The Second Boer War (October 11, 1899 - May 31, 1902) took place between the United Kingdom and the two Boer states, the Republic of South Africa (Transvaal Republic) and the Citrus Free State, over the influence of the Empire in South Africa. It is also known as Boer War , Anglo-Boer War , South African War or Anglo-Boer South African War . Boer's initial attack was successful, and although British troops then reversed this, the war continued for years with Boer guerrilla warfare, until a brutal British countermeasures brought them to the terms.
The war began with an overwhelming and poorly prepared English belief. The Boers were heavily armed and attacked first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in the early 1900s, and won important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought a large number of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener. They freed the three besieged cities, and raided two Boer republics in the late 1900s. The march to the front of the British Army was so remarkable that Boer did not fight in the battle of defending their homeland. Britain quickly took control of all the Orange States and Transvaal, when civilian leaders hid or alienated. Conventionally, war is over. Britain formally annexed the two countries in 1900, calling the "khaki election" to give the government another six years of power in London. British military efforts were aided by Cape Colony, Christmas Colonies and some indigenous African allies, and further supported by volunteers from the United Kingdom, including South Africa, the colonies of Australia, Canada, India and New Zealand. All other countries are neutral, but public opinion in them is mostly hostile to the English. In the UK and the Empire there was also a significant opposition to the Second Boer War.
The Boers refused to surrender. They returned to guerrilla war under new general Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of surprise and runaway attacks quickly followed. As unarmed guerrillas, Boer fighters easily merge with farmland, which provides hiding places, supplies, and horses. The British solution is to establish a complex web of beam houses, strong points, and barbed-wire fences, dividing up from all the conquered territories. Civil farmers were transferred to concentration camps, where a very large proportion died of the disease, especially children, who were largely immune. Then British-installed infantry units systematically tracked Boer's highly mobile guerrilla units. The battle at this stage is a small operation with multiple casualties (most of the dead are victims of the disease). The war ended in surrender and the English term with the Vereeniging Treaty in May 1902. Britain won the Boer leadership, which now gives full support to the new political system. The two former republics were incorporated into the South African Union in 1910, as part of the British Empire.
Video Second Boer War
Name
Conflict is often referred to as the Boer War, since the First Boer War (December 1880 to March 1881) is a much smaller conflict. "Boer" is a generic term for white Africans of South Africa originating from Dutch East Indies settlers in Cape of Good Hope. It is also known as (Second) Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it can be called Anglo-Boereoorlog ("Anglo-Boer War"), Tweede Boereoorlog ("Second Boer War"), Tweede Vryheidsoorlog ("Second Freedom War") or Engelse oorlog ("War of England"). In South Africa it is officially called the South African War.
Maps Second Boer War
Origins
The complex origins of the war resulted from more than a century of conflict between Boer and Britain, but the most important question was who would control and benefit most from the highly profitable Witwatersrand gold mine. During the Napoleonic Wars, British military expeditions landed on the Cape Colony and defeated the Dutch troops who defended at the Battle of Blaauwberg (1806). After the war, Britain formally obtained colonies (1814), and encouraged immigration by British settlers largely in conflict with Dutch settlers. Many Boers were dissatisfied with the British administration aspect, especially with the abolition of British slavery on 1 December 1834, elected to migrate away from British rule in a place known as the Great Trek.
The Trekkers originally followed the east coast to Christmas and then, after the British annexed Christmas in 1843, traveled north to the interior. There they established two independent Boer republics: the Republic of South Africa (1852, also known as the Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State (1854). Britain recognized two Boer republics in 1852 and 1854, but the attempted annexation of the British Transvaal in 1877 led to the First Boer War in 1880-81. After the British suffered defeat, particularly at the Battle of Majuba Hill (1881), the independence of the two republics was restored under certain conditions; relationships, however, remain uneasy.
In 1866, diamonds were found in Kimberley, driving the invasion of diamonds and a large influx of strangers to the Citrus Free border. Then in 1886, gold was found in the Witwatersrand region of the Republic of South Africa. Gold makes Transvaal the richest country in southern Africa; however, the country has neither the power nor the industrial base to develop the resources themselves. As a result, the Transvaal reluctantly consents to immigration from uitlanders (foreigners), especially English-speaking people from the UK, who come to the Boer region to seek luck and work. This resulted in the number of uitlanders in the Transvaal potentially exceeding the Boer count, and the accelerated confrontation between Boer's early arrivals arriving and new, non-Boer arrivals.
The ideas of British expansionists (mainly disseminated by Cecil Rhodes) and the dispute over the political and economic rights of the uitlander resulted in the failure of Jameson Raid in 1895. Leander Starr Jameson, who led the attack, was intended to encourage the rebellion of uitlanders in Johannesburg. However, uitlanders do not take up arms to support, and Transvaal government troops surround the column and arrest the Jameson people before they can reach Johannesburg.
As tensions escalate, political maneuvers and negotiations seek to reach a compromise on uitlander rights issues in the Republic of South Africa, control of the gold mining industry, and Britain's desire to incorporate Transvaal and the Free Citrus State into federations under British Control. Given the UK origins of the majority of uitlanders and the continuing influx of new uitlanders to Johannesburg, Boer admits that granting full voting to uitlander will ultimately result in a loss of ethnic Boer control in the Republic of South Africa.
The June 1899 negotiations at Bloemfontein failed, and in September 1899, British Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain demanded full voting and representation for the uitlanders residing in the Transvaal. Paul Kruger, President of the Republic of South Africa, issued an ultimatum on October 9, 1899, giving the British government 48 hours to withdraw all their troops from the Transvaal and Citrus Free border, even though Kruger had ordered Command to the Border of Christmas in early September and England had only troops in garrison towns far from the border, failing the Transvaal, allied to the Citrus Free State, would declare war on the British government. The British government rejected the South African Republic's ultimatum, which resulted in the Republic of South Africa and the Citrus Free State declaring war on Britain.
