The Boer War Essay Example for Free

The Boer War Essay To what extent did the Boer War change attitudes to Empire in Britain? The British Empire at its peak was considered the greatest empire in the world. It was the empire on which the sun never set. By 1897 it was guarded by a navy that was equal to the navies of two other powers. One newspaper described Britain as being in splendid isolation in that it had no enemies and needed no friends. The presss view on the events relating to the empire was very important. In 1907 Lord Sanderson, Permanent Undersecretary wrote in his retirement It has sometimes seemed to me that a foreigner reading our press the British Empire must appear in the light of some huge giant sprawling over the globe with gouty fingers and toes spreading in every direction which cannot be approached without eliciting a scream. Other examples later show how the press portrayed the majority of public thoughts and reflections on certain issues. In the late Seventeenth Century the Dutch East India Company had formed a trading station in South Africa near the Cape of Good Hope. The poorest members of this community were strongly protestant farmers called treboers or Boers. These pilgrims called themselves Afrikaners, people of Africa and searched for land. They spoke Afrikaans, a modification of Dutch. They were the original foreign settlers in South Africa. These people were unreceptive of Africans as well as Europeans. When travelling to India and the Far East the Cape of Good Hope became an essential naval base. Britain appreciated its importance in Empire relations as it allowed Britain to position herself significantly in order to defend her Empire as well as trade with it. The arrival of the British in South Africa caused a vast amount of tension. The conflict led to the Boers embarking on the Great Trek and setting up two separate states. At that time in South Africa diamonds had been discovered at Kimberley. This mineral revolution led to an influx of people to South Africa to claim their share of the fortune. The European immigrants who worked in the gold and diamond mines, 41,000 of them, mainly British, were deprived of having been granted voting rights from the Transvaal. These Uitlanders (outsiders) were in Paul Krugers (Transvaal President) eyes a tool for manipulation of the British government who were using the issue to end the independence of the Boer Republics. This was a great threat to the fiercely independent Boers who would fail to accept any foreign interference from Britain especially such which would result in a direct threat to their government i.e giving the Uitlanders the right to vote so that as they grow they will become more powerful and pose a political threat. It was this issue that was the immediate cause of the outbreak of the Boer war. There are many causes of the Boer war, which derive from longstanding Anglo-Boer tensions such as in 1834 when the British abolished slavery. This was not accepted by 5,000 Boers who participated in the Great Trek across the Orange and Vaal rivers where they set up the two new Boer states, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. In 1877 Britain took over control of the Transvaal due to the threat of the Zulus. By 1881 the British had refused to grant independence to the Transvaal despite the Zulu war having ended. Paul Kruger used this to justify an attack on the British in what we now know as the 1st Boer war, which led to a Boer victory at Majuba Hill. The victory led to the partial restoration of independence in agreements of 1882 and 1884. This allowed Britain to supervise foreign policy and to intervene in certain circumstances in domestic matters. The roles of Joseph Chamberlain, the British Colonial Secretary and Alfred Milner, British High Commissioner for South Africa are important in when looking at why war broke out. Joseph Chamberlain, Colonial Secretary, worsened Anglo-Boer relations in the run up to the war. He had notified Kruger that despite what the Transvaal government had understood the agreements signed by the British in the first Boer war had not restored full control over domestic policy to the republic. Chamberlain also appointed a man hostile to the Transvaal Sir Alfred Milner as the British High Commissioner for South Africa and successfully encouraged London not to give long-term loans to the Transvaal. He knew that Transvaal was getting rich and powerful and expressed concerns relating to British interests. Whether Chamberlain wanted war or not his actions were insufficient in being able to stop it. His appointee Milners influence stretched everywhere and he stirred the pot. He placed pressure on the Transvaal government and stretched them to their limits. He did not believe that they were capable of war and greatly underestimated them. Paul Kruger, president of Transvaal saw war as inevitable because his attempts at regaining peace were insufficient for Milner. After Milner rejected Kruger attempts one last time on 9th October 1899 Kruger sent a telegram to British to tell them to move away from their borders. The British ignorant of their potential ignored this and didnt even reply. This cost them dearly. On 11th October the Transvaal launched an attack on the Cape Colony. The British Prime minister said this has relieved us of the task of explaining to the British public why we are at war. Although they knew the real reason was the British refusal to take the Boers seriously and their inability to foresee this event which cost them not only the disrespect of their own people but also the humiliation worldwide. During the early months of the war Britain suffered a series of humiliating defeats at the hands of the Boers. Britains underestimation of the capabilities of the Boers is shown in their failure to ensure that adequate troops and essential supplies of food and ammunition were ready in time for the conflict. The dispatchment of Lord Roberts (Hero of the Indian Mutiny) and Lord Kitchener (Hero of Sudan) was a positive move. It worked so well that by June 1900 British forces were moving swiftly towards victory. Johannesburg and Pretoria had been occupied and Kruger had fled to Europe. The term used in the press that summer was that Britain had been victorious over the bloody Boers. Lord Kitchener and Roberts had retuned. In October 1900 the Unionist government staged the Khaki elections and were victorious over the liberals. It was then to become apparent that the celebrations were premature; the Boers had headed for the countryside where they prepared to fight using guerrilla tactics. By 1901 the Boers had invaded Cape Colony. This provoked Lord Kitchener to return to put them in their place. Kitcheners impact on the Boer war from here on can be described as disastrous in the effect it would happen on the British Empire. His tactics were a huge political blunder and caused massive controversy. His scorch the earth policy, which basically consisted of the burning of farms, crops and villages