Second Boer War
| Second Boer War | |||||||||
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| Part of the Boer Wars during the Scramble for Africa | |||||||||
Clockwise from top left:
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
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United Kingdom and Empire
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South African Republic Foreign volunteers:[b]
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Robert Gascoyne-Cecil Joseph Chamberlain Alfred Milner Frederick Roberts William Robertson Paul Methuen Redvers Buller Herbert Kitchener Robert Baden-Powell Herbert Plumer Andrew Wauchope † Penn Symons (DOW) Edward Woodgate † William Dillon Otter Sam Steele François-Louis Lessard Walter Tunbridge |
Paul Kruger Koos de la Rey Louis Botha Schalk W. Burger Piet Cronjé † Piet Joubert # Jan Smuts Lucas Meyer Johannes Kock † Adolf Schiel Hendrik Prinsloo † Joachim Fourie † Jacobus Snyman Sarel Oosthuizen † Martinus Steyn Christiaan de Wet Naas Ferreira † Jan Hendrik Olivier Cornelius Wessels | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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British: 347,000 Colonial: 103,000–153,000 African auxiliaries: 100,000[4] |
Boer Commandos: 25,000 Transvaal Boers 15,000 Free State Boers 6,000–7,000 Cape Boers[5] African auxiliaries: 10,000[4] Foreign volunteers: 5,400+ In total: 61,400-62,400+ | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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22,092 dead[c] 75,430 returned home sick or wounded[7] 934 missing[8] 2,006 captured Total: ~101,290 |
6,189 dead[d] 24,000 captured (sent overseas)[8] 110 missing 21,256 bitter-enders surrendered (at the end of the war)[7] Total: ~51,555 | ||||||||
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Civilian casualties: 46,370 fatalities 26,370 Boer women and children died in concentration camps 20,000+ Africans of the 115,000 interned in separate concentration camps. | |||||||||
The Second Boer War (Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, lit. 'Second Freedom War', 11 October 1899 – 31 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, Transvaal War,[9] Anglo–Boer War, or South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the Boer republics (the South African Republic and Orange Free State) over Britain's influence in Southern Africa.
The Witwatersrand Gold Rush caused an influx of "foreigners" (Uitlanders) to the South African Republic (SAR), mostly British from the Cape Colony. As they were permitted to vote only after 14 years residence, they protested to the British authorities in the Cape. Negotiations failed at the botched Bloemfontein Conference in June 1899. The conflict broke out in October after the British government decided to send 10,000 troops.[10]
The war had three phases. In the first, the Boers mounted preemptive strikes into British-held territory in Natal and the Cape Colony, besieging British garrisons at Ladysmith, Mafeking, and Kimberley. The Boers won victories at Stormberg, Magersfontein, Colenso and Spion Kop. In the second phase, British fortunes changed when their commanding officer, General Redvers Buller, was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener, who relieved the besieged cities and invaded the Boer republics at the head of a 180,000-strong expeditionary force. The Boers, aware they were unable to resist such a force, refrained from fighting pitched battles, allowing the British to occupy both republics and their capitals.[11][12][13] Boer politicians fled or went into hiding; the British annexed the two republics in 1900. In Britain, the Conservative ministry attempted to capitalise by calling an early general election, dubbed a "khaki election". In the third phase, Boer fighters launched a guerrilla campaign. They used hit-and-run attacks and ambushes against the British for two years.[14][15]
The campaign proved difficult for the British to defeat, due to unfamiliarity with guerrilla tactics and support among civilians. British high command ordered scorched earth policies as part of a counterinsurgency campaign. Over 100,000 Boer civilians were forcibly relocated into concentration camps, where 26,000 died, by starvation and disease.[16]: 439–495 Black Africans were interned to prevent them from supplying the Boers; 20,000 died.[17] British mounted infantry were deployed to track down guerrillas, and few combatants were killed in action, most dying from disease. Kitchener offered terms to remaining Boer leaders to end the conflict. Eager to ensure Boers were released from the camps, most Boer commanders accepted the terms in the Treaty of Vereeniging, surrendering in May 1902.[18][19] The former republics were transformed into the British colonies of the Transvaal and Orange River, and in 1910 were merged with the Natal and Cape Colonies to form the Union of South Africa, a self-governing colony within the British Empire.[20]
British expeditionary efforts were aided significantly by colonial forces from the Cape Colony, the Natal, Rhodesia,[21] and many volunteers from the British Empire. Black African recruits contributed increasingly to the British effort. International public opinion was sympathetic to the Boers and hostile to the British. Even within the UK, there existed significant opposition to the war. As a result, the Boer cause attracted volunteers from neutral countries, including the German Empire, US, Russia and parts of the British Empire such as Australia and Ireland.[22] Some consider the war the beginning of questioning the British Empire's global dominance, due to the war's surprising duration and unforeseen losses suffered by the British.[23] A trial for British war crimes, including the killings of civilians and prisoners, was opened in January 1902. The war had a lasting effect on the region and on British domestic politics.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).
