"Deze vergadering...beschouwt, dat onder de omstandigheden het volk niet gerechtvaardigd is, met den oorlog voort te gaan..." 'n Ontleding van die redes waarom die Boere-afgevaardigdes by Vereeniging op 31 Mei 1902 die Britse vredesvoorwaardes aanvaar het

Abstract

In this article the course of events since the Dutch prime minister, Kuyper, offered his mediation for peace In South Africa on 25 January 1902 to the British prime minister, Lord Salisbury, until the signing of the Peace of Vereeniging on 31 May 1902, is outlined. Seven factors which acted reciprocally to cause the Boer delegates to accept the humiliating British peace conditions are singled out. hese were: the lack of supplies that was particularly critical in the Eastern and south-eastern Transvaal and the Free State district of Heilbron, the growing threat that blacks posed to the commandos, the desperately dangerous position o[Boer women and children who roamed the veld, the suffering and deaths of Boer women and children in the concentration camps, the realisation that Britain could not be vanquished in war by the dwindling Boer forces alone without foreign intervention, the adverse effect of pedestrians on the Boers' war effort in the guerrilla phase, and the shortage of arms and ammunition among the Boers.