The First Boer War, December 16, 1880 to March 6, 1881, was a skirmish between Britain and the Boers of South Africa.
British annexation of the Transvaal
In 1876, Sir Shepstone, Governor of British Natal, traveled to the Transvaal*** and the country to lobby for acceptance of British rule. Due to financial difficulties and facing a large-scale conflict with the Zulu kingdoms to the east, the Transvaal***** and the State accepted the annexation to the British.In April 1877, the British issued a proclamation that the Transvaal***** and the State was to become a British colony, and Sir Shepstone was appointed as the Administrator. President Burgess of the Transvaal resigned.
After the Zulu War of 1879, Britain eliminated the Zulu Kingdom, relieving the Boers of the greatest threat they faced. As the British did not set out to improve the living conditions of the lower and middle class Boers during the three years of British rule in the Transvaal*** and the country, nor did they increase investment and improve the financial, economic and political life of the area, but instead permitted British businessmen to speculate on land, and to make up to the Boers for the taxes they had previously owed to the Transvaal*** and the country, it aroused widespread discontent amongst the Boer people.
Boer Uprising In September 1880, in order to collect from the natives a large number of guns that had been paid as wages to black laborers at the Kimberley diamond mine, a "gun surrender riot" took place in the British protectorate of Basutoland (present-day Lesotho)." The main British forces in the Transvaal went south to suppress the riots, and the total number of British troops remaining in the Transvaal was no more than 3,000, stationed in only a few important towns, such as Pretoria, Lustenburg, Leidenburg, and Staunton, with empty defenses. On December 16 of that year, more than 5,000 Boers who were dissatisfied with the British rule gathered at Paldeclar to hold a National Convention and declared armed resistance to restore the South African **** and State. S.J. Paulus Kruger, Jacobus "Piet" Joubert, and Martius Pretorius were elected as leaders, who were highly respected among the Boers. On the same day, the newly formed three-man government delivered the declaration of independence of the South African **** and State to the Pretoria garrison, which the British refused to accept, ordering the garrison everywhere to reinforce Pretoria with fire.
Process of battle
Clashes between Boer citizens and the British garrison broke out at Potchefstroom on December 17, 1880.The first battle was fought on December 20, when two companies of the 94th Regiment of the British Army, stationed at Leidenberg, sped to the aid of Pretoria, where they were ambushed by Boer militia regiments at the Bronkhorst Spruit. Owing to the Boers' tactics of guerrilla warfare, 77 of the 247 British troops were killed and 157 wounded in the engagement, while the Boers had only two killed and four wounded.
In January 1881, reinforced British troops marched from the Natal colony to the Transvaal. The British commander, General Sir George Colley, led this reinforcement of over a thousand men westward into the Transvaal. They were stopped by General Joubert at Laing's Nek on the Natal-Transvaal border. The British had 93 killed, 133 wounded and 54 captured, with Colley himself killed at the top of the hill. On the Boers' side only one man was killed and five wounded.
On March 6, 1881, an armistice was signed between the British and Transvaal armies, and on August 3 the two sides signed the Pretoria Agreement. The agreement provided for a guarantee that the Transvaal could establish a fully self-governing government under the suzerainty of the Queen of England, and that Britain would maintain three prerogatives: to control the Transvaal's foreign relations; to maintain control over the Transvaal's relations with the African tribes; and to entitle the British army to lend the Transvaal in time of war. Second Boer War, October 11, 1899-May 31, 1902, between Britain and the Transvaal **** and the Orange Free State.
Causes of the war
For the early history of the Boer state see First Boer War.
Deterioration of Transvaal-British relations
In 1884, prospectors discovered the world's largest Witwatersrand gold mine (known as the Rand Gold Mine, Rand) on a remote pasture between Pretoria and the Vaal River in the Transvaal **** and State. Johannesburg was subsequently founded on this gold mine. Profits and taxes from the gold mines allowed the economy of the Transvaal*** and the country to grow by leaps and bounds, while intensifying friction with Britain.
In 1890, the Transvaal government declared that foreigners settled in Johannesburg would pay full taxes but would not enjoy the right to stand for election to the presidency and the Legislative Council (Volksraad) unless they had lived in the Transvaal for 14 years and had naturalized their nationality. In addition, all aliens could not hold government office and their children could not attend government-sponsored schools. This law was protested by Britain, as most of the Transvaal's aliens were British. Trade wars and tariff barriers between the Transvaal and the British colony of South Africa, and the Transvaal's high taxes and economic restrictions on British-owned mining companies in the country were three of the main reasons for the deterioration of tensions between the Transvaal and Great Britain in the late 19th century.
