The Boer War Essay Research Paper Boer — страница 2

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and political popularity to be gained off of these new comers. The foreigners were all somehow financially stable regardless of their unfair treatment by the South African government, and could therefore support Milner?s campaign. A. Conan Doyle in his book, The Great Boer War, explained the prosperity of the outlanders in his own words, ? . . .in spite of this prosperity which they had brought, they, the majority of the inhabitants of the country, were left without a vote, and could by no means influence the disposal of the great sums which they were providing. Such a case of taxation without representation has never been known? (Doyle 24). This representation was what Milner asked from President Kruger. However, knowing that the number of outlanders would exceed the total

number of their own population he angrily refused it. Weber quoted Kruger when he said, ?It is our country you want?(2). The negotiations lingered on, but finally broke down with no peaceful agreement. This seemed to favor Milner because he wanted to avoid any peaceful compromise between the two sides. The British commander, Lord Kitchener, knew that the Boers were afraid of being controlled by the empire because of their lack of a greater military power. The conflict was finally exposed to the British public by some of the leading newspapers, especially those that were owned by imperialists. In these newspapers there was a clear indication that the British authorities were pushing for war. Some of these papers were The Daily Telegraph, Oppenheim?s Daily News, and Mark?s Evening

News. Even some of the leaders in Britain criticized those that were supporting Lord Kitchener back in South Africa. Weber mentioned this in his article The Social Democratic Federation(SDF), led by Henry M. Hyndman, was especially outspoken in its opposition to the war preparations. Justice, the SDF weekly, warned its readers in 1896 that ?Beit, Barnato and their fellows? were aiming for ?an Anglo-Hebraic Empire in Africa stretching from Egypt to Cape Colony,? designed to swell their ?overgrown fortunes. (2) While the negotiation was underway, Lord Kitchener, with the help of Wernher, Beit and Co. secretly financed an army of about 1500, which later grew to ten thousand. The negotiation was not over yet but the Secretary for the British colonies, Secretary Chamberlain, was

getting very impatient. The negotiation was described by Thomas Pakenham in his book entitled, The Boer War, he said, ?The only way to make him [Kruger] disgorge the franchise was to put a pistol to his head . . . the longer Kruger delayed, the higher the price he must pay for a settlement?(Pakenham 91). The British officials tried earnestly to approve the five-year franchise, but unfortunately Kruger saw it as a scheme to try to steal his country?s independence and therefore rejected it. The two sides could not come to an agreement with each other, and as a result of British aggression, the Boers declared war. On the 11th of October 1899, after Britain failed to comply with the order to remove its troops, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State took advances to

start a battle against Great Britain. The combined forces of the two republics had a successful invasion in the two British colonies on their borders, namely Natal and the Cape of Colony. In December of 1899, the British commander in chief, Sir Redvers Buller, and his men were defeated on the Natal front. He was again defeated on the border between the Orange Free State and the Cape Colony. This upset the leaders back in Britain, so they sent Lord Fredrick Sleigh Roberts, the new commander in chief for the South African field force, to replace Buller. His men fought hard and were be able to break through the Boers defense in Natal. After breaking through Natal, Roberts continued on and captured Johannesburg and Pretoria, the capital of the South African Republic, on 5th of

June1900. At this time Sir Roberts thought that the war was well taken care of and so he returned to England. Unfortunately, it was not over yet. The Boers, who had believed that they were fighting for a greater cause, resorted to guerrilla warfare. They broke up into smaller groups and destroyed the British supplies, disconnected the railway tracks, and ventured to take over the small British units. Leonard Thompson in his book A History of South Africa, explained how Roberts?s successor responded when he said, ?To crush this resistance, . . .Lord Kitchener, adopted the scorched earth policy that imperial troops and Afrikaner commandos had been accustomed to using against Africans. He burned Afrikaner crops and destroyed thirty thousand farmsteads . . . ?(Thompson 142-43).