Brief biography of Stein

Martinus Stein was born on October 2 in South Africa, in the city of Vinburg, in an orange free state that is often referred to as an Orange Republic in literature. Martinus Stein studied at a state school for boys - Gray College, in the city of Bloomfonttein, the capital of an orange free state, and after graduating from college, due to the lack of higher educational institutions in the Boer republics, he left for Holland to continue education.

In Holland, he studied at the Law Faculty of Leiden University, and then went to study in England - in a specific, purely English educational institution with the original name “Honorable Society of the Inner Temple”, which was preparing barristers - the highest category of lawyers in the English system of law. Having received the qualifications of Barrister, he returned to his homeland, and worked as a lawyer in Bloomfonttein.

In the year, Martinus Stein was appointed state prosecutor of the orange free state, and after a few months he became a judge of the Supreme Court. He was only 36 years old at that time. And then he was pulled into politics. I must say that the decision to engage in politics for Martinus Stein was risky is one thing of jurisprudence, where he had indisputable authority, the only graduate of the venerable society of the internal temple in South Africa!

I must say that the burghers citizens of the Boer republics, who had sufficiently voted, were mainly either without education at all, or graduated from missionary schools, where they were taught only to reading and writing. Well, “very smart” poorly educated people do not like in many cases. And then there is such an upstart in front of them, all of themselves, destroying foreign academies!

In most cases, the Boers voted for the same farmers as they themselves, and the president of the neighboring Bursa Republic of Transval Paulus Krueger never studied anywhere, even in elementary school, and only independently learned to read to understand the Bible and this was the only book he read! However, a miracle occurred - in February, Martinus Tenis Stein nominated his candidacy for the post of president of the Orange Free state, and won the election, despite all his dissimilarity to the “man from the people”, for which the Boers always voted in both republics.

And he won thanks to the personal qualities that the burghers in him correctly guessed, and which he brilliantly showed during his activities as the president - unconditional personal courage, patriotism, readiness for self -sacrifice, and the ability to understand people. Martinus Stein, like Paulus Krueger, opposed the granting of electoral rights to the Witlanders to the English “labor migrants”, who flooded the Boer republics in e - e years in the same way as modern guests from the south -Europe, realizing that this will lead to the loss of independence through a democratic procedure - a referendum on accession to the UK.

In October, Paulus Krueger and Martinus Stein rejected the ultimatum of the English minister Colonies Joseph Chamberlain to grant the Witlanders under threat of military operations. In his response, Chamberlain Martinus Stein wrote: "I prefer to lose the independence of a free state with honor than to lose it in dishonor." He understood that the Boer republics were doomed, since in both versions they lost independence - that in the case of a referendum of the Whitlanders, that in the case of English aggression, to reflect the forces was not enough.

But the Boers were from such a breed of people that they preferred to die fighting than to live a reptile. Slaves from them did not work. Martinus Stein personally participated in the raid of Christian Devet in the Cape Colony, although this was one of the most risky operations of the Boers in the whole war. As General Sevet later wrote in his memoirs, “the respect that I had to the president, and our mutual consent in all matters was so great that I reluctantly did anything without him, moreover, such an adviser as President Stein is extremely valuable.” In the year, the term of the presidential powers of Stein is expired, but the Military Council Burov unanimously extended the term of his powers for the period until the completion of hostilities.

The British considered Martinus Stein, along with Christian Devet and Jacobus Coos, Delarey, the most dangerous leader of the Boers, and arranged a real hunt for him, constantly arranging raids and ambushes, as soon as they managed to get any information about his whereabouts. By this time, all the farms of the Boers were burned, and women and children were imprisoned in concentration camps, but President Stein was not going to give up, although the British tried to enter into negotiations with him.

He responded to the proposal of the English commander -in -chief of Lord Kitchener, written right in the field on August 15 and transferred to the representative of Kitchener: “Our country is ruined. Houses and property are destroyed. Cattle is taken or killed. Wives and children are captured, offended and taken away by troops ... Do you really think that we will now not fulfill our duty and are afraid of your threat?If we were hesitated, then you, and in general every honest person, would begin to despise us.

We ourselves would despise ourselves. ” However, by April of the year, most of the transval leaders began to lean towards negotiations, and Stein and Kinet turned out to be the only ones who insisted on continuing the war, but without transvalians it was impossible to continue the war. In addition, the British, taking hostages of all women and children of the drill, had a very effective pressure tool.

Even the north at a meeting of the authorized people - representatives of both Boer republics - was forced to admit: “To continue the war - there was nothing to think about: our women and children would have died then.” The Boers collectively decided to sign a peace treaty, and Martinus Stein, as the president, was supposed to submit to the meeting of the authorized people, however, on May 29, he refused his position, referring to the disease, and on May 31 the peace treaty in Feriniching signed and.

Under the terms of the contract, the orange free state ceased to exist, becoming the English colony “Orange Province”. After the war, Martinus Stein went to be treated to Europe, and in the year he returned to South Africa, and swore allegiance to the British crown, which gave him the right to participate in the political activities of the colony of the Orange Province.

In the year, he, along with James, created the National Party, setting its goal to achieve the independence of South Africa.