was outrageous and evil. He used barbed wire fences to divide the country into zones and collected the civilian population into concentration camps. His treatment of them here was appalling and provoked much anger and debate back in Britain where even the most empire loving Englishmen were aghast with his methods. Once the news of the horrors of the concentration camps got back to England it cause massive debate. Pro-Boer liberal MPs were the first to realise Kitcheners blunder in herding women and children into so-called camps of refuge. On the 1st March Lloyd George quoted a Reuters report that correctly described 2 ration scales at the camp. MPs such as John Ellis and C.P Scoot attacked his policy also and they were the ones to borrow the ominous phrase concentration camps from the Spanish who used reconcentrado camps to deal with Cuban guerrillas, and first to give it to the situation. The opponents of the government took a religious and humanitarian tone. The Liberals sent Emily Hobhouse to South Africa to give a report of the conditions. Her report concluded that the army have no humanity and her descriptions of 12 prisoners having to share a small tent and there being no soap, toilets and meagre rations had led the majority to agree with many soldiers that the war was a gigantic mistake . When the British realised the negative reaction to policy adopted by Kitchener to deal with the Boers they offered à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3 million compensation to restore what had been destroyed. A staggering 63,000 claims were received from Boer farmers. This gesture failed to justify the barbaric conduct of Kitchener and his people. The British people accepted peace at Vereeninging without much display of emotion they were more relieved that the humiliation was over. After all 20,000 British lives had been lost and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½200 million had been exhausted for the cause. Despite these outrageous figures the Boers had lost more. Something in the region of 7,000 men in the war, 28,000 women and children in concentration camps and more than 14,000 blacks. Therefore there were no wild scenes in Trafalgar Square as usually demonstrated on such occasions as victory in a war. The European rivals Germany and France had witnessed the humiliation which one historian refers to as Britains Vietnam. Britain felt dangerously isolated. The occasion failed to provoke public excitement especially that from Empire-minded Englishmen who would rather forget how the two states, Orange Free State and the Transvaal were acquired. The press, which is often representative of public mood, encouraged people to believe war was for cause of Uitlanders and in H.F.Wyatts opinion the majority of working class also had this view. Socialist press depicted the situation in typically negative accusations towards capitalism and imperialism. There view war that the war was fought so that the government may protect its investments abroad and its was the fault of Joseph Chamberlain who they refer to as an unscrupulous minister and the unscrupulous propagandist Milner. One soldier commented Its the worst war ever and all for Gold mines. This shows that the average person was not confident in the motives for the war and because of this didnt agree with it. Rival foreign nations who had respected Britains peaceful attitudes were now appalled by them. German press emphasised this as the German chancellor, Von Bulow said that Britains treatment of prisoners was brutal and inhuman and the general international view was that Britain was a bully of women and children, and a very inefficient one at that. British people at this time were incredibly patriotic people but after this they could not help but feel ashamed and embarrassed by the dreadful tactics used by their country in their treatment of the Boers. The Boer war damaged the unionist government. Alfred Milner refused to accept responsibility but in 1904 when he agreed with the Rand millionaires to import Chinese labourers to work in South African mines it confirmed the view that war was fought over the gold mines. The British government was more concerned with wealth then rights of Uitlanders. There greed had damaged their image as the righteous and honourable government. The Boer war was an even greater shock to British opinion and virtually brought to an end the brief popular enthusiasm for empire building, which had found expression in the jubilee celebrations of 1897. The war led to the emergence of an anti-imperialist group. Before war empire was seen as a benign force, which would bring civilisation to underdeveloped societies and was appreciated by all types of peoples. After the Boer war imperialism became filled with maverick politicians, capitalist cliques and methods of barbarism. It also became less accepted and those that did accept it were usually thought of as strongly right-winged Conservatives. J. A Hobson says that the imperialists had jeopardised the entire wealth of the nation in rousing strong resentment of other nations for no real gain. His view that the empire was a drain on British resources and was not helping the average British man was widely embraced. The war brought an end to Britains splendid isolation. Its vulnerability had been shown and it now needed friends and had created enemies. As the Boer war revealed the weaknesses of the British Anglo-German relation also deteriorated. British press began to focus less on the Boer war and the issue of the bloody Boers and more on typical propaganda against the Germans using terms such as wild Kaiser. The emphasis on imperial expansion and the great benefits on empire had been reduced. Instead emphasis was placed on the potential threat posed by Germany. Britain insecurity in itself was shown when Boy Scout and Girl Guide movements to encourage military standards in children. British defence was critically analysed after the war and considerable changes had been made. There was considerable re-planning on home defence issues as well as foreign protection of the empire. Things like food and ammunition supplies which had failed to operate efficiently during the Boer war were looked at closely. Free school meals and medical examination in schools were set up. This as well as the setting up of the Territorial Army (TA) to defend Britain in an invasion showed British fear in response to the failure of the Boer war. The concessions showed that the British had felt the negative impact of the Boer war and it had shaken them up and forced them to consider seriously thinking about their safety. Britain was a nation that was thought of as a policeman it was a defender of the weak. After the Boer war and especially the concentration camps that had been used Britain had lost its credibility and the power it once had to give moral lectures. Britain was once a good example to the world, after the Boer war it was still an example but of what not to do and how not to treat other nations.