Boer Wars

At issue: British political and economic control in southern Africa

Date: December 16, 1880-August 3, 1881 and September 8, 1899-May 31, 1902

Location: South Africa

Combatants: British vs. Boers (Afrikaners)

Principal commanders:British, Major General Sir George Colley (1835–1881), Major General Lord Kitchener (1850–1916); Boer, President Paul Kruger (1825–1904) and General Jan Christian Smuts (1870–1950)

Principal battles: Majuba, Siege of Kimberley, Siege of Mafeking, Stormberg, Siege of Ladysmith, Colenso, Magersfontein

Result: British victory; incorporation of South Africa into the British empire

Background

The Boer Wars erupted from decades of conflict between the British Empire and the Boers over control of the economic and political future of southern Africa. The Dutch East India Company established a colony at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, and throughout the seventeenth century thousands of Dutch Calvinists, who later referred to themselves as Afrikaners or trekboers, emigrated to Africa. During the Napoleonic Wars, however, the British seized control of the Cape and initiated policies designed to incorporate the region into the British Empire. Fiercely independent, the Boers resisted any foreign encroachments upon their freedom, and until 1877 Britain recognized the independence of the two Boer republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. Britain attempted to annex the Transvaal, which sparked considerable resentment among the Boers, who, after a series of failed negotiations, embarked upon two military campaigns against the British.

Action

In 1877, Great Britain’s annexation of Transvaal unleashed a number of forces that sparked the first Boer War. President Paul Kruger organized two diplomatic missions to England in an attempt to avoid hostilities, but London refused to negotiate a return to Boer control in the Transvaal. Policymakers believed that a hostile and militaristic Boer state represented a threat to British interests in south Africa. Encouraged by recent victories over the Zulus, many officials contended that the army had adjusted to the rigors of African combat and that the Boers could not succeed against superior firepower and field artillery. If Kruger organized a revolt, British forces would swiftly eliminate any armed Boer resistance. As a result, London committed a serious tactical error and underestimated the Boers’ willingness and ability to fight.

Kruger returned from his meetings committed to independence. His 7,000-man army produced a three-to-one Boer troop advantage, and he benefited from his knowledge of the terrain. The Boers had decades of experience firing high-powered Martini-Henry rifles and riding horses on the veld. Kruger maintained that these skills were highly suitable for African war. On December 20, 1880, 150 Boers intercepted a British supply train heading to Pretoria. When the commander refused to stop, the Boers swiftly opened fire on 248 British troops and 34 baggage wagons, killing 56 soldiers, including five of the nine officers. After the British surrendered, the Boers confiscated needed supplies, horses, and three wagons of rifles. London sent reinforcements, and British Major General Sir George Colley fought two pitched battles with Boer troops at Laing’s Nek (January 28) and Ingogo (February 7). His assaults failed because of the Boers’ ability to construct a well-fortified trench defense.

Colley planned to assume his attack on the Boers from Majuba (1881), a 2,000-foot-high table mountain that overlooked the trench line at Laing Nek. After a skillful nighttime ascent up the mountain, 600 British troops arrived at the top of the vast plateau. After conducting a brief survey of the exposed Boer trenches, Colley felt confident that his position was unassailable. Despite the flat open terrain atop Majuba, Colley neglected to construct defensive fortifications and ignored a number of warnings from his officers on the perimeter. Using well-placed rifle volleys for cover fire, Boer troops organized a series of counterattacks and inched their way up Majuba. When they reached the summit, they caught British troops confused and disorganized, and a rout ensued. British losses totaled 96 killed, 132 wounded, and 56 prisoners of war. Faced with a crisis in Ireland, London opened negotiations with Kruger and reestablished Boer sovereignty in Transvaal.

British interests, however, continued to threaten Boer sovereignty. The discovery of diamonds and gold fueled a new wave of British immigration to southern Africa, and these newcomers consistently pressured London to reannex the Transvaal and place the Boers under the Union Jack. A crisis was nearly averted in 1895, following an unsuccessful privately financed raid upon Transvaal led by Leander Starr Jameson, but southern Africa remained a powder keg. When the British sent more than 10,000 reinforcements to Natal, the Boers interpreted this maneuver as a prelude to an invasion. They declared war on Great Britain in October, 1899, and quickly moved upon British garrisons in Natal and the Cape Colony.

Boer strategy called for forces to move into the British provinces and initiate sieges in the major towns of Kimberley and Mafeking. Despite more than 60,000 men and more than 150 field guns, the British failed to achieve an early breakthrough victory against the small Boer forces. Revealing how unfamiliarity with the countryside often hurts imperial troops, the British organized an infantry assault upon the captured railway juncture at Stormberg in the Cape (1899). They became lost on the way and were destroyed by a Boer ambush. Approximately 700 British troops were either killed, wounded, or captured in this battle. In December, 1899, the British were defeated at Colenso in an attempt to relieve Ladysmith, and British efforts to relieve Kimberley also suffered a serious blow at Magersfontein (December, 1899). This attack indicated that a frontal assault backed by artillery barrages could not break through well-fortified, entrenched positions. Following the first round of artillery, Boer rifle volleys erupted from an almost impregnable trench line, and after a nine-hour battle, British forces conceded defeat, leaving 902 British and 236 Boer casualties.

The British turned the tide, however, in 1900, by fighting large-scale battles and forcing Kruger to flee the country. The British relieved the Siege of Kimberley and the Siege of Ladysmith in February,1900, then relieved the Siege of Mafeking in May. The Boers, however, shifted to guerrilla tactics. Under the leadership of Jan Christian Smuts, they achieved considerable success attacking British convoys and disrupting supply lines. Major General Lord Kitchener, however, eventually turned the tide by adopting a scorched-earth policy. Because the guerrillas were difficult to capture and reluctant to further engage in large-scale campaigns, Kitchener decided to burn farms and destroy livestock across the veld. His destruction created a huge refugee problem and generated harsh criticism from the international community, but by April, 1902, Smuts and other guerrilla leaders agreed to a truce. A peace was formally signed a month later, thus ending the final Boer War.

Aftermath

This conflict was Britain’s bloodiest war between 1815 and 1914, as more than 22,000 British, 25,000 Boers, and 12,000 Africans were killed in action, but it solidified Britain’s control over southern Africa. Nevertheless, when Britain conferred dominion status on a unified South Africa eight years later, the new union of South Africa government was dominated by Afrikaners.

Milestones in the Boer Wars

Bibliography

Pakenham, Thomas. The Boer War. New York: Random House, 1979.

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Scramble for Africa: The White Man’s Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912. New York: Random House, 1991.

Thompson, Leonard. A History of South Africa. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1995.