Second Boer War
There were two Boer wars, one from December 16,1880-March 23,1881 and the second from October 11, 1899-May 311902 both between the British and the settlers of Dutch, French and German origin (called Boers, Afrikaners or Voortrekkers) in South Africa that put an end to the two independent republics that they had founded.
First Boer War
Also known as the Transvaal War, the First Boer War was the first clash between the British and the Transvaal Boers. It was precipitated by Sir Theophilus Shepstone who annexed the Transvaal (the South African Republic) for the British in 1877. The British consolidated their power over most of the colonies of South Africa in 1879 after the Anglo-Zulu War. The Boers protested and in December, 1880 they revolted.
The war began on December 16, 1880 with shots fired by Transvaal Boers at Potchefstroom after Transvaal formally declared independence from Great Britain. It led to an action at Bronkhorstspruit on December 20, 1880, also known as the action at Bronkhorstpruit, where the Boers ambushed and destroyed a British army convoy. From December 22, 1880 to January 6, 1881, British army garrisons all over the Transvaal became besieged.
The Boers were dressed in their everyday farming clothes, which were a neutral or earthtone khaki clothing, whereas the British uniforms were still bright scarlet red, a stark contrast to the African landscape, which enabled the Boers, being expert marksmen, to easily snipe at British troops from a distance.
The besieging of the British garrisons led to the Battle of Laing's Nek on January 28, 1881 where a British force composed of the Natal Field Force under Major-General Sir George Pomeroy Colley attempted to break through the Boer positions on the Drakensberg range to relieve their garrisons. But the Boers, under the command of P.J. Joubert repulsed the British cavalry and infantry attacks.
Further actions included the Battle of Schuinshoogte (also known as Ingogo) on February 8, 1881 where another British force barely escaped destruction. But the final humiliation for the British was at the Battle of Majuba Hill on February 27, 1881 where several Boer groups stormed the hill and drove off the British, and Colley was killed.
Unwilling to get further involved in a war which was already seen as lost, the British government of William Gladstone signed a truce on March 6, and in the final peace treaty on March 23, 1881 they 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 the largest gold field in the world in the Witwatersrand ("The Rand"), 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 he 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 sprang up as a shanty town nearly overnight as the uitlanders poured in and settled near the mines. The uitlanders rapidly outnumbered the Boers on the Rand, but remained a minority in the Transvaal as a whole. The Afrikaners, nervous and resentful of the uitlanders' presence, denied them voting rights and taxed the gold industry heavily. In response, there was pressure from the uitlanders and the British mine owners to overthrow the Boer government. In 1895, Cecil Rhodes sponsored a failed coup d'etat backed by an armed incursion, the Jameson Raid.
The failure to gain improved rights for Britons was used to justify a major military buildup in the Cape, since several key British colonial leaders favoured annexation of the Boer republics. These included the Cape Colony governor Sir Alfred Milner, British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain and mining syndicate owners (nicknamed the gold bugs) such as Alfred Beit, Barney Barnato and Lionel Phillips. Confident that the Boers would be quickly defeated, they attempted to precipitate a war.
President Marthinus Steyn of the Orange Free State invited Milner and Kruger to attend a conference in Bloemfontein which started on 30 May 1899, but negotiations quickly broke down. In September 1899, Chamberlain sent an ultimatum demanding full equality for British citizens resident in Transvaal.
Kruger, sure that war was inevitable, simultaneously issued his own ultimatum prior to receiving Chamberlain's. This gave the British 48 hours to withdraw all their troops from the border of Transvaal otherwise the Transvaal, allied with the Orange Free State, would be at war with them.
The first phase: Boer offensive - October to December 1899
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 General Redvers Buller. The Boers were able to besiege the towns of Ladysmith, Mafeking (defended by troops headed by Robert Baden-Powell), and Kimberley.
