Download South African War

DICTATORS, WAR +
REVOLUTIONS
HT51020A
DR ERICA WALD
The South African War
South African War in Figures
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2 years, 8 months
450,000 British and empire troops
22,000 British casualties
34,000 Boer casualties (civilian &
combatant)
Roughly 20,000 African deaths
Combatants

Britain
 British,
British
Commonwealth and
Empire forces

Boer republics
 Orange
Free State
 Transvaal
The South African War
I.
II.
III.
I.
II.
IV.
V.
Introduction
Background
Origins of the crisis
Long term
Immediate
War
Aftermath



What were the causes
of the war?
Why did Britain go to
war with the Boer
republics?
Was this an imperial
war?
Key Figures



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Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State
for Colonies
Sir Alfred Milner, High Commissioner for
South Africa
Lord Salisbury, British (Conservative)
Prime Minister
Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape
Colony

Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal

General Jan Smuts

Lord Kitchner

Emily Hobhouse
Cecil Rhodes
Background
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1795 - British seize Cape
from Dutch East India
Company
1815 – Peace Settlement in
Europe- Cape Colony to
remain in British control
1820 – Arrival of British
settlers
The Great Trek
Importance of South Africa to empire

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Location
 Route to India
 Ports & trade
Economic boom
 Diamonds & gold
British immigrants
Imperial power
 South African confederation
First South African War, 1880-1
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Followed British annexation of
Transvaal
Boer opposition led by Paul
Kruger
Gladstone sought to establish a
South African confederation
George Colley’s military
blunders
Armistice & peace – March 1881
Gold & Uitlanders
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1886- gold
discovered on
Witwatersrand
1898- Transvaal =
largest single producer
of gold in the world

Uitlanders= British
labourers & mine
workers
 Cultural
gap with Boer
 Badly treated by
Kruger
Men on the Spot: Cecil Rhodes



Drive to open up and
establish settlements
north of Limpopo River
British South Africa
Company
Pioneer Column, 1890
 No
gold found
The Rhodes Colossus
Immediate Causes

Jameson Raid (29 December
1895- 2 January 1896)

Afrikaaner resentment



Kruger plans for war
South African League
established for Uitlander
concerns
Sir Alfred Milner & the
breakdown of the
Bloemfontein talks
Sir Leander Starr Jameson
War, 1899-1902

Two phases
Boer Offensive, OctoberDecember 1899
 British Offensive,
January-September
1900

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Guerrilla War, -to 1902
The Devonshire Regiment in action near
Ladysmith
Boer Offensive, October-December 1899
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Invasion of Cape
Colony & Natal
Siege of Mafeking &
Ladysmith
Black Week, December
1899

Magersfontein, Stormberg,
Colenso
Boers using long cannon during siege of
Mafeking
Awareness of Empire

Popular Imperialism
 British
press coverage
 Khaki Election, 1900

Commonwealth &
empire involvement
British Offensive, January-September 1900
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New Strategy under
Lord Roberts and Lord
Kitchner
Reinforcements
Relief of Ladysmith,
Kimberley & Mafeking
Typhoid
Popular Imperialism
Celebrating the Relief of Ladysmith, Columbia Street,
Vancouver, BC, 1900
From the Market Harborough Advertiser, March 1900
Guerrilla War
Boer guerrilla commandos
Boer woman with her dead child, photographed
by Emily Hobhouse
Vereeniging Peace Treaty, May 1902

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60 Boer representatives
meet British
Concede surrender of
independence of republics
in return for promise of
eventual self-government &
‘delay’ in extending
franchise to Africans