# The British-Boer War 1899-1902 (Documentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exVno170qhU

[00:00] War has broken out in South Africa and
[00:02] British commanders are confident they
[00:04] will soon crush the upstart Boer
[00:06] republics who have dared to defy them
[00:08] General White's troops facing boar
[00:11] positions on The High Ground near
[00:12] Ladysmith went nervously as British and
[00:14] poor artillery duel overhead but the
[00:17] neighboring British units have gone
[00:19] silent and the order comes to retreat
[00:22] bore artillery and Riflemen pour fire
[00:25] onto the exposed British troops and they
[00:27] withdraw in panic on this day the Empire
[00:31] has been defeated but there's a long and
[00:34] bloody war ahead it's the second Boer
[00:37] War
[00:38] [Applause]
[00:43] thank you
[00:47] [Music]
[00:50] in the late 19th century conflict was
[00:52] brewing in southern Africa the Dutch had
[00:55] colonized the region from back in the
[00:57] mid 17th century and the settlers
[00:59] arrived in what became the cape Colony
[01:01] they call themselves Africanus and spoke
[01:04] their own dialect of Dutch known as
[01:06] Africans but they were often simply
[01:09] known as boers the Dutch word for Farmer
[01:12] most of these settlers Farm plans that
[01:14] They seized from the local native
[01:16] population many of whom the Africanus
[01:18] then enslaved in 1806 Britain captured
[01:22] Cape Town during the Napoleonic Wars and
[01:25] kept permanent control of the cape
[01:27] Colony after 1815. but problems between
[01:30] the British Administration and the poor
[01:33] population soon emerged over language
[01:35] cultural Outlook and legal systems The
[01:38] Tipping Point came when Britain outlawed
[01:41] slavery in 1834. this enraged The boers
[01:45] Who relied on slave labor to work their
[01:47] Farms between 1835 and 1840 the boers
[01:51] migrated out of British territory in
[01:54] what they called the Great Trek to find
[01:57] new independent homelands in eastern
[01:59] South Africa there they founded two new
[02:02] Bora republics the orange free state and
[02:05] the South African Republic work transfal
[02:07] the new bore States maintained some
[02:10] forms of slavery and expropriated their
[02:12] land from native Africans
[02:14] but the British bore struggle continued
[02:17] the British Empire slowly expanded its
[02:20] control of South Africa by taking over
[02:22] more native African territories and by
[02:24] the 1840s it shared a border with the
[02:27] Boer republics frequent border
[02:30] skirmishes blew up into the first war
[02:32] war of 1880 1881. the Poors won the war
[02:36] and forced the British government to
[02:38] formally acknowledge boor Independence
[02:41] and then came the transphile Gold Rush
[02:44] Prospectors discovered enormous gold
[02:46] deposits between 1884 and 1886.
[02:50] immigrants from all over the British
[02:52] Empire flooded to South Africa to seek
[02:54] their fortune and the Newfound mineral
[02:56] wealth of transphal Drew the interest of
[02:59] British Statesmen and businessmen
[03:01] foremost among these was Cape Colony
[03:04] prime minister and Mining magnate Cecil
[03:06] Rhodes who led the campaign to bring the
[03:08] poor republics under British rule to
[03:11] secure their natural resources for the
[03:13] Empire but his scheme to overthrow the
[03:15] poor governments using a force of
[03:17] mercenaries in the Jamison raid of 1895
[03:20] ended in Fiasco and alerted the boers to
[03:23] the threat of British annexation despite
[03:26] the failure of the Jameson raid Britain
[03:28] relentlessly pressured the Boer
[03:30] republics to make Territorial and legal
[03:32] concessions by 1899 British troops were
[03:36] massing in their colony of natal and the
[03:38] boers feared an invasion was imminent so
[03:41] rather than await the inevitable the
[03:43] boers decided to strike first on October
[03:46] 11 1899 the second Boer War began
[03:51] so The Boar's desire for Independence
[03:53] and British Imperial expansion had come
[03:56] to a head with the outbreak of war in
[03:58] 1899. so let's take a look at the
[04:01] fighting forces that each side brought
[04:03] to the battlefield
[04:04] the boers did not possess a standing
[04:07] army and instead relied on a malicious
[04:09] system
