History UsefulNotes / TheSecondBoerWar

The British Army eventually resorted to rounding up entire Boer communities and imprisoning them in so-called 'Concentration Camps', the first ''widespread''[[note]]Spain had used camps in the Cuban struggle for independence and the United States was using similar camps at the same time fighting the insurgency in the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar recently-acquired]] [[UsefulNotes/ThePhilippines Philippines]], but the use was much more limited.[[/note]] use of the strategy. At the time "concentration camps" was a neutral term which meant exactly what it sounded like: camps where the Boer population, previously dispersed thinly across the countryside, was ''concentrated'' in one place. This was done to make it easier to deal with the insurgents until the war was over and they'd be released. The once neutral term's current connotation of "place where you murder people you don't like" is purely because the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] intentionally used it to mask the fact that they were running slave and death camps. That said, the British concentration camps were no picnic either, as food was often scarce--sometimes intentionally so--and thousands died from the resulting combination of malnutrition and disease. Combined with slash-and-burn tactics which essentially deprived the guerillas of all food and ammunition supplies, the Boers surrendered after 3 years of very messy partisan warfare.

The British Army eventually resorted to rounding up entire Boer communities and imprisoning them in so-called 'Concentration Camps', the first ''widespread''[[note]]Spain had used camps in the Cuban struggle for independence and the United States was using similar camps at the same time fighting the insurgency in the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar recently-acquired]] [[UsefulNotes/ThePhilippines Philippines]], but the use was much more limited.[[/note]] use of the strategy. At the time "concentration camps" was a neutral term which meant exactly what it sounded like: camps where the Boer population, previously dispersed thinly across the countryside, was ''concentrated'' in one place. This was done to make it easier to deal with the insurgents until the war was over and they'd be released. The term's current connotation of "place where you murder people you don't like" is purely because the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] intentionally used the neutral term to mask the fact that they were running slave and death camps. That said, the British concentration camps were no picnic either, as food was often scarce--sometimes intentionally so--and thousands died from the resulting combination of malnutrition and disease. Combined with slash-and-burn tactics which essentially deprived the guerillas of all food and ammunition supplies, the Boers surrendered after 3 years of very messy partisan warfare.

The Boers were the descendants of Dutch settlers that founded the Cape Colony in the mid 17th Century. Over the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, their language and culture diverged from that of UsefulNotes/TheNetherlands (by the early 19th century, the Boers' language was seen in the Netherlands as archaic and simplistic, almost baby talk; the Boers were strict Calvinist Protestants almost to a man, while in the Netherlands there were [[UsefulNotes/{{Pillarisation}} Catholics and less-strict Protestants, and by the middle of the 19th century secular liberals and socialists as well]]). In time, their tongue--different enough to be considered a separate language, similar enough to still be largely understood by a speaker of Standard Dutch--became known as Afrikaans, and the people Afrikaners. However, it took a while for these labels to catch on; even they weren't sure what to call themselves for the longest time, and until a certain, unclear point in the early 20th century, the English-speaking world called them ''Boers''--Afrikaans and Dutch for "Farmers" (which most of them were).

The war had three generally-recognized phases. The first consisted of a preemptive strike by the formal armies of the Boer republics, resulting in sieges of major Cape Colony garrisons at Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking; the Empire tried to fight them off and relieve the sieges with the Cape Colony forces, which resulted in precisely nothing. In the second, the Empire abandoned all pretensions of limited warfare and poured everything it had into winning, bankrolled as they were by merchants eager to see the fields of Witterstrand under British administration so that they might invest in them and reap the benefits of the boom. The third phase was when the Boers, with their formal countries dispersed or otherwise in disarray, began to conduct a harrowing guerrilla campaign.[[note]]In retrospect, one might see it as Vietnam in reverse: where Vietnam began as a domestic South Vietnamese insurgency by the Viet Cong and then turned into direct fighting between the Americans and South Vietnamese against North Vietnam, the Boer War started as a direct conflict between the Boer republics and the British and then turned into a Boer insurgency. It is, therefore, oddly, rather more like the [[UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror Iraq War]] than Vietnam.[[/note]] Army eventually resorted to rounding up entire Boer communities and imprisoning them in so-called 'Concentration Camps', the first ''widespread''[[note]]Spain had used camps in the Cuban struggle for independence and the United States was using similar camps at the same time fighting the insurgency in the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar recently-acquired]] [[UsefulNotes/ThePhilippines Philippines]], but the use was much more limited.[[/note]] use of the strategy.[[note]]Note that at the time "concentration camps" were exactly what they said they were: camps where the Boer population, previously dispersed thinly across the countryside, was ''concentrated'' in one place, to make it easier to deal with the insurgents, with the intent to release them as soon as the war was over. At the time the term sounded rather neutral; its current connotations of "place where you send people you don't like to die for no reason" is purely because the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] intentionally used the neutral term to mask the fact that they ran death camps and slave factories. That said, the British concentration camps were no picnic, either; food was often scarce--sometimes intentionally so--and thousands died from a combination of malnutrition and disease.[[/note]] Combined with slash-and-burn tactics which essentially deprived the guerillas of all food and ammunition supplies, the Boers surrendered after 3 years of very messy partisan warfare.

