One hundred years ago, the British Empire found itself in a war that they thought could have never been as big and difficult as it was. In fact, this was the most difficult of all the British colonial wars in history. This war was called the Boer War. The term Boer refers to the Dutch people who settled in Cape Town South Africa; the Boers were pioneer farmers who built up the Cape colony. The conflict arose between the Great Britain and 2 Boer Republics Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The war began on October 11th, 1899 and lasted almost 3 years. There was peace between the British and the Boers until the Boers found diamonds and gold in there land, and the British wanted to obtain mining rights to get the diamonds and gold, but the Boers refused to give them the right to mine there. So they invaded the Dutch farmers and started to burn down farms and take the gold and diamonds while the Boers tried to stop but there efforts were futile.
English: Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer Wa...
Map of the South Africa in the beginning 1900s, wi...
The Transvaal War: General Sir George Colley at th...The British government could have done more to prevent this war; all they wanted was to get the diamonds and gold by any means necessary since they were now denied mining rights.
The Dutch people arrived in South Africa in 1652 to the Cape of Good Hope where they settled for a short period of time. As time went on the Cape of Good Hope was added to the British Empire at the Treaty of Versailles in 1814 because at this time the British wanted to have ports around the world. As more and more British arrived in the Cape of Good Hope the Dutch settlers who have been there for more than 150 years decided to move into what is called...