Siege life took its toll on both the defending soldiers and the civilians in the cities of Mafeking, Ladysmith, and Kimberley 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 townspeople 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 (10-15 December 1899), the British suffered a series of devastating losses at Magersfontein, Stormberg, and Colenso. At the Battle of Stormberg on December 10, British General Sir William Gatacre, who was in command of 3,000 troops to beat off Boer raids in Cape Colony, tried to recapture a railway junction about 50 miles south of the Orange River. But Gatacre chose to assault the Orange State Boer positions surmounting a precipitous rock face in which he lost 135 killed and wounded, as well as two guns and over 600 troops captured. At the Battle of Magersfontein on December 11, 14,000 British troops, under the command of Paul Sanford Methuen, 3rd Baron Methuen, attempted to fight their way to relieve Kimberly. The Boer commanders, Koos de la Rey and Piet Cronje, devised a plan to dig trenches in an unconventional place to fool the British and to give his riflemen a greater firing range. His plan worked. The British were decisively defeated, suffering the loss of 120 British soldiers killed and 690 wounded, which prevented them from relieving Kimberley and Mafeking. But the nadir of the Black Week was the Battle of Colenso on December 15 where 21,000 British troops, under the command of Redvers Buller, attempted to cross the Tugela River to relieve Ladysmith where 8,000 Transvaal Boers, under the command of Louis Botha, were waiting for them. Through a combination of artillery and accurate rifle fire, the Boers beat off all British attempts to cross the river. The British had a further 1,127 casualties and worse still, during the retreat, the British were forced to abandon 10 artillery pieces which the Boers captured after the battle having suffered fewer than 40 casualties.
The second phase: British offensive - January to September 1900
The British suffered further defeats in their attempts to relieve Ladysmith at the Battle of Spion Kop on January 19-24, 1900 where Redvers Buller again attempted to cross the Tugela west of Colenso and was defeated again by Louis Botha after a hard-fought battle for a prominent hill feature which resulted in a further 1,000 British casualties and nearly 300 Boer casualties. Buller attacked Botha again on February 5 at Val Krantz and was again defeated.
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. Kimberly was relieved on February 15 by a cavalry division under General John French. At the Battle of Paardeberg on February 18-27, 1900 Lord Roberts finally defeated the Boers and was able to force the surrender of General Piet Cronje where he and 4,000 of his men were captured, which further weakened the Boer fighting force and led the way for the Relief of Ladysmith the following day. The Relief of Mafeking on May 18, 1900 provoked riotous celebrations in England. The British 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.
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. The first engagement of this new form of warfare was at Sanna's Post on March 31 where 1,500 Boers under the command of Christian De Wet attacked Bloemfontein waterworks about 23 miles east of the city, and ambushed a heavily escorted convoy which resulted in 155 British casualties and with seven guns, 117 wagons and 428 British troops captured. One of the last formal battles was at Diamond Hill on June 11-12, where Lord Roberts attempted to drive the remnants of the Boer field army beyond striking distance of Pretoria. Although Roberts drove off the Boers from the hill, the Boer commander, Louis Botha, did not regard it as a defeat, for he inflicted more casualties on the British (totalling 162 men) while suffering around 50 casualties. This battle ended formal military operations and set the stage for the new phase of the war.
The third phase: Guerrilla war - September 1900 until May 1902
By September 1900 the British were in control of both Republics, except for the northern part of Transvaal. They however found that they only controlled the ground their columns physically occupied. As soon as the columns left a town or district, the control the British had there, faded away. The huge territory of the Republics made it impossible for the 250 000 British troops to control it effectively. The vast distances between the columns allowed the Boer commandos considerable freedom to move about. The Boer commanders also decided to adopt a guerrilla style of warfare. The commandos were sent to their own districts with the order to act against the British there whenever possible. Their strategy was to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, and then to move off and vanish when enemy reinforcements arrived. The Boer commandos in the Western Transvaal were very active after September 1901. Several battles of importance were fought here between September 1901 and March 1902. At Moedwil on 30 September 1901 and again at Driefontein on 24 October Gen. De la Rey’s forces attacked the British but were forced to withdraw after the British offered strong resistance.
