Tag Archive: India

On the last day of May in 1902 one of Britain’s most bitter imperial wars came to an end. The Boer war was fought in South Africa as Britain succeeded, eventually, in extending control from the Cape Province and Natal to include the Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State.

The British Empire won – with India’s help. Indian soldiers served in the Boer War, and a memorial in South Africa commemorates those who lost their lives. And military bases in India were brought into service as detention camps for thousands of Boer prisoners of war (PoWs). Both the role of Indian servicemen and of PoW camps on Indian soil are details largely neglected, even by military historians – but they reflect a crucial element of how Empire worked.

Unusually for a British military adventure, its opponents were European settlers rather than people indigenous to the area being fought over. The Boers were largely of Dutch farming stock; they spoke Afrikaans, still one of South Africa’s principal languages; they were Christian and white; and they were formidable fighters.

The last time Britain had taken up arms against white settlers it hadn’t gone too well – that conflict ended in American independence.

At first, the conflict in South Africa didn’t go too well either.

The Boers of South Africa were agriculturists – the word ‘boer’ means farmer in both Dutch and Afrikaans – and had carved a living from an often inhospitable land. They were tough, clannish and – as so often with settler communities – armed and familiar with using a rifle. They were well placed to turn to guerrilla war and that’s what they did with initial success.

In all, Britain – and its colonies – deployed approaching half-a-million combatants in South Africa – almost ten times the number that the Boers and their allies (several thousand Irish volunteered to go to South Africa to fight the hated Brits) managed to muster. As well as a redoubtable military opponent, the British government faced opposition in another form – many British liberals and leftists felt the war unjust and its prosecution savage and uncivilised. These critics were often called ‘pro-Boer’. It would be more accurate to describe them as perhaps the first mass anti-war movement in the UK.