page_title: History of the United Kingdom
section_title: Boer War
hierarchical_section_title: History of the United Kingdom / Victorian era / Boer War
caption_attribution_description: Afrikaans: Britse soldate in die loopgrawe by Platrand/Wagon Hill te Ladysmith, word beveel om hul bajonette vas te heg. English: "Fix Bayonets!" In the trenches at Wagon Hill, Ladysmith, Natal Identifier: battlesofninetee06forb (find matches) Title: Battles of the nineteenth century Year: 1901 (1900s) Authors: Forbes, Archibald, 1838-1900 Atteridge, A. Hilliard (Andrew Hilliard) Subjects: Battles Military history, Modern Publisher: London New York&#160;: Cassell and Company Contributing Library: University of California Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: ll the ground where the Boer supports were supposed to be massed. The Boers had guns on Middle Hill and on Blaauwbank, to the south and west of Waggon Hill. These guns were served with marvellous accuracy. Although the fighting lines were within 200 yards of each other, the Boer shells roared over the heads of their own men and fell among the defenders of the plateau, causing a good deal of loss. The 21st and 42nd Batteries R.F.A. came into action against these positions. They checked at least one effort of the enemy to reinforce the attack. The guns of the Natal Artillery Volunteers stopped another, and the naval 12-pounders brought a well-directed shell fire to bear on the Boer gun positions. On Waggon Hill the enemy's attack was fiercest. The garrison there had been further strengthened with half a battalion of the Kings Royal Rifles. The enemy held so much of the summit that our men could not merely confine themselves to a passive defence. Efforts had to be made to recapture the ground that had been Text Appearing After Image: THE ORANGE FREE STATERS AT WAGGON HILL. 153 taken by the Boers. More than one dashing attack was made by the defenders of the hill. At times they gained ground, at other points their efforts were for the moment unavailing. And the Boers, encouraged by every check, tried to push further forward on the plateau. So for hours the summit of Waggon Hill was eager for the war, and good fighting men, the Orange Free Staters had gone into it with only half a heart, and had lived so long in peace that they would prove but feeble adversaries. But at Waggon Hill, where the struggle was fiercest, the brunt of the fighting fell upon the men of the Free State. All who saw or shared in the SfitW »i 1&lt;-\.(ii Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: The core of the United Kingdom as a unified state came into being in 1707 with the political union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland, into a new unitary state called Great Britain. Of this new state of Great Britain the historian Simon Schama said:
  What began as a hostile merger would end in a full partnership in the most powerful going concern in the world... it was one of the most astonishing transformations in European history.
  — Simon Schama,
  The Act of Union 1800 added the Kingdom of Ireland to create the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
  The first decades were marked by Jacobite risings which ended with defeat for the Stuart cause at the Battle of Culloden in 1746. In 1763, victory in the Seven Years' War led to the growth of the First British Empire. With defeat by the United States, France and Spain in the War of American Independence, Britain lost its 13 American colonies and rebuilt a Second British Empire based in Asia and Africa. As a result British culture, and its technological, political, constitutional, and linguistic influence, became worldwide.
context_section_description: Ever since Britain had taken control of South Africa from the Netherlands in the Napoleonic Wars, it had run afoul of the Dutch settlers who further away and created two republics of their own. The British imperial vision called for control over the new countries and the Dutch-speaking "Boers" (or "Afrikaners") fought back in the War in 1899–1902. British historian Andrew Roberts argues that the Boers insisted on keeping full control of both their two small republics, allowing no role whatever for nonwhites, and distinctly limited roles for British and other European settlers. These "Uitlanders" were the base of the economy, paid 80 percent of the taxes, and had no vote. The Transvaal was in no sense a democracy, argues Roberts, for no black, Britain, Catholic or Jew was allowed to vote or hold any office. Johannesburg was the business centre, with 50,000 primarily British residents, but was not permitted any local government. The English language was banned in official proceedings; no public meetings were permitted; newspapers were closed down arbitrarily; and full citizenship was technically possible but quite rare. Roberts says President Paul Kruger "ran a tight, tough, quasi-police state from his state capital, Pretoria." the British government officially protested; while theoretically recognizing the Transvaal's right to manage its internal affairs, cabinet member Joseph Chamberlain detailed the many ways how Uitlanders were mistreated as second-class non-citizens, despite their essential role in producing prosperity.
  The Boer response to the British pressure was to declare war on 20 October 1899. The 410,000 Boers were massively outnumbered, but amazingly they waged a successful guerrilla war, which gave the British regulars a difficult fight. The Boers were landlocked and did not have access to outside help.  The weight of numbers, superior equipment, and often brutal tactics eventually brought about a British victory. To defeat the guerrillas, the British rounded up their women and children into concentration camps, where many died of disease. World outrage focused on the camps, led by a large faction of the Liberal Party in Britain. However, the United States gave its support. The Boer republics were merged into Union of South Africa in 1910; it had internal self-government but its foreign policy was controlled by London and was an integral part of the British Empire.
  The unexpectedly great difficulty in defeating the Boers forced a reevaluation of British policy. In military terms, it was clear that the Cardwell reforms had been inadequate. The call to establish a general staff to control military operations had been shelved by the Duke of Cambridge, himself a royal with enormous authority. It took a five more years to set up a general staff and other Army reforms, under the administration of Lord Haldane. The Royal Navy was now threatened by Germany. Britain responded by a massive building programme launched in 1904 by the highly controversial First Sea Lord, Sir John Fisher. He launched HMS Dreadnought in 1906. It was the first modern battleship, based on new armour, new propulsion, new guns and gunnery that made all other warships obsolete.
  The Boer War demonstrated that Britain was not loved around the world—it had more enemies than friends and its policy of "splendid isolation" was one of high risk. It needed new friends. It made a military alliance with Japan, and buried old controversies to forge a close relationship with the United States.
caption: Siege of Ladysmith in South Africa
exif: {"Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)"}