Re-fighting the 2nd Anglo-Boer War: historians in the trenches

dc.creator	Ian Van der Waag
dc.date	2012-02-01T00:00:00Z
dc.date.accessioned	2015-07-20T20:09:15Z
dc.date.available	2015-07-20T20:09:15Z
dc.identifier	10.5787/30-1-158
dc.identifier	2224-0020
dc.identifier	https://doaj.org/article/5b451950e4494d049bd4cea285a887f0
dc.identifier.uri	http://evidence.thinkportal.org/handle/123456789/8839
dc.identifier.uri	https://doaj.org/article/5b451950e4494d049bd4cea285a887f0
dc.description	<p>Some one hundred years ago, South Africa was tom apart by the 2nd Anglo- Boer War (1899-1902). The war was a colossal psychological experience fought at great expense: It cost Britain twenty-two thousand men and £223 million. The social, economic and political cost to South Africa was greater than the statistics immediately indicate: at least ten thousand fighting men in addition to the camp deaths, where a combination of indifference and incompetence resulted in the deaths of 27 927 Boers and at least 14 154 Black South Africans. Yet these numbers belie the consequences. It was easy for the British to 'forget' the pain of the war, which seemed so insignificant after the losses sustained in 1914-18. With a long history of far-off battles and foreign wars, the British casualties of the Anglo-Boer War became increasingly insignificant as opposed to the lesser numbers held in the collective Afrikaner mind. This impact may be stated somewhat more candidly in terms of the war participation ratio for the belligerent populations. After all, not all South Africans fought in uniform. For the Australian colonies these varied between 4½per thousand (New South Wales) to 42.3 per thousand (Tasmania). New Zealand 8 per thousand, Britain 8½ per thousand: and Canada 12.3 per thousand; while in parts of South Africa this was perhaps as high as 900 per thousand. The deaths and high South African participation ratio, together with the unjustness of the war in the eyes of most Afrikaners, introduced bitterness, if not a hatred, which has cast long shadows upon twentieth-century South Africa.</p>
dc.language	English
dc.publisher	University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Military Science (Military Academy)
dc.relation	http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/158
dc.relation	https://doaj.org/toc/2224-0020
dc.source	Scientia Militaria : South African Journal of Military Studies, Vol 30, Iss 1 (2012)
dc.subject	2nd Anglo- Boer War (1899-1902)
dc.subject	Britain casualties
dc.subject	Black South Africans
dc.subject	deaths
dc.subject	Afrikaners
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	DOAJ:Military Science
dc.subject	DOAJ:Technology and Engineering
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	DOAJ:Military Science
dc.subject	DOAJ:Technology and Engineering
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.subject	Military Science
dc.subject	U
dc.title	Re-fighting the 2nd Anglo-Boer War: historians in the trenches
dc.type	Article