Conclusion

The conclusion of the book brings together findings and theorizes them under the rubric ‘Revolution from Above, Rebellion from Below’. The Boer War and Reconstruction periods manifestly witnessed the destruction of an existing state order and the creation of a new one in its place. The chapter focuses on the important but secondary role played by the black peasantry in the war against its landowners. It is queried whether the Boer War and the Reconstruction that followed it created the conditions in which capitalist property could flourish. The whole setting in which mining capitalism had to operate was made secure for the long-term investments that were to yield profits to generation upon generation of shareholders. The purview of this book, however, is not the urban but the rural world, where most of the Transvaal's population was located at the time. Here, the question of whether the revolution created the conditions in which capitalist property could flourish is more difficult to answer.

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