Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Irregular Warfare 101
- Part One The American Revolution to Chasing Sandino, 1776–1930s
- 3 The American Revolution
- 4 Confederates and Indians
- 5 Intermezzo
- 6 America, Aguinaldo, and the Philippines, 1898
- 7 Chasing Villa, 1916
- 8 A Cold Winter in Siberia
- 9 The Banana Wars, 1898–1930s
- 10 Intermezzo
- 11 Chasing Sandino, 1927–1932
- Part Two The Cold War, 1940s–1989
- Part Three Latin America and the Cold War, 1950s–1980s
- Part Four Post–Cold War, 1990s–2000s
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - Intermezzo
The Boer War, 1899–1902
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Irregular Warfare 101
- Part One The American Revolution to Chasing Sandino, 1776–1930s
- 3 The American Revolution
- 4 Confederates and Indians
- 5 Intermezzo
- 6 America, Aguinaldo, and the Philippines, 1898
- 7 Chasing Villa, 1916
- 8 A Cold Winter in Siberia
- 9 The Banana Wars, 1898–1930s
- 10 Intermezzo
- 11 Chasing Sandino, 1927–1932
- Part Two The Cold War, 1940s–1989
- Part Three Latin America and the Cold War, 1950s–1980s
- Part Four Post–Cold War, 1990s–2000s
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This war is fast degenerating into the same kind of dacoit hunt we used to have in Murmah. The Boer is becoming just as cold-blooded a ruffian as the dacoit was and his wholesale slaughter of Kaffirs [Africans] . . . has I think forfeited his right to be considered a belligerent. I found the bodies of four Kaffir boys none of them over 12 years of age with their heads broken in by the Boers and left in the Kraal [Afrikaans for cattle enclosure] of their fathers. Strong measures will be required to stop this slaughter.
– British Colonel Rawlinson to Field Marshall Lord Roberts, August 28, 1899The Boer War that raged across present-day South Africa from 1899 to 1902 was Britain’s costliest and bloodiest war in the century between 1815 and 1914. It was arguably the most humiliating of the nation’s colonial history. The Boer conflict was a dirty war with atrocities committed on both sides. The conflict also witnessed the advent of key military innovations on a large scale. Repeating rifles and machine guns turned the strategic balance in favor of defense, a trend that would see its full, devastating manifestation in the muddy trenches of France a dozen years later. The commander of Britain’s military forces in the campaign, Lord Kitchener, was also one of the most controversial figures of his time. He succeeded in waging a counterguerrilla campaign against a hard-fighting enemy, despite numerous tactical defeats and an outraged opposition at home. The Boer War is also instructive for our study of the American experience in irregular warfare given that it provides an important comparison of how another imperial power fared in similar circumstances. At the very time that the British were mired in the Boer War, U.S. political and military forces were attempting to quell an insurgency and “nation-build” in the Philippines.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- America's Dirty WarsIrregular Warfare from 1776 to the War on Terror, pp. 63 - 71Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014