Who are the Boers?
The so-called Boers are actually the ancestors of white people in South Africa today. Since Portuguese explorer Diaz discovered the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa in 1488, countless adventurers have established permanent settlements in South Africa. Among them, 1652, the first group of adventurers from Holland came to South Africa to establish a colony. In Dutch, "Boer" means peasant. This also implies the origin of the Boers-most of them are farmers from the Netherlands. Although Germans and French settled here later, thanks to the colonial activities of the Netherlands for more than 100 years, the Boers became the main ethnic group in the area.
Cape of Good Hope
1795, the new colonial empire Britain also used its own fleet to carry out colonial activities in South Africa. At that time, the "sea coachman" in the Netherlands was already weakened, and it was defeated in the conflict between the Boers and Britain, who could not provide help at home for many years, and was forced to migrate to the north. 1852 and 1854 established two Boers in Transvaal and Orange respectively.
Tripartite forces
Just as Britain and Boers were fighting for the colonies, the indigenous blacks in South Africa were also in constant civil war. In the end, the Zulu kingdom conquered hundreds of small tribes around it with its powerful strength and became a force to be reckoned with in South Africa with hundreds of thousands of people and tens of thousands of troops. So the South African continent was temporarily ruled by the British colony in the south, the peaceful Boer country in the north and the local black Zulu kingdom.
The outbreak of the first Boer war
However, this stable situation did not last long. 1868 After the diamond mine in Kimberly, South Africa was discovered, the situation was completely broken, because South Africa's rich diamonds and a "star of south africa" with a height of more than 80 grams were discovered, and countless miners who wanted to get rich overnight came to South Africa from all over the world, which made the British very greedy. Because Kimberly was in the interior of South Africa, the British began to think about diamond mines. At the same time, because of the rise of diamond fever, the inland area of South Africa, which was regarded as a wilderness by the British, suddenly became like gold, and greedy Britain was ready to annex Zulu Kingdom and Boer Republic.
1873 mine cable
First, choose soft persimmons. Although Zulu Kingdom is called a kingdom, it is only a semi-slavery country in the eyes of the British. It directly found several excuses to ask the Zulu kingdom to become a dependency of Britain, which made the then Zulu king Sechiwayo very angry, but the price of refusing was being invaded by Britain. At the beginning of 1879, well-prepared British troops invaded Zulu in four ways. Although the Zulu people resisted stubbornly at first, they couldn't stand the British gunfire. In the end, King Sishiwayo was captured, Zulu was defeated and ruled by the British into more than a dozen small countries. Then it was formally annexed by the British in 1887, and the once-prominent Zulu kingdom vanished. As for the others,
The situation at that time
The Zulu kingdom is gone, and the rest are Boers. In fact, as early as 1877, the Swahili Republic of Bourdelin was forced to merge with Britain because of the persecution of Zulu Kingdom and its own financial reasons. However, the merged Boers did not get the same treatment as the British. Britain not only occupied various resources in Transvaal, but also forced Boers to pay various taxes in the past. It was really unbearable for uncles and aunts, so it was 6544.
The Boers have been in South Africa for hundreds of years. They fought side by side with the aborigines and occupied the right place and the right time. Naturally, Britain lost. After paying hundreds of casualties, Britain was forced to agree to Transvaal's independence, but only if Transvaal took Britain as its suzerain and foreign affairs were in the hands of the British. For the Boers, as long as they master it economically, nothing else matters. In the end, the first war ended in the victory of the Boers.
The second Boer war
It turns out that everyone is in peace and life is so stable. However, South Africa is really a land of feng shui. In addition to diamond mines, a large amount of gold was also found in Transvaal. The eyes of the world are once again attracted by the cackling of South Africa. Countless mine owners go to Transvaal crazily, and the Boers themselves are not good at mining. They just give it to the European mine owners, who charge heavy taxes and other taxes, but the European mine owners are willing to do so. This money is nothing to a gold mine. It pays a little more, but it is always profitable. In this way, in the case of heavy taxes, Transvaal suddenly became a local tyrant in South Africa, arming himself with money and expanding his territory.
gold mine
The wealth of Transvaal made the British greedy, especially Moses Rhodes, the governor of South Africa, who was not only the governor of South Africa, but also a mine owner. Seeing Transvaal's fat, he was greedy, so he moved his mind to annex Transvaal again.
1895, Moses Rhodes contacted the British in Transvaal to prepare for internal cooperation and overthrow Transvaal by force. As a result, it was revealed that both the British who were sent to Transvaal and the British who were in Transvaal were knocked down by Transvaal, which made many European powers stunned at that time and showed them opportunities, especially the Germans.
Germany began to dominate the European continent by the spring breeze of the second industrial revolution, and Kaiser Wilhelm II also wanted to compete with Britain for global hegemony. It happened that the British were very excited to see the defeat and began to support the Boers, which made the British very worried. If the Boers join hands with the Germans or the Germans get the gold mine in Transvaal, it will be bad for Britain. So although the two sides have been fighting, the haze of war has been hanging over South Africa.
William II
1897, due to the strength, Transvaal formed a permanent friendship alliance with another orange that has been playing soy sauce, and it was supported by the Germans. Secondly, in order to fight against the British, the Boers also used monopoly railways and explosives as bait to pull in the former home countries of the Netherlands and Germany. With the help of the Boers, the German forces that could not intervene in South Africa invaded South Africa instantly, causing serious dissatisfaction among the British. We should start blocking Transvaal, trying to isolate Transvaal from the outside world on three sides and force Transvaal to compromise, but the contradiction between the two sides is becoming more and more fierce and war is imminent.
