Forgotten Histories - The Jameson Raid of 1895 / 1896

Dr Leander Starr Jameson was the leader of what was nominally a mercenary raid into the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek of President Paul Kruger. Funded by Cecil john Rhodes when he was Premier of the Cape Colony, it was his play to annex the Republiek and take over the richest gold-field in the world for the British Empire. Rhodes had convinced himself that the sentiment in the gold-mining town of Johannesburg was such, that should an armed raid manage to get within the city boundaries, there would be a popular uprising in support of the overthrow of the rather inefficient and corrupt government. He totally misread the determination of Kruger to keep the ZAR independent of any British influence.

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