The Second Boer War was caused by increased tensions between the British and the Boer states of Transvaal and the Orange Free State, exacerbated by the discovery of the world's greatest gold deposits in said Boer States. (during the 20th century, South Africa produced >50% of the world's gold). British merchants like Cecil Rhodes - 'founder' of British Rhodesia - wanted in, and they agitated for the government to annex the Boer states, by force if necessary.

The Second war was caused by increased tensions between the British and the Boer states of Transvaal and the Orange Free State, exacerbated by the discovery of the world's greatest gold deposits in said Boer States. (during the 20th century, South Africa produced >50% of the world's gold). British merchants like Cecil Rhodes - 'founder' of British Rhodesia - wanted in, and they agitated for the government to annex the Boer states, by force if necessary.

The resultant war was long, and bloody. It has been described by American historians as 'Britain's [[UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar Vietnam]], only not' - though a better way to put it might be that the American phase of the Vietnam War was like the Boer War, except they lost.

The war had three generally-recognized phases. The first consisted of a preemptive strike by the formal armies of the Boer republics, resulting in sieges of major Cape Colony garrisons at Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking; the Empire tried to fight them off and relieve the sieges with the Cape Colony forces, which resulted in precisely nothing. In the second, the Empire abandoned all pretensions of limited warfare and poured everything it had into winning, bankrolled as they were by merchants eager to see the fields of Witterstrand under British administration so that they might invest in them and reap the benefits of the boom. The third phase was when the Boers, with their formal countries dispersed or otherwise in disarray, began to conduct a harrowing guerrilla campaign.[[note]]In retrospect, one might see it as Vietnam in reverse: where Vietnam began as a domestic South Vietnamese insurgency by the Viet Cong and then turned into direct fighting between the Americans and South Vietnamese against North Vietnam, the Boer War started as a direct conflict between the Boer republics and the British and then turned into a Boer insurgency. It is therefore, oddly, rather more like the [[UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror Iraq War]] than Vietnam.[[/note]] Army eventually resorted to rounding up entire Boer communities and imprisoning them in so-called 'Concentration Camps', the first ''widespread''[[note]]Spain had used camps in the Cuban struggle for independence and the United States was using similar camps at the same time fighting the insurgency in the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar recently-acquired]] [[UsefulNotes/ThePhilippines Philippines]], but the use was much more limited.[[/note]] use of the strategy.[[note]]Note that at the time "concentration camps" were exactly what they said they were: camps where the Boer population, previously dispersed thinly across the countryside, was ''concentrated'' in one place, to make it easier to deal with the insurgents, with the intent to release them as soon as the war was over. At the time the term sounded rather neutral; its current connotations of "place where you send people you don't like to die for no reason" is purely because the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] intentionally used the neutral term to mask the fact that they ran death camps and slave factories. That said, the British concentration camps were no picnic, either; food was often scarce--sometimes intentionally so--and thousands died from a combination of malnutrition and disease.[[/note]] Combined with slash-and-burn tactics which essentially deprived the guerillas of all food and ammunition supplies, the Boers surrendered after 3 years of very messy partisan warfare.

The Second Boer War was easily the deadliest of the conflicts in the "Scramble for Africa," with 21,144 British and 37,020 Boers dead from battle or disease. Most of the Boer casualties were civilians who died in internment, the result of poor administration which initially left many camps under-supplied. None died of starvation itself, but the malnutrition left many weakened and susceptible to diseases which spread easily in the confines of the camps.

The Dutch settlers never really got over this, and their own anti-British sentiment, especially as Britain began decolonizing it's other African conquests, eventually lead to the declaration of the Republic of South Africa in 1961 [[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra and...]]

