DIAMONDS. GOLD.AND BRITISHIMPERIALISM
British troops in South Africa at the outset, by the end of the war about
450,000
men in uniform had served on the British side-s-j ey.ooo British,
53,000
South African colonists, and 3 1,000
from Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand.
Nevertheless, the republics held the British Empire at bay for two and a
half years. Most of their men had been bred to the horse and the rifle and
had seen commando
service against
Africans.
Expert
horsemen
and
marksmen, they could live offthe country, whereas a large proportion of the
British troops were tied down in communication
and commissariat
ser-
vices. Their loose, democratic
commando
organization
was admirably
suited to the needs of a rural people defending their home terrain, whereas
the British army was weakened by its textbook orthodoxy, its rigid separa-
tion of officers and men, and relatively poor horsemanship
and marks-
manship. The republican Afrikaners,
moreover, believed passionately in
the justice of their cause, whereas British Tommies had far less incentive to
sacrifice.
The fighting fell into three unequal phases. Republican commandos first
took the offensive in three directions-southeastward
into Natal,
and
south and southwestward
into the Cape Colony-and
in December they