Anglo Boer War

Researchers have focused on the influence of cultural mobilisation on the population of a belligerent state. Yet, such mobilisation can spread abroad, affecting foreigners who sympathise with the goals of military campaigns led by other nations. For example, the Boer cultural mobilisation during the South African War of 1899–1902 led to the self-mobilisation of foreign volunteers, including Russian adolescents. The pro-Boer messages originating in the South African republics were internalised by other cultures. Although the initial impulse comes from the belligerent nation, cultural mobilisation can have a transnational dimension, defined and developed by its agents in their own countries.

Abstract: Given the popularity of information and communication technologies, it is a time of radical change. People are spending more of their time in virtual worlds and a large part of this time is spent playing games. Hence within this paper, the authors explore the concept of ‘identification’ and ‘representation’ within game narrative with specific reference to ‘interactivity’ and ‘character immersion’. Within the interactive realm of video games, players play an active role in determining the flow and outcome of the story. Critics have argued that games can transmit different ideologies to players. By actively identifying with the characters on screen (and determining their ultimate path) one may argue that playing a game set against a historical backdrop may have an active influence on their ideological perception of the historical events and in turn influence their own identity and how they navigate contemporary society. By using two war game case studies, Middle‐Earth: Shado...

Chubut Province, in Patagonia, Argentina, is home to a group of Afrikaans-speaking Boers, descendants of those who–starting in 1902–came to Argentina from the region of present-day South Africa. Although little Afrikaans is spoken among fourth- and fifth-generation community members, many in the third generation (60 years and older) still maintain the language. According to Joshua Fishman’s model of generational language shift, the Boers’ Afrikaans should have been largely diluted by the third generation; older community members today should have little functional knowledge of the language, and their children and grandchildren none. The goal of this paper is to explore the persistence of bilingualism in the Argentine Boer community and explain why the changes normally associated with the third generation of immigrants are only now being seen in the fourth and fifth generations. On the basis of bilingual interviews with living community members, we argue that the community’s attitude...

ABSTRACT:This article examines carnivals held in Greater London during the Boer War, as a prism through which to analyse the contemporary construction and enactment of locality in the metropolis. It argues that ideas of locality, class and citizenship were reshaped through advances in transport and communication, more active government and urban and then suburban growth. This was manifest in the carnivals, whereby a national and imperial cause stimulated local initiative and citywide replication, encouraged expressions of local identity but also instigated and exacerbated local rivalries, and illustrated the extent to which class identities were nested in local ones.

This article examines attitudes to the Boer War – and nationhood and empire more broadly – through the prism of carnivals held in London in 1900 to raise money for the Daily Telegraph's fund for combatants' widows and orphans. Drawing on detailed press coverage of these events and the rhetoric surrounding them, it highlights how the carnivals and their rationale offered a point of consensus around which participating individuals and organizations with differing stances on the conflict could rally and express gendered national and imperial identities, as well as opportunities for accruing political, economic and social capital.

Около 120 лет назад в Российской империи на волне общественного интереса к первому крупному вооруженному конфликту XX в., англо-бурской войне 1899-1902 гг., родилась народная песня «Трансваль, Трансваль, страна моя». Ее текст основан на стихотворении петербургской поэтессы Г. Галиной. Песня о борьбе за свободу, которую вели жители далекой, преимущественно аграрной, как и тогдашняя Россия, страны, нашла отклик в русском обществе начала XX в. Его растущая политизация проявлялась, в том числе, в повышенном интересе россиян к противостоянию «крестьянских республик» (как отечественные публицисты называли Южно-Африканскую Республику и Оранжевое Свободное Государство) и Британской империи, стремившейся к экспансии в интересах крупного капитала. За один только 1900 г. в Российской империи вышли десятки специализированных и популярных книг и брошюр об этом конфликте на разных языках, а также сотни статей в газетах и популярных журналах. На эту войну откликнулись и русские литераторы. А песня о чужой войне на юге Африки на десятилетия закрепилась в русском фольклоре и массовой культуре в целом. Важная причина популярности «Трансваля» в Российской империи состоит в том, что эта песня давала возможность, в безопасной для певца и его слушателей форме, выразить надежду на общественно-политические перемены. Появление песни и рост ее популярности совпадает с распространением протестных настроений в российском обществе в 1900-1910-е гг. среди как городских, так и деревенских жителей. Песня переосмысливалась в процессе ее бытования: сочувствие к бурам, сражающимся против Британской империи, постепенно сменялось сочувствием к судьбе своих соотечественников. Русская народная песня, в которой отразились события в Южной Африки, побуждала жителей Российской империи задуматься об их собственных условиях жизни и о будущем родины.

