The Second Boer War
- Date
- October 1899 – 31 May 1902
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Southern Africa (Transvaal and Orange Free State)
- Era
- Modern
- Significance
The Second Boer War, fought from October 1899 to May 1902, pitted the British Empire against the two Afrikaner republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State, whose independence and rich Witwatersrand gold deposits clashed with British imperial ambitions in southern Africa.
After early Boer successes and sieges, Britain captured the republican capitals, prompting the Boers to wage a prolonged guerrilla campaign. In response the British under Lord Kitchener adopted scorched-earth tactics and herded civilians into concentration camps, where roughly 26,000 Boer women and children and at least 20,000 black Africans died of disease and malnutrition, provoking international and domestic outcry. The war ended with the Treaty of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902, which absorbed the republics into the British Empire while promising eventual self-government, realised in the Union of South Africa in 1910. The conflict, costly and brutal, exposed the strains of empire, popularised the term 'concentration camp', and left a deep legacy in South African politics.
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Empires active in October 1899 – 31 May 1902
- French Colonial Empire (Second)1830 CE – 1962 CE
- German Empire1871 CE – 1918 CE
- Empire of Japan1868 CE – 1947 CE
- Russian Empire1721 CE – 1917 CE
- British Empire1583 CE – 1997 CE
- Qing Dynasty1636 CE – 1912 CE
Related military & conflict events
- Russo-Japanese War and Japan's Rise as a Great Power1904–1905
- Assassination of Franz Ferdinand and the outbreak of World War I28 June – 4 August 1914
- The Franco-Prussian War, German unification and the Paris Commune19 July 1870 – 10 May 1871; German Empire proclaimed 18 January 1871
- Italy Invades Ethiopia1935–1936
- American Civil War and the abolition of slavery1861–1865 (Emancipation Proclamation 1 January 1863; 13th Amendment ratified 6 December 1865)
- Second Sino-Japanese War and the Nanjing Massacre7 July 1937 – 2 September 1945
Further reading
The wider story
The Golden Rhinoceros: Histories of the African Middle Ages
Sets Kanem-Bornu within the wider medieval African world.
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