Boer Wars

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen M. Miller
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Careful Analysis ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Boer War ◽  
The Awakening ◽  
High Commissioner ◽  
History Of ◽  
Liberal Government ◽  
The Times

In an effort to bring political and economic rationalization to South Africa, the British pursued a plan of confederation. An important step toward accomplishing that goal was the annexation of the Transvaal in 1877. In late 1880, the Transvaal reasserted its independence and war erupted. Shortly after the humiliating defeat at Majuba in February 1881, Gladstone’s Liberal government eagerly sought a way out of the conflict. Two inconclusive peace “conventions” followed. New problems arose later in the century caused by the discovery of gold, the emergence of German power in the region, the awakening of Afrikaner nationalism, and the aggressive political pursuits of British administrators. Attempts to prevent a second war were pursued half-heartedly by Lord Milner, the British High Commissioner. As the British prepared an ultimatum, Paul Kruger, the president of the Transvaal, issued one of his own on 9 October 1899. The Second Anglo-Boer War, or South African War, began with a Boer invasion of the Cape Colony and Natal that led to the sieges of Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking. British attempts to break the sieges failed and culminated in Black Week in December 1899. Salisbury’s government struck back in the new year. Lord Roberts took command of a much larger force, strengthened by British volunteers and imperial troops, and drove through the Boer Republics. As the Boers embraced insurgency tactics, the conventional phase of the war came to an end. Lord Kitchener’s utilization of mounted drives and blockhouses, destruction of land and livestock, and the removal of civilians to concentration camps eventually destroyed the Boers capacity to continue the war. Peace came at Vereeniging on 31 May 1902. The scope of the second war naturally overshadowed the first in the literature. But important too were the growth in literacy and the drop in publishing costs. Whereas published memoirs and diaries trickled out after the first war, Great Britain witnessed a flood of literature even before the war had ended. Conan Doyle’s The Great Boer War was a bestseller and there was great interest in Leo Amery’s enormous project, The Times History of the War. Texts written in English vastly outnumbered those in Dutch and Afrikaans. Although historians, showed continued interest in the war, it was not until the late 1970s that the production of quality scholarship, based on careful analysis of primary sources and exploring topics other than battles and leadership, became the norm. The centennial brought a resurgence of interest in the war and with it lots of fine new scholarship.

scholarly journals Craft practised by Afrikaner women during and after the Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 and the appropriation of similar craft in the work of selected contemporary South African artists

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Joan Alkema
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
The Body ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
African Women ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
The South ◽  
Boer War ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This dissertation was researched in two main parts. The first enquiry was to establish whether the Afrikaner women practised any form of craft during their time of interment in the Anglo-Boer War concentration camps, during 1899-1902. The second part explores the appropriation of craft within the Post-Modern context by five South African artists. During this research into the craft practises of Afrikaner women in the concentration camps, I discovered that this particular issue has not been satisfactorily documented. The reasons for this are directly connected to the patriarchal system of the Calvinist Afrikaner. The impact which this system had on the craft practices of Afrikaner women and the lack of documentation thereof, are discussed. The paucity of information on Afrikaner women‟s history led to primary research where I gained the information I needed from the descendents of interned women. The findings of this research includes various forms of needlecraft such as embroidery, quilting, crocheting, and dress and bonnet making. Amongst the artefacts found were two ceramic dogs made in the camp. Various forms of tin and wire artefacts were also found. The contribution to the impoverished Afrikaner women by Hobhouse, the South African Agricultural Association and the South African Women‟s Federation is explained in relation to this dissertation. The freedom that Post-Modern thought created amongst artists enabled them to explore exciting ways of executing their art. The five South African artists whose work I chose to explore are Billy Zangewa, Sue Pam-Grant, Gina Waldman, Antionette Murdoch and Nirmi Ziegler. Their art practices are varied but the common denominator is the incorporation of various forms of traditional feminine craft into their work. They subvert the patriarchal order, draw attention to land issues, explore women‟s fragility and raise awareness concerning the abuse of the environment. I conducted an interview with Ziegler and relied on written documentation for the research concerning the other artists. I also made use of my own analysis and instinct as a woman and mother to interpret some works. As an Afrikaner woman I execute my work by using traditional feminine craft and specific motives found during my research. I deliver commentary on the lack of vi documentation of all of Afrikaner women‟s history. I use myself as an example of an Afrikaner woman and document my own history within the greater Afrikaner history which is contained and embedded within the history of South Africa. My research into and documentation of the craft practises of Afrikaner women during and directly after the Anglo-Boer War adds to the body of knowledge concerning the history of Afrikaner women. The same applies to the work of the five artists I explored. The diversity of material, concept and execution of their work will add some knowledge to the existing body of knowledge about their work, but more so to the documentation of women's history.