[04:10] times of War the government would muster
[04:12] all able-bodied men between the ages of
[04:14] 16 and 60. citizens were expected to
[04:18] arrive with their own rifle and horse
[04:19] but the government also bought and
[04:21] distributed thousands of German Mauser
[04:23] rifles at the start of the war
[04:25] the boers had no formal military
[04:27] training but they were formidable
[04:29] Fighters noted for their excellent
[04:31] Marksmanship in peacetime poor citizens
[04:34] developed their skill by hunting game
[04:36] and through target shooting competitions
[04:38] a practice noted by American journalist
[04:41] Howard Hillegas
[04:43] target shooting was the chief Amusement
[04:45] in transfal demand for rifle ammunition
[04:48] was constant and firing at marks May
[04:50] almost be said to have taken the place
[04:52] occupied by billiards in Europe
[04:56] every boar fighter was a mounted
[04:58] Rifleman they could move quickly and
[05:00] seize key terrain before dismounting and
[05:03] delivering a hail of accurate rifle fire
[05:05] decades later Winston Churchill named
[05:08] Britain's Special Forces after the
[05:10] Africana word for military unit Commando
[05:14] The Riflemen were backed by a small
[05:16] professional artillery branch which
[05:18] deployed a mixture of modern French and
[05:20] German guns including four 155
[05:23] millimeter kurzo guns which the British
[05:26] nicknamed long Tong
[05:28] the boers were motivated well-armed and
[05:30] determined to defend their independence
[05:32] they had about 60 000 Men available to
[05:35] fight but their weakness was their
[05:37] ability to sustain a long War
[05:40] the boars relied on Military imports
[05:42] from Europe their small population meant
[05:45] that they could not afford a war of
[05:46] attrition and they feared an African
[05:48] Uprising ore attack from the Zulu
[05:50] Kingdom they had to strike fast and win
[05:53] a clear victory
[05:55] the British army was immensely
[05:58] experienced in colonial Warfare and with
[06:00] 250 000 troops it could field more men
[06:04] than the Africanus one of them in fact
[06:06] would be my great grandfather
[06:08] the second Boer War would be the 226th
[06:12] out of 230 wars fought during the reign
[06:15] of Queen Victoria
[06:16] the British won nearly all these
[06:18] conflicts thanks to the Army's
[06:20] advantages in discipline and technology
[06:22] and tactics based on close formations
[06:24] and crushing fire
[06:26] but the Army had very little experience
[06:28] of facing modern Firepower since the
[06:31] colonial enemies it had defeated fielded
[06:33] little more than a handful of
[06:35] second-hand rifles Imperial troops would
[06:38] face an unpleasant surprise under Boer
[06:40] rifle and artillery fire still the
[06:43] British Army in South Africa was
[06:45] confident and seemed to have forgotten
[06:47] its defeat at the hands of the boers in
[06:49] 1880-81. British military thinkers
[06:52] reckoned Victory would be Swift and
[06:54] decisive against a fragile boar Force
[06:56] lacking in discipline
[06:58] native black Africans also played a role
[07:01] in the war officially both sides
[07:03] declared that the conflict was a quote
[07:05] white man's war and that the neutrality
[07:07] of black Africans would be respected in
[07:10] reality black Africans performed a
[07:12] variety of roles for both belligerents
[07:14] the boers use African forced labor to
[07:17] provide transport and dig trenches while
[07:20] the British hired thousands of Africans
[07:22] for logistic work as well as native
[07:24] Scouts and trackers some of whom fought
[07:26] in uniform
[07:28] the poor militias and the British army
[07:30] were set to clash and when war broke out
[07:32] in October 1899 the boers tried to make
[07:35] the most of their window of opportunity
[07:38] at the start of the war the boers
[07:40] outnumbered British forces in South
[07:42] Africa 40 000 to 20 000. since the
[07:45] British were sure to send reinforcements
[07:47] the poor plan emphasized speed and
[07:50] aggression they would sweep into South
[07:52] Africa and crush the British garrisons
[07:54] before fresh troops arrived from the
[07:57] United Kingdom
[07:58] the boor Invasion had four main axes in
[08:01] the west poor forces besieged the
[08:03] railway town of mafiking to prevent
