The Second Boer War, changing public opinions to the war (1899-1902)

Question 1

What tone did the press generally have when it came to the war?

Answer 1

• They tended to support the war

Question 2

What development was there to do with newspapers in the 1890s? Give an example.

Answer 2

• Due to technical improvements, newspapers became cheaper
• In 1896, the Daily Mail was launched which cost a halfpenny (most established newspapers at the time would cost a penny)

Question 3

Who set up the Daily Mail? Give a detail about its content, and its popularity.

Answer 3

• Alfred Harmsworth
• The paper was strongly imperialist, and referred to itself as the voice of the empire
• By 1900, it had a circulation of almost 1 million

Question 4

What 2 impacts did the launch of the Daily Mail have for newspapers, and why?

Answer 4

• By 1900 it was doing far better than its competition
• This caused other papers to drop their prices
• New papers were introduced that were imitations of the Daily Mail

Question 5

How big of an impact did war news have for soldiers?

Answer 5

• The impact could actually be quite big, as Queen Victoria sent knitted clothes along with 100,000 tins of chocolate to the soldiers

Question 6

How important were war correspondents, and why? Give 3 examples.

Answer 6

• They had a huge political influence as they controlled access to news and how it was presented
• Buller viewed the press with contempt and wanted to heavily censor what was going on, and he was (unsurprisingly) depicted very negatively
• Roberts, on the other hand, went out of his way to build a good relationship with correspondents, and carefully kept them away from scenes such as the typhoid epidemic
• Baden-Powell’s popularity was to a large extent a result of the magnified press attention he received

Question 7

Name an influential journalist who reported on the Second Boer War. Who did they report for?

Answer 7

• Winston Churchill
• The Morning Post

Question 8

What were Churchill’s reports like? Give 3 details.

Answer 8

• He generally supported the actions of the army (he supported the British Empire)
• However, he did reveal some deficiencies in the army
• His reports were uncensored

Question 9

What impact did Churchill’s job as a war correspondent have on his life?

Answer 9

• It allowed him to launch his political career

Question 10

Which battle had a big impact on public opinion, and why?

Answer 10

• Spion Kop
• The photographs of dead British soldiers on the hill made the shocking reality clear to the public

Question 11

What 2 other developments in photography made the war more immediate to the British public?

Answer 11

• The cheap Brownie camera was introduced in 1900
• The bioscope had been invented in 1895, making it possible for audiences to see moving pictures from South Africa

Question 12

How did the tone of the press change as the war progressed? List 5 reasons why.

Answer 12

• They became less supportive of the war
• They were critical over:
• the sieges taking so long to be lifted
• why the army couldn’t quickly defeat the guerrillas
• why troops were facing shortages
• the concentration camps
• Spion Kop

Question 13

Who had the biggest role in revealing the conditions in concentration camps? When did they do this, and how?

Answer 13

• Emily Hobhouse
• She published a report in June 1901

Question 14

How did Hobhouse become aware of the conditions in the concentration camps?

Answer 14

• She had a letter of introduction addressed to Alfred Milner, who then helped her
• She travelled to the Bloemfontein camp where she expected to give out comforts (e.g. soap) but discovered the shocking conditions instead

Question 15

What were 4 impacts of the Hobhouse report?

Answer 15

• It caused an international outcry, such as from German chancellor von Bülow
• Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman (leader of the Liberals) now attacked how the army were conducting the war (he had previously avoided doing this in order to not deepen splits in the Liberal party)
• Hobhouse was banned from returning to South Africa
• It led to the Fawcett Commission

Question 16

What was the Fawcett Commission? What was unique about it?

Answer 16

• The committee of enquiry set up by the government in 1901 in response to the Hobhouse report
• It was made up entirely of women, and was led by Millicent Fawcett, a suffragist

Question 17

What were the findings of the Fawcett Commission, and how did the government respond?

Answer 17

• It confirmed everything Hobhouse had reported
• The government removed the responsibility for running the camps from the army, and gave it to civil authorities instead

Question 18

How effective were the government’s measures to deal with the situation in the concentration camps?

Answer 18

• The death rate for white inmates had dropped to 2% by early 1902 (lower than many British cities at the time)
• However, it was a case of the damage having already been done

Question 19

Which groups were against the war from the start? How big of an issue was this?

Answer 19

• Liberals
• Socialists
• Irish Nationalists
• It wasn’t a big issue as they were a minority

Question 20

How were the Liberals organised around the time of the Second Boer War?

Answer 20

• They were split on the issue of imperialism and the Second Boer War; the Liberal imperialists were in favour, but radical Liberals were against this

Question 21

Give 2 examples of Liberal Imperialists and a radical Liberal.

Answer 21

• Herbert Asquith and Sir Edward Grey
• David Lloyd George

Question 22

Why were Irish Nationalists against the Second Boer War?

Answer 22

• They saw the Boers as fellow victims of imperialist aggression

Question 23

Which papers were against the war?

Answer 23

• The Manchester Guardian
• The Morning Star
• The Daily News (from 1901)

Question 24

Name an organisation that was against the war.

Answer 24

• The Stop the War Committee

Question 25

Describe one way in which the Stop the War Committee aimed to achieve their goal.

Answer 25

- The journalist W.T. Stead wrote an article in 1902 criticising the conditions children were being held in in the concentration camps, and how the army were deliberately starving children to get their families to surrender as they could not achieve this fairly on the battlefield

Question 26

When was an election held during the Second Boer War, what was it nicknamed, and why?

Answer 26

- 1900 - The 'khaki election' - The war was the key issue behind the election, and many of those standing were army officers (e.g. Winston Churchill)

Question 27

What were the results of the khaki election, and what did this show?

Answer 27

- Lord Salisbury (Conservative) won 402 seats - While this could have shown the public was generally in favour of the war, it also reflected the lack of organisation within the Liberals, which lost them seats