The Anglo-Boer war by Simone Pelizza
The conflict that upset the South Africa at the beginning of the 20th century,
furnishing a test bench for the modern weapons that would have been subsequently
used in World War 1.
Prelude
As a result of the napoleonic wars, Great Britain had officially acquired the
control of the Cape of Good Hope in 1814, although it already occupied it in concrete
since 1806. This got further the Boers, the aboriginal farmers of Dutch language
of the Colony of the Cape, from the influence of their own homeland (Holland),
setting them directly under the British government; and it dramatically altered
their way of life based on a rigid religious code of puritanical observance. Now,
such rigid beliefs were totally threatened by a culture and an administration
extraneous to them, brought by men that were considered as " invaders ".
The contrasts already emerged in 1834, when Great Britain ordered the emancipation
of all the slaves in every part of the empire, included South Africa . For the
Boers, such provision was really unacceptable under the religious point of view:
the rigid puritanical conceptions, in fact, had rooted in them the conviction
to be infinitely superior to the ancient native tribes that originally lived in
the lands occupied by them. To make incandescent the situation, there was the
inadequate system of compensation of the economic losses fixed by the English
government, which also tried to combine the abolitionist measure with the assimilation
of the juridical status of blacks and white. Therefore, the Boer population was
persuaded to look for a new country in the inside beyond the rivers Orange and
Vaal, away from the interference of the British colonialism.
The "Great Trek " and its consequences
Between 1842 and 1848 over 12.000 Boers went beyond the river Orange, establishing
themselves in the mountains of the Draskenberg or entering in Zulu territory in
the Natal. As many, they went beyond the river Vaal. It was the "Great Trek
", the migration that so much would have influenced the history of the modernSouth
Africa.
In effects, it immediately brought some heavy consequences: Great Britain,
disturbed by the challenge of its acquired " subjects ", reacted with
strength, invading militarily the whole area occupied by the emigrants . The victory
of Boomplats marked nevertheless an ephemeral success for the British; the tireless
Boer resistance brought in 1852 to the Convention of Sand River, and therefore
to the complete independence of the whole territory beyond the Vaal (Transvaal).
The South African Republic has born, also reached two years later from the independence
of the territories beyond the Orange (Free State of Orange). The Boers had won,
and they had succeeded in freeing from the English dominion; but their newborn
Republics were tottering, unstable either politically either economically. Besides,
a situation of serious hostility remained with Great Britain. When in the following
decades (1860-1890) immense layers of diamonds were discovered in the Transvaal,
the road to a new armed conflict had opened. The potential mining wealths that
South Africa could guarantee to the imperial coffers, in fact, let quickly change
idea to the government of London, until that moment hostile to the Boers but,
however, inclinable to maintain a rather pacific attitude in their comparisons.
Numerous attempts of annexation of the South African Republic were pursued, without
any result: rather, the military occupation of it in 1881 brought to the heavy
defeat of Majuba, one of the most mortifying pages in the history of the British
Colonial Army.
To complicate the things, they came new elements: in 1886, always in the Transvaal,
one of the greatest auriferous layers of the world was discovered; in 1890 the
powerful imperialist financier Cecil Rhodes began to extract and to introduce
on the international market the diamonds of the Colony of the Cape, putting therefore
in crisis the Boers companies; still in that same years the extremist Paul Kruger
was elected President of the South African Republic: He wanted to exploit the
new auriferous vein to relaunch the economy of his own country and to also guarantee
to it an access to the ocean, getting it to expenses of the hated English. Such
intents attracted the attention of Germany that had the intention to pursue a
politics of imperial power in open competition with London. Therefore, with the
economic and military (weapons and advisers) support of the German empire, the
Transvaal started to affirm its own economic power against Great Britain and its
colonial ambitions.
By now, the British Crown could not bear anymore the existence of a strong
boer government structure able to oppose to its supremacy in Southern Africa,
and also tied with the German Empire. The priority became to stop every political
and commercial velleity of the South African Republic and to force it to submit
to its own will. It was important , on this point of view, the action of the already
quoted Cecil Rhodes: the cynicism and the ability with which he succeeded in extending
the railway line Port Elizabeth-Free State of Orange up to the auriferous fields
of the Transvaal, in spite of the vivacious opposition of Kruger, broadly showed
the British wish to encircle and to crush the government of Pretoria.