Phase
The war has three phases. In the first phase, Boer conducted preemptive attacks on British territory at Christmas and Cape Colony, surrounded British garrison Ladysmith, Mafeking, and Kimberley. The Boers then won a series of tactical victories at Colenso, Magersfontein, and Spion Kop.
In the second phase, after the introduction of the increasing number of British troops under the command of Lord Roberts, the British launched another attack in 1900 to free the siege, this time achieving success. After Christmas and Cape Colony are safe, the British were able to attack the Transvaal, and the republican capital, Pretoria, was eventually captured in June 1900.
In the third and final phase, beginning in March 1900 and lasting for two years, Boer fought a hard-working guerrilla war, attacking columns of British troops, telegraph sites, trains, and storage depots. To refuse supplies to British Boer guerrillas, now under Lord Kitchener's leadership, responded with a scorched earth policy. They cleaned the entire area, destroyed the Boer ranch and transferred civilians to concentration camps.
Parts of the British press and the British government expect the campaign to end in a few months, and the protracted war gradually becomes less popular, especially after revelations about conditions in concentration camps (where as many as 26,000 Afrikaner women and children die because of illness and malnutrition). Boer's troops finally surrendered on Saturday, May 31, 1902, with 54 of the 60 delegates from the Transvaal and Free Orange Countries who voted to accept the terms of the peace agreement. This is known as the Vereeniging Treaty, and under its provisions, the two republics were absorbed into the United Kingdom, with a promise of self-government in the future. This promise was filled with the formation of the South African Union in 1910.
The war had a lasting effect on the region and on British domestic politics. For England, the Second Boer War was the longest, the most expensive (Ã, Â £ 200 million, almost Ã, Â £ 22 billion at 2015 prices), and the bloodiest conflict between 1815 and 1914, which lasted three months longer and resulted in more British combat casualties. of the Crimean War (1853-56), although more soldiers were killed due to illness in the Crimean War.
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The southern part of the African continent was dominated in the 19th century by a set of struggles to create within it a united state. While the Berlin Conference of 1884-5 sought to draw the boundaries between Europe's riches' African powers, it also set the stage for further scramble. Britain sought to annex the first South African Republic in 1880, and later, in 1899, both the Republic of South Africa and the Free State of Orange. In 1868, Britain annexed Basutoland in the Drakensberg Mountains following a call from Moshesh, the leader of a mixed African refugee group from the Zulu war, who sought British protection against Boer.
In the 1880s, Bechuanaland (modern Botswana, located north of the Orange River) became the object of a dispute between Germany to the west, Boer to the east, and Cape Colony of England to the south. Although Bechuanaland has no economic value, the "Missionaries of the Way" pass through it to the farther north. After Germany annexed Damaraland and Namaqualand (modern Namibia) in 1884, the British annexed Bechuanaland in 1885.
In the First Boer War of 1880-81, the Boer of the Transvaal Republic has proven skilled fighters against Britain's attempts at annexation, leading to a series of British defeats. The British government William Ewart Gladstone did not want to fall into a distant war, requiring strengthening of troops and large expenses, because at that time was considered a minimal return. A ceasefire followed, ending the war, and then a peace treaty was signed with Transvaal President Paul Kruger.
In 1886, a large gold field was discovered in a bulge on a large ridge some 69 km (43 mi) south of the Boer capital in Pretoria, it revived the interests of the British empire. The ridge, known locally as "Witwatersrand" (the white water ridge, the watershed) contains the largest gold-containing ore deposits in the world. With the discovery of gold in 1886 on the Transvaal, gold rush brought thousands of miners and miners of England and others from all over the world and crossed the border of the Cape Colony (under British control since 1806).
The city of Johannesburg has sprung up as a slum city almost overnight as the uitlanders (foreigners, outsiders, whites) enter and settle around the mine. The entry was such that the uitlander quickly exceeded the Boer in Johannesburg and along the Rand, although they remained a minority in the Transvaal. The Boer, who are nervous and upset over the growing presence in the uitlanders, seek to contain their influence through requiring long periods of housing qualification before voting rights can be obtained, by imposing a tax on the gold industry and by introducing controls through licensing, tariffs and administrative requirements. Among the issues that cause tension between the Transvaal government on the one hand and the uitlander and British interests on the other, are
- Established uitlanders, including mining rulers, want political, social, and economic control over their lives. These rights include a stable constitution, fair franchise law, an independent judiciary and a better education system. The Boers, on their part, recognize that the more concessions they make to the uitlander, the more likely - with about 30,000 white male Boer voters and potentially 60,000 white men - that their independent control of the Transvaal will be lost and the region is absorbed into in the United Kingdom.
- The uitlanders hate the tax levied by the Transvaal government, especially when this money is not spent on Johannesburg or the uitlander's interests, but is transferred to projects elsewhere in the Transvaal. For example, because gold-bearing ores are sloping away from underground outcrops to the south, more explosions are needed for extraction, and mines spend an enormous amount of explosives. One box of dynamite for five pounds including five shilling taxes. Not only was this tax considered too high, but British interests were offended when President Paul Kruger granted a monopoly on the manufacture of explosives to a non-British branch of the Nobel company, which infuriated the British. The so-called "dynamite monopoly" becomes casus belli.
The imperial interest of the British was feared when in 1894-95 Kruger proposed the construction of railroads through the Portuguese East Africa to Delagoa Bay, passing British-controlled ports in Natal and Cape Town and avoiding British tariffs. By the time the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony was Cecil Rhodes, a man who was driven by the vision of a British-controlled Africa that stretched from Cape to Cairo. Certain self-appointed representatives and British mine owners are becoming increasingly angry and frustrated by their relationship with the Transvaal government. The Reformation Committee (Transvaal) was formed to represent the ulandlanders.