The Jensen Expedition
In 1895, Joseph Chamberlain became the British Colonial Secretary and mining magnate Cecil Rhodes was inaugurated as Premier of the British Cape Colony. On 28 December of that year, Dr Jameson, a close friend of Rhodes and a senior employee of the South African Mining Corporation, led 500 South African Corporation policemen and several machine guns in an attempted expedition to the Transvaal to overthrow the regime of Paul Kruger in the Transvaal.On 2 January 1896, Jansen's forces were surrounded by South African police forces at Krugersdorp, and, except for 134 who were killed, all of them, including Janson, were killed. of the men, including Jensen, were all captured. The Alien Reform Committee, which had been preparing to start a riot in Johannesburg, hastened to do so, but was also suppressed by the South African police. Jensen and his associates were handed over to Britain and sentenced to 15 months in prison for "attempting a military expedition against a friendly country". The leaders of the Johannesburg "Alien Reform Committee" were sentenced to death by a Transvaal court, which was later commuted to 15 years' imprisonment and a fine of 25,000 pounds each after strong protests from Britain.
After Jansen's expedition, Kaiser Wilhelm II sent a famous telegram of congratulations to the Transvaal President Paul Kruger, which worsened Anglo-German relations and at the same time made Britain determined to settle its dispute with the Transvaal by force.
In April 1899, Sir Alfred Milner, prime minister of the British Cape Colony, authorized British expatriates in the Transvaal to write a letter of redress of grievances to Queen Victoria, asking her to protect the interests of British subjects. In June of that year, Milner and Kruger held their final negotiations in Bloemfontein on the protection of the rights and interests of the expatriates. While the British were negotiating, they seized the opportunity to move troops from overseas to South Africa. The Western world launched a movement of sympathy and solidarity with the Boer*** and the State in 1899. Numerous civic groups were formed in the Netherlands and Belgium, soliciting donations, publishing articles, establishing foundations, and donating wartime mobile hospitals and medical equipment to the Transvaal. Thousands of volunteers from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, the United States, Russia, Ireland, Italy, and the Scandinavian countries traveled to the Transvaal, ready to fight alongside the Boers.
In September 1899, Kruger told Milner that consideration could be given to reducing the period of residence during which aliens could be granted Transvaal citizenship from 14 to 5 years, but demanded that Britain should cease to claim suzerainty over the Transvaal **** and the country in future. Influenced by public opinion at home, the British Parliament replied to Kruger: "...... Her Majesty's Government considers the reply of the Government of the South African **** and State to be negative or inconclusive ...... Her Majesty's Government reserves the right to the right to reconsider the current situation and adopt a final settlement accordingly."
In order to increase military pressure on the Transvaal, Britain sent two thousand men each from India and the Mediterranean to reinforce the colony of Natal.On October 9, 1899, the Transvaal government issued an ultimatum to Britain to stop the reinforcement of South Africa, to withdraw all troops arriving in South Africa after June 1, and to submit all disputed issues to diplomatic arbitration, with a deadline of forty-eight hours for a reply.On October On the 10th, Chamberlain ordered Milner to reject the terms offered by South Africa.At exactly 5:00 p.m. on October 11, 1899, the Federal Parliament of the Transvaal*** and the Orange Free State*** and the Union Parliament declared war on Britain, and the Second Anglo-Boer War broke out.
Phase 1: The Boer Offensive
The Boer war plan was to concentrate their superior forces into two routes before British reinforcements arrived in South Africa, with one route attacking Natal to the east, dividing and encircling the two main British strongholds, Ladysmith and Dundee ( Dundee) and capturing the port of Durban to gain access to the sea; and the other to the southwest, capturing Mafeking and Kimberley, two strategic locations on the Western Cape Railway line where the main British forces were stationed. At the same time, inciting Boer riots in the Cape Colony to hold back the British troops, especially to disrupt the transportation of the East and West Cape Railways and to prevent the reinforcement of British troops from using the railroads to advance to the north. In addition, in order to prevent the African natives from taking advantage of the start of the war to attack the Boers, a heavy force was stationed in the Elephant River Valley away from the front line by General Antonie Princloo to guard against Pedi riots, a militia regiment of 800-1,000 men was stationed on the Swaziland border, and a 1,000 man militia regiment was stationed on the border of Basuta in the Caledon River Valley.
