DIAMONDS.GOLD.AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
successive occasions. Born in 1825, Paul Kruger had been a boy in the
Great Trek and had risen to fame as a commando leader and an opponent
of the British annexation. Foreigners underestimated him-misled
by his
rough style and fundamentalist
beliefs. Kruger's book was the Bible. His
earth was so irrevocably flat that when an American told him he had sailed
round the world, Kruger called him a liar.35 But he was an extremely
skillful politician and an effective representative of his people. The burgers
heartily approved of his simple manner and shared his political objectives:
to maintain the independence of the republic and to keep it under their
control.
Alarmed by the political implications of the foreign immigration, the
Volksraad took steps to ensure that Uitlanders should not get control of the
State, by limiting the franchise for presidential and Volksraad elections to
those white men who, besides being naturalized citizens, had lived in the
republic for fourteen years. The Volksraad also created a separate body for
which naturalized male citizens could vote two years after arrival, but that
body had limited powers and the Volksraad remained the sole sovereign
legislature.