1. Dictators, war + Revolutions HT51020A Dr Erica Wald
The South African War

2. South African War in Figures
2 years, 8 months
450,000 British and empire troops
22,000 British casualties
34,000 Boer casualties (civilian & combatant)
Roughly 20,000 African deaths

3. Combatants Britain Boer republics
British, British Commonwealth and Empire forces
Boer republics
Orange Free State
Transvaal

4. The South African War What were the causes of the war?
Introduction
Background
Origins of the crisis
Long term
Immediate
War
Aftermath
What were the causes of the war?
Why did Britain go to war with the Boer republics?
Was this an imperial war?

5. Key Figures Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for Colonies
Sir Alfred Milner, High Commissioner for South Africa
Lord Salisbury, British (Conservative) Prime Minister
Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister of the Cape Colony
Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal
General Jan Smuts
Lord Kitchner
Emily Hobhouse
Cecil Rhodes

6. Background 1795 - British seize Cape from Dutch East India Company
1815 – Peace Settlement in Europe- Cape Colony to remain in British control
1820 – Arrival of British settlers

7. The Great Trek

8. Importance of South Africa to empire
Location
Route to India
Ports & trade
Economic boom
Diamonds & gold
British immigrants
Imperial power
South African confederation

9. First South African War, 1880-1
Followed British annexation of Transvaal
Boer opposition led by Paul Kruger
Gladstone sought to establish a South African confederation
George Colley’s military blunders
Armistice & peace – March 1881

10. Gold & Uitlanders 1886- gold discovered on Witwatersrand
1898- Transvaal = largest single producer of gold in the world
Uitlanders= British labourers & mine workers
Cultural gap with Boer
Badly treated by Kruger

11. Men on the Spot: Cecil Rhodes
Drive to open up and establish settlements north of Limpopo River
British South Africa Company
Pioneer Column, 1890
No gold found
The Rhodes Colossus

12. Immediate Causes Jameson Raid (29 December 1895- 2 January 1896)
Afrikaaner resentment
Kruger plans for war
South African League established for Uitlander concerns
Sir Alfred Milner & the breakdown of the Bloemfontein talks
Sir Leander Starr Jameson

13. War, 1899-1902 Two phases Guerrilla War, -to 1902
Boer Offensive, October- December 1899
British Offensive, January-September 1900
Guerrilla War, -to 1902
The Devonshire Regiment in action near Ladysmith

14. Boer Offensive, October-December 1899
Invasion of Cape Colony & Natal
Siege of Mafeking & Ladysmith
Black Week, December 1899
Magersfontein, Stormberg, Colenso
Boers using long cannon during siege of Mafeking

15. Awareness of Empire Popular Imperialism
British press coverage
Khaki Election, 1900
Commonwealth & empire involvement

16. British Offensive, January-September 1900
New Strategy under Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchner
Reinforcements
Relief of Ladysmith, Kimberley & Mafeking
Typhoid

17. Popular Imperialism
Celebrating the Relief of Ladysmith, Columbia Street, Vancouver, BC, 1900
From the Market Harborough Advertiser, March 1900

18. Guerrilla War
Boer woman with her dead child, photographed by Emily Hobhouse
Boer guerrilla commandos

19. Vereeniging Peace Treaty, May 1902
60 Boer representatives meet British
Concede surrender of independence of republics in return for promise of eventual self-government & ‘delay’ in extending franchise to Africans