The birth of the new dominion of Rhodesia, in 1895, still due to work of Rhodes
(the name was given in his honor), worsened the situation; but Kruger and the
africaner nationalists tenaciously continued to oppose to the objectives of London.
In fact, the attempt of the untiring Rhodes (with the external support of the
Foreign Office) to upset the government of Pretoria miserably failed (Raid Jameson
in October 1895), strengthening the Boer intolerance. In the 1897, the Southafrican
Republic and the Free State of Orange signed an accord of mutual assistance: the
war was inexorably approaching in Southern Africa.
The "Boer War": field forces and alternate fortunes
The nomination of Sir Alfred Milner to the position of high commissioner of
the Cape (1897) showed the British decision definitely to put an end to the independence
of the Boer republics at any cost. Aware of the imminent danger, the Free State
of Orange and the Southafrican Republic concluded a formal alliance in 1898 and
begun with urgency the acquisition of large quantities of modern weapons from
Germany and also from France.
On October 9 1899 Kruger addressed an ultimatum to England, summoning them
to withdraw within the following 48 hours all the troops displaced along the frontier
of the Transvaal. In the whole territory of the Southafrican Republic the martial
law was proclaimed, while the Free State of Orange was starting the mobilization.
English didn't even examine the ultimatum that expired therefore in the late afternoon
on October 11. The anglo-boera war (known also as " Boer war") had been
declared.
Initially, the Boers, despite the numerical inferiority and the scarce military
preparation, succeeded in inflicting considerable losses to their adversaries:
in February 1900 the commandosof the Transvaal launched a heavy offensive along
the whole front, from the Natal to the border with the Rhodesia, getting important
but not decisive successes (Kimberley and Mafeking). The incapability of the Boer
commanders to pursue the British units in rout and to exploit fully the good result
of the operations became serious errors giving time to the English army to react.
London sent in South Africa more than 450.000 men, flowed by the whole empire
and commanded by the most prestigious heads. Against them, the Boers could oppose
only 20.000 guerrilleros, already exhausted after months of furious fights.
The nomination of Lord Kitchener, the winner of Khartum, as Chief of Staff of
the British army represented the turning point of the conflict.
The English war machine had started. Already on the first days of March 1900,
the Free State of Orange was invaded by the "read blouse", and at end
of May definitely stopped existing. In front of the more and more dramatic situation,
Kruger tried to sensitize the European governments in favor of the Boer cause;
but any power, including the German " friend ", didn't have even intention
to spoil its own relationships with Great Britain for such a distant and already
lost war . The Southafrican President's trip in the capital cities of the Old
Continent (autumn 1900) was resolved in a failure. After the capitulation of the
Transvaal in 1902, Kruger established in exile in Switzerland, where he died on
July 14 1904. In the same year his ashes were brought in South Africa and buried
in the cemetery of Pretoria.
The end of the war: consequences
At the beginning of 1901 the Boer army didn't exist anymore, and only few commandos
were able to continue the struggle. It began, after the fall of Pretoria (spring
1901), a period of fierce guerrilla, in front of which English were completely
unprepared and impotent. Insecurity became total, and whole regions were subtracted
to the British authority. To face the Boer resistance, Kitchener decided to modify
the organization of his own strengths: the English soldiers entrenched in the
cities. They built bunkers and grids to protect the railroad and they formed mixed
mobile unity, composed by cavalry and mountain infantry, able (in theory) to fight
the commandos on the same ground. But all these measures revealed themselves ineffective.
Then, Kitchener chose the way of the total " war ", enlisting the native
tribes (Kafir and Zulu) in the army and pushing them to chase the guerrilleros
on the field, while the white British troops were assaulting the Boer farms, burning
them and deporting the inhabitants. Whole families were confined in concentration
camps, where they slowly died for epidemics and for hunger.