A time of relative quiet descended thereafter on the western Transvaal. February 1902 saw the next major battle in that region. On 25 February De la Rey attacked a British column at Ysterspruit near Wolmaranstad. De la Rey succeeded in capturing the column and a large amount of ammunition - enough to last his commando a long time.>
The Boer attacks prompted Lord Methuen, the British’s second in command after Lord Kitchener, to move his column from Vryburg to Klerksdorp to deal with De la Rey. On the morning of 7 March 1902 the Boers attacked the rear guard of Methuen’s moving column at Tweebosch. In the confusion that soon reigned in British ranks, Methuen was wounded and captured by the Boers. The battle of Tweebosch was one of the De la Rey’s finest victories.
The Boer victories in the west led to stronger action by the British. In the second half of March 1902 large British reinforcements were sent to the Western Transvaal. The opportunity the British waited for, arose on 11 April 1902 at Rooiwal where the combined forces of Gens. Grenfell, Kekewich and Von Donop came into contact with the forces of Gen. Kemp. The British soldiers were superbly positioned on the mountain side and mowed down the Boers charging on horseback over a large distance, beating them back with heavy casualties.
This was the end of the war in the Western Transvaal and also the last major battle of the Anglo-Boer War.
The concentration camps
These had originally been set up for refugees whose farms had been destroyed in the fighting. However, following Kitchener's new policy, many women and children were forcibly moved to prevent the Boers from resupplying at their homes and more camps were built and converted to prisons. This relatively new idea was essentially humane in its planning in London but ultimately proved brutal due to its lack of proper implementation. This was not the first appearance of concentration camps. The Spanish had used them in the Third Cuban War of Independence that later lead to the Spanish-American War, but the concentration camp system of the British was on a much larger scale.
There were a total of 45 tented camps built for Boer internees and 64 for black African ones. Of the 28,000 Boer men captured as prisoners of war, 25,630 were sent overseas. So, most Boers remaining in the local camps were women and children, but the native African ones held large numbers of men as well. Even when forcibly removed from Boer areas, the black Africans were not considered to be hostile to the British, and provided a paid labour force.
The conditions in the camps were very unhealthy and the food rations were meagre. Women and children of menfolk who were still fighting were given smaller rations than others. The poor diet and inadequate hygiene led to endemic contagious diseases such as measles, typhoid and dysentery. Coupled with a shortage of medical facilities, this led to large numbers of deaths — a report after the war concluded that 27,927 Boers (of whom 22,074 were children under 16) and 14,154 black Africans had died of starvation, disease and exposure. In all, about 25% of the Boer inmates and 12% of the black African ones died (although recent research suggests that the black African deaths were underestimated and may have actually been around 20,000).
A delegate of the South African Women and Children's Distress Fund, Emily Hobhouse, did much to publicise the distress of the inmates on her return to Britain after visiting some of the camps in the Orange Free State. Her fifteen page report caused uproar, and led to a government commission, the Fawcett Commission visiting camps from August to December 1901 which confirmed her report. They were highly critical of the running of the camps and made numerous recommendations, for example improvements in diet and provision of proper medical facilities. By February 1902 the annual death-rate dropped to 6.9 percent and eventually to 2 percent.
POWs sent overseas
The first sizable batch of Boer prisoners of war taken by the British consisted of those captured at the battle of Elandslaagte on October 21, 1899. [1] At first many were put on ships. But as numbers grew, the British decided they didn't want them kept locally. The capture of 400 POWs in February 1900 was a key event, which made the British realize they could not accomodate all POWs in South Africa.[2] The British feared they could be freed by sympathetic locals. They already had trouble supplying their own troops in South Africa, and didn't want the added burden of sending supplies for the POWs. So, Britain chose to send many POWs overseas.
