DIAMONDS.GOLD.AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
interference in the internal affairs of the republic; but Chamberlain rejected
that condition.v'
In September, having persuaded the British cabinet to accept the pros-
pect of war, Chamberlain drafted an ultimatum and reinforcements sailed
for South Africa. By that time, the Transvaal and Orange Free State govern-
ments were convinced that Britain was determined to destroy Transvaal
independence. To strike before the reinforcements arrived, Kruger issued
his own ultimatum,
which expired on October
I I,
1899.
Thus Britain
went to war to reestablish British hegemony throughout
Southern Africa,
the republics to preserve their independence.
Commentators
have offered different economic explanations
for the
origins of this war. An analysis was initiated by J. A. Hobson and gener-
alized by Lenin, who made imperialism and consequent warfare the inex-
orable product of "the highest stage of capitalism." Others have identified
chauvinistic British public opinion, or the ideas and actions of Joseph
Chamberlain or Alfred Milner, as the crucial independent variable. Mod-
ern scholarship points to a more complex explanation
for this flagrant
outburst of British imperialism. At a time of growing economic and mili-