My Italian

Text Chapter 441 The outbreak of the Boer War

Negotiations between Italy and Russia on the purchase of ships are continuing, and it is difficult to negotiate a major event such as the purchase of warships every two or three months. Although Russia's preparation to purchase Italian warships has attracted great attention, it is another matter that has caused a huge sensation among the people of various countries and even governments.

As recently as April of this year, the Prime Minister of the British Cape Colony, Sir Alfred Milner, instructed British expats in the Transvaal to write an grievance letter to Queen Victoria, asking her to protect the interests of British subjects.

In the United Kingdom, the colonial minister Chamberlain promoted the military disposal of the Boers. In addition, the British media also created public opinion, claiming that the Boers were peacebreakers, and they ignored the order of the empire. Another high-profile claim that the British Empire only needed a "pleasant trip" to annex the two countries.

The British people who were incited by the media expressed their support for the colonial policy of the British Empire. The British Empire Army even claimed that it only needed 10 million pounds to solve the troubles of the Boers. This is the performance of the Boers heroic and good at fighting before, which made the British military decide to invest a huge sum of 10 million pounds, or five million is enough.

And the ultimate reason for the British Empire to be so hostile to the two Boer countries is interest.

In 1884, prospecting experts discovered the world's largest gold mine in the Witwatersrand (whose gold reserves account for the largest amount in the world) on a remote pasture between Pretoria and the Vaal River in the Transvaal Republic. 40% of the total gold reserves), and Johannesburg was subsequently established on this gold mine.

Profits and taxes from the gold mines have propelled the economy of the Transvaal Republic, while the Orange Republic is doing just as well by producing diamonds. The continuous discovery of mineral resources in the Boer countries of the two countries has also attracted the greedy eyes of Britain.

Of course, the British Empire had only used force before this. In 1895, Dr. Jensen, a senior staff member of the South African Mining Company, led 500 South African Company police officers and several machine guns in an expedition to the Transvaal to overthrow Paul Kruger's regime in the Transvaal.

As a result, except for 134 people who were killed, the rest, including Jensen, were all captured. As for the riots initiated by the "Alien Reform Committee" in Neiying, they were also suppressed by the police. That's right, this was the first Boer War, and the origin of William II's famous telegram.

Of course, after suffering a loss last time, this time the British Empire felt that relying on the police or something to do things was not reliable at all. If you want to win the two Boer republics, you still need regular troops to go out.

As a result, the army of the British Empire began to gather in South Africa. Of course, while preparing military means, the British Empire also wanted to subdue the soldiers without fighting, so that the two Boer countries that had offended the empire's tiger power quickly realized their mistakes and obediently obeyed the orders of the British Empire.

So in June, Governor Milner of the Cape Colony and President Kruger of the Transvaal Republic held a final negotiation in Bloemfontein on protecting the rights of aliens.

The Kruger president, long after the discovery of gold in Witsland, had prophetically warned that instead of cheering, we should weep, because it would soak our land in blood. And sure enough, it was not what he expected, and then foreigners (mainly British) arrived one after another, and the friction with the Boers increased.

Later, in order to protect the interests of the people, he even stipulated in 1890 that immigrants must live there for at least 14 years before they can obtain citizenship, which made the British crowd in Johannesburg opposed. Of course, this also deepened the contradiction with Britain, which eventually led to the outbreak of two Boer Wars.

The negotiation did not go well this time, because the two parties could not agree on the core issues at all, and the Boers were unwilling to recognize the British Empire's claim for suzerainty, even if the period of residence for foreigners to obtain Transvaal citizenship was reduced from 14 years. reduced to 5 years.

And for the Boers' ignorant move, the British Empire stepped up the delivery of troops to South Africa and placed these troops on the border between the two countries. Obviously, since the British Empire is not good at writing, it can only be used in martial arts.

The aggressive attitude of the British Empire has made the two Boer countries aware of the unknown. In response to the British threat, the two Boer states united.

In order to avoid being strategically passive and at the same time disrupting the British deployment, the two Boer countries decided to preemptively and could not wait for the British army to complete the deployment.

Therefore, on October 9, 1899, the Transvaal government issued an ultimatum to the United Kingdom, asking the United Kingdom to stop the increase in troops to South Africa, withdraw all troops that arrived in South Africa after June 1, and submit all disputes to diplomatic arbitration. 48 hours to reply.

The small Transvaal government dared to threaten the British Empire. Colonial Minister Chamberlain directly ordered Milner to reject the conditions put forward by South Africa.

So two days later, on the afternoon of October 11, 1899, the Federal Parliament of the Republic of Transvaal and the Republic of the Orange Free State declared war on Great Britain, and the Second Boer War broke out.

For this Boer War, all countries are very sympathetic to the experience of the Boers~www.wuxiamtl.com~ The movement of solidarity with the Boer Republic continues. Numerous civic groups were formed in the Netherlands and Belgium, soliciting donations, publishing articles, establishing foundations, and donating wartime mobile hospitals and medical equipment to the Transvaal.

Thousands of volunteers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, the United States, Russia, Ireland, Italy and Scandinavian countries have crossed the ocean to the Transvaal, ready to fight side by side with the Boers.

Of course, these are all spontaneous movements of the people. As for the governments of various countries, they are not optimistic about the two small Boer republics. Even the optimistic military strategists believe that the two Boer countries can block the British Empire's attack for at most half a year.

Of course, this is also the view of Marshal Cadorna and Admiral Simeone.

"Your Majesty, this Boer War broke out. Although the Boers may not have taken advantage of the deployment of the British Empire, there are already more than 10,000 British troops deployed around the key points of the two countries. Just winning the key points, the Boers will surely Lost a lot of manpower. As far as I know, the two Boer countries only have a population of 800,000, and this population is impossible to achieve. At most, they can support the Boers to fight two or three major battles, and then it will be difficult."

Marshal Cadorna tried to be as euphemistic as possible, because according to his estimation, the Boers could basically resist for three months. When the British Empire army was assembled, the stage should be the British army.

Don't blame Marshal Cadorner for thinking this way, if he hadn't been familiar with the war that made the British Waterloo, even he would not have believed that the British Empire would have lost so much for the sake of these two Boer countries.

It can be seen that before the Boer War, the majesty of the British Empire should be. At this time, challenging the status of the British Empire was simply an impossible task. Of course, after the Boer War, it became a difficult task.