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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The trial of Dr Jameson: regime change and cover-up in 1896 |
Author: | Hoffman, #Lord# |
Year: | 2005 |
Periodical: | Heritage of Zimbabwe |
Issue: | 24 |
Pages: | 96-107 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | South Africa Transvaal Great Britain |
Subjects: | colonial conquest Jameson Raid trials 1895 |
About person: | Leander Starr Jameson (1853-1917) |
Abstract: | In 1895, the British government authorized some wealthy entrepreneurs in South Africa to overthrow the government of the independent republic of the Transvaal by force and bring it under British rule. The justification given for this privatized aggression was that the Transvaal government was oppressive and undemocratic. In fact, the transparent purpose was to gain control of the gold fields which had been discovered nine years earlier. In the event, the plot failed, the invaders were defeated and the Transvaal government handed them over to the imperial authorities for trial under English law. The British government repudiated the invaders and said that they had acted on their own account. Their leaders were sent to London and given a State trial in the Royal Courts of Justice in July 1896, but neither the government, nor the accused allowed the truth to emerge. The present author inquires into how this judicial charade came to be played out before crowded audiences. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |