It is fascinating how, after so many years, after more than a century, the legacy of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 is still so much alive in the hearts of many people. Why is that so? Why are people so fascinated with this particular war?
From the perspective of a military scientist and/or military historian, the Boer war provides a wealth of material to study. In thát sense one can understand the fascination that many individuals have with the Boer war. Yet, is seems that a lot of interest around the war is propelled by a fascination with the ordinary. The weak. The day-to-day struggle of the people and the bravery of women. A lot is also being said about the effects of the Boer war on the political landscape in South Africa, especially after the war.
Often, when the issue of the Boer war is on the table, students and researchers are stunned by the brutality of officers. How could the British be so cruel to the Boer women (which they no doubt were)? And how were the Boers, with their lack of a professional military and their limited resources, able to keep going for more than two and a half years against the most powerful empire the world has ever seen? Isn’t this a miracle?
Of course it was an amazing display by the Boer forces. Of course the British were cruel. Of course the Boers were brave warriors. But there is so much more to the Boer war than just these matters. And maybe that is precisely why researchers are so fascinated by the Boer war, even today.
At the time when the war broke out in 1899, it was said by some that it was inevitable. This, of course, is not true. The Anglo-Boer war, as with many tragic events in history, could have been prevented. But mindful of the fact that his republic is threatened, the then president of the South African Republic, Paul Kruger, brought weapons with the seemingly endless flow of money available to him as a result of the mining industry. Four years prior to the war, the British attempted a failed coup, known as the Jameson Raid. Prior to the war, negotiations were held between leaders of the British and the Boers. As part of his preparations Kruger also entered a military agreement with the Orange Free State, thereby dragging thousands of innocent people into a ‘civilised’ war. A ‘white man’s war’. As the war dragged on, it became clear that it was neither.
Typically, as with most wars, when it started, the whole country virtually came to a standstill. People’s lives were disrupted. The war provided the playground for many old personal battles to be played out, and thus, from the onset, the Boer military were divided. As part of his preparations, Kruger also dragged into the war the Orange Free State, an independent republic with M.T. Steyn as its president. This was a very important development, since the Orange Free State strengthened the numbers of fighting men drastically. There was also the Cape rebels – Afrikaners living in the Cape Colony who sympathised with their northern neighbours and joined the Boer forces. There was also international support, as men came from all over the world to join the Boers and form units, fighting against the British Empire alongside the Boers for their cause. Although they were not great in numbers, they made a substantial contribution to the Boer cause.
But it must have been clear, as many sources indeed point out, that most men knew even beforehand that the Boer forces were never going to be able to beat the British. Yet they still gave it a go, and God knows why, one might say. But they did. We know from accounts of the time preceding the war, that there was a lot of propaganda involved. One strategy of Paul Kruger and his cabinet was to belittle those Boers who were opposed to the war by calling them traitors and little Englishmen. It can only be deducted that Kruger and his network of friends who ruled the Boer republic were in a too comfortable position to really care about the well-being of his own people. It could also have been that his faith played a role, dragging him into this war with his endless belief in God and God’s protection over the Boers. But many reasonable men knew, beforehand, that taking on the British is a lost cause.
For their part, the British can be said to have been greedy, but not for the gold and money of the South African Republic, but rather for the power that victory would bestow upon the British Empire. Expanding the British Empire was a very important part of the agenda of some very influential men in those days, and the Boer war was, in part, the result of a mix of these and a number of other factors.
Despite arming his people very well, the government under Kruger took no steps to give his people military training. Boer burghers where self-taught in the skills of shooting and horse riding. The military was very simply controlled under a commando system with Field-Cornets. Men between the ages of 18-35 were called up first, with the rest to follow. The Boer forces had no military policies, their only experience – ill equipped black tribes which they fought for land. But even more disturbing, their leaders were Kruger men – men preferred by Kruger, not for their leadership qualities, but mostly for their loyalty to Kruger. Similarly, at least at first, when leaders was chosen in the veld, the Boers settled for the man with the most financial influence, because that way, by choosing the richest man, you can get and keep him on your side for a while, which was important for your own survival in those days.
And so the Boer declared war on the British forces. It was predicted that for the first part of the war, the Boers should have at least some success, if not a lot of it. It was natural for the British to think that the war would be over before Christmas. This was due to the disorganised impression that the Boers left on the British. The British underestimated the Boers, and because of this, suffered huge losses. But the Boers remained an ill-disciplined lot, sometimes leaving camp as their heart desire and visiting their farms. And because they had no military policies, the generals at times made poor choices by not following up on their victories. This happened because they felt sorry for the British and wanted to honour their own Christian principles.
Because of their heavy defeats, the head of the British forces, lord Buller, was replaced by lord Roberts. And soon the tide was starting to turn against the Boers. It wasn’t long before both the capital cities of the two republics fell into the hands of the British forces, and the war was, in theory at least, a thing of the past.
With their capitals lost, the British no longer acknowledged the previous governments. What’s more, the leaders who started out where mostly replaced by new leaders. The war was entering a new stage. While the British henceforth regarded the Boers in the veld technically as subjects and thus as terrorists, the Boers on their part for the first time had a clear strategy, namely that of guerrilla warfare, or ‘fight and flight’, as it has also been called. Instead of conventional warfare where two armies would take on each other face to face, the Boer commandos scattered into small units, opening fire on unsuspecting British soldiers, only to disappear again. They were very mobile, and very effective. They also took to destroying railways and communication lines, stealing the provisions of the British army.
This made the war go on for a very long time, and it could have gone on forever, had the British forces not started to set up concentration camps as part of their scorched earth system. As a military tactic, the scorched earth policy was brilliant. It took the lifeline away from the Boers. The British were very cruel in their ways, burning down houses, slaughtering animals by the thousands and burning down crops and everything that could be of any value to the Boers. The women and children were taken to these concentration camps, driving the women and children in open train trucks in the blazing African sun, with no toilets, food or sanitation for days.
On a human scale, the scorched earth policy was a disaster. In the end some 27 000 Boer women and children died in those concentration camps of lack of food, medicine and sanitation. The British also set up black camps, since it was their policy to keep black and white apart. Some 15 000 blacks also died in those camps where the conditions was even worse than in the white camps. The food rations were pathetic, and the British simply did nothing for those poor subjects. It was only after an Englishwoman named Emily Hobhouse took up their cause that the lot of especially the white camps was improved, but for most, it was too late.
It was a war that should have never taken place. And it was a war where, if the Boers had accepted their defeat earlier, thousands of lives could have been spared. In the end, in a war that was at first labelled a ‘white man’s war’, it was not the men who suffered the most casualties, but the thousands of children and women dying in the concentration camps. It was a war that was the result of big ego’s on the British as well as the Boers. It also never was limited to white people, since black South Africans also suffered greatly in this war. But what is most astonishing is that, despite all their suffering, research has shown that it was the women who kept on motivating their men to continue fighting the British.
For many decades to follow, the Anglo Boer War of 1899-1902 influenced the political landscape of South Africa. It was food for Afrikaner nationalism, and in the end greatly influenced the policies of racial segregation and apartheid. Some Boers never returned, refusing to swear allegiance to the Queen - This despite the Boer generals who convinced the most Boers to do so. Most of these people remained loyal to the Queen, but it was their children, who grew up with stories of the war as well as some having had some experience of it, who felt no obligation towards the British Empire and eventually turned to Afrikaner Nationalism.
In the end, there were three very important lessons which nobody cared to learn from this war. Number one: Politicians are bastards, number two: Politicians are bastards and number three: Politicians are bastards.
(1822 Words)
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