The Second Boer War
Who were the Boers?
The so-called Boers are in fact the ancestors of today's white South Africans, since the Portuguese explorer Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa in 1488, countless adventurers have established permanent settlements in South Africa, of which the first adventurers from Holland came to South Africa to set up their colony in 1652, and in the Dutch language "Boer " means farmer and also signifies the origin of the Boers - most of them were farmers from Holland, although there were also Germans and French who all came to settle here later, but relying on the colonial activities of the Netherlands for more than a hundred years, the Boers became the main ethnic group in the area.
The Cape of Good Hope
In 1795, the emerging colonial empire of Britain with its own fleet of ships in South Africa to carry out colonial activities, the year of the "sea coachman" of the Netherlands has long been weakened, in the mother country has been unable to provide help to the Boers and the British years of conflict and defeat, forced to move to the north, and In 1852 and 1854, respectively, established the Transvaal and Orange, two belonging to the Boers **** and state, and the British obtained the Boer territory also established two colonies of Cape and Natal.
Tripartite forces
Just as the British and the Boers were fighting for the colonies, the indigenous blacks of South Africa were also in a constant civil war, and eventually the Zulu Kingdom conquered hundreds of small tribes around it by virtue of its mighty strength, and became a force to be reckoned with in South Africa with a population of hundreds of thousands and tens of thousands of troops, and so the continent of South Africa depended on the British colonies in the south, the Boer *** and country in the north, and the indigenous blacks. ** and the country and the native black Zulu Kingdom temporarily formed a situation of power.
The outbreak of the First Boer War
However, such a solid situation did not last long, in 1868, South Africa, Kimberley region of the diamond mines were discovered after the situation was completely broken, because South Africa's rich number of diamonds, plus a high of more than 80 grams of "South Africa's Star" was found, countless people who want to Overnight rich diggers have come to South Africa from all over the world, which makes the British very greedy, because the Kimberley region in South Africa inland, so the British for the diamond mine began to move a crooked mind, at the same time to see because of the rise of the diamond fever, in the eyes of the British inland of South Africa in the barren land all of a sudden become like gold, greedy Britain is ready to annex the Kingdom of Zulu and Boer **** and the country.
1873 digging cable
First first pick the soft pincers, Zulu Kingdom, although called the Kingdom, in the eyes of the British is but a semi-slavery country, directly find a few excuses to ask the Zulu Kingdom to become a subsidiary of the United Kingdom, which made the then King of the Zulu Sekhivayo was very angry, but refused to pay the price of being invaded by the British. early 1879, early preparations for the The British army invaded the Zulu Kingdom in four ways, although the Zulu people's stubborn resistance at the beginning, but could not resist the British artillery, and finally King Sekivayo was captured, the Zulu Kingdom was routed, and it was divided into more than ten small states to be ruled by the United Kingdom, and then it was formally annexed to become a British colony in 1887, and the Zulu Kingdom, which had once been famous for a while, disappeared, and the other small black countries were also forcibly annexed by the United Kingdom to become its own colonies. The British also annexed other small black countries and made them their own colonies.
The situation at that time
Zulu Kingdom is gone, the rest is the Boers, in fact, the Boers of the Transvaal **** and the country as early as 1877 because of the Zulu Kingdom forced and their own financial reasons were forced to merge with the United Kingdom, however, after the merger of the Boers did not get the same treatment as the British, the British not only occupied a variety of resources of the Transvaal but also forced the Boers to pay a variety of taxes in the past. The British not only took over the resources of the Transvaal but also forced the Boers to pay various taxes in the past, which was really unbearable, so in 1888, the Boers directly revolted and demanded independence, and the First Boer War broke out.
The Boers have been in South Africa for hundreds of years, and the indigenous inhabitants do not know how many fights, occupying the geographical location and people, the British naturally invincible, after paying hundreds of casualties, Britain was forced to agree to the independence of the Transvaal, but the premise is that the Transvaal to the United Kingdom as the sovereign state, and the need to grasp the foreign affairs in the hands of the British, the Boers, as long as the economy on their own to master on the line, the other It didn't matter, and eventually the first war ended with a Boer victory.
