The British replied that no such conditions could be met and by the evening of October 11, 1899, Boer forces began crossing over the borders into Cape Province and Natal. A series of further defeats greatly demoralized the Boers, who were also plagued by starvation and disease brought on by months of sieges with little to no supply relief. Despite this successful initial offensive, the Boers never sought to occupy any of the British-held territories in South Africa; they focused instead on besieging supply lines and ensuring that the British were too undersupplied and disorganized to launch their own offensive. Boer general Piet Cronjé surrendered to the British along with more than 4,000 men. The Second Boer War Begins: The Boer Offensive, Phase Three: Guerrilla Warfare, Scorched Earth, and Concentration Camps. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree.... Below is the full article. After the conference, Milner requested that the British government send additional troops to reinforce the British garrison in Southern Africa; they began arriving in August and September. Updates? Kitchener’s reasoning was that the internment of civilians would not only further deprive the burghers of food, which had been supplied to them by their wives on the homestead, but that it would prompt the Boers to surrender in order to be reunited with their families. See also: Colonial South Africa All Votes Add Books To This List. The treaty also called for the immediate disarmament of the burghers and included a provision for funds to be made available for the reconstruction of the Transvaal. The Second Boer War had just begun. Paul Kruger’s election to a fourth term as president of the South African Republic in 1898, finally convinced Cape politicians that the only way to deal with the Boers would be through the use of force. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902, between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic). The commandos continued their attacks, many of them deep into the Cape Colony, with Gen. Jan Smuts leading his forces to within 50 miles (80 km) of Cape Town. The second Boer War was also the beginning of types of conflict involving machine guns, shrapnel and observation balloons which were all used extensively in the First World War. Nevertheless, the strong-arm tactics of the British against the Boers eventually served their purpose. The Boer sieges of the British towns of Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking in 1899 are widely considered as marking the significant escalation of the Second Anglo-Boer War. A Chronology of Southern African Independence, A Brief History of South African Apartheid, What Is Colonialism? Thinking that this was a mere squabble that would soon be resolved, the British lacked reserves in ammunition and equipment; plus, they had no suitable military maps available for use either. The Boers came to embrace a new-found sense of nationalism and sought to establish themselves as an independent Boer nation, dedicated to Calvinism and a Dutch way of life. The Second Boer War (Dutch language: Tweede Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans language: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog or Tweede Boereoorlog) was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State. The Jameson raid only served to increase tension and distrust between the Boers and the British. The Boers also won several major battles during the early months of the war. By March 1900, British forces led by Lord Frederick Roberts had occupied Bloemfontein (the capital of the Orange Free State) and by May and June, they had taken Johannesburg and the South African Republic’s capital, Pretoria. Kruger’s October 1899 offensive had taken the British by surprise, and it accounts for the early Boer victories. British politicians claimed they were defending their “suzerainty” over the South African Republic (SAR) enshrined in the Pretoria and (disputably) London conventions of 1881 and 1884, respectively. The 1886 gold rush not only transformed the poor, agrarian South African Republic into an economic powerhouse, it also caused a great deal of turmoil for the young republic. The plight of the Boer women and children in the carelessly run, unhygienic camps became an international outrage, attracting the attention of such humanitarians as British social worker Emily Hobhouse. The issue of enslavement became another point of contention. It strained political relations between the British and the Boers, who did not gain independence from the United Kingdom until 1961. Why Does South Africa Have Three Capital Cities? Commandos spread out in several directions from the Transvaal and Orange Free State, besieging three railway towns—Mafeking, Kimberley, and Ladysmith—in order to impede the transport of British reinforcements and equipment from the coast. The buildup of troops alarmed the Boers, and Kruger offered additional Uitlander-related concessions, which were again rejected by Milner. The South African War (1899 – 1902), more commonly known as the Second Boer War, was fought by the British Empire and the Boer states, in