History Notes The South African War (Second Boer War) 1899-1902 Notes
These notes correspond to a second year undergraduate History unit on The South African War 1899-1902.
The notes covered are:
- Chamberlain, Milner, and the British Politicians
- Cecil Rhodes and the Jameson Raid
- Causes of the War
- Black and Coloured Participation
- Methods of Barbarism
The notes are highly detailed, coloured, and contain essay plans, arguments and historiography surrounding each of the subjects. Potential essay questions are written at the top of the notes and the ...
The following is a more accessible plain text extract of the PDF sample above, taken from our The South African War (Second Boer War) 1899-1902 Notes. Due to the challenges of extracting text from PDFs, it will have odd formatting:
TOPIC 4: METHODS OF BARBARISM
The Violence of Empire
Do we see the South African War as part of a new departure in 20th century warfare or does it hark back to episodes like the suppression of the Indian Mutiny in the 1850s?
Gregory Fremont-Barnes
The Boer War straddled two centuries not only in its chronology, but also in the very manner in which it was fought.
At first the fighting bore the hallmarks of 19th century warfare.
J. F. C. Fuller SAW – ‘The Last of the Gentlemen’s Wars’
Both sides exercised a certain degree of chivalrous conduct, not least to the wounded
The fact that deaths from disease still exceeded those suffered in action also placed the war in a clear 19th century context
Yet the Boer War also witnessed the introduction of elements of warfare that we would associate more with the 20th century
Specifically, new forms of technology were employed, such as the field telephone, searchlights and barbed wire
The war highlighted the efficiency of guerilla warfare
This in turn led to a number of ruthless responses, including the policy of ‘scorched earth’, whereby British patrols roamed the countryside, setting fire and laying waste to vast stretches of the field
When the war ended, there were more civilian than military dead, an indication of the way in which the conflict shifted over time from conventional to guerilla fighting
Intentionality and guilt
Genocide involves intention –Boer concentration camps?
Relates to the issue of guilt – how far is it the role of the historian to apportion guilt to individuals, institutions and countries?
The treatment of civilians in the SAW and the deaths of tens of thousands of people in the camps fuelled humanitarian campaigns
Emily Hobhouse
Publication of photographs showing the plight of children particularly in concentration amps
Finally the leader of the Liberal party stands up and roundly denounced what the British are doing in Southern Africa
“When is a war not a war? When it is conducted by the methods of barbarism in South Africa.”
Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, 14 June 1901
Arguing that the British were the barbarians. Reversion to primitive methods of warfare – violation of civilized standards
Scorched Earth Policy
Introduced by Lord Roberts in Orange Free State from as early as March 1900 as a way of trying to deny the Boer guerillas the support of the populations
Burning of farms
Confiscation of property
Can’t be defeated in the field and so instead destroy their ammunition and intelligence
Up to 30,000 farms and 40 towns wholly or partially destroyed
Becomes more systematic under Kitchener
Confiscation of livestock from blacks as well as whites
If aim is to deny Boer guerillas supply of food then it is important to remove all of the food
Impacts heavily on the African population
Kitchener
Ramps up policy of scorched earth warfare
Deploys unprecedented number of troops to put into affect
7 August 1901 – Banishment proclamation
States that any Boer captured will be permanently banned
British government does not support him on this
Most effective part of Kitchener’s military policies is the construction of a vast network of block houses
Small pre-fabricated fortifications which are set up across the belt and can be defended by a relatively small force of men
Exist to give Kitchener control of the belt but also to protect railways, bridges and other strategic points
Once system completed covers a grid totaling 6000KM
Trying to stop Boer guerillas from moving freely around
Strategic impact?
Capture just over 1000 Boers (due to the ‘New Model Drives’) but also large amounts of supplies and livestock
This denies the Boers in the field of key remaining sources of food and it forces the Boers who are left to raid African towns and farms to try and get food
It is one of these Boer raiding parties who attack the Zulu settlement and take food which then gets wiped out in a subsequent Zulu attack
This is what drives them to attack the Zulu population
Kitchener’s methods of warfare are NOT methods of barbarism
Highly scientific and modern
Kitchener is an engineer as much as a soldier
Kitchener a master of logistics, of military supply, of organisation
Effectively deploying a big military force is a modern campaign
Kitchener has also already got a reputation as a scientific soldier due to the Sudan Campaign and that is why he is bought to South Africa
‘High Modernism’ – James C. Scott – Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition have Failed (New Haven and London, 1998)
Sociologist James Scott
Talks about high modernism – a phenomenon of the 20th century and 20th century governments
If you have a problem – you should bring in experts and scientific knowledge to solve this
Create an ideal society by employing experts e.g. technocrats who will use their expertise to solve your problems and create an ideal situation
Kitchener employed to lead the SAW as an example of this broader 20th century pattern
Primary Sources
Extracts from War Office Records – Letters between Lord Kitchener and St. John Broderick – 1900-1902
How does Kitchener justify the concentration camps in the extracts?
Meant to protect those who surrender from their former colleagues
Refugee camps – not a camp where you are imprisoning people but a camp where you are putting up refugees
Kitchener proposes moving those within the refugee camps
Says that they can ‘settle on some island or country where we can safely establish the Boers, Fiji for instance, or get some foreign provider to take them such as France to populate Madagascar.’
Rising sense of frustration in Kitchener’s writing
By the time it gets to June 1901 there is a sense of desperation and a drive to more aggressive measures
Frustration with the failure of the army to deal with the Boers
Advocating more aggressive and extreme solutions
Who bears the blame for what happened in the concentration camps?
Conflicting...
Buy the full version of these notes or essay plans and more in our The South African War (Second Boer War) 1899-1902 Notes.
These notes correspond to a second year undergraduate History unit on The South African War 1899-1902.
The notes covered are:
- Chamberlain, Milner, and the British Politicians
- Cecil Rhodes and the Jameson Raid
- Causes of the War
- Black and Coloured Participation
- Methods of Barbarism
The notes are highly detailed, coloured, and contain essay plans, arguments and historiography surrounding each of the subjects. Potential essay questions are written at the top of the notes and the ...
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