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The British Takeover Of South Africa (1805 - 1814)

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The British Takeover Of South Africa (1805 - 1814)

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After multiple battles between Britain and the Netherlands, the British seized control over South Africa with the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814.

South Africa quickly became a popular place to settle due to the increased unemployment rate from the Napoleonic Wars and the rumour that gold could be found in South Africa.

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The Abolition Of Slavery In The British Empire (1833-1834)

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The Abolition Of Slavery In The British Empire (1833-1834)

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The Emancipation Act in 1833 marked the end of slavery in the British Empire, including South Africa. This made the Afrikaners outraged as they heavily depended on slaves to perform the "Kaffir" work (Blacks/slaves work) in order to do works such as farming efficiently.

This event gives an insight into why Afrikaners wanted to remain outside of British influence and their reason as to why they were so willing to fight the British during the Boers Wars

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Due to slavery dependency, many Afrikaners decided to leave the British Empire rather than try to deal with the new law changes. This massive outflow of Afrikaners was famously called "The Great Trek".

These Afrikaners called themselves "Voortrekkers” (means pioneers in Dutch). They moved North and settled inland, where they eventually called those regions Transvaal, Orange Free State, and Natal

These states were the main battlegrounds during the Boer Wars and their history as to why they were established can explain why the British felt like they were entitled to have them.

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Uitlanders & Paul Kruger's restriction on their influence (1890-91)

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Uitlanders & Paul Kruger's restriction on their influence (1890-91)

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Due to the fact that diamonds were discovered in the Orange Free State, as well as gold in the Transvaal, countless waves of foreigners (Uitlanders) flooded into the Boers States in search of getting rich. This naturally made the Boers feel threatened and protective of their rare natural resources.

Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal restricted Uitlanders' rights as much as possible by:

- Limiting the vote to men who lived in the Transvaal for 14 years. Effectively ruled out any Uitlanders from voting.

- Heavily taxing dynamite, in which only he is allowed to produce them.

- Planning his own railway to bypass a proposed British railway.

These restrictions angered British colonizer Cecil B. Rhodes and made the British feel like they needed to intervene to protect Uitlanders' rights.

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Due to Kruger's restrictive policy with the Uitlanders, the British decided to send 500 troops to the Transvaal in order to incite an Uitlander's rebellion against Kruger.

The raid ended up failing and it made Kruger realize that he was not ready for war. He ordered every Transvaal citizen to have a rifle, 50 rounds of ammunition, a horse, and food for 8 days. In which, he found that only half of the population could only meet those demands. Kruger then ordered thousands of German guns in order to get ready for the war.

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Paul Kruger wins fourth term presidency (1898)

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Paul Kruger wins fourth term presidency (1898)

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By winning his fourth term, Paul Kruger felt empowered and doubled down in only granting voting rights to the Boers.

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The British Deployment & Boer Ultimatum (1899)

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The British Deployment & Boer Ultimatum (1899)

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Being sick of the whole situation, the British decided to send in 10,000 troops to reinforce their demands and also claims as to why the Transvaal and Orange Free State should be theirs.

Naturally, The Boers felt threatened by this and responded by sending an ultimatum, telling the British to back off or go to war. The British misinterpreted this as a demand for war and sped up the deployment of their troops, making the Second Boer War seem nigh inevitable.

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The Start Of The Second Boer War  (October 11, 1899)

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The Start Of The Second Boer War  (October 11, 1899)

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The Boers sent the following ultimatum to the British:
- settle all disputes through arbitration
- British troops on borders were to be withdrawn
- British troops en route to South Africa were not to get off their ships.

The British refused this ultimatum, which officially started the Second Boer War.

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The British had a horrendous start to the Second Boer War. There were a series of serious setbacks:
- The Boers were able to besiege key British towns such as Ladysmith, Kimberly, and Mafeking.
- There were also major victories for the Boers at Stormsberry, Magersfontein, Colenso, and Sion Kop.

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During the British initial mission to relieve Ladysmith, they had to cross the Tugela River. The British took too long to do so and allowed the Boers to set up their troops on a hill to intercept them. Both parties then fought in what is later known as the Battle of Spion Kop.

