The British forces retaliated by concentrating Boer women, children and farmers in camps, as well as burning Boer homesteads. However, this war will never be forgotten because it portrayed such determination of the Boers to keep their freedom. .
Chamberlain told the House of Commons in 1899, that war had always been inevitable because the Transvaal government under President Kruger would not listen to British demands, and they would not agree to the British peace settlement. He also felt that the Republic of Transvaal was entirely free of British influence and control and so they needed to put their supremacy back on the African people. In 1886, Gold was found in Witwatersrand, and transformed Transvaal into a prosperous state and centre of economic focus. According to Lain R Smith:.
"By 1899, a total of 75million had been invested into the Transvaal gold mines .about.
three quarters of this capital foreign investment came from Britain.".
This even replaced the diamond industry which was the main source of industry and money in South .
Africa in the Cape colony. Cecil Rhodes used politics to advance the cause of British imperialism in South Africa, because he felt the discovery of Gold would lead to great fortune for the British. He wanted to do this by unification, where South Africa would be under British control, but he knew this would not happen without some opposition. Many people flooded into Transvaal, to make use of this economic boom, including British immigrants known as the Utilander. President Kruger, the head of the Transvaal republic was appalled at the habits of these foreigners, and wasn't happy that foreign investors were making so much use of this new-found wealth in South Africa. The extraordinary change in Transvaal suddenly becoming an important prosperous state, at the same time weakened the British imperial hold over the Republic. .
This led to the Jameson Raid, where in 1895, Dr Jameson led about 600 men, which according to historians such as Lain R Smith were financed by Cecil Rhodes, and attempted to have an Utilander rebellion in Johannesburg.
