ABSTRACT
The Second Boer War, at the very outset of the period, was the biggest war yet waged in Africa, involving some 440,000 British and colonial troops on one side and just under 90,000 Boers on the other. The Anglo-Boer wars fall only partly within the parameters of this book. The first holds that the conflict was the last of the "gentlemen's wars", the second that it was a "white man's war". The events of the Second Boer War cast into bolder relief the shortcomings of African strategies of armed resistance to European invasion. So passed into the hands of the state not only Southern Nigeria but also the company's somewhat specious claims to Northern Nigeria. The rebellion in South West Africa began in January 1904. It was also true that this was the role that had been cast for the Hereros by the German colonial government, responsive to the demands of the setders for labour.
