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Politics & Governance: Jameson Raid.
Names: Kruger, Paul (Stephanus Johannes Paulus).
Date of Birth: ~ 10 October 1825.
Place of Birth: Farm Bulhoek then in the Cradock district, near the present day town Steynsburg, South Africa.
Date of Death: 14 July 1904.
Place of Death: Clarens, Switzerland.
Gender: Male.
In Summary: President of the South African Republic.
Paul Kruger was probably born on 10 October 1825 on his grandfather's farm Bulhoek then in the Cradock district, near the present day town Steynsburg. At the age of ten his family set out as part of the Great Trek and he was brought up within the strict tenets of Dutch Calvinism.
Kruger fought his first battle at Vegkop in 1836, where Mzilikazi’s impis suffered the first of their defeats. Shortly after this he and his family accompanied Piet Retief on his trek to Natal. Here Paul was exposed to the slaughter among the Boer encampments along the Bloukrans and Bushmans rivers. Next the family moved north with Hendrik Potgieter. Paul’s father and uncle were two of the founders of the town Potchefstroom, the first capital of what would later become the South African Republic.
Kruger served as a veldkornet during his teens and was present at the Sand River Convention in 1852. Here the Transvaal was granted its independence. Three years later he helped draw up the constitution of this new republic. He also served as commandant-general and played a prominent role in the pacifying and uniting of the Boer communities in the early 1860’s.
In 1877, when the British annexed the Transvaal, Kruger became the champion of the Boer nation in their struggle to regain and keep their independence. His first two visits to England, and his negotiations with the government of Benjamin Disraeli were fruitless, as with his campaign of passive resistance back home. These attempts established him as a patriotic leader and a skilled politician.
In 1880 the Transvalers, under the leadership of Kruger, M.W. Pretorius and Piet Joubert, rebelled against the British authorities. The invading forces were defeated by Joubert’s burghers at Laing’s Nek, Ingogo, and Majuba Hill in 1881.
Paul Kruger was known as the ‘father of the Afrikaner nation’ and his firm belief in the destiny of the Afrikaner, his strong faith and his obedience to his God characterized his life. In 1883 he was elected president of the South African Republic. He proceeded to negotiate the SAR'’ complete independence from Britain in 1884 at the London convention.
Kruger had an arch-enemy in Cecil Rhodes and his Cape political associates. The latter regarded the western parts of the Transvaal as the ‘Suez Canal’ of Africa. It was the Imperial way across the Limpopo and into the far northern interior. Kruger had, against the terms of the London Convention, proclaimed the area a Transvaal protectorate, and had to withdraw. Later this land became the British protectorate of Bechuanaland.
In 1886 the discovery of gold in the Witwatersrand resulted in a flood of immigrants or ‘uitlanders’ to the area. This was a threat to the new political independence of the Transvaal and the Afrikaner identity. Kruger’s government needed the revenue from the mines and didn’t have any legitimate reason to remove these foreigners, but to grant them full political rights would negate everything he had fought for.
Cecil John Rhodes, the Uitlanders and their representatives in Johannesburg, the Reform Committee, increased the pressure on Kruger, but the failed Jameson Raid of 1895-1896 spoiled the possibility of a peaceful resolution. The aftermath of the Raid showed Kruger at his political peak. Jameson and his officers were released to stand trial in London and the Uitlander leaders, most of who had been convicted of treason, had their sentenced reduced greatly. This afforded Kruger with the moral high ground and for the next six years international sympathy lay with the Transvaal. This also resulted in him defeating Piet Joubert in the 1896 presidential election.
Later Kruger did make some concessions to the British, but Alfred Milner, the High Commissioner, made increasingly difficult demands. Britain was determined to create a unified South Africa and negotiations were no longer about the rights of Uitlanders.
War broke out on 11 October 1899, and Kruger, now 74, remained in Pretoria as a result of poor health until 1900. He left the capital only a few days before Lord Roberts occupied it in May of the same year. On 21 October Kruger boarded the Dutch warship Gelderland, sent by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, at Lorenzo Marques, and left for Europe.
There he tried to gain practical support for the Boer cause, but was mostly unsuccessful. He did, however receive a lot of moral support. For a period of time he lived in the Netherlands, but moved to Clarens, Switzerland, where he died on 14 July 1904.