Jameson Raid
In 1895, a plan was obscured by the cooperation of Prime Minister Cape Cecil Rhodes and the Johannesburg gold expert Alfred Beit to take on Johannesburg, ending the control of the Transvaal government. A column of 600 armed men (consisting mainly of the Rhodesian Police and Bechuanaland British South Africa) was led by Drs. Leander Starr Jameson (Administrator in Rhodesia from the British Company of South Africa (or Chartered Company) where Cecil Rhodes is chairman) on the border from Bechuanaland to Johannesburg. The column was equipped with a Maxim machine gun and several pieces of artillery.
The plan was to make a three-day run to Johannesburg before Boer's command could mobilize and spark a rebellion by the workers of British expatriates (uitlanders) organized by the Reform Committee. The Transvaal Authority had earlier warnings about the Jameson Attack and tracked it from the moment it crossed the border. Four days later, a tired and desperate column is surrounded near Krugersdorp in the view of Johannesburg. After a brief battle in which the column lost 65 dead and injured - while the Boers lost but one man - Jameson's men surrendered and were captured by Boer.
The failed attacks produced reactions across southern Africa and in Europe. In Rhodesia, the departure of so many policemen allowed the Matabele and Mashona tribes to rise against the Chartered Company, and the uprising, known as the Second Matabele War, was suppressed only at great expense.
A few days after the attack, German Kaiser sent a telegram Kruger congratulated the President of Kruger and the government of the Republic of South Africa for their success. When this telegram text was expressed in the British press, it produced a storm of anti-German feelings. In the trunk of the raid column, to embarrass Britain, Boer discovered telegrams from Cecil Rhodes and other gangsters in Johannesburg. Joseph Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary, quickly moved to condemn the attack, despite approving Rhodes's plan to send armed aid in the case of the Johannesburg insurgency. Rhodes was heavily criticized in the Cape inquiry and the London parliamentary inquiry and was forced to resign as Prime Minister Cape and as Chairman of the Chartered Company, for having sponsored a coup d'et Æ' tat .
The Boer government handed over their prisoners to Britain for trial. Jameson was tried in England for leading raids in which the British press and London society were poisoned by anti-Boer and anti-German feelings and in the madness of jingoism, calling Jameson and treating him as a hero. Despite being sentenced to 15 months in prison (which he served at Holloway), Jameson was later awarded the name of Prime Minister Cape Colony (1904-08) and eventually anointed as one of the founders of the South African Union. In conspiracy with Jameson, the uitlanders of the Reformed (Transvaal) Committee were tried in a Transvaal court and found guilty of high treason. The four leaders were sentenced to death by hanging but this punishment was the next day commuted to 15 years in prison. In June 1896, other members of the Committee were acquitted with a payment of a fine of 2,000 pounds each, all paid by Cecil Rhodes. A member of the Reform Committee, Frederick Gray, committed suicide while in Pretoria gaol, on May 16, and his death was a factor in softening the Transvaal government's stance on remaining prisoners.
Jan C. Smuts wrote in 1906,
The Jameson Raid is a real declaration of war... And it is so apart from the four years of ceasefire that followed... [aggressors] consolidate their alliance... defenders on the other side quietly and get ready for the unseen inevitable ".
Escalation and war
The Jameson Raid alienates many Cape Afrikaners from Britain and unites the Transvaal Boer behind President Kruger and his government. It also has the effect of drawing Transvaal and Orange Free State (led by President Martinus Theunis Steyn) together in opposition to perceived British imperialism. In 1897, a military pact was agreed between the two republics.
Boating
President Paul Kruger replaced the Transvaal army, imported 37,000 of the latest 1895 Mauser Model rifles, and about 40 to 50 million rounds of ammunition. The best modern European artillery is also purchased. In October 1899, the Transvaal State Artillery had 73 heavy weapons, including four 155 mm Creusot rifles and 25 Maxim Nordenfeldt rifles. The Transvaal Army has changed; about 25,000 men equipped with modern rifles and artillery can mobilize within two weeks. The victory of President Kruger in the Raid Jameson incident did nothing to solve the fundamental problem of finding a formula to reconcile the uitlander, without giving up Transvaal independence.
English case for war
Failure to get a better right for uitlander becomes a pretext for war and justification for major military development in the Cape Colony. Cases of war developed and followed as far as the Australian colony. The Governor of Cape Colony, Sir Alfred Milner, Prime Minister Cape Cecil Rhodes, Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain, and owner of the mining syndicate (Randlords, dubbed the golden bug), such as Alfred Beit, Barney Barnato, and Lionel Phillips like Boer republic annexation. Convinced that the Boer will be quickly defeated, they plan and organize a short war, citing the complaints of uitlanders as a motivation for the conflict.
The influence of the war party with the British government is limited. Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, hates jingoism and jingois. He also does not trust the ability of the British Army. But he brings Britain into war because he believes the British government has an obligation to the British South Africans, as he thinks that the Transvaal, the Orange Free Country, and Cape Boer aspire to the South African Netherlands and that the achievement of such a state would be destructive the prestige of the British Empire and because of Boer's treatment of black South Africans (Salisbury referred to the London Convention of 1884, after the defeat of England, as an 'indispensable in the interest of slavery'). Salisbury was not alone in concern over the treatment of blacks of South Africa; Roger Casement, already on his way to becoming an Irish Nationalist, remains happy to collect intelligence for England against Boer because of their cruelty to Africans.
Given the waryness among the members of the British cabinet and the army, it is even more difficult to understand why the British government opposed the suggestions of its generals (like Wolseley) to send substantial aid to South Africa before the war broke out. Lansdowne, the Secretary of State for War, does not believe that Boer is preparing for war and also believes that if Britain sends troops in large numbers, it will attack too aggressive postures that prevent negotiated settlements from reaching or even encouraging the Boer Attack.
Negotiations failed
President Steyn of Orange Free State invited Milner and Kruger to attend a conference in Bloemfontein. The conference began on May 30, 1899 but negotiations quickly failed, despite offering the Kruger concession. In September 1899, Chamberlain sent an ultimatum demanding full equality for Britons living in the Transvaal. Kruger, seeing that the war was inevitable, simultaneously issued his own ultimatum before receiving Chamberlain. This gave Britain 48 hours to withdraw all their troops from the Transvaal or Transvaal border, allied to the Citrus Free State, would declare war.
News of the ultimatum reached London on the day it ended. Anger and laughter are the main responses. The editor of the Times laughed out loud when he read it, saying 'official documents are rarely funny and useful but these are both'. The Times denounced the ultimatum as an 'extraordinary joke' and The Globe denounced this 'little difficult situation'. Most editorials are similar to the Daily Telegraph , which states: 'Of course there is only one answer to this terrible challenge. Kruger has demanded a war and a war that he must do! '
Such views are far from the views of the British government and from the military. For most sensitive observers, army reform has been a pressing problem since the 1870s, continually postponed because the British public is unwilling to sacrifice larger, more professional soldiers and because large house soldiers are not politically accepted. Lord Salisbury, the Prime Minister, then had to explain to Queen Victoria who was surprised that 'We have no army capable of meeting even second class Continental Power'.
When the war with the Boer Republic was near in September 1899, the Army, referred to as the Army Corps (sometimes the 1st Army Corps) was mobilized and sent to Cape Town. It was "the equivalent of the Army Corps I of the existing mobilization scheme" and was placed under the command of Gen Sir Redvers Buller, GOC in C of Aldershot Command. In South Africa the corps never operated that way and divisions 1, 2 and 3 were widespread.
The first phase: The offensive Boer (October- December 1899)
Boer organization and skills
The war was declared on October 11, 1899 with Boer attacks on the British-controlled Christmas and Cape Colony territories. Boer has about 33,000 troops, and is convincingly outnumbered by British troops, who can only transfer 13,000 troops to the front. Boer has no problem with mobilization, since the highly independent Boer does not have a regular army unit, apart from Staatsartillerie (Afrikaans for 'States Artillery') of both republics. Like the First Boer War, since most Boers were members of the civil militia, no one adopted a uniform or a badge. Only members of Staatsartillerie are wearing light green uniforms.
When a danger looms, all burgers in a district will form a military unit called command and will select the officer. A full-time official entitled Veldkornet is maintained, but lacks disciplining power. Everyone has his own weapon, usually a hunting rifle, and his own horse. Those who can not afford to buy weapons are given one by the authorities. The President of the Transvaal and Free Orange Countries simply signed a decision to concentrate in a week and Commandos can garner between 30,000-40,000 people. Average Boer still not thirsty for war. Many do not want to fight against fellow Christians and, in general, fellow Protestant Christians. Many may have excessive optimism about what will be involved in the war, imagining that victory can be won as easily as in the First South African War. Many, including many generals, also have the feeling that their purpose is sacred and just, and blessed by God.
It quickly became apparent that Boer's troops presented British troops with a severe tactical challenge. What Boer presents is a mobile and innovative approach to warfare, capitalizing on their experience of the First Boer War. The Boer averages that make up their commandos are farmers who spend most of their working life in the saddle, both as farmers and hunters. They depend on pots, horses, and rifles; they are also trained stalkers and skilled shooters. As hunters, they learn to shoot from the front; from prone position and to make the first number of shots, knowing that if they miss, the game will be lost or can fill and potentially kill them.
At community meetings, target shooting is the ultimate sport; they practice shooting targets like chicken eggs perched on a 100 meter (110sec) pole). They make expertly installed infantry, using every piece of cover, from which they can pour a devastating fire using modern Mauser guns, smokeless, and smokeless. In preparation for hostilities, Boer acquired about a hundred of the latest Krupp field guns, all horse drawn and scattered among Kommando groups and several Le Creusot "Long Tom" siege weapons. Boer's ability to adapt to themselves to become first-class artillery shows that they are versatile enemies. The Transvaal also has an intelligence service that stretches across South Africa and the extent to which and efficiency UK has not realized.
Boer besieged Ladysmith, Mafeking, and Kimberley
The Boers attacked first on October 12 at the Battle of Kraaipan, an attack that heralded the invasion of Cape Colony and the Colony of Christmas between October 1899 and January 1900. With speed and surprise, Boer drove quickly toward the British garrison at Ladysmith and the smaller at Mafeking and Kimberley. Boer's rapid mobilization resulted in early military successes against scattered British troops. Sir George Stuart White, who headed the British division at Ladysmith, unwisely allowed Major General Penn Symons to throw a brigade forward to the Dundee coal mine (also reported as Glencoe), which is surrounded by hills. This became the first engagement site of war, the Battle of Talana Hill. Boer's weapons began firing at the British camp from the top of Talana Hill in the early hours of the morning on October 20th. Penn Symons was quickly attacked: his infantry pushed Boer from the hill, losing 446 British casualties, including Penn Symons.
The other Boer troops occupied the Elandslaagte, which lies between Ladysmith and Dundee. England under Major General John French and Colonel Ian Hamilton attacked to clear the communication line to Dundee. The resulting Elandslaagte battle was a clear British tactical victory, but Sir George White feared that more Boer would attack his main position and ordered a chaotic retreat from Elandslaagte, wasting all the profits. The detachment from Dundee was forced to make an exhausting cross-country retreat to rejoin White's main army. When Boers surrounded Ladysmith and fired on the city with siege weapons, White ordered a major attack on their artillery position. The result was a disaster, with 140 people killed and more than 1,000 people arrested. The Ladysmith siege begins, and will last several months.
Meanwhile, to the northwest of Mafeking, on the border with the Transvaal, Colonel Robert Baden-Powell has raised two local troop regiments totaling about 1,200 people to attack and create diversion if things further south are wrong. Mafeking, as a railroad crossing, provides good supply facilities and is a clear place for Baden-Powell to fortify the readiness for such attacks. However, instead of the Baden-Powell and Mafeking aggressors were forced to defend when 6,000 Boer, ordered by Piet Cronjà © Å ©, attempted a determined attack on the city. But this quickly eased into an uninspired affair with the Boers preparing to expose the fortress, and on 13 October, embarked on a 217-day siege of Mafeking.
Finally, more than 360 kilometers (220 miles) south of Mafeking straddles the Kimberley diamond mining town, which is also the target of the siege. Though not militarily significant, it still represents a pocket of British imperialism on the Citrus Free Country frontier and is therefore an important Boer destination. From the beginning of November around 7,500 Boer started their siege, again satisfied to make the city starved. Despite the Boer shooting, 40,000 residents, of just 5,000 armed men, are under a small threat because the city is filled with supplies. The garrison was ordered by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Kekewich, though Cecil Rhodes was also a prominent figure in the city's defense.
The live siege takes its toll on both defending soldiers and civilians in the cities of Mafeking, Ladysmith, and Kimberley as food starts growing rare after a few weeks. At Mafeking, Sol Plaatje writes, "I see horse meat for the first time being treated as human food." The besieged towns are also dealt with constant artillery bombardment, making the streets a dangerous place. Toward the end of the Kimberley siege, Boer is expected to intensify their bombings, so Rhodes displays a notice that encourages people to descend into the Kimberley Mine tunnel for protection. Townspeople are panicked, and people jump to the mine shaft continuously for 12 hours. Although the bombing never happened, it can not alleviate the suffering of anxious civilians. The city's wealthiest people, like Cecil Rhodes, are sheltered at the Sanatorium, the current McGregor Museum site; the poor, especially the black population, have no shelter from the shootings.
In retrospect, Boer's decision to commit to the siege ( Sitzkrieg ) is a mistake and one of the best illustrations of Boer's lack of strategic vision. Historically, that's a little bit of her advantage. Of the seven siege in the First Boer War, Boer did not win. More importantly, he handed the initiative back to England and gave them time to recover, which they then did. In general, throughout the campaign, Boer is too defensive and passive, wasting the chances they have for victory. But the passivity also proves the fact that they have no desire to conquer the British territory, but only to retain their ability to rule in their own territory.
First UK help effort
It was at this point that General Sir Redvers Henry Buller, the respected commander, arrived in South Africa with British reinforcements (including the army corps of three divisions). Buller originally intended a direct row of rail lines leading from Cape Town via Bloemfontein to Pretoria. Finding on arrival that British troops had been in South Africa under siege, he divided the army corps into a detachment to lighten the besieged garrison. One division, led by Lieutenant General Lord Methuen, is following the Western Railway to the north and relieves Kimberley and Mafeking. A smaller force of about 3,000, led by Major General William Gatacre, was to drive north toward the railroad crossing at Stormberg, to secure the Cape Midlands district from Boer's attack and local uprisings by residents of Boer and Buller leading the main part of the army corps to exhaust Ladysmith east.
The initial results of this attack were mixed, with Methuen winning several bloody battles in the Battle of Belmont on Nov. 23, the Graspan Battle on 25 November, and at a larger engagement, the Modder River Battle on 28 November resulting in Britain's losses of 71 dead and over 400 injured. British commanders have trained Crimean War lessons and are proficient in battalions and sets of regimental bodies with maneuvering columns in forests, deserts, and mountain areas. What the British general fails to understand is the impact of a destructive fire from the trench position and mobility of cavalry attacks. British troops are at war with what will prove to be ancient tactics and in some cases ancient weapons against Boer mobile forces with fire destroying their modern Mausers, latest Krupp field weapons and their new tactics.
Mid-December is a disaster for the British Army. In a period known as Black Week (10-15 December 1899), England suffered defeat on each of the three fronts. On December 10, General Gatacre attempted to retake the Stormberg railway junction about 80 kilometers (50 mi) south of the Orange River. The Gatacre attack was marked by administrative and tactical blunders and the Battle of Stormberg ended with the defeat of England, with 135 dead and wounded and two guns and more than 600 troops captured.
At the Battle of Magersfontein on 11 December, 14,000 British Methuen troops attempted to capture Boer's position in the dawn raid to ease Kimberley. It also turned into a disaster when the Highland Brigade became hit by an accurate Boer fire. After suffering severe heat and thirst for nine hours, they end up experiencing an undisciplined retreat. Boer commanders, Koos de la Rey and Piet CronjÃÆ'Ã… ©, have ordered trenches to be dug in unusual places to deceive the British and give their rifles a greater range of firepower. The plan worked and this tactic helped write the doctrine of the supremacy of a defensive position, using modern small weapons and a trench castle. Britain lost 120 dead and 690 were injured and prevented from freeing Kimberley and Mafeking. A British soldier said of the defeat
That was the day of our regiment Fear of revenge that we will take We really appreciate the mistake -
General living room error.
Why are we not told about the trenches? Why are not we told about the wire? Why we line up in the column,
May Tommy Atkins asks...
Black Week's lowest point was the Battle of Colenso on December 15, in which 21,000 British troops were ordered by Buller to attempt to cross the Tugela River to lighten Ladysmith, where 8,000 Transvaal fighters under the command of Louis Botha were waiting for them. Through a combination of accurate artillery and shotgun guns and better land use, Boer drove all British efforts to cross the river. After his first failed attack, Buller broke the battle and ordered his retreat, leaving many wounded, several isolated units and ten field guns to be captured by the Botha people. Buller forces lost 145 people dead and 1,200 were lost or injured and Boers suffered only 40 casualties, including 8 dead.
Second phase: British attack January to September 1900
The British government took this defeat badly and with the ongoing siege forced to send two more divisions plus a large number of colonial volunteers. In January 1900, this would be the biggest force Britain had ever sent abroad, numbering about 180,000 people with further reinforcements being sought.
