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41
The Men
Who
Made the Peace
The first meeting between the British commander and Boer envoys at Middelburi. Sitting, from left
are
de
Wet, Botha, Kitchener, Col. lan. Hamilton. Standing, left to
right,
Col. Henderson, Van Velden,
Watson,
H.
Fraser, Capt. Maxwell ,
A.
de
Jager. These negotiations failed, but the terms then discussed were
substan~
.
tially those accepted
by
the Bvers
in
May,
.1902.
'
.
and economic rights they wanted.
Britain received
a
severe shock over the
state "of her armed forces; but firmly
established her position in South
Africa.
What were ' the
other
results of
this
bitter
war?
Militarily,
they
were
in~.
It
was
the
first
war
of
importance fought
on modern lines.
Khaki
dimmed the
splendours ofBritishuniforms. Machine
guns,
mobile six-inch
guns,
clip-loading
rifles,
wired field-trenches and
balloons
were
all
employed
in
the campaign.
Politically, Britain had learnt a lesson
in
the
cost of holding an
~pire.
The
Boer
War
marks
the end ofthe Victorian
poliJical
period
as clearly
as
the death
of the Queen
marked
the end of
a ,socia1 -
age. About
a
year before the
war
began~
there had
oCcurred
in Germany an act
of. great significance.
The
first
big
expansion
of the Kaiser's
navy
was
authorised. The
_war
in South
Africa
was
the
first
big explosion in the
race
for
colonies
and new markets and the
competition
in deadly armaments which
was to reach its
dreadful
rnlminarion
in
1914-
From
that
point, ,the nations
of
Europe began
to live with their
fingers on the trigger.
,
One good result came from it. South
Africa
was set on the road to unity and
co-operation
between
British andDUtch.
In
191:0,
encouraged by Liberal
Imperialism in Britain, the first Union
of South
Africa
came into being. At its
men like
Botha
and Smuts,
~lih~e
in
~1~~~cln~~~~~ftW'~ll~~in
whole
Valuable
contributions to winning the
War~