The British-Boer War 1899-1902 - First Modern War?

The 2nd Boer War saw the British Empire bring to bear the entire imperial might to put to rest a dispute with the Boer Republics in South Africa. With scorched earth tactics and the use of concentration camps, the Boer War was a glimpse of what was to come in 20th century warfare.

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» SOURCES
• Leo Amery (ed.) The Times History of the War in South Africa, 7 Volumes, (London, William Clowes, 1902-1909)
• A British Officer, An Absent Minded War (London, Milne, 1900)
• Thomas Pakenham, The Boer War (London, Abacus, 1979)
• John Gooch (ed.) The Boer War: Direction, Image and Experience (London, Frank Cass, 1999)
• Fransjohan Pretorius, Life on Commando (Cape Town, Human & Rousseau, 2000)
• Fransjohan Pretorius, The Historical Dictionary of the Anglo-Boer War (Lanham, Scarecrow Press, 2010)
• Peter Trew, The Boer War Generals (Johannesburg, Jonathan Ball, 1999)
• S.B. Spies, Methods of Barbarism? Roberts and Kitchener and Civilians in the Boer Republics (Cape Town, Human & Rousseau, 1977)
• Emily Hobhouse, The Brunt of War and Where it Fell (London, Methuen & Co., 1902)
• Deneys Reitz, Commando (London, Faber & Faber, 1905)
• Peter Warwick (ed.) The South African War (Harlow, Longman, 1980)
• Spencer Jones, From Boer War to World War: Tactical Reform of the British Army 1902 – 1914 (Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 2012)
• Spencer Jones, 'Shooting Power: A Study of the Effectiveness of Boer and British Rifle Fire, 1899-1914' in the British Journal for Military History, Vol.1, Issue 1, 2014.
• Bill Nasson, The South African War 1899 – 1902 (London, Arnold, 1999)
• Stephen Miller, Volunteers on the Veld: Britain’s Citizen Soldiers and the South African War 1899-1902 (Norman, University of Oklahoma, 2007)
• Fred R. van Hartesveldt, The Boer War: Historiography and Annotated Bibliography (London, Greenwood, 2000)
• Peter Dennis and Jeffrey Grey (ed.), The Boer War: Army, Nation and Empire (Canberra, Army History Unit, 2000)
• John Stirling, Our Regiments in South Africa (London, W. Blackwood, 1903)
• Winston S. Churchill, London to Ladysmith via Pretoria (London, Longmans, Green & Co, 1900)
• Ian Hamilton and Victor Sampson, Anti-Commando (London, Faber & Faber, 1931)
• Andre Wessels (ed.) Lord Roberts and the War in South Africa 1899 – 1902 (London, Army Records Society, 2000)
• Andre Wessels (ed.) Lord Kitchener and the War in South Africa 1899 – 1902 (London, Army Records Society, 2006)
• Roy Jenkins, Churchill. A Biography, (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, 2001)


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Presented by: Jesse Alexander
Written by: Spencer Jones, Jesse Alexander
Director: Toni Steller & Florian Wittig
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[TheGreatWar]

Some of you will have noticed that this video is a re-upload from last year. We ran into a weird glitch with the old video, basically it stopped being recommended to new viewers after a while. Want to test if this was just a bug or something else.

[jeghaterdegforfaen]

Being in Boer captivity was the longest period of sobriety for Winston Churchill.

[sydneyvisser]

Very well done. I read a book written by one of the Boer Generals - General Kemp, and in it he described the absolute horror of the returning prisoner of war from banishment camps like St Helena. Coming home to a burnt out farm, with his wife and children an parents gone. Only to find that most of them died in the concentration camps. Then years later, being asked by the Union government to go and fight for the same Brittish in the 1st World War.
War is never a solution.

[darrylbutt]

As a South African, it was such a pleasure to watch a nuanced an unbiased account of this pivotal moment in our history. Thank you.

