The twentieth century began with Great Britain's imperial armies being humbled at the hands of Afrikaner republican guerrilla forces. From the British side the war was ostensibly in defense of citizenship rights for white British citizens living in the Afrikaner-ruled South African Republic. Yet the real cause of what would prove to be Britain's greatest colonial war was evident worldwide: a battle over the glittering wealth and power that emanated from the Transvaal's massive gold mines. It took Britain years longer than expected to win the war, at a cost of several million pounds, 22,000 troops dead (out of 250,000 fielded), and a severe blow to its global power. Afrikaners and Africans lost far more in lives and livelihood. Peace came with the signing of a treaty in 1902, which laid out the path toward the creation in 1910 of the modern state of South Africa. This merger of British colonial territories and Afrikaner republics was an agreement among white men; Asians, Africans, and women were excluded from negotiations, offices of the state, and the electorate.

The road to an independent settler state had been a long one. The southern tip of Africa had long been occupied and fought over by successive European powers. In the late fifteenth century, the Portuguese had explored and established settlements in the region; in the mid-eighteenth century, the Dutch had brought settlers and slaves to the Cape area; and in the early nineteenth century, the British had wrested control of Cape Town from the Dutch and brought in yet another, larger wave of European settlers and missionaries.