Battle of Mount Tarana
On October 12, 1899, the Allied Boer Army, consisting of the Transvaal Army and the Orange Armed Forces, marched east. The Boer commander-in-chief, General Pieter Joubert, led the main force
over the Drakensberg from East Orange into the Natal colony and straight into Leddysmith, the seat of the main British army in Natal.Early in the morning of 20 October the pursuing Boer army fought at Talana Hill with a brigade of British troops stationed there to defend the perimeter of Leddysmith's defenses. The Boer commander, General Lucas Meyer, took advantage of the favorable terrain and the cover of the morning mist to launch a surprise attack on the British. The British lost 465 men and the Boers lost 145.
The other Boer force, commanded by General Delare, known as the "Lion of the Western Transvaal," entered the British territory of Bechuanaland on Oct. 11, cutting off the main line of the Western Cape Railway, thus blocking the link between the Cape region and Rhodesia. De la Rue divided his forces into two, one under General Piet Cronje to encircle Mafeking and the other (mainly Orangemen) under Louis Botha to encircle the diamond town of Kimberley.
The third Boer army crossed the Orange River southward, absorbed the small Boer armies of the British Cape Colony, and operated in the northeastern Cape, threatening the East-West Cape Railway line. The British had to defend the Orange River Railway Bridge against Boer attempts to blow it up. De Aar, the most important railroad junction on the Western Cape Railroad and a distribution center for military supplies, was also harassed by the Boers. To protect the normal passage of the East and West Cape Railway, the British had to mount 4.7-inch naval guns on their trains and slowly advance under their cover to repair the railroad in small sections.
The Battle of Leddysmith
On October 30, 1899 (later dubbed "Sad Monday" by the British), Leddysmith's 4,000-strong British force under the command of Lt. Gen. Sir George White launched a counter-attack against the Boers at Nicholson's Nekong ( Nicholson's Nek), encountered the main body of the Boers under Roubelle's command, and the British were defeated with a loss of 1,272 men, with the remainder retreating back to Leddysmith, where they were immediately surrounded. As Leddysmith was heavily defended, Roubelle failed in several attacks on the city, so he sent out scouts to penetrate into the British hinterland to the line of Estcourt, scouting for sites that could be used for entrenchment. The rest of the main force camped around Leddysmith to rest and wait for the arrival of the British overseas regiments.
At the end of October, 20,000 British troops led by Admiral Sir Redvers Buller, commander-in-chief of the British reinforcements (the South African Expeditionary Force) and a former supporter of the local uprising in Ireland, finally arrived in Cape Town. Beginning in mid-November, the British forces under Buller's command launched counter-offensives against the Boers on three fronts: Lieutenant-General Lord Paul Methuen relieved the siege of Kimberley on the western front, Lieutenant-General French attacked the Orange Free State on the central front, and General Buller led the main body of the army to relieve the siege of Leddysmith on the eastern front.
Admiral Buller launched an attack on the Boers there at Colenso, a small station southwest of Ladysmith, in the early morning of December 15 in an attempt to force a crossing of the Tugela River to Ladysmith. The force under Buller's command consisted of the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th Brigades of the British Army,*** counting 16,000 men, in addition to four regiments of light cavalry, and three squadrons of riflemen composed of colonial cavalry. The artillery, on the other hand, consisted of five batteries of 30 guns, in addition to 16 naval 12-pounders and 4.7-inch guns. Including the cavalry and artillery, Buller's total strength was 22,000 men. The Boer forces committed to the Battle of Colenso included militia regiments from the eight districts of Johannesburg, Heidelberg, Krugersdorp, Freiherr, Utrecht, troops from the Orange Free State, and white police forces from Johannesburg and Swaziland,*** totaling 3,500 men. There was also a 120-mm German Krupp howitzer, a 75-mm Krupp field gun, two 75-mm French Schneider Crusoe cannons, and a 37-mm Maxim rapid-fire gun (PomPom). As a result of the Boer army's concealment of its artillery positions and the British commander's command errors that led to dispersal of forces and tactical rigidity, the British army suffered a heavy defeat in the battle, with 1,139 killed, 250 missing, and 10 artillery pieces lost. The Boer army suffered just 8 killed and 30 wounded.