There were key moments that decided this battle. One of them is how the British set up their trenches. The British had particularly no knowledge of their surrounding before this battle started. This led to poor positional trenches that still allowed the Boers snipers to hit them. Their trenches also were too far to see the Boers' reinforcement, allowing the Boers to replenish their troops/move around without consequences. The British also took too long to defeat the Boers' most important piece in this battle, their artillery. These mistakes cost them countless lives despite their superior numbers.

There were important figures in this battle such as Winston Churchill, Louis Botha, and Mahatma Gandhi.

Although the British did eventually force the Boers to retreat, The British were so afraid of losing so many of their men again that the commander ordered a retreat, letting all the British sacrifices go to waste.

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British Victories & Reliefs Of Many Besieged Towns (February - September 1900)

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British Victories & Reliefs Of Many Besieged Towns (February - September 1900)

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After the bad start, the British organized themself and ended up winning many battles as well as relieving many towns such as Ladysmith, Paardeberg (4000 Boers died in this battle), Mafeking, occupied both of the Boer capitals, and winning the last major battle at Bergendal.

By September, the British had won enough that they just assumed that the war was over. However, realizing that they couldn't beat the British troops head-on, the Boers were still determined to resist the British as much as possible by using guerilla tactics. This made the Second Boer War last for a couple more years and led the British to use more extreme tactics.

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British Four Part Plan (September - May 1902)

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British Four Part Plan (September - May 1902)

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After adopting a guerilla-like fight style, the remaining Boers, who were called the "bittereinders" kept fighting the British without any sign of giving up. Due to this, the British adopted a four-part plan designed to completely crush the Boers' ability and spirit to resist.

1. Scorched Earth Policy -  The complete destruction of Boer resources. After capturing a Boer town, the British made sure that the cattle were seized and slaughtered. Homes and farms were completely burned down. Salting the fields so that they could not be used to farm again. This obviously had a big economic impact on the Boers and pressured them to surrender or suffer long-term setbacks as a result

2. Concentration Camps - The British sent about 150,000 Boer women and children into camps. However, the camps were administered poorly and there were constant hygiene, food, and medical care problems with them. 24,000 Boer children died as a result of the camps, that is half of all Boer children at the time. Blacks were also administered into the camps as well, about 20,000 of them also died due to the poor administration. Overall, the concentration camps were full of human rights violations which were criticized by a lot of British citizens. At the end of it, all the Boers were able to use the camps as a retable memory to promote Afrikaner nationalism, making the whole thing feel counterproductive for the British.

3. Blockhouses - blockhouses were highly effective at controlling the Boer and quickened the British movement. They also made Boer's territories more manageable and were quite effective at helping the British gather information. Each house cost £1000 and three months to build. There were 8,000 blockhouses to support 50,000 British soldiers and 16,000 black support staff who were still fighting the 30,000 remaining Boer soldiers.

4. New Model Drives - the introduction of blockhouses also introduced a new combat system. The mounted columns were used to pursue and harass the Boer soldiers until sweeper columns could come in and kill/capture them.

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The Treaty Of Vereeniging (May 31, 1902)

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The Treaty Of Vereeniging (May 31, 1902)

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The Treaty of Vereeniging marked the end of the Second Boer War. In order for the war to be over, the following things were agreed upon:

1. The Boer soldiers had to formally surrender, turn in their guns, and swear allegiance to King Edward VII

2. The Boer will be brought back to their home once they swear their loyalty to the king

3. The Boer surrender will not rob them of their freedom or property

4. All Boer prisoners of war will be forgiven

5. The Dutch language will still be taught and used

6. Boers are allowed to own guns for as long as they follow the proper procedure to do so.

7. The British government will govern the Boer but they will eventually be able to run their own representative government

8. There will be no talk about granting black/native rights until self-government has been achieved

9. There will be no special tax due to the war

10. Things that the British took will repay any things they have taken away during the war (the British intentionally made this vague). To be more specific, the government will give out three million pounds sterling for free in order to repair any damage they caused. They will then give loans for any amount past that three million mark. The loan will be free for the first two years, then it will have a three percent interest after that. No foreigner or rebel will be entitled to this benefit