In the mid 80s. 19th century in the Transvaal, in the Witwatersrand region, the world's largest gold deposit was discovered. Subsequently, uranium ores were also discovered here. This actually decided the fate of the republic. Powerful British monopolies and immigrant prospectors from Europe rushed to the Transvaal. A commercial and industrial boom began. England and its Cape Colony began an economic blockade of the Transvaal, seeking to prevent it from accessing the sea and prevent its territorial expansion.
Since the mid 90s. England is taking a course towards preparing direct aggression against the Boer republics. An attempt to organize a coup in the Transvaal and eliminate President Kruger is frustrated. British ultimatums and threats to the Transvaal and Orange follow one after another. Finally, in 1899, the Boer War broke out.
The Boers foresaw the war and prepared for it. The Germans, rivals of the British in Africa, purchased the latest Mauser rifles, machine guns and guns. All men aged 16 to 60 were put under arms. Commanders were chosen from among the most skillful, experienced and brave fighters.
At first, thanks to improved tactics, better weapons and excellent knowledge of the terrain, the Boers had a military advantage. However, significant forces were gradually transferred from England to South Africa - up to 250 thousand people against 45-60 thousand Boer soldiers. The British went on the offensive, occupied the capitals of Orange and Transvaal - the cities of Bloemfontein and Pretoria. The Boers continued their stubborn partisan struggle, but in the end, England won in 1902 and captured the Boer republics.
Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 was the first brutal rehearsal of the First World War. In South Africa, for the first time, a new automatic weapon, barbed wire, was used on a large scale, concentration camps were created in which the British kept Boer prisoners, including women and children.
The Boer War was unfair on both sides: both England and the Boers sought to establish themselves as the dominant colonial power in the South African region. But the sympathies of millions of people in many countries of the world were on the side of a small fearless people who challenged one of the most powerful powers of that time. Hundreds of volunteers from Germany, Holland, France, America and Russia fought alongside the Boers. Songs were composed about the Boers. In one of them, which became famous in our country, there were such words: “Transvaal, Transvaal, my country, you are all on fire ...”
In 1910, a new British dominion emerged - the Union of South Africa (SA), which included the British self-governing colonies of Cape and Natal and the Boer republics captured by England. The creation of the SA was a kind of compromise between local English financiers and industrialists, on the one hand, and wealthy Boer farmers, on the other. It was based on the desire to resolve the Anglo-Boer contradictions by intensifying the exploitation of the African and colored population, which constitutes the majority in the country. The first Prime Minister of South Africa was the former commander-in-chief of the Boer troops during the war of 1899-1902. Louis Botha.
After the formation of South Africa, the stratification in Boer society intensified, which began during the years of economic growth in the Transvaal and Orange. There was a significant increase in the number of poor and ruined farmers who went to the mines and cities in search of work. There were also political differences among the Boers. Some of them, led by Botha, advocated a close alliance between the "upper" layers of the Boer and English population of the country. They were opposed by supporters of the restoration of Boer power in South Africa, the restoration of independent Boer republics. They organized anti-British conspiracies, created political and paramilitary organizations. In 1914, the Nationalist Party arose, based on the Boers - "poor whites" and small entrepreneurs, and in 1918 - the Afrikaner Bruderbond Society (Union of Afrikaner Brothers), which became secret in 1921. In 1922, the South African government drowned in blood an uprising of white miners, mostly Boers, in the Witwatersrand, who put forward demands for the introduction of a "color barrier" in the mines - a discriminatory system for hiring and remunerating Africans.
In 1924, the Nationalist Party, supported by Bruderbond, won the elections to South Africa. The government of James Herzog, one of the founders of the Nationalist Party and a former Boer general, who came to power, pursued an undisguised racist policy. After the merger of the Nationalist Party and the South African Party, led by Jan Smuts (also a former Boer general and Prime Minister of South Africa in 1919-1924, a supporter of "dialogue" with England), an extremely reactionary Afrikaner group, led by the famous politician Malan, recreates in 1934 the "purified" Nationalist Party. Since the mid 30s. the fascist movement is spreading in South Africa. Fascist military organizations such as the Gray Shirts and others appear in South West Africa. In 1939, the Duke declared that "the views of the South African Boers on the racial question coincide with the views of National Socialist Germany." In the same year, he, a resolute opponent of the war with Hitler, was replaced as prime minister by Smuts, and South Africa entered the Second World War on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition. However, even during the war years, many Afrikaners did not hide their pro-German sympathies.
After World War II, the Nationalist Party promoted the idea of apartheid. A national liberation movement unfolded in the country; not only black and colored South Africans, but also part of the white population, including large groups of Afrikaners, opposed the racist policy of the Nationalist Party. After the proclamation of the Republic of South Africa in 1961, external and internal opposition to apartheid intensified, and the demarcation deepened in the Afrikaner Oeschina. In 1988, the Nationalist Party split. Peter Botha was removed as its leader. In 1989, he resigned as president of the country, his successor was the political leader of the Afrikaners of the Transvaal, Frederick de Klerk, who proclaimed a course towards the complete elimination of the apartheid system.
The official repeal in South Africa of most of the racist laws in the early 90s. was supported by a significant proportion of white South Africans, including many Afrikaners. The present and future of the Afrikaners is determined primarily by their prominent role in the economic and socio-political life of the country. Among the Afrikaners, despite the ongoing political differences, there is a growing understanding that racial isolation is a brake on the economic and socio-political progress of the entire population of South Africa.