[08:06] British forces advancing from the
[08:07] direction of bichwana land in the
[08:09] southwest the bores surrounded the
[08:11] diamond mining Center of Kimberly and in
[08:14] the South poor forces Advanced into the
[08:16] cape Midland region to disrupt British
[08:18] Rail transport the main boar offensive
[08:21] though drove into natal the British had
[08:24] most of their army here some fifteen
[08:26] thousand men and had planned to use the
[08:28] colony as a base to invade Boer
[08:31] territory until the boers beat them to
[08:33] it but British forces were poorly
[08:35] deployed and Lieutenant General William
[08:37] Penn Simon's four thousand strong
[08:39] Detachment bore the brunt of the boor
[08:42] attack on October 20th 1899 the first
[08:45] pitch Battle of the war took place as
[08:48] the boers got their artillery onto
[08:49] talana Hill and bombarded Simon's Camp
[08:52] below the British were surprised but
[08:55] they quickly rallied and launched an
[08:56] assault that drove the boers from the
[08:58] High Ground the attack was a costly
[09:01] success Simons was mortally wounded and
[09:04] 10 percent of his Force became
[09:06] casualties the nature of the fighting
[09:08] surprised even veteran British officers
[09:11] like Captain Nugent of the first King's
[09:13] Royal rifle Corps
[09:15] the ground in front of me was literally
[09:17] rising in dust from the bullets and the
[09:20] din echoing between the hill and the
[09:22] wood below and among the rocks from the
[09:24] incessant fire of the Mausers seemed to
[09:27] blend with every other sound into a long
[09:30] drawn-out hideous Roar I looked round
[09:34] over my shoulder the whole ground we had
[09:37] already covered was strewn with bodies
[09:39] at that moment I was hit through the
[09:42] knee the actual shock was as if someone
[09:45] had hit me with their whole strength
[09:47] with a club
[09:48] I spun round and fell my pistol flying
[09:51] one way and helmet another
[09:54] despite the victory at talana Hill the
[09:56] British were in danger mobile boar
[09:59] columns threatened to surround the
[10:01] isolated Force which endured a harrowing
[10:03] Retreat to join the main British
[10:05] Garrison at Ladysmith British forces
[10:08] moved North to clear the retreat route
[10:10] and on October 21st a British column
[10:12] struck advancing bores at the Battle of
[10:15] elan's lachten a skillful British
[10:17] combined arms attack drove the boars
[10:19] from their positions before British
[10:21] Cavalry swept in from the flank and
[10:24] completed the route
[10:25] yet the boar Advance into natal
[10:27] continued by the end of October British
[10:30] commander George White had two options
[10:32] he could withdraw to the South and wait
[10:35] for reinforcements from Britain this
[10:37] would preserve his army but would cause
[10:39] political problems if public opinions
[10:41] saw it as too passive or he could attack
[10:44] the boers and try for a decisive Victory
[10:47] to defeat The Invasion this might turn
[10:50] the tide of the war but it also ran the
[10:52] risk of a disastrous defeat white chose
[10:55] to gamble on October 30th he threw his
[10:59] forces into action at the Battle of
[11:01] Ladysmith but British attacks were badly
[11:03] coordinated and the boers won a
[11:06] significant Victory white retreated to
[11:08] Ladysmith and the boers laid Siege to
[11:11] the town
[11:12] the opening weeks of the war had been a
[11:15] success story for the boers they had
[11:17] defeated Britain's Main Army in South
[11:19] Africa and trapped it in Ladysmith if
[11:21] the town were to fall the boers might
[11:24] just win the war
[11:25] in November 1899 a fresh British Army
[11:29] was on its way to help relieve besieged
[11:31] Imperial troops in Ladysmith its 45 000
[11:35] men had left the UK at the start of the
[11:37] war under the command of General Red vs
[11:39] Buller Buller had planned to link up
[11:42] with White's force and invade the boor
[11:44] republics but the boar Siege of
[11:46] Ladysmith forced him to scrap the idea
[11:48] instead Buller split his force in three
[11:51] fifteen thousand men would head West to
[11:54] relieve Kimberly five thousand troops
[11:56] would secure the cape Midland area and
[11:58] puller himself would lead 20 000 men
[12:01] into natal and break the siege of
