PRETORIA'S HONOURED DEAD - ANGLO-BOER WAR: 1899 – 1902 

In 1886 gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand and the question of suzerainty became one of the new and bitter controversies leading up to the war.  This discovery of gold brought not only wealth but also an influx of  foreigners, many of them British subjects, who soon out-numbered the Transvaal Boers.  These Uitlanders (foreigners) were heavily taxed and the Volksraad determined to maintain Boer supremacy refused to give them any voting powers.  After the failure of the raid on the Transvaal by Jameson, in the hopes of encouraging an uprising amongst the foreigners, the Transvaal felt that its independence was once again being threatened and President Kruger now demanded that Britain abandon all its claims to suzerainty.  Neither Britain nor the South African Republic (Transvaal) would yield and an ultimatum, which expired on the 12th October 1899, was finally sent to the British government.

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