Boer War

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
African Region ◽  
Boer War ◽  
War Memory ◽  
South African War ◽  
White Settler ◽  
History Of ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
And Control

The Boer War of 1899–1902, also termed the Anglo-Boer War or South African War, was waged by Britain to establish its imperial supremacy in South Africa and by Boers/Afrikaners to defend their independent republican order and control of the destiny of the white settler states they had secured in the interior. Large, long, controversial and costly, the Boer War was a colonial conflict which finally completed the British imperial conquest of the Southern African region. As is to be expected of a war that has a widely recognized significance not only in the history of European imperialism in Southern Africa but in world history more generally, literature on the 1899–1902 conflict is, simply, enormous. Scholarship is available not merely in English and in Afrikaans, but also in Dutch, French, German, Russian, Spanish, and even in Japanese. As it happens, more recent decades have seen the publication of sizeable bibliographies covering a century of writings on the Boer War in German and in Dutch. Although it could obviously not be claimed that every aspect of the 1899–1902 period—military, political, economic, social, or cultural—has been treated, evenly or otherwise, by so vast a body of literature, the sheer quantity of work available has to influence the scope and selectivity of any Boer War bibliography of this kind. While this bibliographic article includes some seminal early pieces, it is weighted toward more recently works and, in particular, includes scholarship which contains detailed bibliographies covering aspects of warfare (battles, sieges) that are not a specific focus of the approach taken here. Secondly, other classifiable areas of historiography which fall beyond the limits of this article, such as war memory and commemoration, and postwar economic reconstruction and political state-making, are treated—in some instances, quite substantially—in single-author general overviews and in multi-author edited treatments. In other respects, this article goes beyond more conventional historical terrain in including the war’s literary and cultural influences.

Camps in a Time of War

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Forth
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Ad Hoc ◽  
The Other ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Guerrilla Warfare ◽  
Humanitarian Relief ◽  
Boer War ◽  
Asymmetric Conflict ◽  
African Refugees ◽  
The One

Guerrilla warfare during the South African (or Anglo-Boer) War presented a new context for the development of British camps. On the one hand, camps were a measure of military counterinsurgency that concentrated and detained scattered civilian populations suspected of aiding enemy insurgents. On the other hand, camps were measures of social control and sympathetic concern that organized shelter and humanitarian relief for refugees who had been displaced by scorched earth warfare and were congregating in overcrowded towns. Boer and African refugees presented a specter of social destitution and sanitary disarray familiar from Indian plague and famine operations. Like plague and famine camps, wartime concentration camps removed “uncivilized” and unhygienic populations from the center of towns and systematized ad hoc charitable arrangements by confining relief within demarcated boundaries. Although Boers were ostensibly Europeans respected for their vigor and courage, racialized discourses in the later phases of an asymmetric conflict denigrated them as uncivilized and even subhuman: such representations ultimately facilitated encampment.

