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british experience of warfare > boer war > Flashcards

boer war Flashcards

1
Q

what happened before the war started?

A
  • 1815 - britain acquired cape colony from the netherlands
  • 1830s - 5k boers disliked the british decision to abolish slavery and migrated north - the great trek, towards natal
  • 1843 - britain annexed natal, boers founded orange free state and transvaal, disliked by zulus
  • 1877 - britain took control of the transvaal
  • 1879 - britain defeated the zulus
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2
Q

what caused the war?

A
  • boers rebelled after british refused to restore independence to the transvaal
  • first boer war - british forced defeated at majuba hill
  • gladstones gov agreed to recognise the transvaal and ofs as nations under the suzerainty of british crown
  • 1886 - discovery of gold, transvaal became richest state in south africa
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3
Q

who were the uitlanders?

A
  • white immigrants from britain who wanted to make their fortune through gold
  • by mid 1890s - more uitlanders than boers, wealth in the transvaal was held by british and german mine owners
  • kruger said uitlanders had to live in the transvaal for 14 years before applying for naturalisation, led to british interference
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4
Q

who were salisbury and chamberlain?

A
  • 1895 - salisbury became conservative pm
  • appointed chamberlain as colonial secretary
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5
Q

who was rhodes?

A
  • 1887 - established gold mining company in the transvaal
  • 1890 - became the pm of cape colony
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6
Q

what was the jameson raid?

A
  • 1895 - rhodes encouraged uitlanders to push for voting rights
  • wanted to start uprising and make kruger resign
  • december 1895 - jameson led 600 armed men into the transvaal, but surrendered after fighting boer militia
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7
Q

what were the consequences of the jameson raid?

A
  • rhodes forced to resign as pm
  • tranvaal and ofs signed military pact in 1897
  • kruger purchased best european weapons for transvaals army
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8
Q

who was alfred milner?

A
  • high commissioner of south africa
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9
Q

what happened leading up to the war?

A
  • may 1899 - milner and kruger went to a conference in ofs, milner demanded law in transvaal for uitlanders to vote
  • kruger rejected it and milner walked 5 june , thought kruger would eventually accept
  • gov and press thought boers needed to be taught a lesson, chamberlain sent ultimatum demanding equality of british citizens in the transvaal
  • 9 october - kruger issued ultimatu, gave british 48 hours to withdraw troops from the transvaal
  • 11 october - boers declared war
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10
Q

did military reform occur?

A
  • reformers wanted to boost professionalism rather than bring up numbers
  • gov didn’t want to spend money on the army
  • army performed well in 1880s/90s, so not much pressure for chang
  • duke of cambridge was commander in chief for army and preferred tradition
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11
Q

how were the british prepared for war?

A
  • october 1899 - wyndham said army was more efficient than at any time since waterloo
  • officers/men hardened by colonial wars
  • wolseley emphasised supply/transportation, admiralty could transport men and supplies over distance of 6k miles
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12
Q

what problems were there in the army?

A
  • shortage of ammunition
  • red, white and blue uniforms, no khaki for the veldt
  • auxiliary departments understaffed
  • intelligence/staff work inadequate
  • didn’t understand importance of fire from trench positions + cavalry raids
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13
Q

what were the weaknesses of the boers?

A
  • less than 60k men to form an army
  • civilian militia - every man was expected to bring his own weapon and horse
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14
Q

what were the strengths of the boers?

A
  • boers already defeated the british in first boer war
  • horsemen and hunters - familiar with the land
  • had best weapons - smokeless mauser rifles from germany, creusot siege guns from france
  • strong morale - wanted to protect their land and culture
  • boers in cape colony and natal sympathised with them
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15
Q

what did the british do after war started?

A
  • 7 october - george white arrived in natal with 10k men
  • boers had 35k men
  • army corps didn’t sail from southampton until 12 october
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16
Q

what happened at ladysmith?

