European politics in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries endured controversy and problem over the ideas of imperialism and nationalism. Changes in Europe politically, intellectually, economically, and socially, radically conditioned new response to the issues of imperialism, nationalism, and war. Britain, at its imperial zenith, faced a war that sprung from both ideologies of imperialism and nationalism. The Boer War (1899-1902) would change imperialistic relations between England her colonies, and open their eyes to the country’s military weakness and political reputation in Europe. David Kaiser stated in his book, Politics and War:

The South African war eventually demonstrated the costs of more serious economic imperialism—that is, of trying to secure economically significant areas with armed force. The British attempted to secure British hegemony over the Transvaal reflected almost all of the economic motives to which imperialism is traditionally ascribed.

In the early nineteenth century in an attempt to protect imperial interest in the East, England extended her control of southern Africa. This task deemed more difficult than thought. Britain’s determinati

In retrospect of the Boer war, England tried to settle colonial disputes with other powers by mutual agreement whenever possible. European Imperialism would prove to be a possible leading factor of the Great War that devastated Europe. European powers would use force and cruelty to uphold the new ideas of Imperialism and Nationalism. The Boer war is also said to introduced and incorporate new technology and warfare that would prove to be catastrophic. British Imperialism would be short lived during the rest of the twentieth century. The support for British imperialist after the Boer War showed tremendous frustration. They had long realized that not only liberals but also some traditional conservatives no longer “shared their apocalyptic view of the future and the requirements which it imposed upon the present.” After World War II the once extensive British Empire would slowly disappear all together.

The Boer forces consisted of about six-hundred Staats Artillery and fourteen hundred state police in the Transvaal, and less than four hundred artillery troops in the Orange Free State. Between the two states they possessed seventy-five guns . The civilian population provided other military resources. Gunnery counted for little in their tactics, but their artillery was very modern, and the Mauser .275 was the finest infantry arm in existence. The Boers were well equipped with modern weaponry that gave them a great advantage. Quantities of rifles and ammunition were excessive for Boer requirements. The Boers lost most of their initial war gains due to lack of coordination among their leaders. In the second sate of the war the Boer retreated into a form of guerrilla warfare.

In weaponry, the British were comparable to other European powers. The artillery consisted of the 12 and 15-pounder breech-loaders, only a handful of quick-firers and heavy ordnance were used. The infantry trained with .303-inch magazine Lee-Metfords. The cavalry took the field with carbines, sabers and some time lances. Later in the war they often abandoned the arm blanche and replaced the carbine with the rifle. Boer styles of warfare exercised a peculiar fascination over British military commentator. Winton Churchill once stated:

Lord Kitchener has begun to carry out a policy in both republic of unbelievable barbarism and gruesomeness, which violates the most elementary principle of the international rules of war. …Almost all farmsteads and villages in both republics have been burned down and destroyed. All crops have been destroyed. All livestock which had fallen into the hands of the enemy has been killed or slaughtered…The basic principle behind Lord Kitchener’s tactics had been to win, not so much through direct operations against fighting commandos, but rather indirectly by bringing the pressure of war against defenseless women and children.

Nationalism and self-governance also played an important role in the conflicts between the Boers and the British Uitlanders. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company established stations at the Cape for its passing ships that engaged in trade with India. Over the course of the about fifty years Dutch, German and French Huguenot settlers, the ancestors of the Afrikaner of Boer people, arrived at the Cape and found a colony whose economy was based on cereal farming, viticulture and stock-raising. During the eighteenth century, largely in response to the Dutch East India Company’s strict regulation on their lives, many settlers slowly moved away from Cape Town and established a dispersed, pastoral and patriarchal frontier society. According to Thomas Pakenbam, their society was based on “individualism, companionship with one’s own kind, freedom from government control, and strict observance of the Calvinist faith of the Dutch Reformed Church.” After the Napoleonic wars Britain gained possession of the colony in South Africa. Measures were introduced to regularize the

Some topics in this essay:
South Africa, Orange Free, President Kruger, South African, Free British, British Electrical, Boer’s British, Boer War, Lord Kitchener, Africa Measures, south africa, boer war, south african, orange free, cape colony, women children, imperialism nationalism, british imperialism, british forces, southern africa, south african war, dutch east india, nationalism boer war, ideas imperialism nationalism, imperialism nationalism boer,