[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected,author's spelling has been retained.]
Story of the War
in
South Africa
1899-1900
By
Captain A. T. Mahan, U.S.N.
With Map and Portrait of the Author
Originally published in 1900 bySampson, Low, Marston and Company
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
CHAPTER II
The Opening Campaign in Natal to the Investment of Ladysmith (October 11—November 2)
CHAPTER III
The Colonies and the Transports
CHAPTER IV
The Western Frontier to Magersfontein and Stormberg. Operations of General French about Colesberg
CHAPTER V
The Natal Campaign from the Investment of Ladysmith through the Battle of Colenso
CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VIII
The Relief of Kimberley and of Ladysmith, and the Surrender of Cronje
THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR (p. 001)
CHAPTER I
THE THEATRE OF THE WAR
The war in South Africa has been no exception to the general rule thatthe origin of current events is to be sought in the history of thepast, and their present course to be understood by an appreciation ofexisting conditions, which decisively control it. This is especiallytrue of the matter here before us; because the southern extreme ofAfrica, like to that of the American continent, has heretofore lainfar outside of the common interest, and therefore of the accurateknowledge, of mankind at large. The Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn,in themselves remote, tempestuous, and comparatively unproductiveregions, for centuries derived importance merely (p. 002) from thefact that by those ways alone the European world found access to theshores of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The application of steam toocean navigation, and the opening of the Suez Canal, have greatlymodified conditions, by diverting travel from the two Capes to theCanal and to the Straits of Magellan. It is only within a very fewyears that South Africa, thus diminished in consequence as a stationupon a leading commercial highway, has received compensation by thediscovery of great mineral wealth.
Thus separated from the rest of the world, by lack of intrinsic valueas a region producing materials necessary to the common good, theisolation of South Africa was further increased by physicalconditions, which not only retarded colonisation and development, butpo