KRUGER TELEGRAM

(Jan. 3, 1896), a message sent by Emperor William II of Germany to President Paul Kruger of the South African Republic (or the Transvaal), congratulating him on repelling the Jameson Raid, an attack on the Transvaal from the British-controlled Cape Colony. The telegram was interpreted in the Transvaal as a sign of possible German support in the future. William's intention was to demonstrate to the British that they were diplomatically isolated and should become friendly with Germany. Instead, it aroused the first wave of popular hostility against Germany in Britain in the pre-World War I period.