what we know today as South Africa. This migration from Cape Town into the South African hinterland from 1835 to the early 1840s came to be known as “The Great Trek.” (Dutch settlers who remained in Cape Town, and thus under British rule, became known as Afrikaners.). The British, conversely, distrusted the Boers—viewing them as quarrelsome and thickheaded. These include the lesser known First Boer War that took place from December 1880 to March 1881. After 1897 Britain—through Alfred Milner, its high commissioner for South Africa—maneuvered to undermine the political independence of the SAR and demanded the modification of the Boer republic’s constitution to grant political rights to the primarily British Uitlanders, thereby providing them with a dominant role in formulating state policy that would presumably be more pro-British than the current policy of the SAR. The causes of the Boer War (also known as the ‘Second Boer War’ and ‘Anglo Boer War’) are complicated and often disputed but, ultimately, boil down to time-honoured disputes over sovereignty and control over highly lucrative natural resources (in this case gold). It was a lengthy war involving large numbers of troops which ended with the conversion of the Boer republics into British colonies, with a promise of limited self-government. But Kitchener’s drastic and brutal methods slowly paid off. In 1884, Transvaal President Paul Kruger successfully renegotiated the original agreement. Martini-Henry Mark III. Also, the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886 allowed the SAR to make progress with modernization efforts and vie with Britain for domination in Southern Africa. The crisis is known as the First Boer War. South African War, also called Boer War, Second Boer War, or Anglo-Boer War; to Afrikaners, also called Second War of Independence, war fought from October 11, 1899, to May 31, 1902, between Great Britain and the two Boer (Afrikaner) republics—the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State —resulting in British victory. The Boers had founded two independent South African republics (the Orange Free State and the South African Republic) and had a long history of distrust and dislike for the British that surrounded them. Boer resistance was worn down and led to divisions between the bittereinders (“bitter-enders”), who wanted to continue fighting, and the hensoppers (“hands-uppers”), who voluntarily surrendered and, in some cases, worked with the British. As time passed, a number of Boers began migrating to the hinterlands where they believed they would have more autonomy to conduct their daily lives without the heavy regulations imposed on them by the Dutch East India Company. On October 9th, Alfred Milner, the governor of the Cape Colony, received a telegram from authorities in the Boer capital of Pretoria. The outrage expressed against Kruger’s harsh immigration policies caused many in the Cape Colony and in Britain itself to anticipate a widespread Uitlander uprising in Johannesburg. It would also be when the British first used concentration camps. Inside Britain and the British Empire, there was strong opposition to the Boers and a minority in favour of them. In this second phase the British, under Lords Kitchener and Roberts, relieved the besieged towns, beat the Boer armies in the field, and rapidly advanced up the lines of rail transportation. English became the official language, rather than Dutch, and official policy encouraged the immigration of settlers from Great Britain. Kruger did offer to make concessions to Britain, but they were deemed insufficient by Milner. In 1652, the Dutch East India Company established the first staging post at the Cape of Good Hope (the southernmost tip of Africa); this was a place where ships could rest and resupply during the long voyage to the exotic spice markets along India’s western coast. In the process, the Boers greatly taxed their resources and their failure to push further into British-held territories allowed the British time to resupply their armies from the coast. Rosenberg, Tarkan, Contributing Writer. In 1899, the conflict between the British and the Boers burgeoned into a full-fledged war that was fought in three stages: a Boer offensive against British command posts and railway lines, a British counteroffensive that brought the two republics under British control, and a Boer guerrilla resistance movement that prompted a widespread scorched-earth campaign by the British and the internment and deaths of thousands of Boer civilians in British concentration camps. In an effort to prevent a conflict between Britain and the SAR, Marthinus Steyn, president of the Orange Free State, hosted the unsuccessful Bloemfontein Conference in May–June 1899 between Milner and Paul Kruger, president of the SAR. Which Asian Nations Were Never Colonized by Europe? A commando consisted of anywhere between 200 and 1,000 burghers and was headed by a “Kommandant” who was elected by the commando itself. The first phase of the war gave the Boers the upper hand over British forces, but the latter two phases eventually brought victory to the British and placed