While watching this reinforcements, Buller made another offer to lighten Ladysmith by crossing Tugela west of Colenso. Buller's subordinate, Major General Charles Warren, managed to cross the river, but was then confronted with a new defensive position centered on a famous hill known as Spion Kop. In the Spion Kop Battle that occurred, British troops caught the summit by surprise in the early hours of January 24, 1900, but when the morning mist was lifted, they realized too late that they were ignored by the Boer gun in the surrounding hills. The rest of the day resulted in a disaster caused by poor communication between Buller and his commanding officer. Among them, they issue conflicting orders, on the one hand ordering people down from the hill, while other officers order fresh reinforcements to defend it. The result was 350 people dead and nearly 1,000 people injured and a retreat across the Tugela River into Britain. There are nearly 300 Boer victims.
Buller attacked Louis Botha again on February 5th at Vaal Krantz and was once again defeated. Buller backed down early when it appeared that Britain would be isolated on an open bridge at Tugela, where he was nicknamed "Sir Reverse" by some of his officers.
By taking command directly at Christmas, Buller has let the overall direction of the war drift. Due to concerns about his performance and his negative reports from the field, he was replaced as Supreme Commander by Field Marshal Lord Roberts. Roberts quickly formed an entirely new team for headquarters staff and he chose military men from far and wide: Lord Kitchener (Chief of Staff) from Sudan; Frederick Russell Burnham (Chief Scout), American scout, from Klondike; David Henderson of Staff College; Neville Bowles Chamberlain from Afghanistan; and William Nicholson (Military Secretary) of Calcutta Like Buller, Roberts was first intended to strike directly along the Cape Town - Pretoria railway line but, like Buller, was forced to lighten the besieged garrison. By leaving the Buller in command at Christmas, Roberts deployed his main force near Orange River and along the Western Railway behind Methuen troops on the Modder River, and prepared to make a wide pounding move to ease Kimberley.
Except at Christmas, the war has stalled. In addition to an attempt to invade Ladysmith, the Boer did not try to seize the besieged towns. In Cape Midlands, Boer did not exploit England's defeat at Stormberg, and was prevented from capturing a railroad crossing at Colesberg. In the dry summers, grazing in the meadow becomes dry, weakening Boer horses and cattle dams, and many Boer families join their men in the line of siege and campagers, CronjÃÆ' Â © army.
Roberts launched his main attack on February 10, 1900 and, despite being hampered by a long supply route, managed to outperform Boers to defend Magersfontein. On February 14, a cavalry division under Major General John French launched a major attack to ease Kimberley. Despite a severe fire, the cavalry charge broke Boer's defense on Feb. 15, paving the way for France to enter Kimberley that night, ending a 124-day siege.
Meanwhile, Roberts pursues the 7,000 strong powers of Piet Cronjà ©  ©, who have left Magersfontein to head for Bloemfontein. The French cavalry general was ordered to assist in the pursuit by initiating an epic drive 50 km (31 miles) to Paardeberg where CronjÃÆ' © à © tried to cross the Modder River. At the Battle of Paardeberg from 18 to 27 February, Roberts then surrounded the forces of General Piet CronjÃÆ'  © who withdrew from Boer. On 17 February, a pincer movement involving the French cavalry and the main English forces sought to take rooted positions, but the frontal attack was uncoordinated and easily repulsed by Boer. Eventually, Roberts was forced to bombard CronjÃÆ' © © to surrender, but it took ten more precious days, and with British troops using the polluted River Modder as a water supply, there was a typhoid epidemic that killed many troops. General CronjÃÆ' © forced to surrender on Surrender Hill with 4,000 people.
At Christmas, the Battle of Tugela Heights, which begins on February 14, is Buller's fourth attempt to lighten Ladysmith. Buller's loss has convinced Buller to adopt Boer's tactics "in the line of fire - to advance in small attacks, masked by rifle fire from behind, to use artillery tactical support; and above all, to use the ground, make rocks and earth work for them just as for the enemy. "Despite the reinforcements, his progress was very slow against the stiff opposition. However, on February 26, after much consideration, Buller used all his troops in an all-out assault for the first time and eventually succeeded in forcing Tugela's crossing to defeat the losing forces of Botha on the north side of Colenso. After the siege lasted for 118 days, Ladysmith Assistance was put into effect, the day after CronjÃÆ' Â © surrendered, but with a total cost of 7,000 British casualties. Buller troops marched to Ladysmith on February 28.
After a succession of defeats, Boer realized that against such an enormous amount of troops, they had little chance to defeat the British and become demoralized. Roberts then advanced to Orange Free State from the west, placing Boer for a flight at the Battle of Poplar Grove and capturing Bloemfontein, the capital, without an opponent on March 13 with Boer's defenders escaping and scattering. Meanwhile, he unleashes a small force to lighten Baden-Powell. The Relief of Mafeking on May 18, 1900 provoked the rioto celebration in England, the origin of the Edwardian slang "mafficking". On May 28, the Orange Free State was annexed and renamed the Orange River Colony.
After being forced to postpone for several weeks in Bloemfontein by a supply shortage, an outbreak of enteric fever (typhoid) caused by poor hygiene, bad drinking water at Paardeburg, and terrible medical care, Roberts finally went on his way. He was forced to stop again in Kroonstad for 10 days, again due to the collapse of his medical system and supplies, but eventually managed to capture Johannesburg on May 31 and the Transvaal capital, Pretoria, on June 5. The first to Pretoria is Lt. William Watson of New Mounted Rifles New South Wales, who persuaded Boer to surrender the capital. Before the war, Boer had built several fortresses south of Pretoria, but the artillery had been moved from the castle to use in the field, and if they left Pretoria without a fight. After winning major cities, Roberts declared war ended on September 3, 1900; and the Republic of South Africa is officially annexed.
British observers believe that the war will end after the capture of two major cities. However, Boer previously met in the new capital while the Orange-Free Country, Kroonstad, and planned a guerrilla campaign to hit Britain's supply and communication lines. The first engagement of this new form of warfare was at Sanna's Post on March 31st where 1,500 Boer under Christiaan De Wet command attacked the Bloemfontein waterway about 37 kilometers (23 miles) east of the city, and ambushed a heavily guarded convoy, causing 155 victims England and the arrest of seven weapons, 117 carts, and 428 British troops.