В начале 1901 г. в Российской империи произошло редкое и с нетерпением ожидавшееся событие. В крымский порт прибыли южноафриканцы, участники еще продолжавшейся англо-бурской войны. Это были Эрнст Гауснер (1871–1938), Пит Бота (1877–1901), Вилли Стейн (1875–1946), а также братья Джордж (1875–1939) и Лоуренс (1877–1945) Стейтлеры. Молодые буры вплавь выбрались из британского плена. Трансваальский президент П. Крюгер назвал их «пятеро пловцов», и под этим именем они вошли в историю. В России рассказывали о том, как у побережья Цейлона, куда буров привезли для размещения в лагере для военнопленных, отважная пятерка тайно покинула британский корабль и по воде добралась до российского парохода «Херсон». Русские моряки приняли беглецов на борт, отказались выдать их британским властям и доставили в Феодосию.

Среди почитателей литературного таланта и последователей религиозно-философского учения Л. Н. Толстого, посетивших его Москве и Ясной Поляне, были жители Африканского континента. Удалось выяснить имена и обстоятельства пребывания в России двух посетителей Толстого, родившихся в Южной Африке. Во время англо- бурской войны 1899–1902 гг., когда Толстой и его домашние пристально следили за сопротивлением, оказываемым Трансваалем и Оранжевым Свободным Государством огромной Британской империей, в его доме в Хамовниках побывал Эдвард Молтено, сын премьер- министра Капской колонии. А в 1906 г. Ясную Поляну посетил ветеран этой войны, отставной артиллерийский офицер Г. С. дю Той, посвятивший себя распространению среди соотечественников передовых методов земледелия и рационального использования ресурсов в засушливых районах. Южноафриканским гостям запомнился теплый прием, оказанный писателем. Влияние идей Толстого прослеживается в их дальнейшей судьбе.

Англо-бурская война 1899-1902 гг., один из важнейших вооруженных конфликтов эпохи империализма, вызвала отклик в России, в том числе в правящих кругах. Российское общественное мнение поддерживало борьбу за независимость бурских республик: Трансвааля и Оранжевого Свободного Государства. Со своей стороны, правительства республик формировали у сограждан убеждение в том, что Российская империя как инициатор Гаагской мирной конференции и единственная великая держава, никогда не имевшая колоний в Африке, сможет объединить другие государства Европы и США, чтобы помочь бурам в противостоянии британскому империализму. К июню 1900 г. стало очевидно, что великие державы не предпримут военных действий в защиту южноафриканских республик. Более того, эти государства не смогли преодолеть свои геополитические противоречия, чтобы сообща предложить посредничество или добрые услуги воюющим сторонам. По поручению официальной бурской депутации, находившейся с визитом в США, трансваальский посланник передал внешнеполитическим ведомствам России и ее союзницы Франции просьбу о принятии совместного протектората над Трансваалем и Оранжевым Свободным Государством. Документальные свидетельства об этом демарше, до сих пор не получившем достаточного освещения в историографии, сохранились в архиве трансваальского посланника Лейдса, а также в Архиве внешней политики Российской империи. Обращаясь к России и Франции, бурские делегаты предполагали, что эти державы из соображений гуманности возьмут южноафриканские республики под дружественную опеку. Но правительства европейских государств трактовали протекторат как форму колониальной зависимости. Кроме того, Россия и Франция не желали военной конфронтации с могучей Британской империей ради далеких республик, не входивших в сферу их политических и колониальных интересов. Попытка представителей Трансвааля и Оранжевого Свободного Государства обеспечить для своих республик российско-французский протекторат была обречена на неудачу.

