Aaron Martin
English II
Boer Wars Blog
December 17th, 2013

The Boer Wars were 2 different wars fought by the British and South African Republic. The first Boer war known as the First Anglo Boer War, was fought between 1880-1881. The second Boer War was fought between 1899-1902. The first Boer war started with the British. It was also known as the Transvaal Rebellion. In 1887 the British were trying to force an annexation on the Transvaal's, but they weren't going to take that. The British wanted to force the Boer's into the Union. Though that would make the Boer's more hostile and could heighten the chance of war and a chaos outbreak. The war broke out on December 16th. The actual army of the Boer's were regular citizens of the country. The Boer's had much skill with a rifle and knew many war techniques.  As a result, they were able to win the Anglo Boer War

The Second Boer war was a much longer fought war than the first war. On October 11, 1899 the Second war had just began to start. The reason this war had broke out was because the British decided to deny the Transvaal ultimatum. This ultimatum would say that the British retreat their troops on the borders and the South African bound troops would not disembark. With an alliance with many other countries, the British arm had friendly allies with Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape Colony, and Natal. In this war however, the British had far more superior weapons and War tactics shortly even after the first war they fought in. With the British superiority they were able to overcome and consequently they put many Africans in concentration camps. As a result, approximately 42,000 people were killed due to these camps and other circumstances related to these camps

In 1901, things changed for the better. After a commission in Britain by the Fawcett wanted to make changes to the horrible conditions about these camps. But only one person knew the terrible and unsafe conditions of these concentration camps, Emily Hobhouse. She used the evidence of these conditions to expose government and gain some leverage over the government. After the situation ended, it was used to promote Afrikaaner nationalism.

I felt that this was influential to an apartheid and South Africa because it made the citizens become closer in this crisis. It was an influence because it causes the citizens to unify together and fight for a good cause. So how do I feel about knowing the details of this tragic story? Well, I found it incredibly heinous about what happened and it made me very distraught that this had to happen to such innocent people. I just felt really sad and very heart broken when I read about this. I do when I read anything about innocent people dying and losing their lives because of the ignorance of another person. In the future I recommend reading about other wars related to the apartheid to gain a better understanding and knowledge of what things were like during this time of total crisis and chaos.

"Kruger Telegram (South African History)." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.

Pretorious, Fransjohan. "The Boer Wars." BBC News. BBC, 29 Mar. 2011. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.