After the fall of Pretoria, one of the last official battles was at Diamond Hill on June 11-12, where Roberts attempted to mobilize the remnants of the Boer field soldiers under Botha outside the distance from Pretoria. Although Roberts drove Boer from the hill, Botha did not consider it a defeat, as he caused 162 casualties in Britain while only suffering about 50 casualties.
The war-set-piece period now largely gave way to guerilla warfare, but one final operation remained. President Kruger and what remains of the Transvaal government have retreated to the eastern Transvaal. Roberts, joining forces from Natal under Buller, stepped up against them, and broke their last defense position at Bergendal on 26 August. When Roberts and Buller follow up along the railway to Komatipoort, Kruger seeks asylum in the Portuguese of East Africa (modern Mozambique). Some desperate Boer did the same, and the British gathered a lot of war material. However, the core of Boer fighters under Botha easily breaks back through the Drakensberg Mountains to the Highveld Transvaal after climbing north through the bushveld. Under new conditions of war, heavy equipment is useless to them, and therefore no great loss.
When Roberts troops occupied Pretoria, the Boer fighters in the Orange Free State retreated to the Brandwater Basin, a fertile area in the north-eastern Republic. It only offers temporary shelter, because the mountain that leads to it can be occupied by the British, trapping the Boer. The army under General Archibald Hunter departed from Bloemfontein to accomplish this in July 1900. The hard core of the Free State Boers under De Wet, accompanied by President Steyn, left the basin earlier. Those who are left fall into confusion and most fail to get out before Hunter entrap them. 4,500 Boer surrendered and many equipment captured but as with Roberts journey against Kruger at the same time, this loss is relatively small, because the hard core of Boer's troops and their most persistent and active leaders remain free.
From the Basin, Christiaan De Wet headed west. Despite being hunted by the English column, he successfully crossed the Vaal into the western Transvaal, to allow Steyn to travel to meet with their leaders. There is a lot of sympathy for Boer in mainland Europe. In October, President Kruger and members of the Transvaal government left the Portuguese East Africa on the Dutch battleship De Gelderland, sent by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. Paul Kruger's wife, however, was too ill to travel and remained in South Africa where he died on July 20, 1901 without seeing her husband again. The first President of Kruger went to Marseille and then to Holland, where he stayed for a while before finally moving to Clarens, Switzerland, where he died in exile on July 14, 1904.
POW sent abroad
The first group of Boer captives taken by the British consisted of people who were arrested at the Battle of Elandslaagte on 21 October 1899. At first, many were wearing boats, but as the numbers grew, Britain decided they did not want them to continue locally. The capture of 400 prisoners of war in February 1900 was an important event, which made the UK realize that they could not accommodate all the prisoners of war in South Africa. Britain feared they could be freed by sympathetic local people. In addition, they had difficulty supplying their own troops in South Africa, and did not want the additional burden of sending supplies to prisoners of war. Therefore the British chose to send many prisoners of war abroad.
The first overseas camp (from mainland Africa) opened in Saint Helena, which eventually received about 5,000 prisoners of war. About 5,000 prisoners were sent to Ceylon. Other POWs are sent to Bermuda and India. No POW Boer records are sent to the Dominion of the British Empire such as Australia, Canada, or New Zealand.
Altogether, some 26,000 prisoners were sent abroad.
Oath neutrality
On March 15, 1900, Lord Roberts proclaimed an amnesty for everyone, except the leaders, who took the oath of neutrality and returned quietly to their homes. It is estimated that between 12,000 and 14,000 people took this oath between March and June 1900.
Third phase: Guerrilla War (September 1900 - May 1902)
In September 1900, Britain nominally controlled both Republicans, with the exception of the northern part of the Transvaal. However, they soon discovered that they only controlled the area occupied by their physical columns. Despite the loss of two capitals and half of their troops, Boer's commander adopted guerrilla war tactics, mainly carrying out attacks on trains, resources and supply targets, all aimed at disrupting British Army's operational capacity. They avoid fighting and light casualties.
Each Boer commando unit is sent to the district from which its members have been recruited, meaning that they can rely on local support and personal knowledge about the terrain and towns within the district to enable them to live off the ground. Their orders are only to fight England if possible. Their tactics are fast and hard strikes that cause much damage to the enemy, and then retreat and vanish before the enemy forces arrive. The vast distances of the Republic allowed Boer command to be quite free to move and made it almost impossible for 250,000 British troops to effectively control the territory using only columns. As soon as the English columns leave town or district, British control of the area fades.
Boer Command was particularly effective during the early phase of guerrilla warfare because Roberts assumed that the war would end with the capture of the Boer capital and the deployment of the main Boer army. Therefore, many British troops are deployed out of the area, and have been replaced by a low-quality contingent of Imperial Yeomanry and locally raised irregular corps.
From the end of May 1900, the first success of Boer's guerrilla strategy was at Lindley (where 500 Yeomanry surrendered), and in Heilbron (where the big convoy and his companion were captured) and another battle that resulted in 1,500 English casualties in less than ten days. In December 1900, De la Rey and Christiaan Beyers attacked and persecuted the British brigade in Nooitgedacht. As a result of this and other Boer successes, the British, led by Lord Kitchener, installed three extensive searches for De Wet, but to no avail. However, the nature of Boer guerrilla warfare is sporadic, poorly planned, and has little overall long-term goals, with the exception of only annoying the UK. This causes a pattern of communication scattered throughout the region irregularly.
English response
The British were forced to immediately revise their tactics. They concentrate on limiting freedom of movement from Boer's command and depriving their local support. The railway line has provided an important communication and supply line, and as the UK has advanced across South Africa, they have used armored trains and have built fortified fortified houses at key points. They are now building additional supplement shelters (each housing 6-8 soldiers) and fortifying this to protect the supply routes against Boer robbers. Eventually about 8,000 transit homes were built in two South African republics, radiating from major cities along the main route. Each blockhouse costs between Ã, £ 800 to Ã, £ 1,000 and takes about three months to build. However, they proved very effective. There is not a single bridge where one of these shelters is installed and manned.
