The Anglo Boer War Respectively The South African War An Overview

Seminar paper from the year 2006 in the subject History - Africa, grade: 1,3, University of Osnabrück, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The Boer Wars at the dawn of the century highly influenced not only South African history, especially in terms of the development of the apartheid system, but it additionally changed the possibilities of warfare. These conflicts between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal (South African Republic) took place from 1880 to 1881 and 1899 to 1902. Even though formally there have been two wars in a short period of time, one usually focuses on the Second Boer War, also known as the South African War, Anglo-Boereoorlog (Anglo-Boer War), Tweede Vryheidsoorlog (Second Freedom War) or "Tea-Time War". This paper will mainly concentrate on the South African War, even though background information will be provided. Historians ought not to ask "What if...?", since they have to focus on facts. But ignoring this guideline for a moment, fascinating questions arise: "What if the large deposits of gold and diamonds in the Transvaal were not found in the 1870s and 1880s? Would the British have fought for the rights of the uitlanders nevertheless?" These are two of the questions which will be dealt with (in 2.1) when reasoning the origins / causes of the war. Following, the paper will bring together the facts and some unusual features of the South African War. Its center of attention will be the Guerilla War starting of in September 1900 and lasting till the Treaty of Vereeniging in May 1902, the end of the War.

This exciting new book marks a major shift in the study of the South African War. It turns attention from the war's much debated causes onto its more neglected consequences. An international team of scholars explores the myriad legacies of the war - for South Africa, for Britain, for the Empire and beyond. The extensive introduction sets the contributions in context, and the elegant afterword offers thought-provoking reflections on their cumulative significance.

This collections of essays focuses on three aspects of the Boer War: how the British Military functioned; the role of the Boers, Afrikaners and Zulus; and the media presentation of the war to the public.

Based on many years of research with regard to the Anglo-Boer War, this book is essential reading for anyone who would like to know more about the most devastating conflict that has thus far been waged between white people in Southern Africa. However, with due course, this war also involved more and more black, brown and, to some extent, Asian people.

The South African War 1899-1902 (variously known as the Anglo-Boer, or to Afrikaners as the English War, die Engelseoorlog, or the Second War of Freedom, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog) continues to generate considerable interest among authors and readers alike, fascinated by a conflict that embodied human drama, tragedy, heroism and military and political folly on a grand scale.

Tracing the roots of the conflict into the first half of the nineteenth century, Dr. Smith shows how the conflict between Britain and the Transvaal republic intensified after the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886. The resulting wealth and the influx of foreign, mainly British, Uitlanders transformed what had been a poor land-locked Boer republic into the hub round which the future of South Africa was to turn.

The South African War rounded off the British conquest of Southern Africa. Only now, a hundred years later, are some of the more baleful legacies of the war being addressed. This new history is an up-to-date account of the military struggle in South Africa including the whole web of miscalculations and shattered illusions that surrounded it which spread far beyond the battlefields.