‘The red livery of shame’: the campaign against army recruitment in Ireland, 1899—1914

1994 ◽  
Vol 29 (114) ◽  
pp. 208-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Denman
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
British Government ◽  
Irish Nationalism ◽  
Boer War ◽  
Political Concern ◽  
South African War ◽  
The People ◽  
National Sentiment ◽  
Party Members ◽  
The Times

In November 1899 The Times published a letter from a correspondent in Enniskillen recalling the army’s recruiting parades when he was a boy:The recruiting party — members of the regiment stationed here — usually fell in about 2 o’clock. There were two rows of non-commissioned officers (sergeants) in front, with swords drawn and ribbons streaming from their caps, then came the band playing spirit-stirring airs, a few rows of corporals forming the rear. Their appearance was quite imposing and invariably attracted a large crowd of stalwart peasant lads, as well as town youths and others. And it was certainly calculated to inspire a military enthusiasm in the breasts of the people . . . and many a fine young fellow, becoming enamoured of the service, was induced to accompany the party to the barracks and finally take the shilling.Only weeks before the Boer War had broken out, and the question of seducing ‘stalwart peasant lads’ to ‘take the shilling’ was becoming one of acute political concern in Ireland. For the Boer War was ‘nearly as crucial an event for Irish nationalism as the death of Parnell’. The sight of England engaged in a major colonial war and, in the early months, being ‘worsted in the game’ stimulated national sentiment: ‘the feeling against the British government was brought out in a remarkable manner, owing to the difficulties of the South African War’. Yet there were thousands of Irishmen in Britain’s army in South Africa.

Yes, Minister: Reassessing South Africa's Intervention in the Angolan Civil War, 1975–1976

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 4-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamie Miller
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Civil War ◽  
South African ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Threat Perception ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Context ◽  
Apartheid Regime ◽  
The Cold War

In 1975–1976, South Africa's apartheid regime took the momentous step of intervening in the Angolan civil war to counter the Marxist Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola and its backers in Havana and Moscow. The failure of this intervention and the subsequent ignominious withdrawal had major repercussions for the evolution of the regime and the history of the Cold War in southern Africa. This article is the first comprehensive study of how and why Pretoria became involved. Drawing on a wide variety of primary sources from South African archives as well as interviews with key protagonists, the article shows that the South African Defence Force and Defence Minister P. W. Botha pushed vigorously and successfully for deeper engagement to cope with security threats perceived through the prism of the emerging doctrine of “total onslaught.” South Africa's intervention in Angola was first and foremost the product of strategic calculations derived from a sense of threat perception expressed and experienced in Cold War terms, but applied and developed in a localized southern African context.

South Africa and the International Community

1966 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-313 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Dale
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
South African ◽  
British Empire ◽  
Nobel Laureate ◽  
Western World ◽  
Founding Father ◽  
Boer War ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

Ever since the discovery there of gold and diamonds in the last half of the nineteenth century, South Africa has engaged the rapt attention of the Western world. The saga of the Anglo-Boer War of 1899–1902, perhaps the last of the “gentlemen's wars,” and now the refurbished accounts of the gallant defense of Rorke's Drift in the AngloZulu War of 1879 have been fascinating material for both novelists and film scriptwriters. In addition, the history of South Africa is replete with titanic figures who rank with, or perhaps even above, those from the rest of the continent: the aggressive architect of empire, Cecil J. Rhodes; the redoubtable Zulu warrior, Chaka; the dour, stern-willed President of the South African Republic, “Oom” (Uncle) Paul Kruger; the world-renowned statesman and philosopher, Field Marshal Jan C. Smuts; the founding father of Indian independence, Mohandas K. Gandhi; the compassionate and courageous writer, Alan S. Paton; and the dignified, modest Zulu Nobel Laureate, Albert J. Luthuli. By any standard, South Africa and its leaders of all races have made far-reaching and impressive contributions to the continent, the British Empire, and the world at large.

scholarly journals Was the United Kingdom's policy of pushing for the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar following ethnic cleansing in 2017 realistic?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arthur Joseph Holmes
Keyword(s):  
State Policies ◽  
Foreign Affairs ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Ethnic Cleansing ◽  
Committee Meeting ◽  
Secondary Material ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
Take Back ◽  
History Of

