Editing Second Boer War (section)

== Overview ==

[[File:Afrika Politische Uebersicht Maerz 1885.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|The geography of Africa in 1885, between the [[First Boer War|First]] and Second Boer Wars]]

The war had three phases. In the first phase, the Boers mounted preemptive strikes into British-held territory in Natal and the [[Cape Colony]], besieging the British garrisons of [[Siege of Ladysmith|Ladysmith]], [[Siege of Mafeking|Mafeking]], and [[Siege of Kimberley|Kimberley]]. The Boers then won a series of tactical victories at [[Battle of Stormberg|Stormberg]], [[Battle of Magersfontein|Magersfontein]], [[Battle of Colenso|Colenso]] and [[Battle of Spion Kop|Spion Kop]].

In the second phase, after the number of British troops greatly increased under the command of [[Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts|Lord Roberts]], the British launched another offensive in 1900 to relieve the sieges, this time achieving success. After Natal and the Cape Colony were secure, the British army was able to invade the Transvaal, and the republic's capital, [[Pretoria]], was ultimately captured in June 1900.

In the third and final phase, beginning in March 1900 and lasting a further two years, the Boers conducted a hard-fought guerrilla war, attacking British troop columns, telegraph sites, railways, and storage depots. To deny supplies to the Boer guerrillas, the British, now under the leadership of [[Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener|Lord Kitchener]], adopted a [[scorched earth]] policy. They cleared vast areas, destroying Boer farms and moving the civilians into concentration camps.<ref name="Pakenham1979">{{Cite book|last=Pakenham |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Pakenham (historian) |year=1979 |title=The Boer War|location=New York|publisher=Random House|isbn=0-394-42742-4|url=https://archive.org/details/boerwar00pake|url-access=registration }}</ref>{{rp|439–495}}

Some parts of the British press and British government expected the campaign to be over within months, and the protracted war gradually became less popular, especially after revelations about the conditions in the concentration camps (where as many as 26,000 Afrikaner women and children died of disease and malnutrition). The Boer forces finally surrendered on Saturday, 31 May 1902, with 54 of the 60 delegates from the Transvaal and Orange Free State voting to accept the terms of the peace treaty.<ref name="Wessels2000" />{{rp|97}} This was known as the [[Treaty of Vereeniging]], and under its provisions, the two republics were absorbed into the British Empire, with the promise of self-government in the future. This promise was fulfilled with the creation of the [[Union of South Africa]] in 1910.

The war had a lasting effect on the region and on British domestic politics. For Britain, the Second Boer War was the longest, the most expensive (£211&nbsp;million, £19.9&nbsp;billion at 2022 prices), and the bloodiest conflict between 1815 and 1914,<ref name="Pakenham1979" />{{rp|xv}} lasting three months longer and resulting in more British combat casualties than the [[Crimean War]] (1853–1856). Disease took a greater toll in the Crimean War, claiming 17,580 British.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clodfelter |first=Micheal |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kNzCDgAAQBAJ |title=Warfare and armed conflicts: a statistical encyclopedia of casualty and other figures, 1492–2015 |date=2017 |publisher=McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers |isbn=978-0-7864-7470-7 |edition=4th |location=Jefferson, North Carolina}}</ref>

=== Name ===

[[File:Alexander Duncan Turnbull 1901, Boer War.jpg|thumb|right|upright|(A typical British soldier) Corporal Alexander Duncan Turnbull of Kitchener's Fighting Scouts]]

The conflict is commonly referred to simply as "the Boer War" because the [[First Boer War]] (December 1880 to March 1881) was a much smaller conflict. ''[[Boer]]'' (meaning "farmer") is the common name for [[Afrikaans language|Afrikaans]]-speaking [[white South African]]s descended from the [[Dutch East India Company]]'s original settlers at the [[Cape of Good Hope]]. Among some South Africans, it is known as the (Second) Anglo–Boer War. In [[Afrikaans]], it may be called (in order of frequency) the '{{lang|af|Tweede Vryheidsoorlog}} ("Second Freedom War"), '{{lang|af|Tweede Boereoorlog}} ("Second Boer War"), {{lang|af|Anglo–Boereoorlog}} ("Anglo–Boer War") or {{lang|af|Engelse oorlog}} ("English War").{{sfn|Gronum|1977}}

In [[South Africa]], it is officially called the [[South African Wars (1879–1915)|South African War]].{{sfn|''South African History Online''|2011}} In fact, according to a 2011 [[BBC]] report, "most scholars prefer to call the war of 1899–1902 the South African War, thereby acknowledging that all South Africans, white and black, were affected by the war and that many were participants".<ref name="bbc01">{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/boer_wars_01.shtml|title=History – The Boer Wars|last=Pretorius|first=Fransjohan |author-link=Fransjohan Pretorius |date=2008-03-18|publisher=[[BBC]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200407234451/https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/boer_wars_01.shtml|archive-date=7 April 2020|access-date=2019-08-28}}</ref>

=== Origins ===

The origins of the war were complex and stemmed from more than a century of conflict between the Boers and Britain. Of immediate importance, however, was the question of who would control and benefit most from the very lucrative Witwatersrand gold mines<ref name="Pakenham1979" />{{rp|xxi}} discovered by [[Jan Gerrit Bantjes]] in June 1884.

