Time Line

1867: United States purchases Alaska from Russia United States annexes Midway Islands

1871: Beginning of European "Scramble for Africa"

1875: Trade agreement between United States and Hawaii signed

1885: Publication of Our Country by Josiah Strong; book discusses role of Anglo-Saxons in the world

1890: Captain Alfred T. Mahan's The Influence of Sea Power upon History published

1893: Pro-American sugar planters overthrow Queen Liliuokalani in Hawaii

1895: Revolt against Spanish in Cuba; harsh Spanish reaction angers many in United States

1898: Explosion of USS Maine in Havana harbor; beginning of Spanish-American War Annexation of Hawaii receives final approval from Congress

Anti-Imperialist League formed

1899: Secretary of State John Hay asks European leaders for an Open Door policy in China

First fighting between American army forces and Filipino rebels in Manila

1900: Naval Act of 1900 authorizes construction of offensive warships requested by navy

1901: Assassination of President McKinley; Theodore Roosevelt becomes president

1904: Roosevelt Corollary to Monroe Doctrine announced

United States begins construction of Panama Canal

1905: Roosevelt mediates conflict between Japan, Russia in Portsmouth, New Hampshire

1914: Completion of the Panama Canal

Test your knowledge with these practice questions:

ANGLO-BOER WARS IN SOUTH AFRICA. When diamonds were discovered at Kimberley it was not quite clear who had sovereignty over the area, with Tswana chiefdom, the Orange Free State, the Transvaal Republic and the Griquas [1] all claiming the area. Britain pressurized the rival claimants to undergo a process of arbitration under their direction. At the arbitration it was decided that the Griqua's claim was strongest, but the British immediately offered the Griqua leader substantial compensation if he agreed that the territory should be administered by the British. Not surprisingly, the Orange Free State, which had the strongest claim out of the two republics, was annoyed by this sleight of hand, especially as the British soon incorporated the area into the Cape Colony, but there was little they could do about it.

The Rand (край, территория), on the other hand, was clearly within the Transvaal Republic. The British had annexed the Transvaal in 1877 but after a brief Boer uprising they handed control back. They must have regretted the decision when gold was discovered just five years later. The government of the Republic was primarily concerned with looking after the interests of its richer Boers, the vast majority of whom were farmers. They were a little unsure about how to treat the new mining economy. On the one hand the extra revenue from taxing the operations was clearly to be welcomed, whilst on the other they were nervous about the implications of having a large number of new immigrants, known by them as uitlanders (южно-афр. уитлендер; "пришелец"; неафрикандер, т.е. лицо неголландского происхождения, обыкн. англичанин), or foreigners, in their midst. They therefore introduced legislation restricting the franchise to white adult male naturalized citizens who had lived in the Republic for at least 14 years.

While most uitlanders were too busy trying to make their fortune to worry about politics, they did complain about the inefficiency of the Transvaal government in meeting the conditions necessary for an efficient capitalist system. British Imperialist forces were keen to get their hands on the Republic and in 1895 tried to manipulate uitlander dissatisfaction in a plot to overthrow the Transvaal government. In 1895, with the backing of the Colonial Office in London, Cecil Rhodes, then Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, tried to organize a committee of leading uitlanders to seize control of Johannesburg and declare a new government. Rhodes also arranged for a column of British police, under the control of his old friend Leander Starr Jameson, based in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, to come to their assistance. The plot, later known as the Jameson Raid, was a fiasco. The uitlander committee in Johannesburg bickered amongst themselves and did not command any mass following. Realizing this, Rhodes called off the proposed intervention by Jameson's force, but Jameson ignored his command and entered the Transvaal. When the committee learnt of this, they did belatedly declare that they had taken over Johannesburg but even in the process of doing so they entered into negotiations with the Transvaal Republic and came to an agreement. Jameson's column, therefore, had no crisis in which to intervene and were simply met and arrested by a Transvaal commando. This embarrassing incident marked the end of Rhodes' political career and helped to alienate British and Afrikaners across South Africa.

