Fuelling the empire : South Africa's gold and the road to war / John J. Stephens.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stephens, John J. (John Joseph), 1945-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Gold mines and mining--South Africa.

Gold mines and mining.

South Africa.

South African War, 1899-1902--Causes.

South African War, 1899-1902.

South Africa--Economic conditions--To 1918.

Economic conditions.

South Africa--Politics and government--1836-1909.

Politics and government.

Physical Description:

xix, 324 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

Chichester ; Hoboken, N.J. : Wiley, 2003.

Summary:

When payable gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand in 1886, it at first appeared to be an event of good fortune, not just for the many individuals who worked in the gold fields, but also for an area that had few resources and an ailing economy. Almost immediately, resourceful diggers from around the world started arriving in Africa, many of them veterans from Australian and American gold rushes. It was a bonanza for the struggling Boer State, but not many individuals made any real profit from these vast gold fields. It proved to be a playground for big capital with the mining magnates, dubbed 'Randlords' by a critical London press, manipulating the international financial markets. Perversely this apparent good fortune was to be one of the critical factors in the descent to a war that was to devastate the country and lead to massive loss of life, much through disease racing through ill-run concentration camps. In Fuelling the Empire John J. Stephens explains how this tragedy came to happen and how it shaped the future of South Africa for many years to come.

Contents:

Part 1 Irreconcilable expectations 1

2 British expectations at the Cape 17

3 Expectations on the Eastern Frontier 29

4 The parting of the ways 54

5 The Transvaal unsettled 66

Part 2 Open borders across the Vaal 77

6 Foundation and colonization 79

7 Gold to the rescue? 90

8 From flawed to failed 106

9 Britain to the rescue 117

Part 3 Gold

the mixed blessing 131

10 Economics, the gold standard and British policy in South Africa 133

11 Wars, concessions and a short boom 142

12 Opening Pandora's box

mining the gold 152

13 The challenge to mining 164

Part 4 Intrigue and confrontation 183

14 Afrikaner nationalism and railway politics 185

15 A tale of two cities 198

16 The conspiracy and the raid 222

17 Power politics 232

18 A short war

a long battle 266.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0470850671

OCLC:

51568172