[hansstrik]

The reason of the Boer War was that diamonds were found in the Kimberley mines, you”ll find the diamonds back in England.
Boers against a great British army is shameful, the British burned all the farms down, and they killed 26370 woman’s and schildren by starving them in concentration camps. Anyhow very brave !

[loetzcollector]

Re. Concentration camps. I remember some Boer or other at the time saying "If these camps where on European soil (as opposed to Africa), the whole continent would rise up against England. He may have had a point.

[casperfourie]

Your pronunciations are near spot on. I always appreciate how you guys go above and beyond to bring these smaller (in the overall scope of things) conflicts and how they effects the major powers in the lead up to The Great War.

As an Afrikaaner, it means a lot to me personally to see this story shared without bias from either side.

[suomenpresidentti]

Just watched a Finnish documentary about this.
British soldiers were total inhumane animals in that war.
Hats off to all the Finns and scandinavians who died there trying to help the boers.

[TjakaErasmus]

Up to this day, many Boers can't forgive the British for this war, especially the brutality of the scorched earth tactics and the concentration camps. I visited the cemetery in Nylstroom / Waterberg (Modimolle) a while ago. Children's graves - row upon row upon row. What a tragedy.

[daispy]

After reading Thomas Packenham's 'The Boer War' 20-odd years ago I came to the same conclusion. In his account of the Battle of Spion Kop I was struck how Buller was wrestling with the same issues that French and Haig would struggle with 20 years later in WWI

[bloembloem]

The Afrikaner or Boer:
"Take a community of Dutchmen of the type of those who defended themselves for fifty years against all the power of Spain at a time when Spain was the greatest power in the world. Intermix with them a strain of those inflexible French Huguenots who gave up home and fortune and left their country for ever at the time of the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The product must obviously be one of the most rugged, virile, unconquerable races ever seen upon earth. "
— Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, London

[HRedOctober]

A very nice overview. Your comments around Boers and slavery are incorrect.
This war was all about British Imperial Greed and decimated a generation of Afrikaners!

[jankruger]

I am a Boer. Rather well balanced. Need to suggest two corrections.
1) Boers were not so angry because slavery was abolished but because they did not received the compensation promised by British government
2) Boers did not enslave Africans in their republics.

[benitochia]

What the British did was commit genocide against the Boer.

[mir]

As a South African who's paternal grandfather fought in the 2nd Boer war and who grew up still hearing accounts of the war from old "Ooms" who had fought in it, I appreciate you dealing with the subject matter. However I have to say that the video has a lot of inaccuracies in it and, for many South Africans, it will appear as an attempt to justify the British treatment of Boer women and children.

[abwo]

What a fantastic documentrary about an event that should not be forgotten.

[mikehogan]

My two grandfathers fought in the Boer War, onein the Imperial Light Horse and the other in Kitchener's Fighting Scouts. It's not often that you get to hear first hand accounts from people who were actually in the war and took part in many actions including being at the relief of Ladysmith. I was always interested in history and as a history major (University of Natal) and subsequently a history teacher I really appreciated the experience my grandfather's shared. I have visited most of the battle fields of the Boer War and I really enjoyed this video.

[sylviawilson]

Your comment that the Boers seized land from the local population is not correct, there would not have been enough Boers to do so. In fact, the land was largely empty, caused by the decimation of the Mfecane (the crushing)where many tribes were wiped out by intertribal warfare. In many cases the Boers negotiated with the local chiefs they came across to farm land, and were frequently placed between that particular tribe and their enemies to form a buffer Zone. This was because they had weapons.

[snaphaan]

The difeqane wars caused a LOT of land to be empty and desolate. There are references in the Boer diaries of white bones strewn on the fields from past battles between black tribes. Some of the small starving black families that were left was taken in by the Boers. A lot of land was open for settlement - never claimed by any black tribe. For some of the land the Boers tried to negotiate but was murdered (battle of blood river). Claiming a couple of thousand of Boers on the Great Trek killed and enslaved tens of thousands of black tribes is pretty ridiculous.

[odetteuys]

I just discovered your channel, and am blown away by the quality of your work! Well done! Greetings from South Africa 🇿🇦