Encyclopedia of the Boer War, 1899-1902

Martin Marix Evans9781851093328, 185109332X, 1851093427

This volume covers all aspects of the Boer War including its origins, military strategy and tactics, the main battles and sieges, the principal political and military figures, weaponry, and subjects such as the role of the railways, the treatment of the wounded, and the use of concentration camps. The encyclopedia shows how the camps intended to house refugees became infamous concentration camps, how the peace negotiated between the Boers and the British established the conditions under which apartheid was able to flourish and how the war marked an important stage in the evolution of warfare and is often regarded as the first “modern” war. A number of original documents are reprinted in this book, including the main body of the report on concentration camps and extracts from the minutes of the peace negotiations. Entries include: Afrikaner uprisings, Battle of Elandslaagte, Battle of Elands River Post, Battle of Spioenkop, Bloemfontein, Chief Commandant Christaan Rudolf De Wet, Colonel J.Y.F. Blake, Commandant-general Louis Botha, concentration camps, General Sir Redvers Buller, The Jameson Raid, Lieutenant H.H.R. “Breaker” Morant, Major Frederick Russell Burnham, maps, Maxim-Vickers machine gun, Siege of Ladysmith, Siege of Mafeking, and Winston Churchill.