Anglo Boer War

“There is now a new understanding of what the war actually was: it was seen not only as an exclusive Anglo Boer encounter, but as a war involving all South African people, both black and white” (Nasson, B. 2013. P. 192)

In this essay I will discuss why Nasson believes that there is a “new understanding” of the Anglo Boer war (1899-1902) and what historical research has revealed about how it involved all South African people.

The Anglo Boer war as it was previously was viewed as a white man's. Where the Boer's and Britons both competed for South Africa. This was a war of superlatives and comparative extremes, none the Boers or the Britons were prepared for the actual scale of this war (Porter, A, 2000). It was called the Anglo Boer war, because it is within Britains practice of naming British Wars of less than global extent according to their location or to Britain’s principal opponent (Porter, A, 2000).

There are various reasons why this war occurred Hobson argues that the war occurred in order to secure the mines with a cheap adequate supply of labour, he latter stated that “whatever the ideology the motive for the Boer war was gold” (Porter A, p. 637). E J Hobsbawn argues that the war was held to illuminate the roots of British Empire building in the economics of capitalism and historian Sir Alfred Milner argues that the war was fought to overthrow “ mediaeval race oligarchy” in order to secure the modernization of Transvaal state, to increase and guarantee the supply of South African gold in order to contribute to Britain’s own gold reserves and to benefit the advanced capital participants and the expansion of a global trade system which was underpinned by sterling and London’s financial institutions (Porter, A, p.637 2000)....

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...e war as the ‘South African War’ rather than the ‘Anglo-Boer War’.

Reference

Cuthbertson, Gand Jeeves, A." The Many-sided struggle for Southern Africa, 1899-1908" South African Historical Journal 41 (Nov, 1999), pp 2-21.

Morton, RF. "Linchwe I and the Kgatla Campaign in the South African War, 1899-1902". The Journal of African History, Vol 26, No2 (1985), pp 163-191.

Nasson, B. (2013). "Black people and their camps". In Nasson, B and Grundlingh, A (2013). The War at Home. Pp 168-193. Cape Town. Tafelberg.

Porter, A. "(The South African War and the Historians." African Affairs (2000), 99, 633-648.

Theron, B (2001). Remembering the Anglo Boer War: Its place, 100 years later, in our historical consciousness, Kleio, 33: 1, 114-143.

Van Heyningen, E. " The voices of Women in the South African War. "South African Historical Journal. 41 (Nov. 1999), 22-43.