A
  • white established main base at ladysmith, sent penn-symons to dundee with a brigade
  • boers attacked british camp on 20 october, penn-symons drove them back with 446 british casualties
  • white retreated to ladysmith, boers had surrounded it and attacked - battle of modderspruit
  • 140 killed, 1k captured, white trapped in ladysmith
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17
Q

what happened in mafeking and kimberley?

A
  • baden-powell had 1.2k men in mafeking, but 7k boers attacked with cronje leading
  • boers hoped to starve mafeking into surrender
  • early nov - 7.5k boers besieged kimberley, but the town had lots of provisions
  • gave british time to recover
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18
Q

what was the situation in cape colony?

A
  • november - boers entered, only 7k british troops were there
  • 10k cape dutch joined the boers
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19
Q

what was buller’s strategy?

A
  • arrived in cape town 31 october, first army corps followed 18 nov
  • wanted to launch offensive up the railway line from cape town to pretoria in the transvaal
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20
Q

what did buller do instead and why?

A
  • didn’t want to deal with consequences of abandoning white and losing kimberley
  • split army into three groups
  • methuen - 20k men, to relieve kimberley and mafeking
  • gatacre - 3k men, to secure northern cape from boer raids
  • buller - main force, to relieve lady smith
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21
Q

what happened before black week?

A
  • methuen won 2 small victories at belmont and graspan (23 nov and 25 nov)
  • walked into trap set by de la rey at modder river on 28 nov and lost 5k men
  • boers retreated to magersfontein
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22
Q

when was black week?

A

10-15 december 1899

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23
Q

what happened during black week?

A
  • 10 december - gatacre lost against boers in stormberg, 700 casualties
  • 11 december - methuen launched attack at magersfontein, boers retaliated and 900 brits killed, failed to relieve kimberley
  • 15 december - buller tried to cross tugela river with 21k men, fought 8k boers and 1.4k brits died vs 8 boer casualties
  • boers had smokeless magazine rifles
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24
Q

what was the situation in december 1899?

A
  • buller signalled by heliograph to white that he should surrender in ladysmith
  • gov replaced buller with lord roberts, who brought kitchener as his chief of staff
  • 30k men from british controlled southern africa volunteered + aus, canada and nz. 180k men in total
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25
Q

what did roberts do?

A
  • arrived in january 1900
  • issued new tactical guidelines, insisted on recon before attacking, avoided frontal attacks in mass formations and more use of cover by infantry and artillery
  • buller left in charge of natal
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26
Q

what did kitchener do?

A

improvised transport system of wagons to reduce dependence on railway lines

27
Q

what happened at spion kop?

A
  • 24 january - british troops captured summit of spion kop (hill)
  • fog lifted and they were surrounded by boer gun emplacements on surrounding hills
  • 1.3k casualties, brits retreated back across the tugela
  • 5 february - buller attacked botha at vaal krantz and was defeated again
28
Q

how was kimberley relieved?

A
  • 10 february - kitchener and roberts launched offensive
  • had doubled mounted infantry, but didn’t have supplies to sustain them
  • situation sorted when they found out john french had successfully relieved kimberley
  • 17 february - roberts attack failed to take boers at paardeberg against cronje, bombarding them into submission instead
  • 28 february - cronje surrendered with 4k men
29
Q

how was ladysmith relieved?

A
  • 14 february - buller made his 4th attempt, slow progress
  • 26 february - buller successfully crossed tugela and defeated botha north of colenso
  • ladysmith was relieved
30
Q

how was mafeking relieved?

A
  • roberts advanced into ofs and captured bloemfontein 13 march
  • forced to delay for 6 weeks - supply shortage + outbreak of typhoid led to 1k deaths
  • sent small force to mafeking who relieved it
  • baden-powell became national hero, had tied down 7k boers in mafeking
31
Q

what successes followed?

A
  • may - roberts continued advance, annexed ofs 28 may
  • 31 may - johannesburg captured
  • 5 june - pretoria captured
  • hunter fought last major boer force in ofs, didn’t capture steyn but forced 4.5k men to surrender
  • roberts cut boers off from outside world 21 july
  • 21 august - roberts broke boers defensive position at bergendal
  • kruger fled to europe, botha led the rest of the boer army to the transvaal high veldt
32
Q

what followed these successes?

