Editing Union of South Africa (section)

===Second Boer War (1899–1902)===

{{main|Second Boer War}}

After the discovery of gold in the 1880s, thousands of British immigrants flocked to the gold mines of the [[South African Republic|Transvaal Republic]] and the [[Orange Free State]]. The newly arrived miners, though needed for the mines, were distrusted by the politically dominant Afrikaners, who called them "[[uitlander]]s", imposed heavy taxes on them and granted them very limited civil rights, with no right to vote. The British government, interested in profiting from the gold and diamond mines there and highly protective of its own citizens, demanded reforms, which the Afrikaners rejected. A small-scale private British effort to overthrow Transvaal's President [[Paul Kruger]], the [[Jameson Raid]] of 1895, proved a fiasco, and presaged full-scale conflict as diplomatic efforts all failed.<ref>J.A.S.Grenville, ''Lord Salisbury, and Foreign Policy'' (1964) pp 235–64.</ref><ref>Iain R. Smith, ''The Origins of the South African War, 1899–1902'' (1996).</ref><ref>
William L. Langer, ''The Diplomacy of Imperialism'' (1950), pp. 605–28, 651–76
</ref>

The Second Boer War started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. The United Kingdom gained the support of its Cape Colony, of its Colony of Natal and of some African allies. Volunteers from across the British Empire further supplemented the British war effort. All other nations remained neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain. Inside Britain and its Empire there was also significant [[opposition to the Second Boer War]], spearheaded by [[Anti-war movement|anti-war activists]] such as [[Emily Hobhouse]].<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Judd
 | first1 = Denis
 | last2 = Surridge
 | first2 = Keith
 | year = 2002
 | title = The Boer War: A History
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wmGJDwAAQBAJ
 | edition = revised
 | location = London
 | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing
 | publication-date = 2013
 | pages = 1–54
 | isbn = 9780857722317
 | access-date = 2019-12-19
 }}
</ref>

At the onset of the war, the British were both overconfident about the chances of success in a military confrontation with the Boer republics and underprepared for a long-term conflict. British Prime Minister [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury|Lord Salisbury]] and members of [[Unionist government, 1895–1905|his cabinet]], in particular [[Secretary of State for the Colonies|Colonial Secretary]] [[Joseph Chamberlain]], ignored repeated warnings that Boer forces were more powerful than previous reports had suggested. In the last months of 1899, Boer forces launched the first attacks of the war, besieging the British-held settlements of [[Siege of Ladysmith|Ladysmith]], [[Siege of Kimberley|Kimberley]] and [[Siege of Mafeking|Mafeking]], and [[Black Week|winning several engagements]] against British troops at [[Battle of Colenso|Colenso]], [[Battle of Magersfontein|Magersfontein]] and [[Battle of Stormberg|Stormberg]]. However, by the next year the British soon organised an effective response to these attacks, lifting the three sieges and winning several battles against Boer forces. The British, now deploying approximately 400,000 soldiers from across their colonial empire, successfully invaded and occupied the Boer republics. Numerous [[Boer Commando|Boer soldiers]] refused to surrender and [[Bittereinder|took to the countryside]] to carry out [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrilla operations]] against the British, who responded by implementing [[scorched earth]] tactics. These tactics included interning Afrikaner civilians from the Boer republics in [[Second Boer War concentration camps|concentration camps]] (in which roughly 28,000 people died) and destroying homesteads owned by Afrikaners to flush out the guerillas and deny them a base of civilian support. Using these tactics combined with a system of blockhouses and barriers to seal off Boer holdouts, the British were able to gradually track down and defeat the guerillas. In the 1902 [[Treaty of Vereeniging]], the British formally annexed the Boer republics into the [[Cape Colony]], ending the war.<ref>
{{cite book
 | last1 = Judd
 | first1 = Denis
 | last2 = Surridge
 | first2 = Keith
 | year = 2002
 | title = The Boer War: A History
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=wmGJDwAAQBAJ
 | edition = revised
 | location = London
 | publisher = Bloomsbury Publishing
 | publication-date = 2013
 | pages = 55–302
 | isbn = 9780857722317
 | access-date = 2019-12-19
 }}
</ref>