The first European settlement in South Africa was founded at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, and thereafter administered as part of the [[Dutch Cape Colony]].<ref name="Keegan">{{cite book | last = Keegan| first = Timothy| title = Colonial South Africa and the Origins of the Racial Order| year = 1996| url = https://archive.org/details/colonialsouthafr0000keeg| url-access = registration|edition= 1996|pages= [https://archive.org/details/colonialsouthafr0000keeg/page/15 15–37] | publisher = David Philip Publishers (Pty) Ltd| isbn = 978-0-8139-1735-1}}</ref> The Cape was governed by the Dutch East India Company, until its bankruptcy in the late 18th century, and was thereafter governed directly by the [[Netherlands]].<ref name="Greaves">{{cite book|last= Greaves|first=Adrian|title=The Tribe that Washed its Spears: The Zulus at War|date=2013|location=Barnsley|publisher=Pen & Sword Military|pages= 36–55|isbn=978-1-62914-513-6}}</ref> As a result of political turmoil in the Netherlands, the British occupied the Cape three times during the [[Napoleonic Wars]], and the occupation became permanent after British forces defeated the Dutch at the [[Battle of Blaauwberg]] in 1806.{{sfn|Morris|Linnegar|2004 |pp= 58–95}} At the time, the colony was home to about 26,000 colonists settled under Dutch rule.<ref name="Britannica1933">Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1933. James Louis Garvin, editor.</ref> A relative majority represented old Dutch families brought to the Cape during the late 17th and early 18th centuries; however, close to one-fourth of this demographic was of German origin and one-sixth of French [[Huguenot]] descent.<ref name="Boeren">{{cite book|last1=Colenbrander|first1=Herman|language=nl |title=De Afkomst Der Boeren|orig-date=1902|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|date=2010|isbn=978-1167481994|trans-title=The Origin of the Peasants}}.</ref> Cleavages were likelier to occur along socio-economic rather than ethnic lines. Broadly speaking, the colonists included a number of distinct subgroups, including the [[Boers]].<ref name="Tribalism">{{cite book|last=Giliomee|first=Hermann|title=The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa|date=1991|pages=21–28|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=978-0-520-07420-0}}</ref> The Boers were itinerant farmers who lived on the colony's frontiers, seeking better pastures for their livestock.<ref name="Greaves" /> Many were dissatisfied with aspects of British administration, in particular with Britain's abolition of slavery on 1 December 1834. Boers who used forced labor would have been unable to collect compensation for their slaves.<ref name="Grant-2015" /> Between 1836 and 1852, many elected to migrate away from British rule in what became known as the [[Great Trek]].{{sfn |Morris|Linnegar|2004|pp= 58–95}}

Around 15,000 trekking Boers departed the Cape Colony and followed the eastern coast towards [[Colony of Natal|Natal]]. After Britain annexed Natal in 1843, they journeyed farther northwards into South Africa's vast eastern interior. There, they established two independent Boer republics: the South African Republic (1852; also known as the Transvaal Republic) and the Orange Free State (1854). Britain recognised the two Boer republics in 1852 and 1854 but attempted British annexation of the Transvaal in 1877 led to the First Boer War in 1880–1881. After Britain suffered defeats, particularly at the [[Battle of Majuba Hill]] (1881), the independence of the two republics was restored, subject to certain conditions. However, relations remained uneasy.

In 1866, diamonds were discovered at [[Kimberley, Northern Cape|Kimberley]], prompting a [[diamond rush]] and a massive influx of foreigners to the borders of the Orange Free State. Then, in June 1884, gold was discovered in the [[Witwatersrand]] area of the [[South African Republic]] by Jan Gerrit Bantjes. Gold made the Transvaal the richest nation in southern Africa; however, the country had neither the manpower nor the industrial base to develop the resource on its own. As a result, the Transvaal reluctantly acquiesced to the immigration of ''[[uitlander]]s'' (foreigners), mainly English-speaking men from Britain, who came to the Boer region in search of fortune and employment. As a result, the number of {{lang|af|uitlanders}} in the Transvaal threatened to exceed the number of Boers, precipitating confrontations between the Boer settlers and the newer, non-Boer arrivals.

Britain's expansionist ideas (notably propagated by [[Cecil Rhodes]]) as well as disputes over uitlander political and economic rights led to the failed [[Jameson Raid]] of 1895. Dr. [[Leander Starr Jameson]], who led the raid, intended to encourage an uprising of the uitlanders in [[Johannesburg]]. However, the uitlanders did not take up arms in support, and Transvaal government forces surrounded the column and captured Jameson's men before they could reach Johannesburg.<ref name="Pakenham1979" />{{rp|1–5}}

As tensions escalated, political manoeuvrings and negotiations attempted to reach compromise on the issues of uitlanders' rights within the South African Republic, control of the gold mining industry, and Britain's desire to incorporate the Transvaal and the Orange Free State into a federation under British control. Given the British origins of the majority of uitlanders and the ongoing influx of new uitlanders into Johannesburg, the Boers recognised that granting full voting rights to the uitlanders would eventually result in the loss of ethnic Boer control in the South African Republic.

The June 1899 [[Bloemfontein Conference|negotiations in Bloemfontein]] failed, and in September 1899 British [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]] [[Joseph Chamberlain]] demanded full voting rights and representation for the uitlanders residing in the Transvaal. [[Paul Kruger]], the President of the South African Republic, issued an ultimatum on 9 October 1899, giving the British government 48 hours to withdraw all their troops from the borders of both the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, failing which the Transvaal, allied to the Orange Free State, would declare war on the [[Government of the United Kingdom|British government]]. (In fact, Kruger had ordered [[Boer Commando|commandos]] to the Natal border in early September, and Britain had only troops in garrison towns far from the border.)<ref name="Gale and Polden-1910">{{Cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15699/15699-h/15699-h.htm|title=A Handbook of the Boer War|publisher=[[Gale and Polden]]|year=1910|isbn=978-1-374-97455-5|location=[[London]]}}</ref> The British government rejected the South African Republic's ultimatum, and the South African Republic and [[Orange Free State]] declared war on Britain.<ref name="Gale and Polden-1910" />