The Man He Killed

The late-19th-century British war against the Dutch settlers in southern Africa, the self-governing Afrikaners or Boers, was not the British Empire’s finest hour. It was fought needlessly, largely for mercenary gain, and was executed in strategies that deliberately involved massive civilian casualties.

The war spanned 1899-1902 during the waning years of Queen Victoria’s lengthy reign—more than 60 years, during which Britain’s colonial possessions had expanded the country’s reach by more than 10 million square miles into a global empire. The British conservative government decided to act against the intransigent Boer government to demonstrate Britain’s international military and economic clout, and more specifically, to secure access to the newly-discovered reserves of both diamonds and gold in the area known as the Transvaal.

From the beginning of the war in 1899, the British military effort was hampered not only because of the vast distance between England and southern Africa but also by the committed and unflappable Boer guerrilla forces that bedeviled British positions and disrupted already vulnerable supply lines. Despite a significant weapons advantage, most notably new rapid-fire machine guns, the British could not gain an upper hand.

Back home, support for the war was stirred up by xenophobic nationalism and a campaign of propaganda by the government, who upcycled the war into a crusade for British international pride.