British Concentration Camps in the Boer War
The British authorities controversially used concentration camps for civilians during the Boer War (1899-1902) in Southern Africa. The reason was to deprive Boer guerrilla fighters of logistical support and provide some sort of accommodation for Boer families who had lost their homes and livelihoods. A lack of planning led to overcrowded camps where rations were poor and sanitary conditions even worse, a situation which led to epidemics of diseases like typhoid. During the war, up to 28,000 Boers (80% of whom were children) and 20,000 Black Africans died in the concentration camps due to malnutrition and disease.
British-Boer Rivalry
The causes of the conflict in Southern Africa known as the Second Anglo-Boer War (aka South Africa War), which was fought between the Boers (settlers with Dutch ancestry and that of certain other European countries) and the British colonies of Cape Colony and Natal, were varied. Both sides wanted land for farming and control of rich natural resources such as the diamond mines at Kimberley and the gold mines at Witwatersrand. Another bone of contention was the prejudicial treatment of British settlers in the two Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange Free State. Mutual suspicions were raised on both sides by the unofficial British attempt at a coup in Transvaal with the failed Jameson Raid of 1895. As a consequence of this raid, the Transvaal government began to buy foreign arms and signed a treaty with Germany, much to Britain's horror, since German involvement in Southern Africa could jeopardise British interests and dominance across the entire region. The two sides had already fought in the First Anglo-Boer War (1880-81), which the Boers had won. Largely a war of skirmishes, this first conflict would be completely overshadowed by the massive scale and savagery of the second war.
The first action of the Boer War occurred on 11 October 1899 when a Boer cavalry force routed a British one. Although not formally trained, the Boers had excellent rifles and were equally good at shooting them. The Boers formed units known as commandos, and these won several victories in the early stages of the war, largely thanks to poor British generalship and the Boers' excellent knowledge and use of the local terrain. Unlike in the previous war, this time the British government sent British troops to reinforce those already in the colonies. In this way, the British Army force, which included 30,000 colonial troops from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, soon rocketed from 25,000 to 250,000 men. This numerical advantage helped the British seize the major Boer towns of Pretoria, Bloemfontein, and Johannesburg.
In response to the military reversals, the Boers adopted guerrilla tactics, to which the British responded with an effective but controversial scorched-earth tactic, where crops were destroyed and livestock confiscated. Thousands of civilian farms and homes were burned to the ground during the campaign. The British commander-in-chief, Herbert Kitchener, restricted the Boers' movement by dividing "both the ex-republics into a huge steel chequerboard made of barbed wire fence lines, guarded by concrete blockhouses" (Pakenham, 577).
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⇒ British Concentration Camps in the Boer War