The first overseas (off African mainland) camps were opened in Saint Helena, which ultimately received about 5000 POWs. About 5000 POWs were sent to Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Other POWs were sent to Bermuda, and India. Some POWs were even sent outside the British Empire, with 1443[3] Boers (mostly POWs) sent to Portugal. [4]
The end of the war
In all, the war had cost around 75,000 lives — 22,000 British soldiers (7,792 battle casualties, the rest through disease), 6,000-7,000 Boer soldiers, 20,000-28,000 Boer civilians and perhaps 20,000 black Africans. The last of the Boers surrendered in May 1902 and the war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging in the same month. But the Boers were given £3,000,000 in compensation and were promised eventual self-government, and the Union of South Africa was established in 1910. The treaty ended the existence of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State as Boer republics and placed them within the British Empire.
The Boers referred to the two wars as the Freedom Wars.
See also: History of South Africa and History of Cape Colony from 1870 to 1899
During the conflict, 78 Victoria Crosses (VC) — the highest and most prestigious award in the British armed forces for bravery in the face of the enemy — were awarded to British and Colonial soldiers. See List of Boer War Victoria Cross recipients
Effect of the war on domestic British politics
The war highlighted the dangers of Britain's policy of non-alignment and deepened her isolation. The 1900 UK general election, also known as the "Khaki election", was called by the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, on the back of recent British victories. There was much jingoistic enthusiasm for the war at this point among the ordinary people, resulting in a victory for the Conservative government.
However, public support quickly waned as it became apparent that the war would not be easy and it dragged on. There was public outrage at the use of scorched earth tactics — the burning of Boer homesteads, for example — and the conditions in the concentration camps. It also became apparent that there were serious problems with public health: up to 40% of recruits were unfit for military service, suffering from medical problems such as rickets and other poverty-related illnesses. This came at a time of increasing concern for the state of the poor in Britain.
The use of Chinese labour, known as Coolies, after the war by the governor of the new crown colonies, Lord Milner, also caused much revulsion in the UK. Workers were often kept in appalling conditions, received only a small wage and were forbidden to socialise with the local population — this led to further public shock at the resulting homosexual acts between those forbidden the services of prostitutes. Some believe the Chinese slavery issue can be seen as the climax of public antipathy with the war.
Many Irish nationalists sympathised with the Boers, seeing them as a people oppressed by British imperialism, much like themselves. Small groups of Irish volunteers went to South Africa to fight with the Boers — this despite the fact that there were many Irish troops fighting with the British armyTemplate:Mn. In England, the "Pro-Boer" campaign expandedTemplate:Mn, with writers often idealizing the Boer society.
The consequence of public disquiet over the conduct of the war was the result of the 1906 General Election — the Liberal Party's landslide victory — when the Conservatives lost 246 Members of Parliament, leaving it with 156, and the Liberals gained 216 to give it 399.
Commonwealth involvement
The vast majority of troops fighting for the United Kingdom, came from the UK or South Africa. However, in the Second Boer War (South Africa War) a number did come from other parts of the empire. These countries had their own internal disputes over whether they should remain tied to the United Kingdom, or have full independence, which carried over into the debate over whether they should send forces to assist the United Kingdom. Although, not fully independant on foreign affairs, these countries did have local say over how much support to provide, and the manner it would be provided in. Ultimately, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all chose to send volunteers to aid the United Kingdom, but did not send them in sufficient size and speed to be critical in the final outcome.
Canada
At first Canadian Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier tried to keep Canada out of the war. [5] The Canadian Government was divided between those, primarily French Canadians, who wished to stay out of the war and others, primarily English Canadians, who wanted to join with Britain in her fight. In the end, Canada agreed to support the British by providing volunteers, equipment and transportation to South Africa. Britain would be responsible for paying the troops and returning them to Canada at the end of their service. The Boer War marked the first occasion in which large contingents of Canadian troops served abroad.
The Battle of Paardeburg in February 1900 was the first time Canadians saw battle abroad.
Ultimately, over 7,000 Canadians volunteered to fight in the South African War. However, not all saw action since many landed in South Africa after the hostilities ended while others performed garrison duty in Halifax, Nova Scotia so that their British counterparts could join at the front. Approximately 277 Canadians died in the South Africa War, 89 men were killed in action, 135 died of disease, the remainder of accident or injury; and 252 were wounded.