A
  • 3 october 1900 - transvaal formally annexed
  • troops returned home
  • november 1900 - roberts sailed home and was given £100k by the gov
33
Q

what tactics did the boers use in 1900?

A
  • commandos sent to home districts where they knew the terrain well
  • struck fast and hard and vanished before british reinforcements arrived
34
Q

what were blockhouses?

A
  • kitchener wanted to restrict boer movement and protect supplies, built 8k fortified blockhouses which housed 6-8 men each
  • linked with barbed wire, stretched over 4k miles and parcelled veldt into small areas
  • british troops communicated through the telephone and telegraph cable
35
Q

what was the scorched earth policy?

A
  • started by roberts
  • burnt farms thought to be giving help to the commandos
  • kitchener continued this - destroyed property and crops, salted fields and poisoned wells
36
Q

what were the concentration camps like?

A
  • set up as refugee camps for boer families
  • undermined their will to resist in the short run, but freed boers from responsibility for their families
  • inadequate food, poor shelter, bad hygiene, shortage of medical facilities, overcrowded
  • measles, typhoid and dysentery spread
  • 20k women and children died across 40 camps, approx 1 in 4 of the inmates
  • thousands of black africans removed from boer areas and placed in separate camps, 12k died
37
Q

what criticism was there of the camps?

A
  • 1901 - radical liberals denounced the camps, broderick defended them by calling them voluntary + the boers were comfortable
  • campbell-bannerman (liberal leader) didn’t support liberals initially due to duty to support gov during war + risk divides in liberal party
  • emily hobhouse - visited camps and published report in june 1901, led to outcry
38
Q

what was the fawcett commission?

A
  • all woman commission led by millicent fawcett
  • conducted tours of the camps from august-dec 1901 to confirm what hobhouse said
  • recommended measures
  • 1902 - death rate for white inmates dropped to 2%
  • kitchener instructed commanders to not bring in women and children in december 1901 - guerrillas had to care for their families
39
Q

how were black africans involved?

A
  • british increasingly recruited black men as scouts, watchmen in blockhouses and auxiliaries
  • 1902 - 30k black people had served in the british army
  • black africans were pro-british
40
Q

how did the war end?

A
  • 31 may 1902 - treaty of vereeniging
  • boers given £3 million for reconstruction purposes - milner in charge of reconstruction
  • britain agreed to restore boer self government
  • 1910 - union of south africa formed from ofs, cape colony, natal and the transvaal
41
Q

what were the casualties of the war?

A
  • 22k british deaths - 7k in battle, the rest by disease
  • 100k troops wounded or diseased
  • 7k boer soldiers died
  • 20k boer civilians and 12k black africans died in concentration camps
42
Q

what did the war cost?

A
  • required services of 450k british and colonial troops
  • cost taxpayers £217m
  • 1901 - cost the treasury £140 to defeat one boer soldier
43
Q

what political parties were there?

A
  • liberal party - nonconformist, working class voters, supported ireland establishing its own government
  • conservatives - opposite of all
44
Q

what support was there for the war and the empire?

A
  • most mps supported the war in 1899 and so did most britons, due to patriotism and pride in the empire
  • felt superior to all other white nations
  • believed british rule improved the quality of life for ‘lower races’
45
Q

how did the press change during the war?

A
  • 1890s - more britons could afford to buy daily newspapers
  • costs of producing newspapers fell due to technical improvements + ad revenue
  • 150 newspapers catered to the publi
  • higher literacy rate
  • used by politicians to spread ideas + people to keep themselves informed
46
Q

how did the daily mail impact press?

A
  • launched in 1896
  • cost half a penny
  • had readership of nearly a million by 1900 - more than other newspapers
  • fiercely imperialist - marked itself as the voice of the empire
47
Q

how did war correspondents impact the war?

