Empire (71st of 90) -- The Second Boer War and the Concentration Camps [audio 15min]

By January 1900 the Afrikaners had beaten the British at four battles and had Ladysmith, Kimberley and Mafeking under siege. A new British command under Roberts and his chief of staff Kitchener reversed the defeats and relieved the besieged towns and garrisons but the Boers continued a successful guerrilla war. Kitchener applied a scorched earth policy so that the Boers and local people had no cover and no food. The British also set up some 50 concentration camps. More than 26,000 women and children died in the camps. "This Sceptred Isle: Empire" is a narrative history of the British Empire from Ireland in the 12th century to the independence of India in the 20th, told in 90 programmes written by historian Christopher Lee and narrated by actor Juliet Stevenson. ~Visit website to listen again to 5 most recent episodes, plus interactive maps and timeline, biographical dictionary, image galleries, quizzes, sources, resources, listeners' comments.