}}</ref><ref name=trev/> and was subsequently censured in the [[House of Commons of the United Kingdom|House of Commons]] and British press.<ref name=fein>{{cite book |editor-last1=Feingold |editor-first1=Mordechai |title=History of universities |date=2012 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0199652068 |page=222}}</ref>
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| caption2  = [[Julius Wernher|Wernher]], Beit's business partner, was not drawn into the investigation, and his role, at least in the raid's initial stages, remains unproven.<ref name=trev>{{cite book|last1=Trevelyan|first1=Raleigh|title=Grand Dukes and Diamonds: The Wernhers of Luton Hoo|publisher=Faber & Faber, 2012|isbn=978-0571290307|date=13 March 2012}}</ref>
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| caption1  = In the raid's aftermath [[Cecil Rhodes|Rhodes]] was severely censured and had to resign as chairman of the [[British South Africa Company|Chartered Company]] and [[Prime Minister of Cape Colony|Cape prime minister]].<ref name="Hammond2012">{{cite book|last=Hammond|first=Ronnie |title=White Stones and Little Crosses|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nVacAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA3|year=2012|publisher=Hammond|isbn=978-1-4716-1334-0|pages=3–}}</ref>
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| caption2  = To re-engineer the subjugation of Transvaal, [[Alfred Milner, 1st Viscount Milner|Milner]] was appointed [[List of High Commissioners of the United Kingdom to South Africa|High Commissioner to South Africa]] and Lt.-Governor of the Cape in 1897.<ref name="Hammond2012" />
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In June 1884, [[Jan Gerrit Bantjes]] (1843–1914) discovered signs of gold at Vogelstruisfontein (the first gold sold directly to Cecil Rhodes at Bantjes's camp for £3,000) followed in September by the Struben brothers at Wilgespruit near Roodepoort which started the [[Witwatersrand Gold Rush]] and modern-day Johannesburg. The first gold mines of the Witwatersrand were the Bantjes Consolidated Mines. By 1886 it was clear that there were massive deposits of gold in the main reef. The huge inflow of ''[[Uitlander]]s'' (foreigners), mainly from Britain, had come to the region in search of employment and fortune. The discovery of gold made the Transvaal overnight the richest and potentially the most powerful nation in southern Africa, but it attracted so many Uitlanders (in 1896 approximately 60,000) that they quickly outnumbered the Boers (approximately 30,000 white male Boers).

Fearful of the Transvaal's losing independence and becoming a British colony, the Boer government adopted policies of protectionism and exclusion, to include restrictions requiring Uitlanders to be resident for at least four years in the Transvaal to obtain the franchise, or right to vote. They heavily taxed the growing gold mining industry which was predominantly British and American. Due to this taxation, the Uitlanders became increasingly resentful and aggrieved about the lack of representation. President Paul Kruger called a closed council, including Jan Gerrit Bantjes, to discuss the growing problem and it was decided to put a heavy tax on the sale of dynamite to non-Boer residents. Jan G. Bantjes, fluent in both spoken and written Dutch and English, was a close confidant of Paul Kruger with their link dating to the [[Great Trek]] days. Jan's father, Jan Gerritze Bantjes, had given Paul Kruger his elementary education during the trek and Jan Gerritse was part of his inner core of associates. This closed council would be the committee which set the Transvaal Republic on a collision course with Great Britain and the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 and which set German feelings toward Britain at boiling point by siding with the Boers. Because of this applied dynamite tax, considerable discontent and tensions began to rise. As Johannesburg was largely an Uitlander city, non-boer leaders there began to discuss the proposals for an insurrection.

[[Cecil Rhodes]], Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, had a desire to incorporate the Transvaal and the Orange Free State in a federation under British control. Having combined his commercial mining interests with [[Alfred Beit]] to form the [[De Beers|De Beers Mining Corporation]], the two men also wanted to control the Johannesburg gold mining industry. They played a major role in fomenting Uitlander grievances.

Rhodes later told the journalist [[W. T. Stead|W.T. Stead]] that he feared that a Uitlander rebellion would cause trouble for Britain if not controlled by him:{{r|stead1901}}

{{Blockquote|It seemed to me quite certain that if I did not take a hand in the game the forces on the spot would soon make short work of President [[Paul Kruger|Kruger]]. Then I should be face to face with an American Republic—American in the sense of being intensely hostile to and jealous of Britain—an American Republic largely manned by Americans and ''[[Sydney Bulletin]]'' Australians who cared nothing for the [Union Jack]. They would have all the Rand at their disposal. The drawing power of the Outlander Republic would have collected round it all the other Colonies. They would have federated with it as a centre, and we should have lost South Africa. To avert this catastrophe, to rope in the Outlanders before it was too late, I did what I did.<ref name="stead1901">{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/stream/americanizationo01stea#page/56/mode/2up | title=The Americanization of the World | publisher=Horace Markley | author=Stead, W. T. | year=1901 | pages=56–57}}</ref>}}

In mid-1895, Rhodes planned a raid by an armed column from [[Rhodesia]], the British colony to the north, to support an uprising of Uitlanders with the goal of taking control. The raid soon ran into difficulties, beginning with hesitation by the Uitlander leaders.