The Revenge of the Bear
Chapter 36: Union of South Africa
The turn of the year heralded an important defeat for Russian diplomacy in a region at first glance remote from Russia, her sphere of interests and concern. The "defeat" was nothing else than the signing of the Bloemfontein Treaty between the South African Republic and the British Empire. The Boer republic and its provinces of Transvaal, Oranje and Zululand would join with the British colonies of the Cape and Natal to form the Union of South Africa, which would come under the authority of the British crown on the rights of a dominion. The question of fusioning Zululand and Natal into a single province was raised, but not answered as the Transvaaler and Orange boers desired to maintain eventual control of access to the ocean should the Union fail and dissolve.
Borders of the Union of South Africa in red. Lands formerly part of the South African Republic in white.
The South African Republic was formed by the merger of the Orange Free State with the former South African Republic (also known as Transvaal) during the presidency of Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger. With a consolidated Boer position against the enroaching British presence, the South African Republic even secured broad access to the ocean by annexing Zulu lands to the east of the country. Needless to say that for a long period of time the Boer republic was seen as a major irritant for British politics in Africa.
And for a long period of time this irritant was used with success by the two major rivals of the British Empire that were the Russians and the Germans. Equipped with state of the art German rifles and Russian artillery, the Boer commandos were more than a match for the British army. Needless to say that London pulled off a marvellous arrangement, not only peacefully removing the thorn in its side, but actually integrating the rebellious Boer into the British realms, gaining full access to the gold and diamond mines and the important stocks of armaments which would serve to create a local South African army under overall British command.
Louis Botha, last president and first prime minister of South Africa.
The agreement, despite seemingly cutting down Boer sovereignty, in fact played into the hands of the South African president, Louis Botha, who became the prime minister of the united South Africa. Botha was known for being skeptical towards Russian and German "friendship", realising well that his country was just a pawn in the games of the great Empires. His primary concern was to preserve the Boer statehood, in one form or the other, all while avoiding war with the British. In his opinion, the war was inevitable as the development of the gold mining industry was bound to provoke the British Empire into some sort of action sooner or later. And in the end, a small republic could not do much against the combined might of an Empire upon which the sun never set. The union of the disparate Boer lands under one flag and the rule of a Transvaaler was, thus, a political and personal achievement for Botha. He saw his personal power boosted as vast new domains came under his overall authority at the sacrifice of the already rather comatose foreign relations with the Great Powers.
And as the Union took shape and established its political and military institutions, British assets previously deployed for an eventual "persuasion" of the Boers could be redeployed to other parts of the world. They could tip the balance of forces off the German colonial holdings in Africa. Or be used to reinforce the British presence in Hong Kong, with the direct aim of reminding the Russians that despite their massive presence in the region, they were not alone.
I've instructed the repairman to save specific folders, amongst which is the Vicky. Will see if he can manage to do so. Would be sad to lose not only the Vicky, but also a lot of other unrelated stuff.
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