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| 1898 |
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| Kruger was reelected president of the South African Republic and brought a hardening of Afrikaner attitudes toward immigrants. Uitlander agitation against the Kruger regime increased. Milner was favorably disposed toward Uitlander grievances. In 1899, 20,000 Uitlanders sent a petition to Queen Victoria, recounting their grievances. | 1 |
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| 1899–1902 |
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| South African War (also known as Anglo-Boer War). At the outset, Boers had the military advantage of numbers and knowledge of terrain. Britain had only 25,000 men available. By Feb. 1900, the tide of battle favored British forces. By November, the Boers turned to guerrilla tactics, frustrating British army strategy. In Jan. 1901, Gen. Herbert Kitchener used a scorched earth policy to counter Boer guerrillas. Some 120,000 women and children were confined in concentration camps, where poor sanitation and malnutrition contributed to high mortality (around 20,000 died). British journalist J. A. Hobson, covering the war, developed a new theory of imperialism. At the end of the war, the British had 300,000 troops in South Africa against 60,000–70,000 Boers. By the Treaty of Vereeniging (May 31, 1901) the Boers accepted British sovereignty but were promised representative government. The British promised £3 million to enable the Boers to rebuild their farms. | 2 |
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| 1900 |
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| Willie Mokalapa founded the Basutoland Ethiopian Church. | 3 |
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| 1902–10 |
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| Lord Milner, as high commissioner, consolidated South Africa and brought about accommodation among Afrikaner (Boer) leaders and mining and imperial interests. | 4 |
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| 1903–5 |
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| South African Native Affairs Commission endorsed principles of territorial and political segregation for the prospective unified South African state. | 5 |
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| 1903–7 |
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| Sixty thousand Chinese laborers were imported to counter the labor shortage on the Rand mines, undermining the bargaining power of African workers. The Chinese resisted labor conditions and discipline of mine work. | 6 |
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| 1904–8 |
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| The Herero revolt in Southwest Africa required four years and 20,000 German soldiers to suppress. | 7 |
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| 1905, Jan |
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| Gen. Louis Botha formed the Het Volk organization to agitate for representative government for Afrikaners in the Transvaal. In 1906, the Transvaal was granted responsible government. | 8 |
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| 1906, Feb |
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| The Bambatha rebellion in Natal and Zululand was sparked by the imposition of a poll tax designed to force men out to work. The rebellion was put down, its leader Chief Bambatha was killed, and Dinuzulu kaCethshwayo, heir to the Zulu throne, was convicted and exiled. | 9 |
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| 1907 |
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| The Transvaal government passed the Asiatic Registration Bill and provided for restrictions on Asian immigration. Mohandas Gandhi began his long campaign of passive resistance. | 10 |
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| 1908, Oct.–1909, Feb |
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| The Constitutional Convention was held first in Durban and then at Capetown. The convention agreed on a scheme for a union of South Africa. There was to be a two-chamber Parliament: in the Senate, composed of eight members from each state, some would be elected proportionally and some appointed; in the House of Assembly, most were to be elected proportionally. | 11 |
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| 1910 |
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| Incident of police violence against Israelite Church at Bulhoek. | 12 |
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| May 13 |
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| The Union of South Africa came into being with white male franchise and property-qualified nonracial franchise in Cape Province. The general election brought Gen. Botha to power as head of a coalition of Afrikaner parties, but English speakers were included in the cabinet. Botha's and Gen. Jan Smuts's parties merged to form the South African National Party. The opposition was divided among the Unionists, representing business interests, and the small Labour Party. | 13 |
| Native Labour Regulation Act unified laws making breach of contract a criminal offense and outlawed African strikes; it also regulated conditions of employment but had the effect of depressing wages for Africans. | 14 |
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