Was the United Kingdom's policy of pushing for the return of Rohingya refugees to Myanmar following ethnic cleansing in 2017 realistic?This article explores the United Kingdom’s response to the Rohingya Crisis which began in August 2017, resulting in the ethnic cleansing of 600,000 Rohingya Muslims in the first nine weeks of violence, with a minimum of 6,700 people being killed in the process. The United Kingdom reacted with condemnation, and began immediately calling for the safe return of refugees who had fled the violence, to their homes in Rakhine state, Myanmar. Using the testimony from Mark Field MP, Minister for Asia, in a Foreign Affairs Committee meeting, this essay assesses this policy of pushing for the return of the Rohingya to their homes. Using primary sources available to Britain at the time its policy was formed, this essay argues that Britain’s approach was not only unrealistic with regards to providing an environment in which Rohingya refugees would be provided safety, but also in relation to Burmese authorities’ desires to take back Rohingya refugees. Myanmar’s campaign of ethnic cleansing intentionally created the environment in which either the Rohingya would never return, or they would return to state-controlled concentration camps. Secondary material expires the history of violent state policies against the Rohingya in Myanmar, and Britain’s policy is shown to not only be unworkable due to such policies, but would actively endanger those refugees who chose to return. Czy polityka Wielkiej Brytanii w kwestii powrotu uchodźców Rohyngia do Birmy po czystkach etnicznych w 2007 roku była realistyczna?Artykuł omawia kryzys, który rozpoczął się w sierpniu 2017 roku i spowodował czystki etniczne obejmujące około 600 000 muzułmanów z ludu Rohyngya, przy czym w pierwszych 9 tygodniach gwałtownych zamieszek śmierć poniosło co najmniej 6700 osób. Zjednoczone Królestwo potępiło czystki i natychmiast wezwało do umożliwienia uchodźcom bezpiecznego powrotu do ich domów w Birmie. Na podstawie wyjaśnień ministra ds. Azji Marka Fielda, członka parlamentu, Komitet ds. Spraw Zagranicznych na swym posiedzeniu dokonał oceny tej polityki, polegającej na nakłanianiu ich do powrotu do Birmy. Opierając się na źródłach dostępnych w Wielkiej Brytanii w chwili, gdy tworzyły się zręby tej polityki, autor eseju dowodzi, że ten kierunek polityczny był nie tylko nierealistyczny w odniesieniu do możliwości zapewnienia uchodźcom bezpieczeństwa, ale także sprzeczny z zamiarami władz Birmy w kwestii przyjęcia uchodźców. Birmańska kampania czystek etnicznych świadomie stworzyła sytuację, w której Rohingya nigdy nie powrócą bądź wracaliby do kontrolowanych przez państwo obozów koncentracyjnych. Dostępne opracowania analizują historię przemocy wobec ludności Rohyngya w Birmie i ukazują politykę Wielkiej Brytanii nie tylko jako nieskuteczną z powodu takich posunięć politycznych, ale także wskazują, że zagrażałaby ona życiu decydujących się na powrót uchodźców.

“A System Steadily Perfected”

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan Forth
Keyword(s):  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
British Government ◽  
Social Investigation ◽  
Epidemic Disease ◽  
Boer War ◽  
Emergency Relief ◽  
History Of

In an effort to reduce mortality rates from epidemic disease, the British government engaged in a campaign to reform the Anglo-Boer War concentration camps. Officials like Alfred Milner and Joseph Chamberlain actively mobilized imperial Britain’s long history of encampment and solicited expertise from the fields of metropolitan welfare and social investigation to appoint a women’s committee (led by Millicent Fawcett) to visit the camps and recommend reforms. Chamberlain also contacted the India Office and ultimately imported Colonels Samuel J. Thomson and James S. Wilkins, who had analogous inter-imperial experience managing plague and famine camps in India. Drawing from lessons synthesized in India, these “imperial careerists” introduced stricter discipline and new measures like barbed-wire quarantine wards and forced hospitalization, which ultimately reduced camp mortality. New camps in Cape Colony and Natal constructed by Wilkins and Thomson refined camp management to a state of perfection and helped vindicate concentration camps as a legitimate technology of imperial statecraft and emergency relief.

