150 years ago, that is, in the middle and late nineteenth century, the British Empire still occupied the peak of the world, both the Atlantic and the Pacific Ocean were flying rice flags everywhere, the British Empire was the most extensive country in the world at that time, reaching 20 million square kilometers, colonies around the world every year to send a large amount of wealth to Britain, supporting the development of British industry. However, the prosperity and weakness have long seeped out from under the magnificent appearance of this vast empire, and by the end of the 19th century, a series of problems and contradictions finally broke out through a war.
The war waged by Britain in China.
The British army was expanding its colonies.
This war is the famous Boer War, what is Boer? Boer means peasant in Dutch, the so-called Boer refers to the Dutch immigrants who took root in South Africa, and the Boer War was a large-scale war between the Two Republics of Orange and the Transvaal established by the British and the Boers. South Africa, by definition, the southernmost tip of Africa, was discovered by Europeans after the 15th century, but the area was barren and had no interest in the land until the discovery of large deposits of diamonds and gold in the mid-to-late 19th century, when the vast majority of Europeans, except for the Dutch immigrants who migrated here.
Charging Forward British Infantry.
British colonial activities.
The excessive abundance of land also brought disaster to themselves, the Germans were the first to prepare to infiltrate Orange and the Transvaal, the British were also attracted by the rich gold and diamond deposits, they were ready to forcibly incorporate these two small countries into the territory of the British Empire before the Germans attacked, the two Boer republics of Orange and the Transvaal combined had a total population of less than 500,000, and the combined population of its young adults who could fight was less than 100,000, and the British Empire sent nearly 500,000 troops at a time.
The Boer army fought fiercely with the British.
The British were beaten up.
By the 19th century, however, the weakness of the British Army was already evident, and the army still regarded napoleonic tactics as the standard, and the tactics were rigid and rigid, which not only laid the groundwork for the miserable situation of the British in the Boer War, but also laid the groundwork for the tragic scene of the First World War 20 years later.
British infantry.
The British suffered heavy casualties in World War I.
In 1895, the British government secretly instructed Rhodes, the Governor of the Cape Colony (the British colonial governor in South Africa), to send an 800-man force to sneak into the transvaal capital, but the news was deliberately leaked to the Transvaal government by the Germans, and the Boers were prepared and the British did not succeed. In January of the following year, the Boers defeated the British at the city of Klexdorp, and the British decided to expand the war, mobilizing nearly 500,000 troops to attack the two Boer countries.
Boer soldiers who took part in the battle.
Winston Churchill also fought in the Boer War.
As a result, the weakness of the British Empire was vividly reflected in this war, the British successively lost in the Battle of Tarana Hill, the Battle of Ladysmith, in the Battle of Ladysmith, the British lost more than 1,000 people, while the Boers only lost eight people, and then the British lost nearly 3,000 people in succession, but as the British army continued to increase, the Boers were already fewer and fewer men, and it was not a soldier, and the two Boer republics did not have an army in the true sense. The British resisted only ad hoc militias, and although they had more modern rifles and smaller numbers of guns, they still had to ask the British for peace.
War between the Boers and africans.
European colonists.
The British suffered 22,000 casualties in the war and consumed a lot of military spending. In the previous stage of the war, the British were passively beaten, the angry British attacked the Boer civilians, this "incompetent rage" behavior made the international public opinion turn to the Boers, countries have condemned the atrocities of the British army, and after this war, due to a large number of resources obtained by britain, the European powers are united against britain, britain is even more disadvantageous, Germany and other emerging powers are also rising day by day, the British Empire is gradually in an embattled situation, so we can say that the Boer War is the beginning of the total collapse of the British Empire.