1899 in April, Britain negotiated with transvaal province on the one hand, and sent troops to South Africa from overseas on the other. In the case of fruitless negotiations, the second Boer War broke out in June, 1899, 1 1, and Britain sent 20,000 British troops, determined to completely solve the Transvaal problem. It also received assistance from other countries and non-governmental organizations. They not only raised all kinds of medical equipment, but even volunteers came to Transvaal to prepare to fight side by side with the Boers, including Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, the United States, Russia, Ireland, Italy and so on.
The second Boer war
At the beginning of the war, the Boers defeated 22,000 British troops with 3,500 men, including 1400 British troops, and only 38 Boers. Although the British were beaten in the early stage, the war was not only a matter of lining, but also a matter of face, so they spared no effort to continue to send troops. By March 1900, the British army had increased by 200. The whole people were only tens of thousands of soldiers, but they lost in the end. On March 1900, the capital of Orange was breached, and on June 5, the capital of Transvaal was breached.
Although the capital was occupied, the Boers did not give up. They started guerrilla warfare with the British and attacked the British supply lines. Even Prime Minister Churchill was captured in the Boer War and almost shot.
Seeing that the British army was being hit by the Boer guerrilla warfare, Britain ordered the construction of more than 6,000 kilometers of barbed wire to divide the Boer area into several areas to stop the guerrilla warfare of the Boer cavalry. Secondly, build a bunker in the barbed wire, step by step, and implement scorched earth. As long as anyone dares to help the Boer guerrillas, all the farmhouses around 10 mile are burned down. Finally, 65,438+10,000 women, children and children, who were defeated by the Boers, were arrested and put into concentration camps, forcing the Boers to surrender. In the concentration camp, 22,000 people (including children) died of illness. Finally, under the brutal suppression of Britain, the Boers declared their surrender in 1902.
During the three-year Boer War, Britain finally made the Boers surrender at the expense of more than 20,000 people killed in 450,000 troops. If it weren't for Britain's great national strength, it is still uncertain who will win or lose, but the outcome after the war is also happy. The British compensated the Boers for their war losses, and the Boers' * * country became a British colony, and in 19 10, it became a South African alliance with two other colonies. The Boer War is the cruelest war in the British colonial foreign war, with the longest delay, the largest expenditure and the cruelest. Among the 230 colonial wars in Britain in 400 years, the second Boer War cost 220 million pounds. What is the concept of this money? At that time, 220 million pounds was equivalent to 65.438+46.5 million pounds of silver, while the treaty of shimonoseki and the Treaty of Xin Chou added up to only 650 million taels, which wiped out the national wealth accumulated by Britain for hundreds of years at once, and spent 300,000 pounds to rebuild the Boer homeland after the war.
The Boer War reduced Britain's national status, and the British bullied the small with the big. We should know that there were only 300,000 or 400,000 Boers and 80,000 army troops at that time, and the number of British troops increased by more than that of Beable, which can be said to be a disgrace to Britain's foreign war. The inhuman policy of repression tore off Britain's false fig leaf, and made Britain isolated in the international morning as never before.
Secondly, Britain's policy of "glorious isolation" began to fail. The Boer War made Britain thoroughly discover its position on the international stage. On the other hand, how many countries are helping the Boers, which also makes Britain give up its previous policy and begin to actively participate in European affairs. It also gave birth to the policy of forming an alliance with Japan. Giving up "glorious isolation" is also a sign of Britain's weakening strength, and he can no longer compete with European powers alone.
In addition, the British made an alliance with Japan because they didn't have time to look east, so that Japan could curb the expansion of Russia and the United States in East Asia and act as a gatekeeper. As a result, Japan thought it was on its thigh and launched the Russo-Japanese War in East Asia, which surprised the British.
Finally, there is the connection between the British colony and the British mainland. During the Boer War, there were more than 400,000 British troops, including more than 30,000 from the colonies. They are also unwilling to rely on Britain because of the war, and they are all seeking independence, which makes Britain gradually lose control of the colony. In particular, Australia and New Zealand became dominions in 190 1 and 1907 respectively, which gradually transformed the British Empire into the future Commonwealth.
Of course, in addition to these, the most important thing is to let the world see that Britain is short of money. The former empire has been unable to successfully solve the effect of a South Africa, and he can't even settle down. Therefore, all countries have begun to move their minds. For example, the United States and Germany are ready to reach out to East Asia, Japan and Britain are trying to establish their own spheres of influence in East Asia behind the alliance, Austria-Hungary began to put pressure on the Balkans, Serbia began to fantasize about its own greater Serbia, and Australia and New Zealand took the opportunity to become independent, which also forced Britain to start.
It is worth mentioning that in the Boer War, the British people opened the door to modern wars, such as paying attention to communication. Telephone and telegraph were widely used in the war. The use of a large number of new equipment, such as Enfei Li rifles, Ma Kexin machine guns, Armstrong field guns and so on. , opened the eyes of Europeans. In addition, the source of modern guerrilla warfare is also Boer, which makes the British army tired of coping. It can be said that the Boer War not only weakened Britain, but also profoundly affected the later military and diplomacy.