Despite the failures of the Jameson Raid the British were still keen to gain control of the Transvaal. Just four years after, Britain mounted a far better equipped, more sustained and ultimately successful bid to gain control of the whole of South Africa; the Anglo-Boer (or South African) War of 1899 to 1902. There is some disagreement among historians about the underlying cause of the war. Afrikaner Nationalist historians tend to view it simply as an example of British Imperial expressionism. Some historians of the British Empire, on the other hand, argue that it was more to do with British strategic concerns; they were worried that the Transvaal Republic could inspire Afrikaners in the Cape to rebel against the British who would, therefore, lose control of ports such as Simon's Town which were vital for protecting her sea routes. The British were, not surprisingly, keen to control the world's largest supply of gold and make sure their investment in the mines was profitable.

During the late 1890s the Colonial Office in London and the British High Commissioner in the Cape both lobbied for direct British military intervention to overthrow the Transvaal and the Orange Free State Republics. The situation grew more and more tense and in September 1899 Britain sent a large party of British soldiers to reinforce their troops. Sensing that Britain was about to invade the Transvaal, the Orange Free State decided to strike before the reinforcements arrived and on 11 October 1899 declared war on Britain in an attempt to preserve their independence. Deciding that attack was the best form of defence, they invaded both the Cape and Natal colonies.

At first the Boer Republics had great success and achieved victories in both northern Natal and the northeastern Cape. They drove back British forces and laid siege to Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafikeng. They were, however, unable to advance much further in either colony and the general uprising of Afrikaners in the Cape that they had hoped for never materialized. Initially they held off British attempts to relieve the three towns, but with the arrival of huge numbers of British troops the fortunes changed. During 1900 the British set off on a triumphant and unstoppable advance on Pretoria and Paul Kruger, the president of the Transvaal Republic, escaped into exile via the Portuguese colony of Mozambique.

British victory seemed secure, but a number of die-hard Boers had other ideas. For the next two years they indulged in a continuous and, for the British, exceptionally frustrating, guerrilla war. The British were unable to capture the small bands of highly skilled Boer commandos so set about instituting a scorched earth policy to deny the guerrillas any help from local populations. Large numbers of Boers from areas with a guerrilla presence were placed in concentration camps to prevent them from supplying the commandos in the field with provisions. Poor administration meant that food and medical supplies in the camps often ran out and many Boers, including many women and children, died of disease or starvation. Memories of the British scorched earth policy were often revived by Afrikaner politicians throughout the 20th century, though they conveniently forgot that the Boers tended to use very similar techniques in their battles against African chiefdoms. Also forgotten is the British policy of rounding up any African workers on Boer farms and placing them in similar concentration camps during the war.

PEACE AND UNION. The British scorched earth policy and the sheer hopelessness of their situation eventually lead many Boers to abandon the fight and return to their farms. The remaining guerrilla bands, who became known as the bitterenders, eventually surrendered to the British under the Treaty of Vereening in April 1902. The British were keen to ensure that the two defeated Boer republics were fully incorporated into a unified South Africa and therefore agreed a number of concessions for the defeated army. One of the key issues that the British were willing to concede was that any discussion of political rights for Africans be delayed until some unspecified future date.

The British hoped that after the war they would be able to substantially Anglicize the country by enforcing English as an official language and encouraging mass immigration from Britain. This policy proved to be a failure but they were successful in encouraging the four territories to agree to Union just seven years after the end of the war. One of the key sticking points in discussions over Union was the issue of African voting rights. In the Cape Africans and coloureds had the right to vote as long as they owned above a set value in property. While this excluded most Africans it did give at least some an opportunity to vote and therefore a political voice, however weak. Natal also had a property qualification but the figure was set so high for Africans that only a handful ever managed to vote. The other two Boer republics had never allowed Africans any political rights whatsoever. During the discussions over Union, which only Natal had reservations about, it was decided that the issue of voter representation for Africans would be side-stepped by entrenching a constitutional clause maintaining the pre-Union franchise arrangements in each of the four territories. With this issue solved and agreement on things such as dual official languages (English and Dutch), all sides agreed on the Act of Union, which was passed by the British Houses of Parliament in 1909 and the Union of South Africa came into being in 1910.

