Anglo-Boer War: the twentieth century begins

The Anglo-Boer War marked the beginning of an enlightened and high-tech twentieth century - a contradictory and ambiguous century that eventually turned into an almost continuous series of global wars and numerous armed conflicts. Along with the conquest of outer space and the great discoveries in the field of medicine (the penicillin invention alone is worth it!), This century "gave" mankind an atomic bomb, chemical and bacteriological weapons.

The Anglo-Boer War, which became the first in the twentieth century, "enriched" the world with a new invaluable experience, which was then successfully used throughout almost the entire hundred-year historical period. In particular, for the first time under the hot South African sun, both parties to the conflict used mass smokeless gunpowder, quick-firing cannon, magazine rifles and heavy machine guns.

These innovations led to a complete transformation of infantry tactics. There were new concepts - trenches and trenches. As well as these innovations, the infantry units were forced to attack with sparse chains, which replaced the customary system. Instead of bright uniforms appeared khaki, which became an inalienable attribute of the twentieth century.

But it was not only this that made the Anglo-Boer war famous. On it, the world first became acquainted with the sabotage and sniper war, which changed the appearance of the past century stronger than rapid-fire cannons and heavy machine guns. And the tactics of scorched earth and concentration camps were invented by no means by Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin. These concepts were revealed to the world in all its hideous inhumanity by completely democratic and liberal British under artillery cannonade and the shrill whistle of automatic weapon bullets just during the Boer War.

It is already later that these monstrous inventions found many followers, which is so natural for human nature. The twentieth century was by and large under the sign of the battle for resources. This is the main and veiled cause of all modern wars. We must somehow ensure the luxurious life of the "golden billion" of mankind in the conditions of a shortage of resources and an energy crisis. This is the main driving force behind all adherents of the ideology of social Darwinism, no matter what dress they take.

In general, the Anglo-Boer war, which took place far from the centers of world civilization and therefore remained largely unnoticed, became an exaggeration of the key and turning point of history, forever changing the appearance of the human race and the general notions of geopolitics.

This war was not only the first attempt to bring "Freedom and Democracy" to countries extremely rich in natural resources and minerals. The Boer War also became, perhaps, the first armed conflict, in which hostilities proceeded, in addition to battlefields, also in the information space. By the beginning of the twentieth century, telegraph, photography and cinematography were already widely used, and printing products (newspapers, magazines) became a familiar part of European life. This was a kind of warning to the whole world, which, however, no one has ever heeded.

Probably, the British Cabinet considered that the British colonies in America are not able to provide the resources of Her Majesty's submissions for centuries to come. And he turned his predatory gaze on the former Dutch territories in South Africa. Confrontation between the British and the Boers began even when the British Crown put an eye on the Dutch Cape colony.

After annexing these territories, and soon after buying them out, the British began to create the Boers of unbearable conditions of existence. It prohibited the training and record keeping in Dutch, and English was officially declared public. The slavery that formed the basis of the Boer economy was abolished. All this ultimately resulted in an armed confrontation between the two newly founded Boer republics - the Transvaal and the Orange Republic.

The world community expressed sympathy for the Boers in this battle of David and Goliath. But everything ended quite predictably. It's only in ancient legends that David can prevail in such a confrontation. And in real life, the Boers initially had no chance against the Empire ...