The Second Anglo-Boer War

1886. In an area of today’s South Africa, the British and a group of Dutch settlers called the Boers control neighbouring lands. The British control the Cape of Good Hope; the Boers have established two independent republics next door: the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. Many Africans who have lived in this region for tens of thousands of years have been forced off their land. Others live among the Europeans, some as servants or farmers.

For a few years, there has been peace between the British and the Boers. But now, gold is discovered in the Boer-controlled South African Republic. The area quickly grows wealthy, and the British fear their neighbour is becoming too powerful. The British decide to try and take control of the Boer republics. Meanwhile, thousands of gold miners from all over the world have migrated to the South African Republic to seek their fortunes.

The Boers call them “outlanders”. The outlanders are frustrated that the Boers won’t let them vote in elections. The British spot a chance to rile up the outlanders to rebellion. In 1895, a small British force, led by colonial politician Leander Jameson, invades the South African Republic. But the Jameson raid is a failure; rather than empowering the outlanders, it simply angers the Boers.

The Boers begin to import guns, arming themselves for all-out war. In 1899, the Boers demand the British withdraw troops from the border of the South African Republic. The British refuse, and the Second Anglo-Boer War begins. The Boers quickly capture several key towns, helped by the African Tswana people they conscript. But the Boers’ success doesn’t last long.

The British receive hundreds of thousands of extra troops from their allies abroad. And the British, too, recruit, or sometimes force, Africans to fight for them — Ngwato, Mfengu, and Thembu peoples. The expanded British side wins back the captured towns and takes the capitals of both Boer republics. To defeat the remaining Boer fighters, the British try to starve them. They send anyone who might grow food for the enemy — Boer women, children, and African farmers — to concentration camps.

They burn farmland and kill the livestock. The Boers are worn down. In May 1902, they negotiate peace. The two sides sign a treaty that recognises the South African Republic and the Orange Free State as British colonies. The treaty promises the Boers local self-governance and three million pounds to rebuild farms and property.

Black Africans, meanwhile, are not allowed to vote in elections, and no reconstruction aid is granted to them. More than 20 000 British and 14 000 Boer troops were killed in the war. 26 000 Boer women and children died of starvation and disease in the concentration camps. There is no record of how many black Africans died, but it is estimated that between 13 000 and 20 000 lost their lives.