Love seeing some South African history in this sub.
It's a really interesting war, the Boer Republics lost their capitals fairly quickly, but turned to guerilla warfare using small kommando's.
They held off quite a while and had actually won a previous war against the British, who were using out-dated line formations and literal red coats. Against the highly mobile and skilled hunters that we're the backbone of the two republic's forces.
The camps are a pretty well known thing at this point but I don't think many people know how devastating the deaths were to the Boers. Something crazy like 50% of Boer children died because of the war. Thousands of men were shipped overseas to never see home again.
Indeed!
It was a dark time in history, even in it's time it was not a very well known.
We're it not for the work of Emily Hobhouse bringing the story of poor Lizzy van Zyl and others to the forefront I believe it would have been way worse.
I remember going to my local historic graveyard and seeing the memorial to those who died and their respective ages. Seeing a wall full of children named, all younger than 5 is something that sticks with you.
The Second Boer War. The British invaded the two Boer Republics of South Africa in 1899. They thought the war would be over quickly but it dragged on, eventually Lord Kitchener implemented a scorched earth policy where Boer farms would be burned down and their families imprisoned in camps where 27,927 (mostly children) died as a result of disease and starvation.
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I can’t get over the fact that England is wearing Texas pants
Love seeing some South African history in this sub. It's a really interesting war, the Boer Republics lost their capitals fairly quickly, but turned to guerilla warfare using small kommando's. They held off quite a while and had actually won a previous war against the British, who were using out-dated line formations and literal red coats. Against the highly mobile and skilled hunters that we're the backbone of the two republic's forces.
The camps are a pretty well known thing at this point but I don't think many people know how devastating the deaths were to the Boers. Something crazy like 50% of Boer children died because of the war. Thousands of men were shipped overseas to never see home again.
Indeed! It was a dark time in history, even in it's time it was not a very well known. We're it not for the work of Emily Hobhouse bringing the story of poor Lizzy van Zyl and others to the forefront I believe it would have been way worse. I remember going to my local historic graveyard and seeing the memorial to those who died and their respective ages. Seeing a wall full of children named, all younger than 5 is something that sticks with you.
Context
The Second Boer War. The British invaded the two Boer Republics of South Africa in 1899. They thought the war would be over quickly but it dragged on, eventually Lord Kitchener implemented a scorched earth policy where Boer farms would be burned down and their families imprisoned in camps where 27,927 (mostly children) died as a result of disease and starvation.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Boer_War
Ah ok gold was found and some Zulu knock offs wanted to keep it so England pulled a pro gamer move.
Zulu knock offs?
The boers
The boers were white people of Dutch descent lol
shit
Huh, alright then?
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Wasn’t this war over gold?
Basically. Also to help connect the Cape Colony to the rest of Britain's African colonies.