During the same period as the Battle of Ladysmith, the British also suffered defeats at Kimberley on the Western Front and Stormberg on the Central Front, losing more than 2,800 men in what became known as the "Week of Darkness" in British Army history. Admiral Buller resigned as Commander-in-Chief of the British Expeditionary Force because of the defeat.
Phase 2: The Occupation of the Transvaal
On December 17, 1899, Lord Frederick Roberts was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the South African Expeditionary Force (SAEF) by the British Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, with Lord He
rbert Kitchener as Chief of Staff. As a result of the defeat, warlike sentiment rose among the British people, and the Salisbury cabinet's policy of "carrying the war to the end" was supported.
On January 10, 1900, Roberts and Kitchener arrived in Cape Town. They brought with them the indigenous Seventh Army, reinforcements from Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and three cavalry detachments in India and Ceylon. By January 1900, the British forces in the South African theater had increased to 180,000, and then to 220,000-250,000 in March, an overwhelming advantage. In addition, thousands of army horses arrived in South Africa from Britain and Australia, increasing the mobility of the British army.
In February 1900, after weighing the situation on the battlefield, Roberts changed his strategy, shifting the main direction of attack from the west of Natal to the Orange region, where the center was weaker, and at the same time, changing the stereotypical frontal attack tactics and adopting a roundabout entrenchment strategy. On the western front, the British army defeated the militia commanded by Pieter Cronje, the fiercest of the Boers, and on February 16 liberated Kimberley, which had been besieged for several months. The British on the Eastern Front launched an offensive on February 27 and defeated the Boers at Dordrecht on March 3, finally lifting the siege of Ladysmith.
After eliminating the threat to his left flank posed by the toughest of the Kronje, Roberts shifted the main attacking force back to Orange and steadily pushed north. Having learned the lessons of the failed first phase, the British changed tactics. When ambushed by the Boers, the infantry units no longer remained in formation, but dug trenches nearby to cover the cavalry's charge against the Boer positions. Under this tactic, the Boers failed in their attempts to stop the Boers at Poplar Grove and Abrahams Kraal, etc. On March 10, the 6th and 7th Divisions of the British army defeated the best-equipped Boer police force in Johannesburg at Abrahams Kraal, and on March 12, the President of the Orange Free State, Mathias Steyn, led the government and parliamentary officials to escape from the capital, Brongbund. Parliamentary officials fled from the capital Bloemfontein to Kroonstad in the north.On the afternoon of March 13, the British army marched into Bloemfontein.In the middle and late March, typhoid fever was prevalent among the British troops, and Roberts had to order a rest and recuperation, which interrupted the British offensive.On March 26, the Boer commander-in-chief, Joubert, was seriously wounded when he fell off his horse at the Battle of Willow Grange and was pronounced dead the next day. He was seriously wounded and died the following day. In accordance with his wishes, Louis Botha, who specialized in guerrilla warfare, succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the Boer field forces.
At the end of April 1900, another large contingent of British reinforcements sailed to South Africa. After a reorganization of forces, in the main attack, Roberts had eight infantry divisions (3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, and Colonial) and the 12th Cavalry Division. The British resumed their offensive in early May.On May 12, Roberts' army captured Kronstadt, the new capital of the Orange Free State. The Boers were demoralized by the successive defeats. With Roberts' promises of leniency, many of the militia regiments operating in the rear of the British army surrendered to the British, handed over their weapons, and returned to their farms. By mid-May, only about 20,000 Boers remained who were still fighting.
On May 24, 1900, Lord Milner announced in Bloemfontein the British annexation of the Orange Free State. After the annexation of Orange, British forces intensified their attack on the Transvaal.On May 29, General French, commanding Australian cavalry, defeated the last defending force at the Klip River on the southern outskirts of Johannesburg.On May 30, President Kruger left the capital, Pretoria, by train.On May 31, Roberts entered Johannesburg, and on the early morning hours of June 5, drove into Pretoria.
On September 1, 1900, Roberts announced the British annexation of the Transvaal and declared the war over.On September 11, President Kruger was authorized by the exiled Transvaal government to arrive at Lorenzo Maguires, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique, and on October 19, Kruger sailed for Europe aboard the cruiser De Gelderland, which had been sent by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands to ask for help.
