Suggestions
Use up and down arrows to review and enter to select.Please wait while we process your payment
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
If you don't see it, please check your spam folder. Sometimes it can end up there.
Please wait while we process your payment
By signing up you agree to our terms and privacy policy.
Don’t have an account? Subscribe now
Create Your Account
Sign up for your FREE 7-day trial
Already have an account? Log in
Your Email
Choose Your Plan
Save over 50% with a SparkNotes PLUS Annual Plan!
payment page
Purchasing SparkNotes PLUS for a group?
Get Annual Plans at a discount when you buy 2 or more!
Price
$24.99 $18.74 /subscription + tax
Subtotal $37.48 + tax
Save 25% on 2-49 accounts
Save 30% on 50-99 accounts
Want 100 or more? Contact us for a customized plan.
Your Plan
Payment Details
Payment Summary
SparkNotes Plus
You'll be billed after your free trial ends.
7-Day Free Trial
Not Applicable
Renews June 7, 2023 May 31, 2023
Discounts (applied to next billing)
DUE NOW
US $0.00
SNPLUSROCKS20 | 20% Discount
This is not a valid promo code.
Discount Code (one code per order)
SparkNotes Plus subscription is $4.99/month or $24.99/year as selected above. The free trial period is the first 7 days of your subscription. TO CANCEL YOUR SUBSCRIPTION AND AVOID BEING CHARGED, YOU MUST CANCEL BEFORE THE END OF THE FREE TRIAL PERIOD. You may cancel your subscription on your Subscription and Billing page or contact Customer Support at custserv@bn.com. Your subscription will continue automatically once the free trial period is over. Free trial is available to new customers only.
Choose Your Plan
For the next 7 days, you'll have access to awesome PLUS stuff like AP English test prep, No Fear Shakespeare translations and audio, a note-taking tool, personalized dashboard, & much more!
You’ve successfully purchased a group discount. Your group members can use the joining link below to redeem their group membership. You'll also receive an email with the link.
Members will be prompted to log in or create an account to redeem their group membership.
Thanks for creating a SparkNotes account! Continue to start your free trial.
Please wait while we process your payment
Your PLUS subscription has expired
Please wait while we process your payment
Please wait while we process your payment
For generations, South Africa witnessed conflict between Europeans and white settlers, both of whom wanted political and economic control of the region. Most particularly, conflict developed between Britain and Afrikaners, mostly Dutch descendants of white settlers who had emigrated to South Africa throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Britain wanted total dominion over the region of South Africa, and the Afrikaners constituted a significant roadblock. In the 1830s Britain began to assert control. From 1837 to 1844 the British forced the Afrikaner population onto the Great Trek, a resettlement plan that moved the Afrikaners from the coastal colonial settlement to the interior lands of Transvaal and Orange Free State. In 1884, Germany, Britain's archrival in Europe, established itself in neighboring Namibia. Then, in 1886, huge gold deposits were found in the Transvaal territory of South Africa. Faced with the prospect of immense economic gain and the sudden possibility of German political intervention in regard to that financial windfall, the British, under capitalist entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes, took action.
Very quickly, the British came to the conclusion that their interests were not fully served under the political regime of the Afrikaner government in Transvaal. The Afrikaner policies on tariffs and trade did not square with British imperial aims. In 1895, Rhodes and his chief lieutenant, Dr. L. S. Jameson, took advantage of the unrest of British settlers in the Transvaal region to launch an unauthorized overthrow attempt. Jamesone himself led a contingent of British South African police into Transvaal. The invasion proved to be premature and a complete failure. Jameson was captured, turned over to the British and imprisoned for his unauthorized attack. Rhode's was forced to resign his position.
New British leadership did nothing to ease tensions. In 1899, angered over what they perceived as the harsh treatment of British settlers in the Transvaal and still motivated by the prospect of gold, the British began a massive build up of British forces in the area. In October 1899, the Afrikaner President Paul Kruger demanded the withdrawal of these troops and threatened war if his demands went unmet. The British did not comply, and on October 12 the Transvaal and Orange Free State declared war.
The war progressed rather poorly for the better-equipped, better-trained, and larger British army. Under inept leadership and harassed by effective Afrikaner guerrilla tactics, the British were forced to fight the war for three years. By the time the war was over--a war, by the way, that saw the British introduce and effectively use concentration camps as a means of controlling captured populations--over sixty thousand people had died. The British lost almost 30,000 fighting men, while Afrikaner forces lost some 5000. More than 20,000 Afrikaner civilians died in the concentration camps. Numbers of deaths of black Africans placed in the camps went uncounted, though the numbers certainly reached into the thousands. In 1902, after massive effort and expense, and the brutal tactics of the English commander Herbert Horatio Kitchener, the British exhausted the Boer's into submission.
On May 31 the two sides signed the Treaty of Vereeniging, under which the British accepted the conditional surrender of the Afrikaners. The Transvaal and Orange Free State were promised limited future autonomy as British colonies. The British in turn promised to pay three million pounds and promised the Afrikaners that no decision to include the black majority in government would be made before rule was returned to the Afrikaners. This, unfortunately, made twentieth-century apartheid an eventuality.
When discussing the Boer War, one cannot skip over the brutality the British used against its white enemies in South Africa. Concentration camps were havens for disease, malnutrition, and persecution. Individual rights did not exist in these territories and women and children were raped, abused, and forced into labor for the British government. No one knows the extent of the abuse, though it is clear they did not compare to those perpetrated by Hitler or Stalin in scope or atrocity. However, it is important to note that concentration camps developed under British auspices and were used against fellow whites, fellow Europeans, and fellow imperialists.
Please wait while we process your payment