THE ANGLO-BOER WARS. There were two Boer wars, one ran from 16 December 1880 - 23 March 1881 and the second from 9 October 1899 - 31 May 1902 both between the British and the settlers of Dutch origin (called Boere, Afrikaners or Voortrekkers) who lived in South Africa. These wars put an end to the two independent republics that they had founded.

The First Boer War (16 December 1880 - 23 March 1881). The first clash was precipitated by Sir Theophilus Shepstone who annexed the Transvaal (the South African Republic) for the British in 1877 after the Anglo-Zulu War. The Boers protested and in 1880 revolted. The Boers dressed in earthtone khaki clothes, whereas the British uniforms were bright red, a stark contrast to the African landscape, which enabled the Boers to easily snipe British troops from a distance. After a British force under George Pomeroy-Collery was heavily defeated at the Battle of Majuba Hill in February 1881 the British government of Gladstone gave the Boers self-government in the Transvaal under a theoretical British oversight.

The Second Boer War (9 October 1899 - 31 May 1902). There was continued pressure on the Boers, as following the discovery of gold in the Transvaal in 1885 at Witwatersrand Reef there was a rush of non-Boer settlers, uitlanders. The new settlers were poorly regarded by the Boers and in return there was pressure to remove their government. In 1896 Cecil Rhodes sponsored the ineffective coup d'etat of the Jameson Raid and the failure to gain improved rights for Britons was used as an excuse to justify a major military buildup in the Cape. There was another reason for the British intention to take control of the Boer Republics: there was at the time an attempt made by the Transvaal Republic to link up with German South West Africa, a possibility which the British, with an eye to the coming clash with the Empire of the Germans, determined to thwart.

The Boers, under Paul Kruger, struck first. The Boers attacked into Cape Colony and Natal between October 1899 and January 1900. The Boers were able to successfully besiege the British garrisons in the towns of Ladysmith, Mafeking (defended by troops headed by Robert Baden-Powell) and Kimberley and inflicted three separate defeats on the British in one week, December 10 to 15, 1899. It was not until reinforcements arrived on February 14, 1900 that British troops commanded by Lord Roberts could launch counter-offences to relieve the garrisons (the relief of Mafeking on May 18, 1900 provoked riotous celebrations in England) and enabled the British to take Bloemfontein on March 13 and the Boer capital, Pretoria, on June 5. Boer units fought for two more years as guerrillas, the British, now under the command of Lord Kitchener, responded by constructing blockhouses, destroying farms and confiscating food to prevent them from falling into Boer hands and placing Boer civilians in concentration camps.

The last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902 and the war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging in the same month. 22,000 British troops had died and over 25,000 Boer civilians. The treaty ended the existence of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as Boer republics and placed them within the British Empire. But the Boers were given £3m in compensation and were promised self-government in time (the Union of South Africa was established in 1910).

The Boers referred to the two wars as the Freedom Wars.

[1] The Griqua (Afrikaans Griekwa, sometimes incorrectly called Korana) are a subgroup of South Africa's heterogeneous and multiracial Coloured people. However, they have a unique origin in the early history of the Cape Colony. Similar to the other Afrikaans-speaking group at the time, the Trekboers, they originally populated the frontiers of the infant Cape Colony, living as semi-nomadic commandos of mounted gunmen. Also like the Boers, they migrated inland from the Cape, and established several states in what is now modern South Africa and Namibia. Under Apartheid they were classified as "Coloured" and have since mostly integrated with other mixed populations in South Africa. Several areas of South Africa became known as Griqualand when the group migrated and settled away from other areas of population.

Griqualand East is the area around Kokstad on the frontier between the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. This area was settled by Adam Kok III and over 2,000 Griquas who followed him over the Drakensberg in 1861. Griqua descendants are now largely centered in Kokstad, where the Griqua Church is a center of the community.

Griqualand West is the area around Kimberley, which became significant when diamonds were discovered there. It has also been known for its rugby union and cricket teams. The total Griqua population is unknown. The people were submerged by a number of factors. The most important factor were the racist policies of the Apartheid era, during which many of the Griqua people took on the mantle of "Coloured" fearing that their Griqua roots might place them at a lower level with the Africans. Genetic evidence indicates that the majority of the present Griqua population is descended from European, Khoikhoi and Tswana ancestors, with a small percentage of Bushman ancestry.