In this article an assessment is made of the military operations of General JH de la Rey during his preparations for the conflict and the military tactics employed during the battle of Tweebosch-De Klipdrift. The application of the criteria for determining the relative success of war operations enables us to conclude that the outcome of the battle was due to a number of principles operating in De la Rey's favour. De la Rey's successful application of these principles enabled him to score a significant success at Tweebosch-De Klipdrift: the speed with which he massed his men at the crucial points of the conflict; his ability to stick to the objective identified; his seizing of the initiative and maintaining it; the unity of command he maintained throughout; his ability to keep his plans clear and simple; the element of surprise operating in his favour, and the fact that he allocated and applied his forces economically.

Some one hundred years ago, South Africa was torn apart by the Second AngloBoer WBI (1899-1902). The WaI 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 atleast 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 ...

Abstract: Given the popularity of information and communication technologies, it is a time of radical change. People are spending more of their time in virtual worlds and a large part of this time is spent playing games. Hence within this paper, the authors explore the concept of ‘identification’ and ‘representation’ within game narrative with specific reference to ‘interactivity’ and ‘character immersion’. Within the interactive realm of video games, players play an active role in determining the flow and outcome of the story. Critics have argued that games can transmit different ideologies to players. By actively identifying with the characters on screen (and determining their ultimate path) one may argue that playing a game set against a historical backdrop may have an active influence on their ideological perception of the historical events and in turn influence their own identity and how they navigate contemporary society. By using two war game case studies, Middle‐Earth: Shado...

The Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902), also known as the South African War, had many Hungarian connections in the areas of economy, politics, and culture. Great Britain and the Boer Republics attempted to purchase agricultural products (especially horses and flour) in Hungary, to be used during the war. Hungarian journals and newspapers published a large number of articles and other features on the war, and outstanding Hungarian poets and novelists, as well as politicians and other public figures reflected on the conflict and expressed their pro-Boer, pro-British, or neutral opinions. Hungarians who served in the Boer commandos or who fought under the Union Jack in South Africa constitute the closest connection between the Carpathian Basin and the Anglo-Boer War. Seventeen Hungarians have been identified who took an active part in the war, the majority of them (twelve people), on the Boer side, while only five supported the British war effort. This article focuses on three of the Hungarian...

Chubut Province, in Patagonia, Argentina, is home to a group of Afrikaans-speaking Boers, descendants of those who–starting in 1902–came to Argentina from the region of present-day South Africa. Although little Afrikaans is spoken among fourth- and fifth-generation community members, many in the third generation (60 years and older) still maintain the language. According to Joshua Fishman’s model of generational language shift, the Boers’ Afrikaans should have been largely diluted by the third generation; older community members today should have little functional knowledge of the language, and their children and grandchildren none. The goal of this paper is to explore the persistence of bilingualism in the Argentine Boer community and explain why the changes normally associated with the third generation of immigrants are only now being seen in the fourth and fifth generations. On the basis of bilingual interviews with living community members, we argue that the community’s attitude...

After a century of racial oppression and apartheid in South Africa, there are few, as Donal Lowry has remarked, who can “remember a time when entire continents seemed to be moved by the Boer ’heroes of liberty.’ ”[1] Nevertheless, the anniversary of the South African, or Anglo-Boer, war of 1899-1902 has witnessed visits to its historiographical as well as to its physical battlegrounds. A slew of books have marked the centenary, including the three collections reviewed here, while it has also evoked a good deal of discussion in South Africa about the nature and nomenclature as well as the place in the new South Africa of what was purported by the major belligerents at the time to be ”a white man’s war.“

