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The Boer War
S5/6 Cradle to the Grave
What you will learn
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Why the Boer War worried people in Britain
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The beginnings of social reform
The Boer War
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In 1899 war broke out between the powerful British
Empire and the Boer Republics in South Africa
The British thought the war would be over quickly
However, Boer forces proved to well-trained, wellequipped and well led.
The war dragged on for 3 years
Eventually, Britain used 400,000 troops to defeat
Boer forces that totalled 35,000
The war was a great shock to British confidence
In Britain people searched for answers as to why it
had taken 3 years for professional soldiers to defeat a
force of Boer farmers
Blame?
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The quality of the soliders was blamed for the
poor British performance in the war
In some towns as many as nine out of ten
recruits for the army were rejected because
they were so unfit
For example
In the Manchester district 11,000 men offered
themselves for war service between the outbreak of
hostilities in October 1899 and July 1900. Of this
number 8000 were found to be physically unfit to carry
a rifle and stand fatigues of discipline. Of the 3000
who were accepted only 1200 attained the moderate
standard of muscular power and chest measurement
required by the military authorities. In other words,
two out of every three men willing to bear arms in the
Manchester district are virtually invalids.
Source A
Arnold White speaks abou the numbers of recruits rejected in Manchester
Worries
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Such figures were worrying for a large Empire
Implied an unfit workforce as well as an unfit
army
No wonder British army had performed so
badly in South Africa and other countries were
overtaking Britain in economic growth
White blamed the conditions in Britain’s
towns – conditions produced an unfit
population
Such views were common at the this time
…contd
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Importantly, the Boer War was even further
evidence that Britain was not doing enough to
help the poorer in society
People like Arnold White argued that the poor
British economic performance and the Boer
War were proof of British decline
These views were also common
One way of resolving this problem was to
argue for social reforms
Social Reforms
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Social reforms aim to make gradual changes to
certain aspects of society
Social reform would make for a healthy
population, which was more efficient as a
workforce and as soldiers
This is often termed as arguing for National
Efficiency
Impact
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One of the results fo the Boer War was the setting up
of a specially appointed Committee on Physical
Deterioration.
This was set up in 1903 to ask why so amny army
recruits were rejected because of their health
The Committee reported in 1904 that they had found
no evidence of long-term physical deterioration of the
population in Britain, but they made
recommendations including medical inspection of
children in schools, free school meals for the very
poor and training in mother craft
…contd
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These conclusions were very important in the
future Liberal Reforms
Some historians suggets that the importance of
the Boer War is huge
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Eric Evans (historian)
Arguably, the single most important
precondition for the spate of social
reforms between 1905 and 1914 was fear
of the consequences of an unfit and
debilitated population
Tasks
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Read through pages 27-31 in Green booklets
Answer question under heading Intermediate 1
only
Answer in sentences
Use the stem of the question to start your
answer