The blockhouse system requires a large number of troops for the garrison. More than 50,000 British troops, or 50 battalions, were involved in blocking duties, greater than about 30,000 Boers on the ground during the guerrilla phase. In addition, up to 16,000 Africans are used both as armed guards and line patrols at night. The Army linked transit houses with barbed wire fences to bundle veld into smaller areas. The "New Model" drive is installed where a continuous line of troops can sweep the veld area bounded by the house lines, unlike the less efficient rural scourers with scattered columns.
The UK also implements a "scorched earth" policy in which they target everything within a controlled area that can provide sustenance to Boer guerrillas in order to make it harder for Boer to survive. As British troops swept through the countryside, they systematically destroyed crops, burned homes and farms, poisoned wells, and interned Boer and African women, children and workers in concentration camps. Finally, the British also set up their own invasive column to support the sweeper's column. It used to quickly follow and endlessly harass Boer with the intent to delay them and cut off the escape while the sweeper unit was caught. Many of the 90 or so mobile columns formed by Britain to participate in the drive are a mixture of British and colonial troops, but they also have a large minority of armed Africans. The total number of armed Africans serving with these columns is estimated at about 20,000.
The British Army also made use of Boer's maids who had been persuaded to change the parties and register as "National Watchers". Serving under the command of General Andries Cronjà ©  ©, the National Scouts were hated as hensoppers (collaborators) but came to number one fifth of the Afrikaners battle at the end of the War.
The British used armored trains throughout the War to send quicker reaction forces to the incident (such as Boer attacks on blockades and columns) or to lower it before the Boer column backed down.
Peace Committee
Among the Burgh people who have quit fighting, it was decided to form a peace committee to persuade those still struggling to quit. In December 1900, Lord Kitchener gave permission that the central Burgher Peace Committee was inaugurated in Pretoria. By the end of 1900, about thirty delegates were dispatched to various districts to form local peace committees to persuade the burgher to surrender. Previous Boer leaders, such as General Piet de Wet and Andries CronjÃÆ' Â © were involved in the organization. Meyer de Kock is the only envoy of a peace committee convicted of high treason and executed by a firing squad.
Merge
Several merchants joined the British in their fight against Boer. At the end of the feud in May 1902, no less than 5,464 Burgh people worked for England.
Orange Free State
After deliberating with the Transvaal leaders, De Wet returned to the Orange Free State, where he inspired a string of successful attacks and attacks from the lonely western part of the country, despite his rare defeat in Bothaville in November 1900. Many Boers who had previously returned to their farms, sometimes giving Britain's official parole, taking up arms again. In late January 1901, De Wet led a new invasion of Cape Colony. This was less successful, as there was no general uprising between Cape Boers, and the De Wet people were hampered by bad weather and relentlessly pursued by British troops. They almost crossed the Orange River.
From then until the last days of the war, De Wet remained relatively calm, in part because the Orange Free State was effectively left deserted by the British sweep. In late 1901, De Wet stormed an isolated British detachment at Groenkop, causing many casualties. This prompted Kitchener to launch the first "New Model" drive against it. De Wet escaped from the first drive, but lost 300 of his fighters. This is a severe loss, and signs of further erosion, though the subsequent effort to collect De Wet is poorly handled, and De Wet's troops avoid capture.
Western Transvaal
The Boer Command in Transvaal West was very active after September 1901. Several important battles took place here between September 1901 and March 1902. At Moedwil on 30 September 1901 and again at Driefontein on October 24, the forces of General Koos De La Rey attacked England, but were forced retreated after England offered strong resistance.
Relatively quiet time down after that in western Transvaal. February 1902 saw the next major battle in the region. On February 25, Koos De La Rey attacked the English column under Lieutenant Colonel S. B. von Donop at Ysterspruit near Wolmaransstad. De La Rey manages to capture many men and a large amount of ammunition. Boer's attack prompted Lord Methuen, the second British commander after Lord Kitchener, to move his column from Vryburg to Klerksdorp to deal with De La Rey. On the morning of March 7, 1902, Boer attacked the rear guard of Methuen's moving column at Tweebosch. Confusion ruling in the British ranks and Methuen was wounded and captured by Boer.
Boer's victory in the west led to stronger action by England. In the second half of March 1902, the great British reinforcements were sent to Transvaal West under Ian Hamilton's direction. The British opportunity was waiting to rise on April 11, 1902 at Rooiwal, where a command led by General Jan Kemp and Commandant Potgieter attacked the superior forces under Kekewich. British troops were in a good position on the hillside and inflicted heavy casualties on horses riding a great distance, defeating them again. This is the end of the war in the Transvaal West and also the last major battle of war.
Eastern Transvaal
Two Boer troops fought in this area, one below Botha in the southeast and one below Ben Viljoen in the northeast around Lydenburg. Botha troops were particularly active, robbing British trains and supply convoys, and even put up a new invasion at Christmas in September 1901. After defeating the British equestrian infantry in the Battle of the Bloody River near Dundee, Botha was forced to retreat because of heavy rains that made his movement difficult and paralyze the horses. Returning to the Transvaal area around the district of his home in Vryheid, Botha attacked the British invasion column at Bakenlaagte, using effective attacks. One of Britain's most active units was effectively destroyed in this engagement. This makes Botha's troops a target of a growing and cruel push by British troops, in which the UK uses special scouts and indigenous informants. Eventually, Botha had to abandon the high veld and retreat to the narrow enclave bordering Swaziland.
In the north, Ben Viljoen is getting less active. His troops raised relatively few attacks and as a result, the Boer enclave area around Lydenburg was largely undisturbed. Viljoen was finally arrested.
Cape Colony
In some parts of the Cape Colony, particularly the Cape Midlands district where Boers form the majority of the white population, the British are always afraid of a general uprising against them. In fact, no such rebellion took place, even in the early days of the war
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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