A background to the Second Boer War...

The Boer War....an introduction and background to the conflict

A map of South Africa

A brief introduction to the Second Boer War

As with most wars the origins of conflict are never simple, and are often very complicated. The 1800's were a year of expansion in the world of empires, it saw the start of the scramble for Africa, and its eventual carving up at the hands of the western empire builders . The Dutch settlers or Boers (which means farmers) were amongst the first Europeans to settle in South Africa , ariving with the Dutch East India Company in 1652. . The Afrikaners were the majority of white people living in South Africa, and most of the were willing to submit to British rule, some republican minded Boers resented British involvement in the area , especially over slavery. The year 1834 saw Britain emancipate all slaves everywhere in the Empire, one of the reasons for the Great Trek of 1835-7 which saw around 5,000 of the Boers and around 5,000 coloured servants re-settle across the Orange and Vaal rivers ,this in turn created tension between the Boers and the British, relationships often being hot and cold between them. But in 1852 Britain recognised the two independent Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, the Transvaal was later annexed in 1877, in an attempt to federate South Africa. This lead to rebelion. This rebelion or First Boer War was lead by Paul Kruger(later president), and saw the British army defeated at Majuba , and limited independence for the Transvaal republic,after peace talks . The year 1895 saw Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Beit(two multi millionaires who had made money out of diamonds and gold ) conspiring to take over the Transvaal for themselves and the British Empire. The 29th of December 1895 saw the Jamerson raid , an attempt to sieze control of the Transvaal by Rhodes's Chartered company , which failed , and led to Jamersons' capture ,Rhodes seeing his plan had failed resigned as Primeminister of the Cape, and the coming weeks saw the British cabinet sending troops over to South Africa and the launching of an ultimatum by President Kruger , with his burghers called up and the Orange Free State following suit, he was prepared for the event of war. On 11th of October 1899 the ultimatum ran out, the Second Boer War had begun.