the previously independent Boer territories firmly under British dominion -- leading, eventually, to the complete unification of South Africa as a British colony in 1910. Harry "Breaker" Harbord Morant (born Edwin Henry Murrant, 9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902) was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, bush poet, military officer and war criminal, who was convicted and executed for murder during the Second Anglo-Boer War. The Boer militias grew weary of fighting and morale was breaking down. The Boer siege of Ladysmith, 1900, during the South African War (1899–1902). The ultimatum expired without resolution, and the war began on October 11, 1899. The Second Boer War is a part of what are known as the Boer Wars. Learn vocabulary, terms, and more with flashcards, games, and other study tools. Britain’s Prime Minister William E. Gladstone forged a compromise peace with the Boers that granted the Transvaal self-government while still keeping it as an official colony of Great Britain. https://www.thoughtco.com/the-boer-war-1779180 (accessed May 15, 2021). The total British military strength in Southern Africa reached nearly 500,000 men, whereas the Boers could muster no more than about 88,000. From 1899 to 1902, the Second Anglo-Boer War was fought in South Africa pitting the British against the two Boer republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The course of the war can be divided into three periods. Rosenberg, Tarkan, Contributing Writer. Both republics were annexed by the British Empire. After initial setbacks and a long period of guerrilla warfare, the British eventually prevailed, … The Second Boer War, also known as the South African War, or to some the Second War of Independence, was fought from the 11th of October 1899 until the 31st of May 1902. Boer War Between 1899 and 1902, the British Army fought a bitter colonial war against the Boers in South Africa. When this tactic failed, Kitchener decided to adopt a “scorched earth” policy that systematically sought to destroy food supplies and deprive the rebels of shelter. The causes of the war have provoked intense debates among historians and remain as unresolved today as during the war itself. From October 11, 1899, until May 31, 1902, the Second Boer War (also known as the South African War and the Anglo-Boer War) was fought in South Africa between the British and the Boers (Dutch settlers in southern Africa). Growing up in the Transvaal meant that one often had protected one’s settlements and herds against lions and other predators. British troops wading through the river at the Battle of Modder River, November 28, 1899, during the South African War (1899–1902). Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. The Second Boer War (Dutch: Tweede Boerenoorlog, Afrikaans: Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, literally "Second Freedom War") otherwise known as the Second Anglo-Boer War, was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland on the one hand, and the South African Republic (Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State on the other. Morant was no stranger to mounted warfare in South Africa. The treaty officially ended the independence of both the South African Republic and the Orange Free State and placed both territories under British army administration. The Second Boer War between the British and Dutch settlers of South Africa (Boers) started in October of 1899 and was near its end when Morant and Handcock were tried and executed. Tensions between Boers and Uitlanders eventually prompted Kruger to adopt harsh laws that would limit the general freedoms of the Uitlanders and seek to protect Dutch culture in the region. The First Boer War lasted only a few short months, from December 1880 until March 1881. For the article summary, see. How South African Names of Places Have Changed, The History of the Formation of South Africa. By late February, British forces had managed to move up strategic railway lines and finally relieve Kimberley and Ladysmith from Boer besiegement. This war would become the most destructive modern armed conflict in the country and shape the history of the nation. The Second Boer War was a war fought between the British Commonwealth and the Boer republics of South Africa from 11 October 1899 to 31 May 1902, resulting in the United Kingdom's annexation of Transvaal and the Orange Free State into its new colony of South Africa.What should have been a routine imperial victory became a drawn-out affair that revealed the limits of British military … The guerrilla war that was launched by resistant burghers and led by generals Christiaan de Wet and Jacobus Hercules de la Rey, kept the pressure on British forces throughout the Boer territories. Most notable among the critics in Britain was Liberal activist Emily Hobhouse, who worked tirelessly to expose the conditions in the camps to an outraged British public. In the early weeks of the war, a group of less than 160 Boer militiamen attacked a British regiment, killing 200 British soldiers in 15 minutes. 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