Hi u/MrHarpoon925,

(Apologies for the late reply, I'm afraid I have been busy with my PhD work and don't always have time to answer the Reddit threads I would like to in as much detail as they deserve - but I will do my best.)

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Your question is an interesting one but is a bit vague. I assume the public opinion you are asking about would be the British public at the time? Well, it might interest you to know that the Second Anglo-Boer War (aka the South African War) was considered contentious and controversial in several other territories including within the Boer Republic itself!

Despite what your question might suggest, though, the British public and government were actually overwhelmingly in favour of the war, at least initially. For some it was a matter of honour and pride for the British Empire - a rematch, as it were, to avenge the loss of the first Anglo-Boer War (1880-1881).

For the majority of those in power, though, it was what it's always been about: the expansion of wealth and power vis-à-vis claiming of land and resources. The Boers were very much still in possession of land and valuable resources the Crown coveted, and so the government ensured that public opinion was firmly swayed in their favour. Eventually, it also became about ending the costly war as quickly as possible, by whatever means possible, which brings us to the primary point of contention, and perhaps the reason the war left a bad taste in the Empire's mouth: the Concentration Camps.

I won't go into the full history of the war and the lead up to it as that would take several posts to unravel, rather I'll highlight a few things:

1) Justification for the War

The reason for the war on part of the British was most certainly resources, but what the British public was lead to believe was that it was a war for the future of the colony itself, essentially submitting that the Boer republic was not as capable of running their colony as the British would be and thus this was "for their own good". This British political cartoon from 1900 titled When the War is Over perfectly illustrates this - note the depiction of Britain as the helmeted, female warrior Britannia, as well as the Boer as a wounded, hunched-over old man, and the African on his knees in awe whilst Britannia points to the future she would lead them to.

The explanation of said image reads:

A racist cartoon from 1900 depicts Britain's vision of the future for South Africa and the Boer republics. The depiction of the local Africans is particularly offensive. It is significant that the two subject peoples, Boer and African, are depicted in different poses: the wounded Boer may be a bit humbled by the British victory and the coming of "Enlightened Government" but he retains some of his self respect. The African man, on the other hand, is depicted as kneeling and thus subordinate not only to the conquering British but even to the conquered Boers.

With such strong propagandistic imagery in the minds of the British public, and a long history of similar ideology in place with regards to almost every other British colony, it is small wonder that the public largely believed the war was justified.

2) Scorched Earth

There is a lot to say about the military aspects of the South African war, including the usage of Black surrogate soldiers on part of the Boers and what is considered an early example of guerrilla tactics in warfare, however we'll instead focus on what began to divide public opinion: the implementation of Concentration Camps. Or rather, the eventual dissemination of their existence and impact to the British public.

Firstly, to understand why the concentration camps were installed, one must understand the course of the war. Initially, the war was somewhat conventional, in the military sense of the word, and proceeded well for the Boers, however 88,000 Boers could not withstand the overwhelming manpower of 500,000 imperial soldiers and eventually they began losing engagement after engagement. This culminated in a significant defeat for the Boers in 1900 wherein they lost Pretoria and Bloemfontein which, according to British military doctrine, should have ended the war for all parties concerned. However, the Boers refused to accept this and began guerrilla operations instead.

This infuriated Lord Kitchener, the commander-in-chief of British Forces during the war, who ordered Scorched Earth be implemented to force the Boers to capitulate. This policy involved the burning of homesteads, crops, killing livestock and horses, and destroying anything useful to Boer resistance. More than 30,000 farmhouses and more than 40 towns were destroyed with thousands of women and children were removed from their homes by force.

A significant reason behind the decision to implement this policy was pressure from the British government AND the public. Though the public were supportive of the war to begin with, eventually the cost became untenable for the British taxpayer with it costing upwards of £2,5 million a month. Bottom-line is the British wanted to end the war quickly.

The thinking was that the pressure created by the economic destruction of the homesteads and the psychological impact of having their wives and children in distress would force the Boers to surrender. But whilst the British were waiting for this inevitable surrender, the question of what to do with the Boer women, children, and black farm workers was raised. And the answer was the concentration camps.