Australia
As part of the British Empire, the Australian colonies offered troops for the war in South Africa. [6] At least 12,000 Australians served in contingents raised by the six colonies or (from 1901) by the new Australian Commonwealth (about a third of men enlisting twice), and many more joined British or South African colonial units in South Africa. At least 600 Australians died in the war, about half from disease and half in action.
Australians served mostly in mounted units formed in each colony, often known as "mounted rifles", "bushmen" or "imperial bushmen". They fought in both the British counter-offensive of 1900 which resulted in the capture of the Boer capitals, and in the long, weary guerrilla phases of the war lasting until 1902. Colonial troops were valued for their ability to "shoot and ride", and they performed well in the open war on the veldt. Some of these troops formed the core of the Australian Lighthorsemen regiments later sent to the Middle East in World War I. Australians at home generally supported the Boer war, but as it dragged on became disenchanted, especially as they became aware of its effects on Boer civilians, through cases such as the conviction and execution of Lieutenants Breaker Morant and Handcock in 1902.
New Zealand
When the Second Boer War seemed imminent, New Zealand offered its support. [7] On 28 September 1899 Prime Minister Richard Seddon asked Parliament to approve the offer to the imperial government of a contingent of mounted rifles and the raising of such a force if the offer were accepted. The British position in the dispute with the Transvaal was 'moderate and righteous', he maintained. He stressed the 'crimson tie' of Empire which bound New Zealand to the 'Mother-country' and the importance of a strong British Empire for the colony's security.
In many ways the South African war set the pattern for New Zealand's later involvement in the two world wars. Specially raised units, consisting mainly of volunteers, were despatched overseas to serve with forces from elsewhere in the British Empire. The success enjoyed by the New Zealand troops fostered the idea that New Zealanders were naturally good soldiers, who required only a modicum of training to perform creditably
References
- Byron Farwell: The Great Anglo-Boer War. New York: Harper and Row, 1976 ISBN 0-06-011204-2 (published in the UK as The Great Boer War. London: Allen Lane, 1977 ISBN 0-7139-0820-3)
- April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon (eds.): Understanding contemporary Africa. 3rd ed. Boulder, Colorado: Lynne Rienner, 2001 ISBN 1-55587-850-4
- David Harrison: The white tribe of Africa: South Africa in perspective. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1981 ISBN 0-520-04690-0
- Thomas Pakenham: The Boer War. New York: Random House, 1979 ISBN 0-394-42742-4
- Sol T. Plaatje: Mafeking diary: a black man's view of a white man's war. Cambridge: Meridor Books; Athens: Ohio University Press, 1990. ISBN 0-852550-64-2 (Meridor) ISBN 0-8214-0944-1 (Ohio UP). Originally published as The Boer War diary of Sol T. Plaatje; an African at Mafeking (Johannesburg: Macmillan, 1973 ISBN 0-8695-4002-5)
- Arthur Conan Doyle: The Great Boer War. London: Smith, Elder, 1900
External links
- War Museum of the Boer Republics. Anglo Boer War Museum (accessed 24 December 2003)
- National UK Archives site
- Battlefields in KwaZulu Natal
- The Canadian Letters and Images Project of Canadian war experience, pre-1914
- A Handbook of the Boer War by Gale and Polden, Limited, from Project Gutenberg
Notes
Template:Mnb "Although some 30,000 Irishmen served in the British Army, which was led by an Irish General, Lord Frederick Roberts, who had been Commander of Chief of British Forces in Ireland prior to his transfer to South Africa, the sympathies of many of their compatriots lay firmly with the Boers. Nationalist-controlled local authorities passed pro-Boer resolutions and there were proposals to confer civic honours on Boer leader, Paul Kruger." (Irish Ambassador Daniel Mulhall written for History Ireland, 2004.)
Template:Mnb Lloyd George and Keir Hardie were members of the Stop the War Committee. (See the founder's biography: William T. Stead's .) Many British authors gave their "Pro-Boer" opinions in British press, such as G. K. Chesterton's writing to 1905 - see Rice University Chesterton's poetry analysis