1899-1902 The Boer War

At the turn of the 19^th century Britain instigated the Boer War in South Africa. Indeed it was earlier more widely known as the South African War. The British Empire came to the aid of the mother country battling its enemy - not five million heavily armed Germans, but a few thousand Afrikaans-speaking Protestant farmers, or Boers. At the start a gung ho attitude was shared in Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with a particularly jingoistic mood in Britain. By its end it had given way to severe doubts on the legitimacy and purpose of the Empire. And looking back, it marked the beginning of the end.

Causes of the war

After 1836’s Great Trek following the abolition of slavery in the British Empire, the Cape farmers of mainly Dutch, Huguenot and German descent, or ‘Boers’, formed two independent republics, the Orange Free State and Transvaal. ‘Boers’ was Afrikaans/Dutch for farmers. In 1875, having annexed Basutoland, Britain planned a Canada-style confederation of South African states. Part of a neo-imperialist ‘scramble for Africa’ surge, it was sold to the world as a basis for progress and economic growth under British rule - unacceptable to both Boer states. Fighting, with heavy British losses, followed in 1880 until internal independence for Transvaal was conferred in 1884.

Map showing Boer republics in 1899

It was not a stable situation. And when gold was discovered in the Transvaal Witwatersrand in 1886 things deteriorated. With diamonds also found in the Orange Free State both Boer republics were seen as a political and economic bar to British territorial control. Imperialists like Cecil Rhodes wanted a Cape to Cairo railway to bolster Britain’s continental rule. But rich states would clearly become a strong geographic barrier to such schemes.

The goldfields, controlled by outside investors, had attracted 45,000 mainly British prospectors, or Uitlanders. Britain wanted the vote for them but the Boers feared that if granted, their own people could soon be outnumbered. Rhodes’1896 Jameson Raid to overthrow Paul Kruger’s Transvaal government was a total fiasco. But it inflamed Afrikaner nationalists.

Arrest of Dr Jameson after the failed raid

Britain’s point man in the Cape, Alfred Milner, thought Kruger was pressing for a united South Africa under Afrikaner rule. He felt war was the only way to combat what he, and quite a few others, viewed as the Boer threat to the British Empire.

Support from the Empire

The Uitlanders’ cause was the excuse for war and for a huge military build-up at the Cape. Milner, Cape Prime Minister Rhodes and Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary, wanted to annex the Boer republics. They were backed by the mining syndicate owners. Conservative PM Lord Salisbury in London was less sure. He despised jingoism but felt an obligation to British South Africans and thought the Boers just wanted a Dutch South Africa. But he was concerned over cruel Boer treatment of black South Africans, which he viewed as slavery. 

Cecil Rhodes

Looking back it seems surprising that so many people in far flung parts of the British Empire were such enthusiasts for war. It’s testament to the way large numbers of imperial citizens still viewed themselves as British.  If Britain was at war, whatever the circumstances, they saw it as their responsibility to join the fight. The Uitlanders pretext seems to have been generally swallowed by the public, while little thought was given to the wealth and power of gold, the true reason for the conflict.

Early defeats and a turnaround

The war began in October 1899 when it was widely thought that Britain, with a well trained and equipped professional army, would easily beat the amateur Boer fighters. At its peak the Boers could only field up to 40,000, and usually far fewer. British and Empire forces numbered up to 450,000, plus tens of thousands of African auxiliaries. Yet a few well-armed Boer units, catching overconfident and underprepared opponents, soon besieged Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking. In December 1899’s ‘Black Week’ they won battles at Magersfontein, Stormberg, and Colenso, where British commander Redvers Buller’s 21,000 strong army lost 1,300 men killed, missing or wounded.  

Relief of Ladysmith, John Bacon

After negative reports from the field Buller was replaced by Lords Roberts and Kitchener who built a new HQ staff team. This phase of the war, with increased British troop numbers, saw the (costly) relief of the besieged towns, ending with Mafeking in May 1900. The last event caused tumultuous joy in Britain, with garrison chief Robert Baden-Powell, who’d earlier got himself trapped there, becoming an instant hero throughout the Empire. He went on to found the Boy Scouts but his reputation was later tarnished by accusations of racism and his supposed admiration for fascist dictators.

