most of the companies-French,
German, and British-had
come to the
conclusion that the republican government was an obstruction. Similarly,
the American engineers who predominated in many of the companies came
to identify "Britain with economic opportunity
and the Boers with' eco-
nomic restriction" and to favor "a British take-over of the Transvaal in the
interests of economic development.T'"
The British government and Cecil Rhodes thwarted the Transvaal's
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