The second Boer War
We were at peace with each other, and the days were so stable, however, South Africa is really a wind and water, in addition to the discovery of diamond mines, the Transvaal found a large amount of gold in the territory of the world's attention is once again attracted by the South Africa this gada, countless mine bosses crazy to the Transvaal, and the Boer's own mining technology does not work, it is just Handed over to the European mine bosses, their own collection of heavy taxes, in addition to other taxes, but the European mine bosses willingly, these money for the gold mine is nothing, the money paid is a little more, but always make money, in this way, relying on heavy taxes, the Transvaal all of a sudden become South Africa's landed gentry, and armed with money, but also the expansion of the territory.
Gold mine
The Transvaal's wealth and let the British greedy, especially the governor of South Africa, Mosier Rhodes, he is not only the governor of South Africa, but also a mine boss, see Transvaal this piece of fat meat greedy, and therefore once again moved to annex the Transvaal's mind.
In 1895, Mosier Rhodes contacted the British in the Transvaal territory to prepare for the forceful overthrow of the Transvaal, and the result was that things fell apart, and the British who were sent out and the British in the Transvaal territory were all screwed up by the Transvaal, which made the public opinion of many big European countries in an uproar at that time, and also let them see the opportunity, especially the Germans.
Germany started to dominate the European continent by the spring wind of the second industrial revolution, and Kaiser Wilhelm II also wanted to compete with Britain for global hegemony, just in time to see the British defeated very excited, began to support the Boers, which made the British very worried, in case the Boers and the Germans united or the Germans gained access to the Transvaal's gold mines, it was unfavorable for Britain, so although both sides have been talking out of turn, but the gloom of war has been hanging over South Africa.
William II
In 1897, in view of the strength of the Transvaal and the other Orange, which had always been saucy, formed a permanent friendship alliance and were supported by the Germans, and secondly, in order to fight against the British, the Boers also used the monopoly of the railroads and explosives as a bait to pull in the former mother country of Holland, as well as Germany, and with the help of the Boers, the German forces, which could not intervene in South Africa, invaded South Africa in an instant. The German forces instantly invaded the South African region, which caused serious dissatisfaction of the British, should begin to blockade the Transvaal, wanting to isolate on three sides to completely cut off the Transvaal and the outside world, forcing the Transvaal to compromise, but the conflict between the two sides is becoming more and more intensified, the war is on the verge of breaking out.
In April 1899, Britain on the one hand negotiated with the Transvaal, on the other hand dispatched troops from overseas to reach South Africa, in the case of negotiation in vain, October 11, 1899, the Second Boer War broke out, Britain dispatched 20,000 British troops, determined to prepare for a complete solution to the Transvaal, while on the other side, the Boers not only received assistance from Germany, but also from other countries and civic groups, who not only collected donations of various medical equipment, but even volunteers came to the Transvaal, ready to fight alongside the Boers, including Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, the United States, Russia, Ireland, Italy and so on.
The Second Boer War
Early in the war, the Boers, with excellent tactics and bravery, defeated the British army of 22,000 men with 3,500 men, of which the British army lost 1,400 men, and the Boers lost only 38 men, although the British were defeated in the early stages, but the war was not only a matter of face, but also a matter of face, and therefore spared no effort to begin to continue to send troops to the March of 1900, the British army had already been sent to the Transvaal. In March, the British army has increased more than 200,000 people, in contrast to the Boers, the country is small and small, but only a few tens of thousands of people, and ultimately unbeatable, March 13, 1900, the capital of Orange was attacked, June 5, the Transvaal capital was attacked.
Although the capital was occupied, but the Boers did not give up, the whole began to play guerrilla warfare with the British, attacking the British supply lines, and even later Prime Minister Winston Churchill was captured in the Boer War, and even almost shot.
