- The War
- The Boer offensive (October 1899 to December 1899)
The English thought fighting peasants, they will
actually face an army of determined and well-armed militiamen. The
Boer republics bought guns of 75 in France and machine guns and
Mauser rifles in Germany. Faced with an outnumbered and disorganized
enemy, they invade the Cape Colony. To fight this mobile militia
practicing guerrilla and ambushes, the old british generals applied
the Waterloo strategy and the « redcoats » in battle
order were massacred. With their light weapons and machine guns, the
Boers assieged the city of Kimberley and defeated the professionnal
British army at Magersfontein, Stormberg, and Colenso (10-15
december).
During these battles, the Boer machine guns
massacred rows of British soldiers while afrikanner troops were
sheltered of aritillerie in trenches : it is an announcement of WWI.
Moreover, except France which gave a discrete support (internal
divison between the will of revenge after the incident of Fachoda in
1898 and the perspective of the future “entente cordiale” against
Germany), the main european ally of the Boers is Germany, which seeks
to prevent the British thalassocratic hegemony theorized by Joseph
Mackinder (the opposion between the British empire and the
continental power of Germany is largely responsible for the Great
War). So the Boer War is a key to understand the future XXth
century.
Contrary
to the first Boer War, the economic and geo-strategic issues are very
important and the British empire is determined to continue the fight
until the final victory. Indeed, even more
than mineral wealth, it is the control of the road from Cairo to Cape
Town and thus a global geo-strategic control over the Indian Ocean
(and the British total naval power over the world) which is the goal
of Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Milner.
Controlling Cape
Town and the coast, the British carried guns and troops from all the
Empire (Canadian, Australian...). There will be ultil 450 000
soldiers in South-Africa, more than all the Boer people... The Boer
are logically submerged and the Boers republics are invaded. In the
battle of Paardeberg, in february 1900, 15 000 british soldiers
attacked 5000 Boers resistants. The Boer army finally surrended after
having killed more ennemies than thier opponent. Bloemfontein,
capital city of the Orange free state, fall on the 13th
of March and Pretoria is conquered
on June the fifth. Boer republics are completely invaded but the Boer
people refused to lay down their arms.
- Guerrilla war and British terror (September 1900 – May 1902)
Boer armies decided to lead a war of harassment against the British
troops to force them to leave the territory. Their knowledge of the
field and their art of guerrilla allow them to inflict heavy
casualties on an occupying army everey day more numerous but unable
to respond. Faced with this situation the new commander of the
British Army, Lord Kitchener, decided to answer by the Terror :
systematic destruction of boer farms and detention of civilians
(wemen and children) which means the first concentration camps of
history : one third of the all Boer people will be put into
concentration camps (old men, women and children) : 120 000 people.
27 927 Boers died (of which 22 074 were under 16 years). Moreover, 14
154 blak men (agricultural employees, guardians of the farms,
soldiers in the Boer army) died. Starvation and disease are the main
causes.
In 1901 the first peace negotiations are open but the last Boer
soldiers surrended in 1902. On May 31st 1902, the treaty
of Vereeniging confirmed the loss of Boer republics which are
integrated into the British Empire but the rights of Boers are
recognized : Dutch is authorized in schools and tribunals, the civil
autonomy is recognized for the former Boer republics.
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| Boers in a British concentration camp |
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| Lizzie van Zyl, victim of the British terror |