* In Fan Fiction, ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' author Creator/AAPessimal introduced what Ankh-Morpork sniffily calls The Boor War, as part of the backstory of an expanded Discworld "Africa", and a historical reason for [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Rimwards Howondaland]] to generate attitudinal and somewhat pugnacious people who, in this world, ''won'' the War. Mainly because Ankh-Morpork sent generals like Lord Rust out to lead its colonial Army to inevitable ruin and destruction against the people they persist in calling Boors. A descendent of great Boor War leaders and fighters is, at the time of the "present-day" tales, a prominent Assassin in Ankh-Morpork. Her family are walking reasons as to ''why'' Ankh-Morpork lost. both the Boer Wars of our world are conflated into one Boor War for narrative convenience; here Majuba Hill was fought in the same war as Spion Kop. [[note]]And Smith-Rhodes family members were at both. Morpork was doomed.[[/note]]

* [[UsefulNotes/SouthAfrica Afrikaaner]] folk singer Bok van Blerk commemorates the doomed struggle of the Boers with ballads such as the hymn ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wdIiT16LV4 Afrikanerhart]]'' [[note]]Which caused no small controversy in SA; the black majority government was alarmed at what it saw as a rallying call for white nationalism, and refused radio airplay for van Blerk's songs, on the spurious grounds that they were promoting racial hatred.[[/note]] and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41Hra8tZgEU&list=PLIa36ETako3MaZaw7-I0qEuflOniBvTWd&index=5&t=0s De La Rey]]'', about the last Boer general to surrender to the British and the men who fought literally to the last bullet and the bitter end. [[BloodUpgrade To a man, all the Boers in the video have got facial wounds which are leaking suspiciously bright red blood; van Blerk himself also has wounds to his hands]]. At this point they launch their final attack on the British lines. British soldiers watch incredulously as the Boers ''walk'' towards them.

The war had three generally-recognized phases. The first consisted of a preemptive strike by the formal armies of the Boer republics, resulting in sieges of major Cape Colony garrisons at Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking; the Empire tried to fight them off and relieve the sieges with the Cape Colony forces, which resulted in precisely nothing. In the second, the Empire abandoned all pretensions of limited warfare and poured everything it had into winning, bankrolled as they were by merchants eager to see the fields of Witterstrand under British administration so that they might invest in them and reap the benefits of the boom. The third phase was when the Boers, with their formal countries dispersed or otherwise in disarray, began to conduct a harrowing guerrilla campaign.[[note]]In retrospect, one might see it as Vietnam in reverse: where Vietnam began as a domestic South Vietnamese insurgency by the Viet Cong and then turned into direct fighting between the Americans and South Vietnamese against North Vietnam, the Boer War started as a direct conflict between the Boer republics and the British and then turned into a Boer insurgency. It is therefore, oddly, rather more like the [[UsefulNotes/WarOnTerror Iraq War]] than Vietnam.[[/note]] Army eventually resorted to rounding up entire Boer communities and imprisoning them in so-called 'Concentration Camps', the first ''widespread''[[note]]Spain had used camps in the Cuban struggle for independence and the United States was using similar camps at the same time fighting the insurgency in the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishAmericanWar recently-acquired]] [[UsefulNotes/ThePhilippines Philippines]], but the use was much more limited.[[/note]] use of the strategy.[[note]]Note that at the time "concentration camps" were exactly what they said they were: camps where the previously-dispersed Boer population was ''concentrated'' in one place, to make it easier to deal with the insurgents, with the intent to release them as soon as the war was over. At the time the term sounded rather neutral; its current connotations of "place where you send people you don't like to die for no reason" is purely because the [[ThoseWackyNazis Nazis]] intentionally used the neutral term to mask the fact that they ran death camps and slave factories. That said, the British concentration camps were no picnic, either; food was often scarce--sometimes intentionally so--and thousands died from a combination of malnutrition and disease.[[/note]] Combined with slash-and-burn tactics which essentially deprived the guerillas of all food and ammunition supplies, the Boers surrendered after 3 years of very messy partisan warfare.

The British took control of the Dutch Cape Colony in 1795 as a precautionary measure in UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars: the French had occupied the Seven Provinces and Britain wanted to keep France from taking this all-important territory (guarding the main route to [[UsefulNotes/TheRaj India]]). However, it isn't until the 1820s that the British start moving in large numbers or making changes in the way things are run in the Colony; when these changes do happen, however, it annoys the Boers to no end. Starting in the early 1830s, many Boers migrated to the interior of South Africa in an event known as the Great Trek, dealing with the Zulu people who controlled the land, and setting up a number of "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boer_Republics Boer Republics]]". While most of these were short-lived, two--the Orange Free State (roughly equivalent to today's Free State Province) and the South African Republic[[note]]NOT the Republic of South Africa, which is today's SA[[/note]] (based in the Transvaal region)--were long-lived, surviving for decades.