October 1st, 2021

The Second Anglo-Boer War (The South African War) 1899-1902

Background
Discovery of Gold
Phase I (Conventional War)
Phase II (Guerrilla War)
End of the War

Background

The British (about 450 000 troops brought into South Africa) vs. the Boers (about 70 000
maximum)

Basically the first usage of COIN (counterinsurgency) in the 20th century; the tactics the British
used were replicated across the century

British: Cape Colony-Natal

Boer Republics: Orange Free State-Transvaal
The Great Trek (Voortrekkers) 1830s-50s
Diamond Discoveries 1860s
Confederation 1870s – basically just a direct copy of the British North America Act
Cape-Xhosa War 1877-78
Anglo-Zulu War 1879
Battle of Isandlwana – part of the Anglo-Zulu War
Anglo-Pedi War 1879
Gun War 1880 (Lesotho) – Lesotho was handed over to the Cape Colony who did not treat them
as well as the British did, and this led to the Gun War. Lesotho was victorious and the British
reinstated direct rule, and this is the reason

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First Anglo-Boer War (Transvaal Rebellion) 1880-81 – the Boers had never been taxed before
and when the British came in and started making them pay taxes, this went about as well as you
would expect.
Battle of Majuba Hill 1881 – the British would bring troops into Durban and march them up.
They got beaten at Majuba Hill by the Boers.

Discovery of Gold

Witwatersrand – Johannesburg, previously only a mining camp became a city – 1880s

Outsiders came in for the gold, which the Boers called Uitlanders.
Transvaal – Paul Kruger (president), at the battle of Blood River against the Zulus as a child
Cape – Cecil Rhodes
After a while, the Boers started getting rich from gold and buying lots of guns to defend
themselves. This scares the British because the Boers start to actually be able to pose a threat,
and because if they get too strong they might make friends with a major power like the Germans.
Also, the British wanted the gold.
Jameson Raid 1895 – all of this came to a head, and Rhodes got tired of trying diplomacy. He
sent in a couple hundred men of the British South Africa Company, counting on the Uitlanders
rebelling. They did not and it failed spectacularly, leading to Rhodes getting hung out to dry and
having his premiership of the Cape ended by the British.
Rhodesia and Bechuanaland

Second Anglo-Boer War: Phase I – Conventional War (1899-1900)

OPFOR: Boer Commando vs. British Army. Clash of two radically different views, traditions,
and strategies of warfare. At this point the Boers still do not have a professional army but they
are starting to think about it. Women actually played a big part in the Commandoes as there were
no formal logistics; so the women helped with cooking, logistics, morale, etc. No real military
law or discipline amongst the commandoes, or formal military hierarchy. Black people worked
as afterriders.

Boer Plans – really ad hoc but they are good marksmen, have modern weapons, have lots of local
knowledge, lots of horses so great mobility, etc. Meanwhile the British soldiers are basically the
opposite; not very physically fit, not very well trained, training is more unit based than individual
based. All of the wars fought up to this point in this area and time period have been colonial

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wars. In Sudan, for example, they would put the artillery close (200m) to the enemy to scare
them. They try this with the Boers and all of their cannoneers get shot. Also, the British have not
done things on this scale since the Crimean War.
Boer Preemptive Strike (N. Cape – Natal) – how the war starts. Plan is to conduct simultaneous
preemptive strikes along the Cape and Natal. When this happens in Oct 1899 the British forces in
South Africa number only a few thousand. Their main strategic objective is Natal since it is the
closest and the biggest threat. Since they cannot occupy the whole cape they also plan to take
over just the railway junctions to make life hard for the British. The attorney general of the
Transvaal, Jan Smuts, is the one who produces this plan (they do not have a high command, and
this is the smartest guy they got). This plan fails and it degenerates into a few key sieges.
Sieges: Ladysmith, Kimberley, Mafeking – big sieges, the Boers do not do well. Eventually the
Boers start worrying about their farms and start to go home.
1st British Offensive – after the sieges, the British try and go lift the sieges. It does not work very
well as the British just try to make a frontal assault. The Boers know where they are coming
Redvers Buller – decides to split his forces, one in the Cape and one…
Black Week (Stormberg, Magersfontein, Colenso) – loss of key battles by the British at the
hands of the Boers, because of Boer local knowledge, poor British logistics, the need to stick to
the railways, and poor British strategy. Huge disaster and the British are forced to reconsider.

2nd British Offensive

F. Roberts; helped by H. Kitchener, fresh from Sudan
British reforms: improved intelligence (hiring locals), logistics, and mobility (bring the horses).
Better officers are brought in. British start flanking the Boers.
Battle of Paardeberg – Feb. 1900 – huge loss for the Boers. Flanked, encircled, captured,
including some leaders. Not long after this the capitals of the Republics start to get occupied.
Boer Leadership:
Piet Joubert, Piet Cronje
Louis Botha, Christiaan de Wet, Koos de la Rey
Foreign Fighters – Russian and German contingents, mostly professionals/officers; Irish
nationalists who hate the British, radicals who want to blow up the mines in order to deny them
to the British.

Second Anglo-Boer War: Phase II – Guerrilla War (1900-1902)

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Occupation of Boer capitals (Bloemfontein – Pretoria) – British occupy the capitals, but the
Boers are farmers and they do not even like their capitals.
Split between “Bittereinders”, “Hensoppers”, and “Joiners”
British COIN
Farm burning – attempt to destroy the support structure of Bittereinders
Concentration camps – British herding of Boer civilians into concentration camps where
conditions are really terrible.
Emily Hobhouse – activist who went to South Africa to report on the concentration camps.
Block houses – idea was to divide the countryside into segments with blockhouses and barbed
wire to control the areas
Flying columns – mounted forces to chase after insurgents
Trains – Search lights to patrol the countryside
By the end of 1901 basically only the Bittereinders are left and people start thinking “what are
we fighting for anyways? Is the bitter end that we don’t exist anymore?”

African resistance to Boers – blacks start taking firearms and land and this scares the shit out of
the whites

Myth of the White Man’s War

End of the War

Good deal but lost war – promises made to the British, promises made to the Boers.
Treaty of Vereeniging – May 1902 (54 vs 6 votes)
Death Toll = around 75 000
Responsible Government 1907 (Orange River Colony – Transvaal); the Boers who fought the
British, like Botha, now become leaders of the states
African Delegation to London 1909 – blacks are unhappy about the planned union because they
cannot vote.
Union of South Africa 1910
SAANC (ANC) 1912

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Natives Land Act 1913 – dispossessed black Africans further

Louis Botha – first prime minister of the Union, Jan Smuts – his right-hand man, and second
prime minister
Other Boers were not so happy and remembered the concentration camps. This led to the rise of
Afrikaner nationalism, led by J.B.M. Hertzog, who formed a party in 1914.

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