[12:03] Ladysmith and the British were in a
[12:05] hurry to rescue the garrisons since
[12:07] Buller could not be sure how long they
[12:09] could actually hold out
[12:12] since the British had to operate along
[12:14] the railway lines surprise was
[12:16] impossible the boers had time to prepare
[12:18] defensive positions and were ready and
[12:21] waiting on December 10th British troops
[12:24] in the cape Midlands attempted a
[12:26] complicated night march to surprise the
[12:28] boers at dawn but the British column got
[12:30] lost in the dark and when Dawn broke
[12:33] they found themselves in the middle of
[12:35] the poor position rather than on its
[12:37] flank the desperate British launched a
[12:40] doomed frontal assault and bore a
[12:42] Rifleman mowed them down and won the
[12:44] battle of stormberg
[12:46] on the road to Kimberly Lord Methuen at
[12:49] first drove the boers back but the
[12:51] tables turned at the Battle of Maher's
[12:53] Fontaine on December 11th once again the
[12:56] British wanted to move up at night but
[12:58] they were slowed by a thunderstorm and
[13:00] were struck in the open at Sunrise the
[13:03] boars pinned Them Down Under Fire and
[13:05] the British retreated in disorder on
[13:08] December 15th buller's Main Army
[13:10] attacked boar positions on the tugaila
[13:12] River on the way to Ladysmith British
[13:15] artillery moved too far forward and the
[13:17] boars quickly knocked out two batteries
[13:19] the British infantry assault fared no
[13:22] better and as they advanced in close
[13:24] order boar Fighters ambushed them and
[13:27] blasted the Imperial troops from three
[13:29] sides
[13:30] eighteen-year-old boor fighter denies
[13:33] writes who later served in the British
[13:35] Army in World War One recalled the
[13:37] battle
[13:38] we heard a British voice call out
[13:40] bayonets bayonets and they came at us
[13:43] like a wall we poured volley after
[13:45] volley into their closely packed ranks
[13:48] we delivered such a volume of fire that
[13:51] the column swerved away to the left
[13:53] any soldier who got amongst us was shot
[13:56] or made prisoner
[13:58] by mid-morning the Battle of kalenso was
[14:01] over the British suffered over 1 000
[14:03] casualties and lost 10 field guns while
[14:06] only 38 poor Fighters were killed or
[14:09] wounded in just one week the boers had
[14:12] defeated the mighty British Empire three
[14:14] times stunning UK public opinion and
[14:17] causing the Times newspaper to refer to
[14:20] the black week
[14:21] by Christmas 1899 many in the Boer
[14:25] republics thought that the war was all
[14:27] but won even though the sieges continued
[14:29] but the shock and humiliation of the
[14:32] black weak had galvanized the Imperial
[14:34] government in London after a string of
[14:37] defeats in December 1899 London sent its
[14:40] most famous Soldier to South Africa Lord
[14:43] Roberts arrived in January 1900 along
[14:46] with tens of thousands of reinforcements
[14:49] from all over the Empire including
[14:51] Canada New Zealand Australia and a
[14:54] certain Mohandas Gandhi who served with
[14:56] the Indian ambulance Corps at the Battle
[14:58] of spionkop
[15:00] Roberts began to reorganize the Army
[15:02] including transport to free it from
[15:04] Railways and new tactics to counter boor
[15:07] Firepower
[15:09] the British launched a new offensive on
[15:11] February 10 1900. 50 000 men Advanced on
[15:15] Kimberly and British Cavalry caught the
[15:18] boers off guard by bursting through
[15:20] their Siege lines and threatening their
[15:22] line of retreat a British officer
[15:24] described how the action evolved
[15:27] the Enterprise appeared to us at first
[15:29] as quite hopeless we believed only a few
[15:32] of us could come out of it alive and had
[15:35] we made a similar attack in training we
[15:37] should certainly have all been put out
[15:39] of action and have been looked upon as
[15:42] idiots
[15:43] when we galloped about a quarter of a
[15:45] mile we received a very hot frontal and
[15:48] flanking fire and I looked along the
[15:50] ranks expecting to see the men falling
[15:52] in masses but I saw no one come down
[15:55] although the rifle fire was crackling
[15:57] all around us the feeling was
[16:00] wonderfully exciting just as in a good
[16:03] run to House
[16:05] the boars lifted The Siege and tried to
