Treaty of Vereeniging (1902): The End of the Second Boer War

The Treaty of Vereeniging was the peace settlement that ended the Second Boer War on 31 May 1902. Under its terms the South African Republic (Transvaal) and the Orange Free State lost their independence and became British colonies, but their leaders won an amnesty, money for reconstruction and a promise of self-government. The treaty shaped the creation of the Union of South Africa eight years later, and its silence on the rights of Black Africans had long consequences.

Background: a war that would not end

The war began in October 1899. By mid-1900 British forces had captured Bloemfontein and Pretoria, the two Boer capitals, and Britain annexed both republics. The Boers did not give up: for almost two more years mobile commandos led by men such as Christiaan de Wet, Koos de la Rey and Louis Botha waged a guerrilla war.

Lord Kitchener, the British commander, answered with blockhouses and barbed wire across the veld, the burning of farms and the removal of Boer women and children, and many Black Africans, into camps. Disease killed tens of thousands in the concentration camps. By early 1902 the commandos were exhausted, short of horses, food and ammunition, and worried about the fate of their families and about growing armed resistance by Black Africans in some areas.

An earlier attempt at peace, talks between Kitchener and Botha at Middelburg in March 1901, had failed, largely over amnesty for Cape rebels and the future of the republics.

Negotiations at Vereeniging

In April 1902 Boer leaders met in Klerksdorp and then opened talks with Kitchener and the British high commissioner, Sir Alfred Milner, in Pretoria. Britain refused to discuss restoring independence. The Boer governments therefore called an assembly of 60 delegates, 30 from each republic, elected by the commandos still in the field.

The delegates met in a tented camp at Vereeniging on the Vaal River from 15 May 1902. The debate was bitter. Some, especially Free State leaders such as President Martinus Steyn and de Wet, wanted to fight on as “bittereinders” (bitter-enders). Others, including Botha and the young lawyer and general Jan Smuts, argued that continuing would destroy the Afrikaner people.

On 31 May the delegates voted 54 to 6 to accept the British terms. Later that night ten Boer leaders, together with Kitchener and Milner, signed the document at Melrose House in Pretoria, Kitchener’s headquarters.

The terms

The treaty was short, with ten clauses. Its main points were:

• The Boer forces would lay down their arms and acknowledge King Edward VII as their lawful sovereign.
• Prisoners of war overseas and in South Africa would be returned home.
• No action would be taken against the burghers for lawful acts of war; Cape and Natal rebels were treated separately and more harshly.
• Dutch would be taught in schools where parents wished it and allowed in courts of law.
• Rifles would be permitted for personal protection under licence.
• Military rule would be replaced by civil government, followed “as soon as circumstances permit” by representative institutions leading to self-government.
• The question of granting the franchise to “natives” would not be decided until after self-government was introduced.
• No special tax would be imposed to pay for the war, and Britain would provide £3 million to help rebuild farms and homes.

Consequences

Reconstruction under Milner was difficult. Farms had been burned, livestock killed and families broken up. Milner’s policy of promoting English language and immigration was resented by Afrikaners, and Chinese indentured labourers were brought in to work the gold mines from 1904.

The promise of self-government came quickly once a Liberal government took power in Britain. The Transvaal received responsible government in 1906 and the Orange River Colony in 1907, with Botha and Smuts leading the Transvaal administration. On 31 May 1910, exactly eight years after the treaty, the four colonies combined to form the Union of South Africa, with Botha as its first prime minister.

By the numbers

Legacy

Afrikaner nationalists remembered the treaty as a forced surrender, while British imperialists saw it as a generous peace that turned former enemies into partners within the Empire. Botha and Smuts indeed led South Africa as a British dominion and fought on Britain’s side in the First World War.

For Black South Africans the outcome was very different. Clause 8 meant that the vote was left in the hands of white electorates, and the Union constitution of 1910 kept political power almost entirely white outside the Cape. Many historians see this as a key step on the road to segregation and later apartheid.

Timeline

• 1899, 11 October: the Second Boer War begins.
• 1900, 5 June: British forces enter Pretoria.
• 1901, 28 February: peace talks at Middelburg between Kitchener and Botha begin, and later fail.
• 1902, 15 May: Boer delegates meet at Vereeniging.
• 1902, 31 May: the delegates vote 54 to 6 for peace; the treaty is signed at Melrose House that night.
• 1906-1907: the Transvaal and Orange River Colony receive self-government.
• 1910, 31 May: the Union of South Africa is founded.

Why it matters

The Treaty of Vereeniging ended the largest and most costly war Britain fought between 1815 and 1914 and finished the independence of the Boer republics. By reconciling white Boers and Britons at the expense of Black Africans’ political rights, it set the pattern for the Union of South Africa and for much of the country’s 20th-century history.