It was a real genocide: at the end of the war, the Boer population had reduced
to less than an half. The figures of mortality in the fields founded by Kitchener
were even superior to those of the Nazi lagers in World War 2. The English, American
and European public opinion didn't hide indignation and opposition for these cruelties,
but the war continued without standstill. At the end of the winter 1902, exhausted
and without more ammunition, the last Boer guerrilleros surrendered. On May 31
of the same year, with an agreement undersigned by Boers and British, the Orange
and the Transvaal were annexed to the Colony of the Cape. South Africa was now
a complete dominion of British His Majesty.
However, Great Britain didn't misuse the victory acquired to so dear price:
well soon it gave life to a politics of reconstruction that gained the respect
of good part of the afrikaner population . The imperialist groups that were to
the power in London started a real Anglicanization of the white population of
southern Africa. In a shortly time the two former Boer republics definitely belonged
to the British empire, also on the cultural and social point of view. The former
enemies reapproached each other, pushed by precise economic and political necessities:
on a side, the economic resumption passed only through a capillary and organized
politics of union; on the other side, the two white populations were felt threatened
by the new awareness acquired by the black majority during the conflict and therefore
they had to also look for an agreement on this point to preserve privileges and
power. That infamous system of apartheid that would have held up the history of
the new South Africa for nearly 80 yeasr was slowly delineated. It was this the
most terrible inheritance of a conflict between the bloodiest of the contemporary
epoch.
Sources: Bernard Lugan, "History of South Africa", Garzanti Publishing
(original title of the book: "Histoire de l'Afrique du Sud. De lantiquité
à nos jours", 1986 Librairies Académique Perrin)
The author points out as English sources of his work, for the period quoted
in this article, mainly the followings texts: D. Denoon, "Southern Africa
since 1800", London 1984; W.K. Hancock, "General Smuts. The Sanguine
Years (1870-1919)", Cambridge 1962; T.J. Noer, "Briton, Boer and Yankee
. The United States and South Africa (1870-1914)", Kent State University,
Ohio 1979; A.N. Porter, "The Origins of the South African War: Joseph Chamberlain
and the Diplomacy of Imperialism", Manchester University 1980
I also thank Lucas Turks for the precious suggestions and the interesting
material picked. Unfortunately, the picture of the events is so vast that has
not been possible to insert several parts of such material in the article. I do
a small enclosure of it in way that who is interested in deepening the matter
(especially the role of the Blacks in this dramatic period of the Southafrican
history and the changes brought to it from anglo-boer conflict ), can freely consult
these facts and interesting data. Thanks still to Lucas.
Attachment
While the principal protagonists of the war, thi is tosay Great Britain and
the two Boer republics were mainly white , it was not exclusively the war of the
white man.
Black persons were involved as fighters, to a limited degree, although both parts
had initially agreed that they would have assumed a role of not fighting. At least
15000 blacks had been armed from English and they served in British mobile columns
that tried to follow the traces of the Boer commandos.
* Around 25000 served as watches of the English fields of imprisonment
*They were also employed for the maintenance of the system of the Military
and Imperial Railroad and in the few mines that had reopened in the attempt to
let work again the economy.
* They were also employed in a role of military support as explorers, agterryers
and drivers of wagons.
* As war refugees
Almost 30000 Boer farmer's houses had been destroyed and the women and children
were deported in concentration camps. The Black servants and workers had to be
accordingly deported for preventing helping their employers in the commandos with
food and information.
Besides, nobody had remained in the farms to feed them. 37 Black concentration
camps are recorded in Transvaal (former Republic of South Africa) and 29 in the
Colony of Orange River (already Free State of Orange).
In these fields it was imprisoned a total valued in 11500 adult persons. These
camps were situated mainly along the lines of the Railroad that went from Bloemfontein
to north toward Pretoria and then to east toward Nelspruit. From Johannesburg
the fields had been established to south east toward Volksrust and someone along
the line from the River Orange to Taung in the northern part of the province of
the Cape.
Local camps were also built along the railroad in Thaba Nchu, Winburg, Heilbron
and Harrismith. The exact position of the fields in Natal has not been yet established.
Initially, the camps were under the control of the soldiers but after June 1901
the control passed to the Department for the Native Refugees.
Half of the recorded Black deaths happened in the three months between November
1900 and January 1901. 2831 corpses were recorded in December 1901. 81% of the
deaths were children. Officially, 14154 corpses were recorded but since the registers
of the fields are unsatisfactory the number could be next to 20000.
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