The Boers were soon beaten on all fronts with Britain taking their capitals Bloemfontein, and then in June, Pretoria. The British army seized, then annexed, the Orange Free State and Transvaal, and the Boer leaders went into hiding or exile. The war seemed all but over, and the government called a general election to capitalise on the wave of popular support. Held in September-October 1900 as the ‘Khaki Election’ it unsurprisingly returned a landslide Conservative majority.

Paul Kruger

But the war wasn’t over. The Boers’ new military leaders resorted to highly mobile hit and run guerrilla tactics. The British response was a scorched earth policy, burning crops and farms and killing livestock. The survivors, including women, children and African workers, were forced into concentration camps. Probably some 50,000 died of hunger and disease in dire conditions. This left a long legacy of bitterness toward Britain and thus some real ambivalence about joining the Allied side in World War I.

War arithmetic and uneasy peace 

The Boers surrendered in May 1902. Under the Treaty of Vereeniging the former republics became colonies to be merged with the Cape and Natal Colonies into the Union of South Africa in 1910. But self-government was accepted within a few years before union, and questions like the rights of the majority black population plus Indian and other minorities were left for them alone to decide later. They also received money to cover war damage, though many farmers driven out by scorched earth activities could not return as the land had become unworkable. This aside, the terms overall were quite generous but did little to counter lasting Boer resentment.

Both sides saw the conflict as essentially a ‘white man’s war’. By the end some 30,000 local armed black recruits were serving with British forces. The Boers refused to treat these men as legitimate combatants. If captured they were summarily executed. Black communities had driven Boer commando fighters and their families from several areas of the Transvaal, curtailing Boer operations and contributing to a willingness to seek peace terms. Black occupation of these areas was not recognised either in 1902 or later with the Union. Some 20,000 Boer fighters had earlier given up and accepted British rule. 5,000 of them even joined British Empire forces to fight against their former comrades.

Lord Roberts enters Kimberley

24,000 South Africans, mainly from the Cape and Natal, served in British colonial units, joined by a few thousand Uitlanders who left Transvaal shortly before the war began. Empire forces were boosted by volunteer contingents from Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Lack of local infrastructure saw 75,000 injured or sick soldiers returned to Britain. With nowhere to house Boer prisoners, 24,000 were sent overseas, many to St Helena. 23,000 Empire troops were killed against 6,000 Boers, but civilian deaths at up to 100,000 dwarfed this.

Results of the conflict

The war devastated the Afrikaners economically and psychologically leading to poverty and growing urbanisation. They were determined to be independent of British influence and culture. It shaped them as ‘race patriots’ revealing an aggressive nationalism and a desire to dominate the country. This together with a fear of the black majority, later helped bring the infamous racially segregated apartheid policy.

International, including imperial, opinion, became hostile to Britain. The country’s ill preparedness for this conflict was an embarrassment as Army recruitment saw a third of volunteers fail fitness tests. Despite the huge numbers sent out, Britain simply hadn’t enough fit men. Better health, welfare and school meals were later adopted to combat the problem. 300,000 horses had died on the British side, shocking public and army opinion. And rail and motor transport were becoming recognised as vital in modern warfare, though not yet radio.

Milner later became Colonial Secretary and War Secretary. In South Africa he was a hard liner, though drew a group of young Oxford graduates to his service - Milner’s kindergarten - who worked to tackle post war resentments. The reality encouraged them to become more progressive in outlook. But by then Milner had departed. He was never linked to a political party. Historian Colin Newbury rather politely wrote “An influential public servant for three decades, Milner was a visionary exponent of imperial unity at a time when imperialism was beginning to be called into question. His reputation exceeded his achievements”.

Alfred Milner

Britain’s long ‘splendid isolation’ policy was at last coming apart. Ententes were signed with France, Japan and Russia. Whitehall began to realise that the days of Empire were numbered. With a big public change of heart, 1906 saw a Liberal election landslide. As for South Africa, it was widely said that Britain had won the war, but lost the peace.