History Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for historians and history buffs. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
The Boer Wars are generally viewed as a minor conflict affecting only South Africa; I, however, am skeptical about this. Britain did, after all, send nearly half a million soldiers to fight in the Boer Wars. So I'm wondering, how did the Boer Wars affect the tide of world history elsewhere? I remember reading about how they affected Allied tactics during Word War I; but beyond that I'm in the dark.
What is the significance of the Boer Wars outside of South Africa?
The Boer War was something of a flashpoint for World War I. For instance, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany sent congratulations in the so-called Kruger Telegram, to Boer President Paul Kruger after an early Boer victory, inflaming British public opinion.
More to the point, the conclusion of the Boer War produced a moderate peace that led to a reconciliation between British and Boer that formed the Union of South Africa in 1910, merging the two British provinces (Cape Province and Natal) with the two Boer provinces (Transvaal and Orange Free State) into a single entity. A few years later, General Jan Christian Smuts, an important Boer general in the Boer War led the combined "South African" forces against German South West Africa (Namibia) in 1914.
