Africa held two gateways to India - Suez, and the staging post at the Cape - and Britain gained control of both. In holding them, she was sucked into trouble.
With Britain's hands tied at either end of the Dark Continent, other European nations began to grab slices of Africa for themselves. It looked as if they might get the lion's share until Cecil Rhodes determined at all costs (and he held the monopoly of South Africa's diamonds) to carve a path for a British Cape-to-Cairo railway.
Opposed to Rhodes was President Kruger of the Transvaal. Kruger, the leader of the god-fearing Boer farmers, found himself sitting on most of Africa's gold. Rhodes's attempts to win the strategic heartland of Africa, combined with the implacable demands of Alfred Milner and Joseph Chamberlain, culminated in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. British prestige, already tarnished in the eyes of the world, was further diminished as the Boers defied British might. In 1901 Victoria died. An age was over.