Oswin Boys Bull and the Emergence of Southern African ‘Nonwhite’ YMCA Work

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-230
Author(s):  
David Anthony
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Mixed Race ◽  
The South ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Primary Responsibility ◽  
History Of ◽  
African Youth ◽  
Local Opposition ◽  
The Times

AbstractFrom 1908 to 1922, Oswin Boys Bull (1882–1971) had the primary responsibility for supervising the recruitment of African youth and students into the South African SCA and YMCA. Following the lead of overseas sojourners Luther Wishard and Donald Fraser in 1895 and John R. Mott and Ruth Rouse in 1906, Bull took his experience as a Jesus College, Cambridge classics and theology major and sportsperson into the challenging religious, racial and ethnic field of the Union of South Africa. Bringing a mix of strong spiritual roots and an unwavering commitment to the racially inclusive interpretation of Christianity, Bull blazed a trail that earned him the reputation of a pioneer ecumenist.Ably assisted by illustrious Xhosa-speaking intellectual and seasoned Christian proselytizer John Knox Bokwe, Bull made inroads into areas previously ignored by his predecessors. With a reach extending as far as neighboring historic Basutoland, Bull's efforts resulted in the establishment of branch associations in a variety of rural and urban locations. In spite of local opposition and tremendous geographical, linguistic, social and political barriers, Bull applied himself to the task of providing a firm foundation for Black and Mixed Race SCA and YMCA members to find places in previously lily-white bodies.Understanding both his limits as well as his capabilities, Bull's generosity allowed him to share the spotlight with other evangelists. His correspondence with YMCA leader John Mott demonstrates a humble willingness to see the task of ‘nonwhite’ inclusion in SCA and YMCA work to the end. By the time Max Yergan, the first permanent YMCA and SCA secretary arrived in South Africa early in 1922, Bull was able to delegate most of the duties that required a field secretary to him, satisfied that he could concentrate on the remainder of his managerial duties from the YMCA and SCA center, in Cape Town and Stellenbosch, respectively. Already fluent in Afrikaans, Bull's history of attempting to build bridges between competing and often hostile populations set the standard for the type of leadership that a complex, extremely ethnically and religiously particularistic society like South Africa would need to construct a broadly based national movement.Although O.B. Bull is known only to readers of Alan Paton's Hofmeyr, and those involved in the institutions with which he was associated, most notably, St Edmunds School, Jesus College, Cambridge, the Scriptural Union and the South African SCA and YMCA, it may now be possible for later generations to revisit the times in which he lived and worked to regain a sense of the odds against which he struggled and the resolve he showed in striving first to dream of and then fight for a more inclusive Southern African YMCA.While he was by no means perfect and was clearly himself a product of his place and time, his quests for something better within himself and his adopted country were noble.

scholarly journals Progressive Entanglements? Activity Profiles, Responsibilities and Interactions of Dentists at Auschwitz. The Example of 2nd SS Dentist Willi Schatz

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (3) ◽  
pp. 374-400
Author(s):  
Enno Schwanke ◽  
Dominik Groß
Keyword(s):  
Selection Process ◽  
Third Reich ◽  
Concentration Camps ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Final Phase ◽  
Secondary Literature ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Third Reich ◽  
History Of Dentistry

The history of dentistry during the Third Reich is still a neglected chapter in medical history; especially with a view to the concentration camps. Beyond the theft of dental gold, we actually know very little about the number of camp dentists or even about their activities and how these changed in particular in the final phase of the war. By using as a case study the biography of Willi Schatz, 2nd SS dentist at Auschwitz from January 1944 till autumn 1944, this paper examines the tasks of SS camp dentists in Auschwitz. It points out to what extent the scope of action of the camp dentists changed under the impression of extraordinary events, and clarifies that using the example of the Ungarn Aktion, in which more than 300 000 deportees were immediately murdered. It illustrates that such situational dynamics were an essential driving force for the expansion of dentals tasks. Despite the fact that Schatz was acquitted during the Frankfurt Auschwitz trial (1963–5) for lack of evidence, we show that dentists were not only part of the selection personnel but also high profiteers of the accelerated extermination actions. It can be demonstrated that participation in the selection process – originally reserved for physicians – offered SS dentists access to further SS networks. The study is based on primary sources supplemented with relevant secondary literature, and combines a biographical with a praxeological approach.

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