Phase III: Guerrilla Warfare
After the capture of Pretoria, Roberts' 40,000 troops rested where they were. But the long British supply line from Cape Town to Pretoria was attacked by the Boers, who were still resisting. By this time the major cities and railroad lines of the Transvaal and the Orange had all been captured, and the Boers began to turn to guerrilla warfare. In both Johannesburg and Pretoria, the British also thwarted a number of attempts at Boer insurrection.
General Roberts left Pretoria on November 29, 1900, and returned home to take over as Commander-in-Chief of the British Army. He handed command of the South African Army to Lord Kitchener, with Lord Ian Hamilton taking over as Chief of Staff.
The Boer army, which had withdrawn from the city, had by now been organized into multiple guerrilla units. The Boer guerrillas, under the leadership of De Wet, De La Rue, Botha, Jan Smuts and James Hertzog, attacked the British lines of communication, plundered British supplies and annihilated small groups of British troops.
The Boer guerrillas under the command of Botha and De Wet went deep into the British Cape Colony between December 1900 and April 1901 to fight. During the winter campaign from April to September 1901, the Boer guerrillas launched many sneak attacks on the British forces in the Transvaal and Orange, and repeatedly succeeded in capturing large quantities of arms, provisions, and artillery.From September 1901 to May 1902, Schmidtz and Herzog once again entered the Cape Colony. With 5,000 cavalrymen, divided into small guerrilla groups, they raced for thousands of miles, penetrating deep into the British rear, advancing all the way to the Atlantic coast and the outskirts of Cape Town, and forcing Britain to declare martial law in the Cape region.
In order to bring the war to an early end, from March 1901 Kitchener adopted bunker tactics, a scorched-earth policy and the setting up of concentration camps to deal with the Boer guerrillas. In the areas where the Boer guerrillas were active, the British army erected barbed wire fences to divide the Boer **** and the country into a number of pacification zones for zonal sweeps. The total length of the barbed wire network amounted to 6,000 kilometers. A plank bunker was set up every 1 to 2 kilometers in the pacification zones, and soldiers were stationed there to shoot anyone who approached the range of the bunker. ***More than 8,000 bunkers were set up. Within these pacification areas, where Boer farmers were found to be helping the guerrillas, all farms and houses within 10 miles were burned. In addition, Kitchener changed his previous policy of leniency toward prisoners of war, and surrendered and captured guerrillas, as well as adult male citizens who had participated in the guerrillas, were exiled to distant prisoner-of-war camps in India, Ceylon, and Bermuda. In the Cape and Natal colonies, any Dutch-British citizen who responded to the call to "take up arms" was sentenced to death if captured.
Concentration camps
To eliminate the guerrillas' base of operations, Kitchener ordered that 136,000 Boer women, children, and the elderly, as well as more than 80,000 black servants, be taken from burned farms, transported in open wagons or oxcarts, and put into concentration camps.
Concentration camps in South Africa were first created in September 1900 as refugee camps for the families of Boer soldiers whose homes had been burned down, and in 1901 Kitchener transformed them into camps for all Boer civilians. There were more than 50 camps in South Africa, located on both sides of the railroad lines in the Cape, Transvaal, Orange and Natal, and on the outskirts of major cities such as Johannesburg, Bloemfontein and Durban. A strict and harsh rationing system was practiced in the camps. Each person received three-quarters of a pound of cornmeal, rice, or potatoes per day, one ounce of coffee, two ounces of sugar, half an ounce of salt, and one pound of meat per week (women and children with relatives in the guerrillas did not receive meat). Infants and children under six received a quarter quart of milk a day. The situation was worse in the black camps, but they could be assisted by black relatives and friends and could be released after taking the oath of allegiance to Britain. The camps were surrounded by barbed wire and anyone who tried to escape over it was shot. The camps were extremely densely populated, with a shortage of tents, blankets, clothing and medicines, plague, malnutrition and an extremely high death rate, which in October 1901 was as high as 40.1 percent in the white camps in the Orange area.
