The British believed it would be over in three months. Instead, it would develop into a protracted two and-a-half year struggle that would become the testing ground for the latest weapons: magazine-fed bolt action rifles, cartridges with smokeless powder and rapid firing artillery pieces firing shrapnel bursts.
Causes of the Anglo Boer War
By 1899, Britain, then the greatest monetary power in the world, was being challenged by the rise of the USA and Germany. The monetary power of the Sterling had to be maintained and gold reserves in the Bank of England were running low.
Britain therefore coveted the rich gold fields of the Witwatersrand, in the Transvaal Republic. Former attempts at annexing the Transvaal had ended with the disastrous Battle of Majuba Hill on the 27th February 1881.
The gold in the Witwatersrand lies deep underground and mining it requires advanced engineering solutions and well coordinated labour, as well as large amounts of capital to pay for the initial expenses of constructing and running mines. The British believed that the Transvaal Government, under the leadership of Paul Kruger, was incapable of meeting these requirements.
There were large numbers of English-speaking mine-owners in the Transvaal, known as uitlanders (outlanders), and Britain was to use the grievances of these people as a pretext for going to war. Many uitlanders favoured a Union of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal and the British Colonial Office wanted this union to be under British control.
The movement of British troops towards his borders forced Kruger to stubbornly withdraw any concessions he may have been willing to grant the uitlanders. This was the opportunity Britain had been waiting for and war was declared on 11th October 1899.
The Anglo Boer War
The Boers (literally, farmers) were a militia force of guerilla fighters grouped into units known as commandos. Accustomed to riding and shooting from an early age, they were expert marksmen and horsemen. The Boers had procured the latest rifles (most used German manufactured mausers) as well as a limited number of heavy artillery pieces. Some were as young as 13.
There were probably never more than 30,000 - 40,000 Boers versus (originally) 20,000 British soldiers. By the end of the war, the numbers of British soldiers in South Africa had swollen to 450,000.
Initially, the Boers took advantage of the limited numbers of British troops to invade Natal and the Cape with the intention of capturing the vital ports of Durban and Cape Town and gaining control of the central rail network.
Failure to capture these objectives meant that the Boers were forced increasingly on the defensive in the face of overwhelming British numbers. The British originally employed close-order bayonet attacks but these failed against the Boers, who were often so well-dug in they could not be spotted. Expert Boer marksmen wrought heavy casualties on exposed British soldiers.
In an attempt to break their stubborn fighting spirit, the British resorted to scorched earth tactics, destroying farms and herding women and children into concentration camps, where thousands died of dysentery, measles and pneumonia. Of the 24,000 Boer casualties suffered in the war, 20,000 were women and children.
The British also constructed 8,000 blockhouses at 2.5 kilometre intervals to protect the railways and prevent the Boers from moving freely across the highveld.
Faced with the destruction of their homeland, the ‘bittereinders’ (bitter enders) finally surrendered on May 31st, 1902. The final meeting was held at Vereeniging in the Transvaal, with the terms signed in Pretoria.
A total of 22,000 British soldiers died, two thirds from disease. A further 12,000 Native, Coloured and Indian troops died on both sides. In the words of Rudyard Kipling, the famous contemporary English author, the war gave the British ‘no end of a lesson.’
The Enterprise of War
Editors of Time Life Books
Time Life Books, 1991
A Tourist Guide to the Anglo Boer War 1899-1902
Tony Westby-Nunn
Westby-Nunn publishers 2000
Readers Digest Illustrated History of South Africa: The Real Story
Readers Digest 1989
