The Second Boer War: Its Effects on Military and Diplomacy

A third advantage which the Boers had over the British was the innovation of their equipment. The supposedly neutral Germany, was supplying the Boers with the new and vastly superior Mauser Rifle. This gun had a magazine of 6 bullets, as opposed to the British Lee-Enfield which only carried 4 bullets, and of which its accuracy and range were inferior. The Germans had also provided the Boers with the Krupp field gun, a horse-drawn piece of lightweight, accurate artillery. This gun used white powder, which when fired did not produce puffs of black smoke as the heavy inaccurate British cannon did.

All these military advantages which the Boers had over the British meant that the swift destruction of the “upstart Dutchies” turned into a long, drawn out war, which became a catalyst for later guerrilla warfare. The war, in these ways, had vast repercussions for British military culture. It exemplified the inept nature of commissioned, paying for rank, officers, and the need for reform in this area. It also pushed along British military production and was a key factor in the lead-up to the pre-war arms race between the old British Empire and the newly Unified German Empire. Lastly, the Second Boer War displayed how much support the British could muster from their colonies, present and alumni.

During the whole episode of the Second Boer War, the British Empire was examined on a political scale. The throes of the war tested the political and diplomatic skill of King Edward and the Government behind him on the European stage. The political stance of other European Empires, and the fine line of friction between them on the wider issues of African colonisation, led to a very careful political path being taken by Whitehall. The Boers, as mentioned earlier, had the full passive support of the German Empire. The Austrians, Dutch and Danish also passively supported the Boers.

The inflexibility of the British was the first aspect of a sick political power that was highlighted by the Second Boer War. Britain sent one single ultimatum to the Boer, which was rejected, immediately followed by declaration of war. This short tether which the British parliament snapped on, demonstrated the oblivious nature with which they felt they could walk on any nation. The speed with which war was declared also showed that the British had motives other than those of settler rights.

All of the allies of the Transvaal and Orange Free State knew, however, that they would lose the war. However their support was not of the Boer cause, but for the political reason of weakening the British Empire by sowing seeds of doubt in the minds of its subjects. Since Britain defeated the French Republicans in the Napoleonic Wars, Britain had been the major European Imperial powerbroker. Treaties of peace, war, independence or unification, had often fallen at some point into the hands of the British. This political monopoly turned sour when the British were shown up in the “last imperial war”. The Boers had shown that the time of dominance by Britain over the Imperial powers had ended. The time was now right for the emergence of a new and more headstrong power to gain ascendancy in Europe.

The newly unified Germany became a worthy rival for the British. While they had started a century late, the German colonial cause was off to a good start with the political failure of the British in the Boer War. Germany had proved that its military technology was vastly superior to that of the British. This fact, coupled with the loss of respect for Britain over the Boer war, led to uncertainty, followed by an arms race, and climaxing in the horrors of the Great War.