[16:07] withdraw but with wagons and artillery
[16:10] and Tow they couldn't outrun the British
[16:12] so the boars unwisely dug in at pardeber
[16:15] which allowed Imperial troops to
[16:18] surround them after a 10-day Siege four
[16:21] thousand boar Fighters surrendered on
[16:23] February 27th was a crushing blow for
[16:26] such a small army meanwhile in Natal
[16:29] Buller continued his efforts to relieve
[16:31] Ladysmith the boers were able to repel
[16:34] British attacks at spionkop in January
[16:37] and fall Kranz in February but another
[16:40] British attack at the tegela Heights in
[16:42] late February broke the Boer defenses
[16:44] British artillery and infantry launched
[16:47] methodical step-by-step attacks that
[16:50] resembled the fighting of the first
[16:51] world war and Ladysmith was relieved on
[16:54] February 27th
[16:56] the poor Army was severely weakened and
[16:59] the British capitalized on their
[17:00] victories by invading Orange Free State
[17:02] and trans file they occupied
[17:04] bloomfontaine in March and Pretoria fell
[17:07] in June poor efforts to Halt the
[17:10] Relentless events were overwhelmed by
[17:12] British numbers and Firepower the last
[17:15] pitch Battle of the war took place at
[17:17] bergendal in transfal in late August
[17:20] 1900 as the boers struggled to hold
[17:23] their last defensive line after several
[17:25] days of fierce fighting the British
[17:27] cleared the position and it seemed that
[17:30] the war was over
[17:32] by September 1900 the British had
[17:34] occupied the Boer republics and
[17:36] Scattered their armies Lord Roberts
[17:38] proclaimed that the war had been won and
[17:41] returned home to England as a Conquering
[17:43] Hero but the boers refused to give in
[17:46] and Unleashed a guerrilla War
[17:49] in early 1900 the situation for the
[17:51] boers was rapidly changing some were
[17:54] commanders in particular Christian David
[17:56] argued that the boers should adopt
[17:58] Guerrilla war against Britain's
[18:00] numerical Advantage there had already
[18:02] been successful boar ambushes like the
[18:05] attack on an armored train carrying War
[18:07] correspondent Winston Churchill who made
[18:09] an observation that would play a crucial
[18:11] role in the next phase of the war
[18:14] nothing looks more formidable and
[18:16] impressive than an armored train but
[18:19] nothing is in fact more vulnerable and
[18:21] helpless it was only necessary to blow
[18:24] up a bridge or Culvert to leave the
[18:26] monster stranded far from home and help
[18:29] at the mercy of the enemy
[18:31] debate put his ideas into practice with
[18:33] a spectacular gorilla attack at Santa's
[18:36] post on March 31 1900. his Commandos
[18:39] ambushed an unsuspecting British column
[18:42] inflicting over 500 casualties and
[18:45] capturing seven artillery pieces for the
[18:47] loss of just eight men
[18:49] debate would continue his Guerrilla
[18:51] campaign with great success in 1900
[18:53] ambushing isolated British columns and
[18:56] destroying the railway on which the
[18:58] British relied for supplies taking
[19:00] advantage of boar mobility and knowledge
[19:02] of the terrain debate could emerge from
[19:05] the countryside to strike without
[19:06] warning an easily eluded British
[19:09] attempts to pursue his Commandos
[19:12] following the defeat at the Battle of
[19:13] bergendal in August the remaining boar
[19:16] commanders decided that conventional
[19:17] Warfare was futile and also turned to
[19:20] Guerrilla War instead the boar campaign
[19:23] began in Earnest from October under the
[19:25] overall leadership of Louis Botha
[19:27] Commandos attacked British columns and
[19:29] Supply Depots but targeted The Rail
[19:32] lines most of all lines were frequently
[19:34] sabotaged and unguarded trains were
[19:37] hijacked during one such hijacking a
[19:39] surprised American businessman was
[19:41] robbed at gunpoint by poor Fighters one
[19:44] of them was Johannes stain
[19:47] the American was stunned and as he
[19:49] handed over his wealth he said but sir I
[19:52] thought that this war was over I replied
[19:54] you were misinformed this war is just
[19:58] beginning
[19:59] the British initially had no answer to
[20:02] Boer gorilla tactics the commando's
[20:04] speed and knowledge of the terrain made
