South African War

Was the South African War, between 1899 and 1902, fought to protect
The South African War one of the largest and most taxed colonial war that the British Empire had fought. Lain R Smith feels that this war was fought to:
“end the situation of Boer-British rivalry over the Transvaal”
and many more historians would agree with him. In 1899, the forces of the Boer Republics, the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, fought against Britain’s control over South Africa. They would not agree with Britain’s ultimatum of the placement and reinforcing of British troops in South Africa. However, much of the useful land on the continent of South Africa was under British control, and the main purposes of this war, argued by Lain R Smith were that imperialistic drive was a major factor in the war. This is what brought the British Empire in direct conflict with the Boers. The Boers were predominantly farmers and herders who had left Cape Colony in order to escape the British control and establish a country under their rule. Also, in Transvaal, gold was found, and created new found wealth, which would also stage the South African war between the British and the Boers. The British learnt

This led to the Jameson Raid, where in 1895, Dr Jameson led about 600 men, which according to historians such as Lain R Smith were financed by Cecil Rhodes, and attempted to have an Utilander rebellion in Johannesburg. However, this failed, and led to more confrontations between Kruger’s government and the British. A common argument is that the Transvaal government was trying to stop Utilander freedom. Keppel-Jones argues that if the Transvaal government tried to disenfranchise the Utilanders would lead to a threat towards British economical and political interests, and would also lessen any control that they could have possessed in South Africa. Therefore, it is argued by historians such as Keppel-Jones, that the war was fought to protect the British in Africa from the harsh attitudes of the Transvaal republic as well as to get imperial control. Chamberlain wanted Kruger to accept concessions for the Utilanders, such as:

When Milner was appointed to the position of British High Commissioner, he also committed himself to the imperialist issue of the British Empire, and he thought that in South Africa they would get the best aspect to expansion. He felt that if Britain didn’t enforce some kind of control on the Afrikaners then South Africa would become a dominant force within the world, and undermine Britain’s position as world power. However, Kruger’s government was not willing to submit to British control. Especially a man called Jan Christian Smuts. He was not willing to let any imperial control to take place by the British. He felt that if the South Africans accepted the British demands, than British control. Therefore, the different views between both these states led to the war in South Africa. The Boer’s were not willing to give up their land and wealth to the British, and the British were not going to give up on fighting for a prosperous land which would benefit them greatly. None of them was willing to surrender. However, there were some Afrikaners who were on the British side and did not like Kruger’s government, and were willing to support the British Empire, but this was a minority. However, Smuts argues that the only reason why there were loyal supporters was because these people all wanted some capitalist gain, and would fight a capitalist war just to support their own interests. Such as miners thought that getting together with the British to overthrow Kruger’s government would stop monopolies on concessions such as dynamite. That was the only link Smut could see with the British Empire and their supporters in South Africa. Hobbes believes that the South African war was unnecessary, and was only fought to serve the interests of greedy small groups.

earnt of resources they could use in the African area, and so this led to major confrontation of who could control it. In a quest for political power to gain control of wealth in South Afric