A
  • had huge political control due to their access to news + control over its dissemination
  • buller depicted as a buffoon in the news due to contempt for press + inability to present his side of the story
  • roberts went out of his way to butter up press
  • baden-powell became a hero due to his press coverage
48
Q

how did other media impact the war?

A
  • war captured in photographs
  • bioscope invented in 1895 - public could see moving pictures from the war
49
Q

what was khaki fever?

A
  • 500k people cheered for the first army corps as they left southampton
  • men rushed to volunteer for the army
  • excitement at the news of the lifting of the siege of ladysmith and mafeking
  • pro-boers were treated harshly
50
Q

what opposition was there to imperialism?

A
  • some britons didn’t like seeing wars in every part of the globe
  • thought imperial ambitions were used to distract from issues at home
  • attacked the empire for tis exploitation of native races
  • thought greed was the motive for overseas expansion
  • liberals, socialists, irish nationalists all opposed the war
51
Q

what religious opposition was there to the war?

A
  • not much
  • churches did not back opposition - anglicans and methodists supported the war
  • some prominent quakers denounced it but not a lot of people followed
52
Q

what labour opposition was there to the war?

A
  • trades union congress was neutral
  • independent labour party and social democratic federation were anti war
  • believed it was a capitalist war
53
Q

what political division was there?

A
  • labour party wanted to criticise conservative inaction - balfour w salisbury, campbell-bannerman w chamberlain
  • couldn’t defend boers either, so met with criticism and lack of support
54
Q

what was the khaki election?

A
  • september 1900 - salisbury called general election
  • conservative-unionists held majority of 134 - results reflected liberal disorganisation rather than support for the war
  • salisbury reshuffled cabinet, stepped down in 1902 and balfour became pm
55
Q

what liberal problems were there?

A
  • june 1901 - campbell-bowerman moved closer to pro boer mps after hobhouse’s report
  • liberal imperialists plotted to replace him, but he retained the support of most liberal mps
56
Q

how was money raised for the war?

A
  • 1901 - beach put a tax on refined sugar, levy of 1s on exported coal, raised income tax by 2d to 1s 2d
  • only 1/3 of the wars cost was met by taxation, gov had to borrow money
57
Q

what was chamberlain’s tariff reform?

A
  • duties on corn and manufactured goods from outside the empire
  • to raise money, strengthen empire, protect british industry from foreign competition, safeguard british jobs etc
  • free traders opposed these proposals, as it would raise food prices, protect inefficient british industries and would reduce labour costs
58
Q

what happened in the 1906 general election?

A
  • balfour resigned in 1905
  • campbell bannerman formed minority government and election held in january - liberals won 400 seats
  • boer war hardly featured in the war
59
Q

how did imperial sentiment decline?

A
  • was seen as barbaric after the war, associated mainly with conservative unionists, who lost in the 1906 and 1910 elections
  • liberal governments gave it low priority
60
Q

how did imperial sentiment strengthen?

A
  • popular newspapers eg the daily mail and daily express were very imperialistic
  • imperial imagery on ads, packaging etc - wouldn’t be used if the empire was not popular
  • patriotism remained strong
  • schools prepared students for careers such as colonial administrators or army officers
61
Q

how did the war impact national equality?

A
  • living standards rose from 1882-99 - wages rose by 1/3 and people had better health
  • booth and rowntree’s research said 1/3 of people lived in poverty, old age or sickness
  • infant mortality was at 15%
  • growth was stunted in poorer children
  • britons believed in social darwinism - survival of the fittest
62
Q

how did the war impact national efficiency?

A
  • national efficiency movement aimed to modernise education, institute a career system based on talent, shame existing elites etc
  • supported by socialists, liberals and conservatives
63
Q

how did the war impact social reform?

A
  • conservative-unionist gov of 1900-05 introduced reform
  • 1902 education act - improvement of provision of secondary education
  • liberal gov after 1905 introduced mother and infant clinics, old age pensions and a national insurance scheme

british experience of warfare (6 decks)

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