In the first half of the XIX century. Germany remained fragmented into many states. Each of them had its own political power, army, laws and customs. The most significant among them were Austria and Prussia, which claimed to be the unifier of all German lands. In 1848, a revolution took place in Germany, during which the bourgeoisie entered the political arena. She set herself the goal of national unification, but failed to achieve it. In the Prussian parliament - the Landtag - the bourgeoisie never had a serious influence on politics. But the landlords (junkers) did not cease to be a significant force. They did not lose their economic power, because they were able to restructure their economy in relation to the requirements of the market. On the other hand, more and more factories and factories appeared in the country. Gradually, the landowners and the bourgeoisie came to realize their common interests, which found expression in the idea of a united strong Germany. Its incarnation is associated with the activities of a man of extraordinary will and energy - Otto von Bismarck. Even before its appearance, a number of states were united in the German Confederation, which, however, did not have any significant bodies of central power. The place of the usual representative institutions was occupied by the Federal Sejm, which was rather a conference of representatives of the German states.
Otto von Bismarck was born in the small noble estate of Schönhausen near Berlin in the family of a middle class cadet and the daughter of a professor. Following family tradition, he was supposed to become a military man, but his mother dreamed of seeing her son as a diplomat, and Otto entered the law faculty of Goettingen University. The future minister and the first chancellor of the German Empire did not bother with sciences, giving most of his time, according to the customs of students of those years, to hunting, fencing and beer. Subsequently, he repeatedly boasted of the scars acquired in 27 duels in Göttingen. After completing his education at the University of Berlin, he tried to enter the diplomatic service. But without the support of influential people, this was impossible, so Bismarck became an official of the judicial department. However, the service failed. After several clashes with his superiors, he left his position and went to the village to manage two of his father's estates. His talent manifested itself here too - he soon became a prosperous landowner.
Indomitable, sharp, direct, Bismarck received the nickname "wild" in his district. In secular circles, he was called the "mad junker." He was an unusually strong-willed man, physically enduring, with a thunderous voice, despising human weaknesses. His political views by this time were fully formed: Bismarck was an ardent monarchist. Subsequently, one of his associates formulated Bismarck's political creed as follows: "Force prevails over right!"
In the days of the revolution of 1848, he came to Berlin to suppress the rebels with an armed detachment of his peasants. Even such a reactionary as King Friedrich Wilhelm IV said of Bismarck: "This junker smells of blood," and at first avoided relations with him. However, a few years later it was Bismarck who was entrusted with the post of head of government and it was he who became the ideologist of the policy designed to unite Germany.
Before that, Bismarck went through a good diplomatic school, starting his career as a Prussian envoy to the Federal Diet in Frankfurt am Main. There he studied all the intricacies of Austrian politics, understood the desire of Austria at any cost to play a major role in the political arena and weaken the influence of Prussia. Bismarck believed that Austria wanted to humiliate and destroy Prussia and vowed revenge on Austria. He fulfilled this vow.
It was then that the young diplomat chose his own path - to be guided in politics primarily by state interests. For this, military force and an alliance with strong states were necessary.
Bismarck visited St. Petersburg and Paris as an ambassador and realized that Russia and France were the best allies to fight Austria. The mind, will, efficiency and monarchical convictions of the Prussian ambassador made such a strong impression on the Russian tsar that he invited him to go to the Russian service. But Bismarck saw his future only at home. In 1862 he became minister-president, or the first minister of Prussia.
Bismarck found himself in this public post at the time of the most acute conflict between the king and the Landtag over military reform, the increase and rearmament of the army. The Landtag opposed military reform. In the fight against him, the king needed such a strong man as Bismarck. The new minister said that he considers the dictates of parliament unacceptable and that he will fight liberalism to the last breath.
Speaking before the parliament, the minister outlined the program of his future domestic and foreign policy: “Germany does not look at the liberalism of Prussia, but at its power. Not by speeches, not by resolutions of the majority, are the great questions of the time—that was the mistake of 1848—but iron and blood.”
Ignoring the liberal-bourgeois opposition in parliament, which denied the government loans to increase and reorganize the army, Bismarck completed the military reform and significantly strengthened the army. In 1864, Prussia and Austria waged war against Denmark, and in 1866 Prussia attacked its former ally, Austria. As a result of the defeat, Austria recognized the right of Prussia to create the North German Confederation, which united 21 German states. But for the complete unification of Germany, it was necessary to subjugate the South German states. France served as an obstacle to this. She should have been provoked into war.
Bismarck had no doubts about victory: the Prussian army was superior to the French. However, Wilhelm I did not want open conflict with France. In such a situation, it became difficult to find a reason for war. But Bismarck wouldn't be Bismarck if he didn't get it right. Once, while giving dinner to his supporters, he received a dispatch from William I, who was in Ems, which spoke of a candidacy for the Spanish throne. On this issue, there were differences between France and Prussia. But the king's dispatch was composed in conciliatory tones. In front of his like-minded people, Bismarck resolutely crossed out a few lines from it, and the message acquired an offensive character for France. In this form, Bismarck ordered the telegram to be sent to newspapers and to all European missions, except for the French one. Paris was offended and a week later declared war on Prussia. This well-known episode of the Ems dispatch was typical of Bismarck, who stopped at nothing in the name of the interests of Prussia and the German Empire, to the creation and strengthening of which he devoted his whole life.
In the war with France, Prussia won a complete victory. France lost Alsace and Lorraine, rich in coal and iron, and paid an indemnity of 5 billion francs. In 1871 the German Empire was proclaimed. Bismarck became its first chancellor.
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