Front Page News – War!
Most of us in the United States, in the modern world, know something about the Boer War but only in passing. Or we have some idea about the wars based on information from movies such as Breaker Morant (film), Untamed (1955 film), Young Winston.
But back in 1900 the Boer War was front page news, as were all the other wars being fought around the world. Here is just an example of such reporting.
Back in 1900 the newspaper was the main source of news so it is logical that world news would be presented with as much detail as possible. The competition for readers was ever present and if the newspaper could give the reader “exclusive news” then that editor was assured of sales. People would talk about what was in the newspaper and those who could read would relay the news to the rest of the family.
Today we have so many media outlets from where to get our news that we are not limited to the front page stories and we are not attuned to what is going on around the world if we do not choose to view such news. Therefore the conversations are not about what was on the front page, but about so many other topics that we read, heard, or watched on TV, the web, or our phones. While the people of 1900 Maryland were all a buzz about the Boer War, we are all a buzz about Boston bombings, what Rush said or the latest DUI arrest of some celebrity.
I wonder if the people of the 1900’s were better informed about world affairs than we are. Of course the editors of the newspapers would select what news to print so maybe the Boer War was important to people in Maryland but not so much to the people in Texas.
I wonder how many wars are going on around the world at this time which the general public is not aware of because it was not mention on FOX, MSNBC, NBC, CBS, ABC, NPR or Google News.
We may not be so up to date on current news but we can be better informed on the history of the world because of the wealth of knowledge that is on the web. Here is what I found on the Boer War.
Boer Wars
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“The Boer Wars were two wars fought during 1880–1881 and 1899–1902 by the British Empire against the Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic.”
You can review all the conflicts (wars) on this excellent web page:
List of war films and TV specials From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
I selected the three on the list which either lead to the Boer War or are the Boer Wars.
Anglo-Zulu War (1879)
• Zulu (1964), depiction of the Battle of Rorke’s Drift
• Zulu Dawn (1979), depiction of the Battle of Isandlwana
First Boer War (1880–1881)
• Majuba (1968)
Second Boer War (1899–1902)
• Arende (TV mini series)
• Breaker Morant (1980), Australian soldiers on trial for murder
• Commando (2007)
• Ohm Kruger (1942)
• Torn Allegiance (1984)
• Untamed (1955)
• Young Winston (1972)
I hope this posting has given you some new information and some new links to review.
Thank You.
Genealogical Collection 
Jose, thanks for this reminder and the info I didn’t know. It actually might connect with some shirttail relatives who remained in Holland. I’m working on a post for tomorrow about the Spanish-American War and an in-law ancestor. I hope it doesn’t revive your concerns in the past about the past relations between the Netherlands and Spain LOL. I did find out that the family stories about some of my Dutch ancestors actually coming from Spain are probably true since I did a DNA test and have some Spanish origins.