took the offensive in three directions-southeastward
into Natal,
and
south and southwestward
into the Cape Colony-and
in December they
repulsed British attacks on all three fronts. But then they lost the initiative
and got bogged down in sieges of British forces in Ladysmith (Natal) and
Kimberley and Mafeking (northwestern
Cape).
The second phase, the year 1900,
was marked by British victories. The
British relieved the besieged towns, turned back the republican advances,
captured four thousand men, occupied Bloemfontein, Johannesburg,
and
Pretoria, drove the aged President Kruger into exile via Lourenco Marques
(Maputo), and gained control of the entire railway network. In December,
the British proclaimed the annexation of the two republics under the names
Transvaal
and Orange
River Colony, and Commander-in-Chief
Lord
Roberts returned to England, confident that the war was virtually over.
But Roberts miscalculated. The republics resorted to guerrilla warfare.
Living off the land, and organized in small, mobile commandos,
the Af-
rikaners seized British supplies, cut railroad tracks, overwhelmed small
British units, and eroded the fringe of larger columns. Some commandos
penetrated deep inside the Cape Colony, where they tried, not very success-