Opposition to the War
After the British declared war the Boer people gathered soldiers together. Boers had a total of 88,000 soldiers. They were greatly outnumbered by British but fought in unconventional ways. The British were not use to this and found them hard to defeat.
The British set up concentration camps in response to the Boer attack and violence.
Emily Hobhouse, an English visitor to South Africa and the Bloemfontein Concentration Camp said the following,
"It was late in the summer of 1900 that I first learnt of the hundreds of Boer women that became impoverished and were left ragged by our military operations. That the poor women who were being driven from pillar to post, needed protection and organised assistance. And from that moment I was determined to go to South Africa in order to render assistance to them...When the eight, ten or twelve people who lived in the bell tent were squeezed into it to find shelter against the heat of the sun, the dust or the rain, there was no room to stir and the air in the tent was beyond description, even though the flaps were rolled up properly and fastened. Soap was an article that was not dispensed. The water supply was inadequate. No bedstead or mattress was procurable. Fuel was scarce and had to be collected from the green bushes on the slopes of the kopjes by the people themselves. The rations were extremely meagre and when, as I frequently experienced, the actual quantity dispensed fell short of the amount prescribed, it simply meant famine."
The British set up concentration camps in response to the Boer attack and violence.
Emily Hobhouse, an English visitor to South Africa and the Bloemfontein Concentration Camp said the following,
"It was late in the summer of 1900 that I first learnt of the hundreds of Boer women that became impoverished and were left ragged by our military operations. That the poor women who were being driven from pillar to post, needed protection and organised assistance. And from that moment I was determined to go to South Africa in order to render assistance to them...When the eight, ten or twelve people who lived in the bell tent were squeezed into it to find shelter against the heat of the sun, the dust or the rain, there was no room to stir and the air in the tent was beyond description, even though the flaps were rolled up properly and fastened. Soap was an article that was not dispensed. The water supply was inadequate. No bedstead or mattress was procurable. Fuel was scarce and had to be collected from the green bushes on the slopes of the kopjes by the people themselves. The rations were extremely meagre and when, as I frequently experienced, the actual quantity dispensed fell short of the amount prescribed, it simply meant famine."
Action Taken by British
British brought in soldiers from many countries; Australia, Canada, New Zealand...