The high death rates in the camps severely shook the morale of the Boer soldiers, and at the same time tarnished the image of the British before the world. Shocked by the conditions in the camps, Emily Hobhouse, a British woman, submitted a 15-page report to her country describing the tragic conditions inside the camps. Miss Hobhouse was declared an "enemy of the fatherland" by the British government and was immediately arrested and deported. But on her return to Europe, she fought on and gained widespread support. The Liberal Party in opposition, led by the young Welsh nationalist Lloyd George, railed against the barbaric policies of the Tories and the Army. Switzerland, Germany, Holland, France, and the United States sent inspectors, and European and American countries donated large quantities of supplies to the civilians in the camps. Under the strong pressure of international and domestic public opinion, the British Parliament had to send an investigative mission to South Africa. After severe criticism of Kitchener and camp officials, rationing and medical conditions in the camps improved, and the death rate fell rapidly to 2 percent.
Throughout the Boer War, 27,927 Boer civilians*** died in the camps, including 1,676 old men, 4,177 women and 22,074 children.
An armistice
The Boer War was protracted, both sides were exhausted, and there was growing criticism and recriminations against Britain from European countries.By February 1901 Kitchener had begun secret negotiations with Louis Botha.
By May 1902, the British army had spent 220 million pounds on the war in South Africa, with more than 21,000 dead. The Boers' ability to fight was also declining rapidly, with their strength reduced from a peak of 88,000 to 22,000, and the lack of supplies left the militia soldiers malnourished, ragged and demoralized. They had run out of food and ammunition and had to rely on the spoils of war for their livelihood.
In 1902, the British and Boers began to hold formal peace talks. The key to the negotiations was the issue of Boer independence and the treatment of Africans (the core of which was the right to vote for Africans). On the second issue, Britain moved closer to the Boers at the expense of the Africans, and relatively quickly came to an agreement with the Boers.On March 7, 1901, in the Middleburg Proposals published by Kitchener, it was declared that Africans in the Transvaal and Orange colonies would have no right to vote until a representative government was established; and that even if they were to be given the right to vote in the future, it should be limited to ensure that the white race would enjoy the absolute superiority of justice. This in effect excluded Africans from the right to vote in both places. On the first issue, the two sides were at loggerheads for a long time. The British, whose object in carrying on the war was to annex the Boer * * * and the State, did not budge an inch, and on five occasions firmly refused the demand of President Steyn of Orange for the maintenance of independence. The Boers were forced to settle for the second best, demanding the power to formulate and implement their own policy towards the natives.
On May 15, 1902, Boer delegates representing the two Boer **** and States, thirty-two local militia groups, and 165 guerrillas met at Vereeniging to discuss the future of the peace war, and on May 27 Lord Milner came to Vereeniging to meet with Boer delegate, General Schmaltz.
During the meeting, Milner proposed twelve conditions for peace talks. They were:
That Boer field troops and armed citizens lay down their arms, surrender all guns and war material in their possession or under their control, terminate any attempt to continue any resistance to His Majesty's Government of King Edward VII, and recognize His Majesty as their rightful sovereign; that Boer prisoners of war who had sworn allegiance to the King of England were to be released at once; that Boer liberty and property were to be guaranteed to be inviolable; and that, with the exception of certain General amnesty except for certain violations of the customs of war; English to be the official language but Afrikaans to be used in schools and courts of law; Boers to be allowed to keep guns for self-defense but to apply for a license; civil administration to replace military control in the Transvaal and Orange as soon as possible; representative self-government to be established in South Africa when conditions are ripe; no taxes to pay for the costs of the war to be imposed on the two newly conquered areas; British assistance to the Boers in rebuilding the two territories; the British to assist in the reconstruction of the Boer territories. British assistance to the Boers in rebuilding their farms; compensation of three million pounds to farmers and Boer citizens who had suffered losses; disenfranchisement of the principal commanders of the Boer armies, but no death penalty for them. On May 30, 60 Boer delegates voted 54 to 6 on whether to give up their independence, accepting the first and most crucial clause of the peace treaty, which was formally signed by the British and Boers on May 31 at Frensham. The Anglo-Boer War, which had lasted 31 months, came to an end.
In the Second Boer War, Britain had mobilized 450,000 troops (the official British count was 448,435), of which 256,000 were British regulars, 109,000 British volunteers, 53,000 British colonial troops from South Africa, and 31,000 from Canada, Australia and New Zealand. British troops transported to South Africa by sea before and after *** counted 380,000, in addition to 350,000 horses, 100,000 mules, 1,340,000 tons of military equipment and other supplies, and 1,027 ships have been used. British, Australian, New Zealand and Canadian troops*** who took part in the war lost 1,072 officers and 20,870 men in action.
