On the battlefield, the British military for much of the early war used mostly infantry with cavalry armed with the traditional sabres, used as a melee force. The Boers, however, were largely farmers who acted as mounted infantry and able to fight on the ground or from horseback, so much of the war involved the British soldiers slogging their way across the Transvaal and Free State after the much faster and more mobile Boers. Furthermore, the Boers knew the land and used it very well against the British forces. The vast majority of battles in the war resulted in fewer Boer losses regardless of who won.

So how did the British overcome this and win? Firstly, a huge manpower disparity. The Boers' armies were far smaller than that of the British, and so the latter were able to fight battles for a lot longer as there were more men to spare, and after some preliminary lines were broken across the Orange River, the Boers avoided the main British "steamroller" led by Field Marshal Lord Roberts. This let the British power up through the two Boer states using the main railway line and capture Bloemfontein and Pretoria, the two Boer capitals. This was the first advance for the British as it gave them key areas linked by rail (which was sparse at the time and vital for British supplies) from which they could deal with the rest of the Boer armies.

At this point, the Boers took to guerrilla warfare and hit-and-run attacks on small groups of British soldiers. Meanwhile, Lord Roberts left for England and so Lord Kitchener was put in charge of the war.

Kitchener began to use scorched earth tactics to deprive the Boers of supplies that were being provided by those who still lived there but had not taken up arms, and the people were then sent to concentration camps which were established all across South Africa.

Now a key point of note here - these were not the concentration camps you may be familiar with from the Second World War, but were instead used as a means of keeping the population in a single place and ensuring they had no contact with the enemy. There was no intention for any death like the Nazis had against the Jews. That said, due to gross mismanagement death rates were very high in the camps, leading to the deaths around 28,000 Boer women and children (and a number of native Africans which I cannot remember). This death rate was later remedied due to huge pressure from people like Emily Hobhouse. However, in terms of winning the war it remains that as long as these people were in the camps they were not aiding the Boer armies.

Kitchener also began to use his forces (which by now had larger numbers of mounted infantry and so were a bit more mobile) to sweep across the land in large swathes to try and take as many Boers as possible. Whilst this was of some success, it was limited. So Kitchener then used a new system, covering South Africa in a net of blockhouses and barbed wire between them, covering the entire area in an attempt to limit Boer manoeuvrability. Again, this gave limited success, and so Kitchener began to implement a new system endorsed by the Governor of South Africa, Alfred Milner. This involved using the Bloemfontein and Pretoria as staging grounds, from which the army would create clear zones which were guaranteed to be clear of the enemy. This clearing process went across South Africa and eventually the Boers were willing to discuss terms, as after 2 long years they had finally run low on resources and (most vitally) strong horses.

So overall the British won due to a huge manpower advantage, copious spending on the creation of the blockhouse "web" and tactics of attrition that in the end wore down the Boers' ability to wage guerrilla war effectively.