The Horrors of the Boer War

http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v18/v18n3p14_Weber.html

In this source, Weber provides details about important aspects of the South African War. First, he discusses the start of the conflict among the white settlers as the discovery of gold and diamonds in the areas claimed by the Boers drew British and Jewish capitalists to South Africa. Using details from historian Pakenham’s study, Weber explains the secret conspiracy between the British and Jewish financiers in their goal to threaten the independence of the Boers and provoke them to go to war. Weber also talks about the Jameson Raid, which made the imperial motive of the British clear to the Boers. In this raid, the British believed they could easily seize control of the Boer republics and tried to with only 500 men; however, they were captured and put on trial by the Transvaal authorities. Weber explains that the failure of the raid did not discourage the British to keep fighting for their imperial ideas. As the war officially began, the British had prepared 47,000 men while the two Boer republics shared their troops and weapons to fight against the British. Though the British outnumbered them and fought with more advanced technology, the Boers were determined to drive the British out and used a guerilla campaign against them. Weber then discusses the British intense response, which historians would describe as “methods of barbarism.” He focuses on this topic in one section and gives details of the British ruthless actions. In addition to deceiving at least 10,000 natives to help them fight the Boers, the British also targeted civilians. They destroyed the Boers’ livestock, farms, and crops and took prisoners of war and their families to concentration camps, where 27,927 Boers would die and of whom 26,251 were defenseless women and children. With these details, Weber argues that the South African War was more than just a conflict among combatants but also a campaign against civilians. He further supports this argument by discussing the efforts of influential men in Parliament such as John Dillon, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, David Lloyd George, and Philip Stanhope to speak out against the savage acts of the British against Boer civilians. He also mentions that many countries at that time sympathized with the Boers and did not support the brutal actions of the British but claimed they did for fear of the consequences of criticizing the British.

            Mark Weber is a historian whose work has been published on various periodicals. He is the Director of the Institute for Historical Review. He uses a variety of credible sources, including primary sources, throughout this source. Most of the primary sources he uses are orders written to troops, reports of witnesses regarding war events, and records of historians. Weber’s argument appears to defend the cause of the Boers, while condemning the British for involving civilians in their forceful takeover of South Africa. All in all, the document provides useful information for my research as it explains the effects of the war on life in South Africa.