On the Boer side, there were 88,000 men (South Africa's official count was 87,365) who fought before and after***, of whom 43,000 were Transvaalers and 30,000 Orangemen, the entire population of the two countries being only 440,000, and so it was almost all male young adults who fought; in addition, there were 13,000 Boers from the Cape Colony, and 2,000 foreign volunteers. By the time of the conclusion of the peace treaty, 3,700 Boers*** who had taken part in the war had been killed, 31,000 captured, 20,000 surrendered, and more than 10,000 exiled to German South West Africa and Mozambique. Impact on the South African Dutch
With the demise of the independent Transvaal and Orange States, the South African Boers were all reduced to British subjects. As a result of the war, national cohesion among the Boers was further strengthened. There were already 600,000 Boers living in the four colonies of South Africa, far outnumbering the white British. They shared the same culture, religion and language, and the Anglo-Boer War greatly contributed to the formation of their psychological state of national identity, and after a long process of evolution and identification finally formed a nation, namely, the Afrikaners.
Despite the establishment of the Union of South Africa by Britain and the granting of equal political status to the Afrikaans, the ethnic divide created by the Second Anglo-Boer War was far-reaching. Although some upper-class South African Dutch, such as Botha and Schmaltz, were committed to reconciliation with the British and cooperative rule between the two white races over the blacks and coloreds, most middle- and lower-class South African Dutch remembered the concentration camps, where many of their relatives had died, and therefore always harbored deep hostility toward the British.After the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, some South African Dutch staged a pro-German and anti-British armed rebellion. pro-German and anti-British armed riots. During the Second World War, some South African Dutch formed an extremely anti-British political organization named Ossewa Brandwag to oppose South Africa's alliance with Britain. After the end of World War II, relations between South Africa and Britain grew colder.On May 31, 1961, the South African federal government declared that it would no longer be subservient to the Queen of England and withdrew from the British Commonwealth, creating the modern state of South Africa*** and the State of South Africa.
Impact on Britain
In the aftermath of the Anglo-Boer War, Britain linked its colonies in southern Africa and controlled the corridor to the Great Lakes region of the African hinterland. The Cape of Good Hope region, anchored by the vast South African interior, became one of the most important outposts of the British Overseas Empire. Economically, with the world's largest Rand gold mine in British hands, Britain was able to control the lifeblood of the global economy. Gold from South Africa enabled London to quickly become the center of the global financial industry and gold trade.
But the Second Anglo-Boer War also marked the end of Britain's history of overseas expansion. British politicians found it economically and strategically unviable to defend both the overseas territories of the British Empire and the British mainland due to the high cost of modernized warfare. Therefore Britain should no longer maintain a policy of isolation. Once the Boer War was over, Britain embarked on a worldwide strategic contraction, entrusting some of its overseas spheres of influence to the white self-governing dominions of Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, while Britain's own strategic focus shifted back to Europe.
Influence on the theory of war
Besides the direct influence on the participating countries, the Boer War also had a profound impact on the development of modern military theory and equipment technology. In this war, many important modern war doctrines made their debut or played their important role for the first time. In the Boer War, the German General Staff sent military advisers to the Transvaal and Orange, and Switzerland, Holland, France and other countries also sent military observers to South Africa. In the face of the massive and rapid movement of British regiments by rail and the overwhelming frontal battle of large regiments, the German General Staff deepened its faith in the doctrine of "total war". The Swiss (and later Israelis) developed their own unique defense system based on the Boer idea of the "army of all men".
In terms of operational theory, the Boer War once again put forward the theory of "war for all": every civilian eligible for service is a soldier to be drafted, usually engaged in their own livelihoods in farms and towns, and receive short-term military training during certain periods of the year, and then quickly gather and report to the army according to the area after the outbreak of the war, forming militia regiments. Upon the outbreak of war, they quickly assembled by region and reported for duty, forming militia groups to fight in the war. For small countries with relatively poor populations and resources, it is not possible to maintain a standing army of a certain size because the army is not engaged in production in normal times and the military expenditure is very high, so the policy of mobilizing the whole population, combining war with peace, and combining the army with the people, can solve certain difficulties.