Do You Agree with the View Presented in Source 9 That Critics of the Second Boer War Were Wrong to Say That the Concentration Camps Were Part of the Deliberate Methods of Barbarism

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Do you agree with the view presented in source 9 that critics of the second Boer war were wrong to say that the concentration camps were part of the deliberate methods of barbarism? Source 9 is trying to tell us a different side of the second Boer war; most views on the Boer war are very one sided with the view that the British dealt with the Boers brutally. This source tries to tell us that this wasn’t the case and although source 7 and 8 may not say the same thing it is useful to a historian to see another side to this war. In many respects the statement “critics of the second Boer war were wrong to say that the concentration camps were part of the deliberate methods of barbarism” is true which is clearly displayed in source9. We see this in the first sentence where it says “the Boers who flooded into them for food, shelter, clothing and, above all protection” which gives the implication that the Boers that went to these concentration camps went of their own accord because they were getting something back which they wanted. This shows one reason as to why the concentration camps weren’t brutal but actually a way to help the Boers offering something to help improve their living conditions, free of cost, which was exactly what the Boers wanted and took. No Boers would have gone to these camps knowing that they might be treated brutally. This is also shown to be true when it says “Attendance was normally voluntary” clearly the meaning was that they wanted to go to these camps because they were considered better than what they already had and that it would be safer to do so. Though this doesn’t actually tell us that they weren’t brutal just that they didn’t do it deliberately. This corresponds with the sentence stated later in source 9 “In some case there were musical societies, reading rooms, games and sports” which shows an enjoyable, perfectly reasonable life
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