"To what extent did the Boer War change attitudes to Empire in Britain?

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Tazeen Rashid F6PNE                                               01/05/2007        

“To what extent did the Boer War change attitudes to Empire in Britain?

       The British Empire at its peak was considered the greatest empire in the world. It was the empire on which the sun never set. By 1897 it was guarded by a navy that was equal to the navies of two other powers.                One newspaper described Britain as being in ‘splendid isolation’ in that it had no enemies and needed no friends. The press’s view on the events relating to the empire was very important. In 1907 Lord Sanderson, Permanent Undersecretary wrote in his retirement “It has sometimes seemed to me that a foreigner reading our press the British Empire must appear in the light of some huge giant sprawling over the globe with gouty fingers and toes spreading in every direction which cannot be approached without eliciting a scream”. Other examples later show how the press portrayed the majority of public thoughts and reflections on certain issues.

       In the late Seventeenth Century the Dutch East India Company had formed a trading station in South Africa near the Cape of Good Hope. The poorest members of this community were strongly protestant farmers called treboers or Boers. These pilgrims called themselves ‘Afrikaners’, people of Africa and searched for land. They spoke ‘Afrikaans’, a modification of Dutch. They were the original foreign settlers in South Africa. These people were unreceptive of Africans as well as Europeans.

       When travelling to India and the Far East the Cape of Good Hope became an essential naval base. Britain appreciated its importance in Empire relations as it allowed Britain to position herself significantly in order to defend her Empire as well as trade with it. The arrival of the British in South Africa caused a vast amount of tension. The conflict led to the Boers embarking on the ‘Great Trek’ and setting up two separate states.

       At that time in South Africa diamonds had been discovered at Kimberley. This ‘mineral revolution’ led to an influx of people to South Africa to claim their share of the fortune. The European immigrants who worked in the gold and diamond mines, 41,000 of them, mainly British, were deprived of having been granted voting rights from the Transvaal. These ‘Uitlanders’ (outsiders) were in Paul Kruger’s (Transvaal President) eyes a tool for manipulation of the British government who were using the issue to end the independence of the Boer Republics. This was a great threat to the fiercely independent Boers who would fail to accept any foreign interference from Britain especially such which would result in a direct threat to their government i.e giving the Uitlanders the right to vote so that as they grow they will become more powerful and pose a political threat. It was this issue that was the immediate cause of the outbreak of the Boer war.

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       There are many causes of the Boer war, which derive from longstanding Anglo-Boer tensions such as in 1834 when the British abolished slavery. This was not accepted by 5,000 Boers who participated in the ‘Great Trek’ across the Orange and Vaal rivers where they set up the two new Boer states, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

In 1877 Britain took over control of the Transvaal due to the threat of the Zulus. By 1881 the British had refused to grant independence to the Transvaal despite the Zulu war having ended. Paul Kruger used this ...

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