We all know that the watershed of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, which spanned three continents, Asia, Europe and Africa, was the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in September 1683 at the Battle of Vienna, a siege of the Ottoman Empire. This battle not only succeeded in stopping the Ottoman Empire's invasion of Europe, but it was also a watershed moment in the decline of the Ottoman Empire.
So, do you know which war started the decline of the British Empire? Actually, there really was a war that, like the Battle of Vienna in the Ottoman Empire, is considered to be the beginning of the decline of the British Empire. This war is the little known Boer War, which took place in southern Africa.
So what kind of war was the Boer War? Why did it have such a great power to stop the expansion of the British Empire and make it decline?
The Boer War, which took place between Britain and the Transvaal*** and the Orange Free State, founded by the Boers (now known as the Afrikaners), descendants of Dutch immigrants, was a war over the territory and resources of South Africa. There were in fact two Boer wars, the first being a skirmish that took place between December 16, 1880 and March 6, 1881. The second Boer War, which took place between October 11, 1899 and May 31, 1902, is the one being talked about today.
This war was the most heavily fought and fought in the history of British imperial expansion. It was the Boer War that put an end to the expansion of the British Empire, which not only disgraced the British Empire, but also suffered a severe blow to its authority and strength, and at the same time strengthened the covetousness of emerging empires like Germany for its colonies, which indirectly led to the subsequent two world wars.
The Dutch word "Boer" means "peasant". The Boers are the descendants of the Dutch, the "sea coachmen" of the southern African colonies. 1652, the first Dutch came to the Cape in South Africa to establish a colony. After more than 100 years of expansion, the Boers became the dominant ethnic group in the region. However, the Boers did not have the power to dominate South Africa.
In 1795, the British landed on the Cape and began a century-long struggle with the Boers in South Africa. After years of conflict, the Boers felt themselves to be no match for the British, and the Thirty-Six Stratagems were the best plan. The Boers began to migrate northward and established the Transvaal and Orange **** and States in 1852 and 1854 respectively.
The Boers had wanted to take refuge in these two places, which were originally the more backward of all the colonies, and live a quiet life by farming and raising cattle and sheep. Because it was relatively barren, Europeans were reluctant to come here at all. But in 1867, diamonds were discovered in the Orange Riverlands, and in 1896, the Transvaal discovered the world's largest Rand gold mine. These two major discoveries, made less than 20 years before and after, instantly set South Africa on fire, and for a time all the empires, old and new, flocked to the Transvaal and the Orange to become the first choice of thousands of adventurers.
How could the British Empire, however, which had made its fortune on colonies, let go of the diamonds and gold here?
In 1887, Britain took over the Zulu territories, thus cutting off the Boers' access to the sea. At the same time, they continued to encroach on the Transvaal, grabbing resources with the Boers, resulting in constant conflict.
By 1895, the British government secretly ordered the Governor of the Cape to send troops to annex the Transvaal, however, when nearly a thousand men were ready for the sneak attack, the Germans got the information and revealed it to the Transvaal. But the miserable Boers did not even have an army, and had to improvise a militia of two thousand men. But with such a team, relying on favorable terrain, they actually beat the British army into submission.
How could the British Empire tolerate this? Immediately afterwards in 1896, the British Empire mobilized 450,000 troops from the mainland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to launch a massive attack on the Boers. But at that time, the Boers' Transvaal and Orangemen combined were only 440,000 people, with all the young and strong men on the battlefield and less than 90,000 troops.
Then the Western world launched a sympathy and solidarity with the Boers' situation, the Netherlands and Belgium formed a number of civic groups, solicited donations, public opinion campaigns, donations of wartime mobile hospitals and medical equipment. Thousands of volunteers from Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, the United States, Russia, Ireland, Italy and Scandinavia also traveled across the seas to the Transvaal, determined to fight alongside the Boers. As a result, the Boers were greatly inspired, and while everyone was sweating for the Boers at the end of their rope, the Boers, by virtue of their valor and tenacity and flexible guerrilla tactics, managed to fight the British for two and a half years.
However, the cruelty of war is unimaginable, the Boers with the cost of seventy percent of the casualties of young men and women, resulting in the British army killed 22,000 people and the expenditure of 2 billion pounds of military expenditure of the huge losses, and finally with the British Empire armistice negotiations. Although Britain won the war, the serious consequences gradually emerged.
The main thing is that the prestige of the British Empire's boss was swept away. Hall of the British Empire world boss, in order to grab the diamond gold and make a big fuss, have lost the style of the great powers, eating ugly to the extreme, by the national community of contempt condemnation. There is also to make people think that the British army, which has dominated the world for a hundred years, has such low fighting power that even the Boers, who have a population of only 440,000, are fighting such a hard time, so people think that Britain is not working. So Germany, eager to be the boss of Europe, got even more stupid. And then let the British more loss is in its full fight the Boers two and a half years, Germany, France, Russia, the three major European powers but not at all idle, taking the opportunity to seize the territory, expanding strength, so that the balance of power in Europe is gradually out of balance, the British empire system is also difficult to continue to maintain, but also for the subsequent First World War, and even the Second World War laid the foundation for the ambush.