Boer Guerrilla Fighters Essay

I agree that the way the British passs hardened the Boer fighters and civilians was in fact brutal. With the use of the refugee inner circles and the sear world insurance it do them cheek that much more brutal. Sources P, Q and R all offer different insights into how brutally British soldier dealt with the Boer guerrilla fighters during the Second Boer war in 1899, with licence to support the brutality of it all. Source R strongly agrees that the British treated the Boers badly, particularly the women and children, with this being said the source also has elements of disagreements. At a first glance source Q seems to disagree moreover that disagreement is later challenged within the source. Source P takes an agreeing approach to the statement. From the sources it appears that the way the British dealt with the Boers was brutally, but how brutal were they when trying to defeat the Boers guerrilla fighters is debatable.There is recount in source Q and elements of source R would support the fact that the British soldier didnt treat the Boers brutally. Source Q explains that The English did burn down upraise houses, but never shot the people within them and Of course, brutal discussion did occur, but mostly the Boer pris whizrs were treated with paying attention. This links in with a certain(p) part of source R where it ways The high death assess was the result of incompetence and lack of foresight on the part of the British military authorities. The adust earth policy was brought in by Kitchener, it baffling British soldiers going into the Boer farm houses, evacuating them and then burn mark them down. By burning the houses down Boer men couldnt use their farm houses as a way of hiding from the British and the women couldnt resupply their men during the guerrilla warfare. The policy itself isnt considered to be a brutal tactic as it wasnt killing or harming anyone if killings were taking place then this would have made it brutal.The none-brutali ty of this tactic suggests the British were not brutal when dealing with the Boers and they treated (them) with respect. The women and children were then transferred into the British refugee camps. Originally the compactness camps had been set up by the British army as refugee camps to provide refuge for civilian families, in general woman and children, who had been forced to abandon their homes primarily due to the scorched earth policy. These concentration camps started as refugee camps, and then turned into egressside prisons until finally things got out of hand and became concentration camps. The quote from source R shows that the progression of refugee to concentration camps wasnt the original plan of action for the British but due to disorganisation and incompetence the standards and quality of the refugee camps fell. Both sources give sufficient evidence to support the fact the British soldiers werent Brutal with their dealings with the Boers as one of the tactics werent brutal and the concentration camps werent intentional.Sources P and R both show evidence to support the idea that the British were brutal with their treatment of the Boar population. Source P says Some of our cause was unpleasant. If we found any arms or ammunition concealed on a farm we had to burn down the place. Source R real highlights the brutality and reality of warfare. The treatment of the Boer population in the camps was brutal and everywhere 20,000 Boer women and children died in 40 camps, about one in four of the inmates. It was the soldiers who had to do the process of the scorched earth policy, they were ruleed to destruct the farms and the homes of civilians in order to prevent the still-fighting Boers from obtaining food and supplies. The intention of the British government was the complete obliteration of the Boer nations.From 1899 1901, the British destroyed 40 towns and burned crops. The impact of the British scorched earth policy during the war killed both h alf of the Boer Nations. During January 1901 Emily Hobhouse arrived at a camp in Bloemfontein where she found diseases such as measles, bronchitis, pneumonia, dysentery and typhoid had invaded the camp with fatal results. The very few tents were not enough to house the one or more sick persons, most of them children. When she requested exclusive for the people, she was told that soap is an article of luxury. She later succeeded, after a struggle, to have it listed as a necessity, together with straw, more tents and more kettles in which to boil the drinking water.She distributed tog and supplied pregnant women, who had to sleep on the ground, with mattresses. Among the many dying people in that location was a child called Lizzie von Zyl, Hobhouse used her death as an example of the hardships the Boer women and children approach in the British concentration camps during the war. Both of the sources show the difficulties the Boer population had to face during the Second Boer War a s a result of the brutality from the British. Without the scorched earth policy the concentration camps may not have come up to the extent and disaster which was witnessed by Emily Hobhouse on her journey to Bloemfontein.