[20:06] them too elusive for slower British
[20:08] columns to catch the British carried out
[20:11] great sweeps of the countryside looking
[20:13] for Commandos and placed faith in the
[20:15] so-called prisoner count of boers that
[20:17] they'd captured in reality most of the
[20:20] prisoners were just Farmers or Drifters
[20:22] seized by a passing British column
[20:25] rather than actual boar Fighters
[20:27] frustrated by continued bore resistance
[20:30] and their inability to counter it the
[20:32] British responded with brutality in
[20:35] mid-1900 Lord Roberts ordered the
[20:37] destruction of farms thought to be
[20:39] supporting boar Gorillas with food or
[20:41] ammunition his successor Lord Kitchener
[20:44] took this measure much further from
[20:47] December 1900 on British troops were to
[20:50] burn all poor owned Farms regardless of
[20:53] whether they supported the gorillas or
[20:55] not this Relentless scorched Earth
[20:57] campaign destroyed thousands of boar
[21:00] farms and made about 150
[21:03] 000 civilians homeless
[21:04] Kitchener also introduced the Blockhouse
[21:07] system to limit Bohr Mobility block
[21:10] houses were small easily constructed
[21:12] pill boxes manned by eight Soldiers the
[21:15] British built 8 000 block houses along
[21:17] Rail lines and opposite River Crossings
[21:19] each Blockhouse was linked to its
[21:22] neighbors with wire obstacles creating a
[21:24] permanent defended barrier which greatly
[21:27] hindered Bohr movement
[21:29] as with all Guerrilla Wars the fighting
[21:31] was prolonged and brutal and both sides
[21:34] inflicted cruelty on the civilian
[21:36] population bore Commandos plundered
[21:39] African villages and pro-british farms
[21:41] for supplies and the British burned down
[21:43] boar Farms combat between poor gorillas
[21:47] and British columns usually took the
[21:49] form of ambushes and was often close
[21:51] ranged and exceptionally violent
[21:54] the boers looted dead or captured
[21:56] British soldiers for equipment and the
[21:58] British responded by summarily executing
[22:00] any poor fighter found to be using
[22:03] British gear
[22:04] kitchener's Relentless scorched Earth
[22:06] policy created thousands of Boer
[22:09] refugees and their treatment by the
[22:11] British would lead to the creation of
[22:13] concentration camps
[22:15] the British had first considered a
[22:17] refugee camp system for displaced boers
[22:19] in May 1900 and set up several ad hoc
[22:22] camps Kitchener made the system official
[22:25] in December 1900 as his scorched Earth
[22:28] policy created thousands of additional
[22:30] refugees and the Concentration Camp
[22:32] system was born
[22:34] the British initially intended the camps
[22:37] as Refugee centers that provided
[22:39] accommodation food and medical care but
[22:42] problems with the system soon emerged
[22:43] the camps were short of Staff since the
[22:46] Army argued that they were a civilian
[22:48] issue and refused to provide officers
[22:50] while civilian authorities felt that
[22:52] they were a low priority and struggled
[22:54] to find suitable administrative and
[22:56] medical personnel as a result many of
[22:59] the camps were badly organized
[23:00] under-resourced and poorly run to worsen
[23:03] the situation many camps were
[23:05] constructed in locations without
[23:07] adequate sanitation but the most
[23:09] critical problem was chronic
[23:11] overcrowding there were some 44 000 boar
[23:14] civilians in the camps by March 1901 but
[23:17] this had risen to 110 000 by December of
[23:21] the same year these conditions led to
[23:24] terrible outbreaks of disease like
[23:25] measles and diphtheria which killed many
[23:28] boars including children
[23:33] was seven years old at the time
[23:36] the camp was lice infested my aunt had
[23:39] to cut all my hair off
[23:41] thousands of newcomers arrived at the
[23:43] camp hudrids became sick
[23:46] the Marquee Hospital tents were always
[23:48] full the doctors worked day and night
[23:52] people died like rats
[23:54] carts came down the rows of tents to
[23:57] pick up the Dead
[23:58] there were funerals every day
[24:00] [Music]
[24:02] the shocking state of the concentration
[24:04] camps was exposed by British Aid worker
[24:06] Emily hobhouse in May 1901. her damning
[24:10] report caused worldwide outrage against