In 2007, a song about the Anglo-Boer War hero, De la Rey, became an anthem for people who self-identify with the term ‘Afrikaner’ and caused such a stir that even the government issued a statement about it. In the debate amongst social commentators, the point was made that the white Afrikaners in post-Apartheid South Africa were experiencing an identity crisis and were searching for a hero to lead them. It seemed to be a fertile ground to search for one amongst the Anglo- Boer War, also known as the South African War (1899-1902), an era seen by many as the ‘age of innocence’. However, when the Afrikaans feature film "Verraaiers" (Traitors) was released in 2013, it failed at the box office. It is interesting to note that the writer and producer of the film told the story from the point of view of a ‘tragic hero’, instead of from the perspective of a more traditional ‘willing’ hero. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to compare the film "Verraaiers" to another film set during the Anglo-Boer War, "Die Kavaliers" (The Cavaliers, 1966), in terms of how they portray the mythological hero and how this influences the narrative and audience’s identification with the film. In "Die Kavaliers" the plot focuses on the cavalier deeds of a group of Boer soldiers, whilst "Verraaiers" tells the story of a  few Boer men who decided to forsake the war to return to their farms and protect their families. The opposing controlling ideas reveal the change in dominant ideology in the years between the construction of the two different narratives. "Verraaiers" has been described as a reaction to the position of white Afrikaners, the descendants of the Boers, in contemporary post-Apartheid South Africa. The author of this paper argues that the current white Afrikaans cinema going audience did not want to watch a tragic Boer hero that would lead them to introspection. They were searching for a willing, mythological hero, to lead them out of their identity crisis.

The establishment of an international legion by General Georges de Villebois-Mareuil in March 1900 was the most ambitious attempt to coordinate the activities of foreign volunteer units within a single formation during the South African War. On the general’s death (5 April 1900), De Villebois’s Russian deputy and successor, Lieutenant Colonel Yevgeny Maximov, lost control of the legion. As a hierarchical formation, it survived De Villebois by only two weeks. Given Maximov’s ample experience in conventional and unconventional warfare, and the accolades that he later won from the republican political and military leadership, including the rank of general, the legionnaires’ opposition to him appears to be unjustified. Accounting for the discrepancy between historians’ perceptions of Maximov and his lack of success in controlling the legion is based on a premise that legionnaires had compelling reasons to reject his authority. Maximov had come to Africa ostensibly as a journalist. He was yet to earn the respect of his subordinates because he had not seen action in the South African War. In subsequent weeks, having resigned from his post in the legion, he distinguished himself in the engagement at Tobaberg as the leader of the Dutch corps. By then, Maximov had the ‘moral authority’ to command an international unit, but his poor health prevented him from carrying on fighting. Unlike De Villebois, who was supported by like-minded French lieutenants, Maximov could not rely on his compatriots. Instead of endorsing his claim to leadership, the Russian corps refused to join the legion while he was in charge, and intentionally discredited him. In the power vacuum after De Villebois’s death, the legion collapsed, and a chance to transform the emerging alliance of foreign volunteer units into a formidable force was missed.

Chubut Province, in Patagonia, Argentina, is home to a group of Afrikaans-speaking Boers, descendants of those who-starting in 1902-came to Argentina from the region of present-day South Africa. Although little Afrikaans is spoken among fourth-and fifth-generation community members, many in the third generation (60 years and older) still maintain the language. The goal of this paper is to explore the persistence of bilingualism in the Argentine Boer community and explain why the changes normally associated with the third generation of immigrants are only now being seen in the fourth and fifth generations. On the basis of bilingual interviews with living community members, we argue that the community's attitude toward Afrikaans as a language of group identity, as well as the relative isolation of the community in rural Patagonia in the first half of the 20th century, were both decisive factors in delaying the process of linguistic assimilation. Only in the middle of the 20th cent...

An analysis of data from various sources, both Russian and international, helps to evaluate the contribution of the Russian corps to the republican cause and to understand the ambiguities of its brief existence. Despite the founders’ intentions, the unit failed to ‘set an example of proper organisation for the Boers’. Yet the Russian corps was not an embarrassment but a missed opportunity.
‘The Russian corps in the Anglo-Boer War: two months of misfortune’, Military History Journal (South African Military History Society), 2020, vol 19, no 1, pp 10–17 (ISSN 0026-4016).
"Русский отряд на англо-бурской войне: два злополучных месяца".