- ^ Jones, Huw M. (October 1999). "Neutrality compromised: Swaziland and the Anglo–Boer War, 1899–1902". Military History Journal. 11 (3/4). Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 19 August 2010.
- ^ Grattan, Robert (2009). "The Entente in World War I: a case study in strategy formulation in an alliance". Journal of Management History. 15 (2): 147–158. doi:10.1108/17511340910943796.
- ^ Haydon, A.P. (1964). "South Australia's first war". Australian Historical Studies. 11 (42).
- ^ a b sahoboss (31 March 2011). "Role of Black people in the South African War".
- ^ Scholtz, Leopold (2005). Why the Boers Lost the War. Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan. pp. 2–5, 119. ISBN 978-1-4039-4880-9.
- ^ Eveleigh Nash 1914, p. 309.
- ^ a b c Wessels 2011, p. 79.
- ^ a b Heath, Tim; Evan-Hart, Julian (30 January 2024). Military Archaeology: How Detectorists and Major Finds Improve our Understanding of History. Pen and Sword History. ISBN 978-1-3990-2324-5.
- ^ The Illustrated London News 1899-10-28: Vol 115 Iss 3158. Internet Archive. Illustrated London News. 28 October 1899.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link) - ^ Pakenham, Thomas (1979). "9. The Ultimatum". The Boer War. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. pp. 100–114. ISBN 029777395X. OCLC 905293995.
- ^ Millard, Candice (2016). Hero of the Empire: The Boer War, a daring escape, and the making of Winston Churchill. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-53573-1.
- ^ "The South African War 1899–1902". sahistory.org.za. South African History Online. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
- ^ "Lord Roberts is appointed British supreme commander in South Africa". sahistory.org.za. South African History Online. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
- ^ Biggins, David (June 2013). "Khaki Election of 1900". angloboerwar.com. Retrieved 27 November 2018.
- ^ van der Waag, Ian (2005). "Boer Generalship and Politics of Command". War in History. 12 (1): 15–43. doi:10.1191/0968344505wh306oa. JSTOR 26061736. S2CID 220749361.
- ^ Pakenham, Thomas (1979). The Boer War. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-394-42742-4.
- ^ "Women & Children in White Concentration Camps during the Anglo–Boer War, 1900–1902". sahistory.org.za. South African History Online. 21 March 2011. Retrieved 20 February 2019.
- ^ "Boer War begins in South Africa". History.com. 9 February 2010. Retrieved 23 July 2020.
- ^ "BBC – History – The Boer Wars". BBC. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
- ^ "The Boer War ends in South Africa". History.com. 9 February 2010. Retrieved 25 January 2021.
- ^ "Anglo Boer War – Rhodesia Regiment". angloboerwar.com. Retrieved 15 July 2020.
- ^ Diver, Luke (2014). "Ireland and the Second Boer" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2022. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- ^ Riches, Christopher; Palmowski, Jan, eds. (2021). "United Kingdom". A Dictionary of Contemporary World History (6th ed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-189094-9. Retrieved 2 May 2021.