[24:13] Britain
[24:14] it presses hardest on the children they
[24:17] droop in the terrible heat and with
[24:19] insufficient unsuitable food whatever
[24:22] you do whatever the authorities do and
[24:24] they are I believe doing their best with
[24:27] very limited means it is all only a
[24:30] miserable patch on a great ill
[24:33] the British government appointed
[24:34] suffragette Millicent faucet to lead an
[24:37] official investigation her report
[24:39] confirmed hobhouse's findings and
[24:41] recommended major reforms from November
[24:44] 1901 onwards the camps came under formal
[24:47] civilian control and conditions steadily
[24:49] improved by the end of the war in May
[24:52] 1902 the monthly mortality rate in the
[24:54] camps was lower than that of the pre-war
[24:57] bore republics but these British
[24:59] measures came too late for tens of
[25:01] thousands of poor civilians
[25:03] the British also created a parallel Camp
[25:06] system for black civilians these camps
[25:09] were intended to be self-sufficient and
[25:11] had even fewer resources than the camps
[25:13] for the boers Hub house never had a
[25:16] chance to visit these camps and the
[25:17] faucet commission ignored them entirely
[25:21] all told about 27 000 boar civilians
[25:24] died of whom 22 000 were children under
[25:27] the age of 16. at least 25 000 black
[25:31] civilians also died in camps bringing
[25:33] the death toll to a minimum of 52 000.
[25:38] the brutal Guerrilla War took a terrible
[25:40] toll on South Africa both sides had
[25:43] suffered thousands of military
[25:44] casualties large parts of the country
[25:46] had been destroyed and over one hundred
[25:49] thousand civilians were interned in
[25:51] camps in 1902 it finally came to an end
[25:55] by early 1902 the remaining boar
[25:58] Fighters were exhausted British scorched
[26:00] Earth tactics denied them supplies and
[26:02] the Blockhouse system limited their
[26:04] movement the Commandos were also
[26:06] struggling to accommodate some ten
[26:08] thousand poor civilians who were
[26:10] Sheltering in the wilderness to avoid
[26:12] falling into British hands these
[26:14] civilians lacked food shelter and
[26:17] medical supplies and suffered so badly
[26:19] that in some cases boar Fighters took
[26:21] them to the gates of concentration camps
[26:23] and left them for the British to take
[26:25] them in
[26:26] board Commandos calculated that there
[26:29] was no longer any Prospect of Victory
[26:31] and continued fighting would only
[26:33] prolong the suffering of the poor
[26:35] population it had indeed been a bloody
[26:38] struggle the British army suffered over
[26:40] 100
[26:41] 000 casualties including 22 000 dead and
[26:45] poor military losses are estimated to be
[26:47] about 30 000 with 9 000 dead
[26:50] faced with this Grim reality the Poor's
[26:53] open negotiations with the British which
[26:55] led to the peace in May 1902 the boers
[27:00] would surrender but be granted amnesty
[27:02] the British promised to protect the
[27:04] Dutch language the poor republics were
[27:06] absorbed into the Empire but would get
[27:08] self-government in due course and the
[27:10] discussion of black African voting
[27:12] rights would be delayed until
[27:14] self-government
[27:16] the second Boer War shocked Britain
[27:18] which reformed its Army and soon found
[27:20] new allies in Japan France and Russia it
[27:23] was also a baptism of fire for many
[27:25] officers that would later play an
[27:27] important role during the first World
[27:29] War
[27:30] the conflict foreshadowed many of the
[27:32] horrors of the 20th century battlefields
[27:34] and was a dark premonition of modern
[27:36] warfare's Horrors for civilians
[27:40] we'd like to thank Spencer Jones the
[27:42] author of the book from Boer War to
[27:44] World War for his help with this episode
[27:46] and we'd like to thank Tanya for helping
[27:48] me wrestle with Afrikaans pronunciation
[27:50] as usual you can find all our sources
[27:53] for this episode in the video
[27:54] description I'm Jesse Alexander and this
[27:57] is the Great War a production of
[27:59] real-time history and the only YouTube
[28:01] History Channel that still thinks
[28:03] armored trains are really cool even if
[28:06] Winston Churchill disagrees
[28:11] thank you
[28:17] foreign