Seeing the Boer guerrilla warfare played by the British army suffering, so the British ordered the construction of more than 6,000 kilometers of barbed wire, the Boer region is divided into a number of areas to block the Boer cavalry guerrilla, followed by the construction of bunkers within the barbed wire, step by step, in addition to the implementation of the scorched earth policy, as long as it is daring to help the Boer guerrillas, around 10 miles of the farm houses all burned down, the final is the Boers can not go to war the old, young, women and children 100,000 people all seized into concentration camps, forcing the Boers to surrender, in the concentration camps, **** 22,000 people died of disease inside (including children), and finally in the British brutal suppression, the Boers in 1902 announced the surrender.
Three years in the Boer War, Britain to 450,000 troops killed in action under the cost of more than 20,000 people finally made the Boers surrender, if not for the huge national strength of the United Kingdom, who won and who lost is not certain, but the end of the war is also a happy ending, the British compensated the Boers for the loss of the war, the Boers of the **** and the country has become the British colony, and in 1910 when and the other two colonies into the Union of South Africa. Boer War is the British colonial foreign wars in the largest number of troops, the longest delay, the largest expenditure is the most cruel war, in the British colonial wars within four hundred years of two hundred and thirty times, the second Boer War this one cost 220 million pounds, what is the concept of this money? At that time 220 million pounds is equivalent to 1.465 billion of silver, and the "Xinjiao Treaty" and "Treaty of Shimonoseki" together but 650 million taels, all of a sudden let the British accumulation of hundreds of years of national wealth into nothing, after the war also spent 300,000 pounds to rebuild the Boer's homes.
The Boer War has lowered the national status of the British, the British bully a small country with a big bully, we must know that at that time the Boers were only 300,000 to 400,000, the army is also cobbled together 80,000 people, and the number of British reinforcements on the more than the Boers, can be said to be the shame of the British foreign wars. The inhumane policy of repression tore down the British hypocrisy of the cloth, but also let the British in the international morning unprecedented isolation.
Secondly, the "glorious isolation" policy pursued by the United Kingdom is also beginning to fail, the Boer War so that the United Kingdom completely found itself in the international position, the opposite of the Boers, how many countries in the help of him, which also allows the United Kingdom to give up the previous policy, began to actively participate in the European things, but also spawned the policy of alliance with Japan, the United States, and Japan, the United States, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan. The abandonment of the "glorious isolation" was also a sign of the weakening of Britain, which was no longer able to fight against the European powers on its own.
In addition, the reason why the British and Japan alliance, the original intention is to have no time to look east, so that Japan to curb the expansion of Russia and the United States and other countries in East Asia, as a watchman, the results of the Japanese thought to hold on to the thighs, launched the Russo-Japanese War in East Asia, which made the British unexpected.
Lastly is the link between the British colonies and the British mainland, the Boer War British troops have more than 400,000 people, of which the colonies sent more than 30,000 people, they are also reluctant to begin to depend on Britain because of the war began, are seeking independence, so that the British gradually lost control of the colonies, especially in Australia and New Zealand, successively became self-governing territories in 1901 and 1907, so that the British Empire gradually transformed later. The British Empire was gradually transformed into the Commonwealth of Nations.
Of course, in addition to these, the main thing is to let the countries of the world to see the British overstretched, once the Sunset Empire has not been able to successfully solve the effect of a South Africa, he actually can not suppress the scene, so the countries are beginning to think, such as the United States and Germany are ready to reach out to East Asia, Japan and Britain behind the alliance to try to establish their own main East Asian circle of influence, Austria-Hungary Austria-Hungary began to press the Balkans, Serbia began to fantasize about its own Greater Serbia and so on, Australia and New Zealand took the opportunity to become independent, also forcing Britain to begin to adopt a soft policy towards the colonies.
It is worth mentioning that in the Boer War, the British opened the door to modern warfare, such as focusing on communication, the telephone and telegraph were used in a large number of wars, and a large number of new equipment was used, such as the Lienfeld rifle, the Maxim machine gun, the Armstrong field gun and so on, which was an eye-opener to Europeans, and in addition, the source of the modern guerrilla warfare was the Boer, which made the British army tired of dealing with it, and it can be said that the Boer War not only caused the decline of Britain, but also made it a great opportunity for the British to make a better living. It can be said that the Boer War not only weakened Britain, but also profoundly affected the subsequent military and diplomatic.