Velikie derzhavy i anglo-burskaya voyna 1899-1902 gg.: prichiny nevmeshatel'stva

The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 aroused heightened interest among the international community, fuelled by reports of the occupiers’ inhumane treatment of the civilian population of the South African Republic and the Orange Free State. However, despite the availability of peacekeeping instruments such as good offices and mediation provided for in the Hague Convention of 1899, and widespread sympathy for the Boers, the governments of the great powers remained neutral. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influenced the positions of the major powers in order to determine why Germany, France, Russia and the United States were unable to work in concert to resolve this conflict. The benevolent neutrality of the United States was the result of its political rapprochement with Great Britain, reinforced by significant exports of military materials and the provision of loans to the British government. Germany’s policy was dictated by its rivalry with London on the one hand and its opposition to the Russian-French alliance on the other, while German neutrality was the price paid for concessions to Great Britain on colonial issues. In France, despite anti-British sentiment after the Fashoda Incident, a pragmatic course of rapprochement with London prevailed in opposition to Germany. In Russia, pragmatic considerations (unwillingness to complicate relations with Great Britain) prevailed over public sympathy for the Boers. The study shows that mutual differences and fears of British naval superiority prevented the major powers from coordinating their efforts. Instead, Germany, Russia, the United States and France used Britain’s distraction in southern Africa to achieve their own geopolitical goals in other regions.