There were two Boer wars, one in 1880-81 and the second from October 11, 1899-1902 both between the British and the settlers of Dutch origin (called Boere, Afrikaners or Voortrekkers) in South Africa that put an end to the two independent republics that they had founded.

Contents

1 First Boer War 2 Second Boer War, also known as the South African War 3 References 4 External links

First Boer War

The first clash was precipitated by Sir Theophilus Shepstone who annexed the Transvaal (the South African Republic) for the British in 1877 after the Anglo-Zulu War. The Boers protested and in 1880 revolted. The Boers dressed in earthtone khaki clothes, whereas the British uniforms were bright red, a stark contrast to the African landscape, which enabled the Boers to easily snipe British troops from a distance. After a British force under George Pomeroy-Collery was heavily defeated at the Battle of Majuba Hill in February 1881 the British government of Gladstone gave the Boers self-government in the Transvaal under a theoretical British oversight .

Second Boer War, also known as the South African War

In 1887, prospectors discovered largest gold field in the world in the Witwatersrand, a ridge running 60 miles from east to west 30 miles south of Pretoria. For all the potential benefit of such a find, Transvaal President Paul Kruger showed amazing foresight when said, “Instead of rejoicing you would do better to weep, for this gold will cause our country to be soaked in blood.”

With the discovery of gold in Transvaal, thousands of British settlers streamed over the border from the Cape Colony. The city of Johannesburg sprung up nearly overnight as the uitlanders, settled near the mines. However, the influx of British into Transvaal caused the Afrikaners to become nervous and resent their presence in their country. Therefore, they denied the British voting rights and taxed them heavily and in return there was pressure to remove their government. In 1895 Cecil Rhodes sponsored a failed coup d'etat backed by an armed incursion, the Jameson Raid.

The restrictions placed on British citizens increased the likelihood of war. The failure to gain improved rights for Britons was used as an excuse to justify a major military buildup in the Cape since several key British colonial leaders favoured a war with the Boer republics and attempted to inflame the situation. Cape Colony governor Alfred Milner was one of such men. He believed that the British were natural rulers and that British rule was best while simultaneously believing that it was somehow morally wrong for Englishmen to be ruled by others. It can easily be seen how Milner had no desire for a peaceful solution to the problems in South Africa. The British also intended siezing the Boer Republics to thwart an attempt made by the Transvaal Republic to link up with German South West Africa.

Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain also had designs on war, though not nearly as adamantly as Milner. Chamberlain sent an ultimatum demanding full equality for British citizens resident in Transvaal. President Kruger simultaneously issued his own ultimatum before to receiving Chambelain's, threatening war unless all British troops were withdrawn from the border of Transvaal within 48 hours.

War was declared on October 12, 1899 and the Boers struck first by invading Cape Colony and Natal Colony between October 1899 and January 1900. This was followed by some early Afrikaner military successes against the hopelessly inept General Redvers Buller. The Boers were able to besiege the towns of Ladysmith, Mafeking (defended by troops headed by Robert Baden-Powell).

Siege life took its toll on both the defending soldiers and the civilians in the cities of Mafeking, Ladysmith, and Kimberly as food began to grow scarce after a few weeks. In Mafeking, Sol Plaatje wrote, “I saw horseflesh for the first time being treated as a human foodstuff.” The cities under siege also dealt with constant artillery bombardment, making the streets a dangerous place. Near the end of the siege of Kimberley, it was expected that the Boers would intensify their bombardment, so a notice was displayed encouraging people to go down into the mines for protection. The townspeple panicked, and people flowed into the mineshafts constantly for a 12 hour period. Although the bombardment never came, this did nothing to diminish the distress of the civilians.

The middle of December proved difficult for the British army. In a period known as Black Week , the British suffered a series of devastating losses at Magersfontein , Stormberg , and Colenso . At Magersfontein, Boer commander, Koos de la Rey, devised a plan to dig trenches in an unconventional place to both fool the British and give his riflemen a greater firing range. His plan worked, decisively defeating the British resulting in the loss of nearly 1,000 British soldiers, and preventing them from relieving Kimberley and Mafeking. Similar defeats at Stormberg and Colenso concluded Black Week.

It was not until reinforcements arrived on February 14, 1900 that British troops commanded by Lord Roberts could launch counter-offensives to relieve the garrisons. The relief of Mafeking on May 18, 1900 provoked riotous celebrations in England. The British were able to force the surrender of General Piet Cronje and 4,000 of his troops, further weakening the Boer fighting force. They then advanced into the two republics, capturing the capital of the Orange Free State, Bloemfontein on March 13 and the Transvaal capital, Pretoria, on June 5.

Many British observers believed the war to be all but over after the capture of the two capital cities. However, the Boers met at a new capital, Kroonstad , and planned a guerrilla campaign to hit the British supply and communication lines. Thus, the final stage of the war began.

The Boer guerrillas began to attack the railroads and telegraph wires of the British army. Their new tactics changed the strategy of the war and made the traditionally large British military formations ineffective. The new commander of the British Army, Lord Kitchener, responded by building blockhouses, small stone buildings surrounded with barbed wire, to corral the guerrillas into a small area where they could be defeated.

As time passed, Kitchener's plan was effectively limiting the movements of the guerrillas, but the war had not yet come to an end. To achieve this deployed new regiments of irregular light cavalry including the famous Bushveldt Carbaniers who ranged across Boer-controlled territory, hunting down and destroying Boer commando groups; they also removed the guerillas' civilian support base by destroying farms that supplied the Boer soldiers and placing surrendered commandos, women and children into concentration camps.

It was the first time they were used in the world. They began when the British realized that women and children both could not care for themselves and also got in the way of the fighting. Also, the camps were a place of safety for Boers not interested in fighting in the war. However, by the time Kitchener assumed command, he changed the nature of the camps to hold any person living in the area occupied by the guerrillas. His plan was to destroy all support for the remaining Boer fighters. The tragedy of the concentration camps can be described in the toll it took on the people held within them. More children died in the concentration camps than the combined loss of all soldiers in the war. Up to 28,000 women and children died in 1901. It was something which would blacken Kitchener's reputation in future years, but really ought to be seen in the context of 16,000 British soldiers dead from disease and the general failure of the British Military Medical establishment of the time.

These new tactics soon broke the spirit and the supply lines of the Boer fighters. By December 1901 many of the camps' internees had been allowed to leave, and many of the men joined two new Regiments fighting alongside the British, the Transvaal National Scouts and the Orange River Volunteers, to bring the war to an end.

The last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902 and the war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging in the same month. 22,000 British troops had died and over 25,000 Boer civilians. The treaty ended the existence of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as Boer republics and placed them within the British Empire. But the Boers were given £3m in compensation and were promised eventual self-government and the Union of South Africa was established in 1910.

The Boers referred to the two wars as the Freedom Wars.

See also History of South Africa

References

• Farwell, Byron (1976). The Great Anglo-Boer War. New York: Harper and Row.
• Gordon, April A.; Gordon, Donald L., eds. (2001). Understanding Contemporary Africa. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner.
• Harrison, David (1981). The White Tribe of Africa. Los Angeles: University of California Press.
• Pakenham, Thomas (1979). The Boer War. New York: Random House.
• Plaatje, Sol T. (1990). Mafeking Diary: A Black Man's View of a White Man's War. Cambridge: Meridor Books.

External links

• War Museum of the Boer Republics. Anglo Boer War Museum (accessed 24 December 2003)