Why did Burgers' Transvaal try to build rail east?

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... when the Transvaal was on good terms with Britain ...

That's very relatively speaking. The Boers in general did not like the British very much, to put it mildly. The Transvaal Republic was founded about 20 years after the Great Trek. The British recognized it, for lack of better options. At its founding, Transvaal wasn't worth marching a battalion of British soldiers, let alone die for it. It was too poor for that. That changed when gold was discovered, but that was in the future.

Building a train line to the west to connect with Portuguese Angola was impossible. Down south was possible, but controlled by the British. Boers were clever enough to understand that this was strategically not a good idea. The only option left over was to build a line east, to connect with Portuguese Mozambique.

Jos 20431

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Why did Burgers' Transvaal try to build rail east?

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