The Boer Wars. Is this Genocide at it's Finest?

           You may wonder why I made the word, "war," plural in the title. That's because there was in fact two Boer Wars to ever hit the surface of South Africa. You may also know them as the Wars of Independence. So now I bet you can guess what these wars were all about. The first Boer War was took place from 1880-1881. Another name for it would be the Transvaal Rebellion, since the Boers of the Transvaal revolted against the British in 1877. "Boers," are Dutch settlers who had just colonized in the country of South Africa. The Boers had finally declared their independence from the British, so the British felt like they had to keep them in line. This is when the actually warfare started happening. There were four battles between the two groups, in which the Dutch won all four of them. The Dutch were now free, but now they had an uneasy relationship with the British. This would come back to haunt them in the second Boer War.
          The second Boer War took place from 1899-1902. The British came swooping back in to rightfully take South Africa for themselves. There were over 15 battles during this time period, and the British won almost all of them. It was an overwhelming defeat for the Boers, who had won the first war by a landslide. There are some key differences between the first war, and the second. For Britain, the Second Boer War was the longest, the most expensive (£200 million), and the bloodiest conflict between 1815 and 1914. For the Boers... well.. they got the short end of the stick. For one, they lost all of their territory to the British and were completely under British control. Second, there were a lot of more casualties than the first war. This is because of the installment of concentration camps all over the taken over Boer territory. Lastly, all the crops were ruined. Most of them were burned down and completely useless. However, the British granted the Boers £3 million for restocking and repairing farm lands and promised eventual self-government (granted in 1907).
          Ultimately, the Boer Wars were significant because the British pursued the policy of collecting and isolating the Boer population in concentration camps. This was one of the earliest uses of this method in the history of war. Women and children were also sent to these camps. This has a blatant connection to the start of apartheid. Shocking stats showed 27,927 Boer (of whom 22,074 were children under 16) and 14,154 black Africans had died of starvation, disease and exposure in the camps. People considered this one of the first acts of genocide. 
         Personally, I think the Boer Wars were completely useless. Just a lot of meaning bloodshed. In the end, British got a tiny piece of South Africa. It wasn't worth all the mass murders and the suffering of citizens. This war greatly contributed to great impact of apartheid. The British had no love or sympathy for any of the Dutch settlers, even women and children. That just shows the lengths that countries will go to, to obtain absolute power. Many people will argue that there was no other option than war, but I don't believe that one bit. There's always an alternate option. However, I do believe that if one side takes the life of another, war is completely reasonable. Overall, the Boer Wars weren't wars that I believe were right in any ray of light. I recommend this if you're a fan of blood shed and tactical warfare. If not, I would leave these wars alone. 


Check out some war footage from the Boer Wars: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D17UQ4BhkmQ

Maliik M.
2A


Bibliography:

"The Boer Wars." BBC News. BBC, n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2013. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/victorians/boer_wars_01.shtml>.

The Boer War." Spartacus Educational. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Dec. 2013. <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WARboer.htm>.