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The Boer War and its Effects on the South African People Essay

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Nations constantly get put through tests and challenges. They can be as small and unaffecting, or they can be enormous and have physical and emotional injuries on the nation’s citizens. However, no matter the size, problems have consequences. The Boer War, a trifling affair that spans over a course of twenty-two years, 1880-1902, also known as the Transvaal War and the South African War, has good and bad everlasting effects on the people of South Africa by the deterioration of the Boers and Afrikaners and the forcefully implied English rule.
The starting spark of the Boer War was lit over disputes of Great Britain trying to claim and unify all the South African States as their own, but the two Dutch republics, Transvaal and the Orange …show more content…

This triumph temporarily insures their independence. However, British forces returned in 1900 using the western railway line to make their advances. Boer forces began to flee leaving some major cities unprotected. This time period is known as the mobile war, according to the Anglo-Boer Museum. After the mobile war, the Boers grew weak and worried. In their final attempts to have their republics remain in power, they used guerilla warfare, unplanned attacks, to try and weaken England, but eventually, they surrendered by a vote from Boer representatives. With the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging, prisoners of war were released, and amnesty was given to the nations as well as relief funds. South Africa was now unified and united under English rule. Its people now must honor Edward VII as their ruler. Concentration camps always come with immediate and long term consequences for the both the victims and aggressors; therefore, the same reasoning is harshly exemplified in the Boer War camps. These concentration camps were more prominent in the guerilla war of the South African War than the Transvaal War (The Guerilla War). According to the online article “Concentration Camps”, The English used a “scorched earth policy” to destroy Boer farmhouses Concentration Camps. After burning everything, including barns, the British would then send the families to one of the camps. According the Anglo-Boer

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