Is it true that the concentration camps were invented by the British?

The dispute about who exactly came up with concentration camps: the Bolsheviks, Americans, Nazis or British - often found in blogs. But the most common version says that concentration camps are the invention of the British. We decided to check if this is so.

The mention of the British as inventors of concentration camps can be found both in the media and blogs. For example, the program was devoted to this "Ren-TV". In VKontakte, records about camps in the Anglo-Broke war are often come across-as in popular public, and in personal blogs. In Zen, the post about English concentration camps was published in the public "Two wars"(155,000 subscribers). Also, similar records are often found in Livejournal.

Concentration camps in Russian often called Both prisoners of war camps and death camps created by Nazi Germany for the mass murder of Jews. IN English and in French Dictionary definitions are extremely clear: a concentration camp is a place of conclusion, which contains a large number of civilians in bad conditions, usually during the war. And in the Russian -speaking tradition, most often by concentration camps, it is precisely the places of compulsory isolation for civilians.

The British are often called the ancestors of the principle of concentration camps and cited as an example of the Anglo-Broke war of 1899-1902. But the first case of mass forcible movement of civilians during the war dates back to 1896. A year before, an uprising began in Cuba (at that time of the Spanish colony). Partisans, with the active support of the local population at first, won several local victories. The authorities of the metropolis in response to this appointed the new Governor of Cuba. They became an experienced military valeriano Wealer-I-Nicolau.

First of all, Wayler strengthened the position of colonial troops. And then He began the struggle Against the civilian population, trying to eliminate the rear support of the rebel army. He began to pursue a policy of reconstruction, that is, forced resettlement and concentration of citizens within these settlements. The order signed by Valeriano Weiler said: “Within eight days, all residents of the countryside or settlements outside the line of fortified cities should concentrate within the limits of cities occupied by troops. All residents of rural areas or areas outside the line of fortified cities will be concentrated within the cities occupied by troops within eight days. Anyone who does not obey this order or will be discovered outside the prescribed zones will be considered a rebel and will appear before the court. ”

Peasants drove From their lands, houses and crops were burned, and the Cubans themselves were placed in the fenced territory. At first, they were provided with land plots, but then there were so many so -called reconcentrados (“moved”) that they did not have enough housing. American diplomat Fitzheu Lee So described Conditions of Cubans: “This is an old abandoned warehouse for the docks, standing on dilapidated piles above a large stinking puddle ... There was no separation between men and women, there were no toilets or beds ... The incidence grew every day. Spanish troops occupied almost all buildings, and for the rest of the population there was no housing. Houses for Reconcentrados are just pigsters, people stopped breathing clean air. Like a lack of food, this leads to hundreds of deaths. ”

American historian Spencer Tucker He wroteThat Weiler's policy led to a humanitarian, and then to an economic disaster. Agriculture in Cuba was rapidly declining, repressions against the civilian population only temporarily led to the desired effect, and then the peasants even more eagerly began to support the rebels. In addition, the policy of reconstruction I influenced On public opinion in the United States, and Spain’s war for holding its colony turned into a Spanish-American war. The result of the reconstruction became death More than 200,000 civilians.

Thus, the principle of violent concentration of civilians appeared, rather, in Cuba, and not in South Africa. But it was the British administration that brought him to the state of prison camps.

The war of Great Britain against the Boer republics (known as The second Anglo-Burian war) began in 1899. Buru - mainly emigrants from the Netherlands - by that time controlled two independent states in South Africa: a transval and the Orange Republic. During the first war with Great Britain (1880–1881), they managed to defend their independence. In the second British campaign, fighting became more intense.

Due to the overwhelming numerical and technical superiority of the British army, the Boers suffered several defeats, and the war became partisan. In order to break the enemy’s contacts with the local population, the British command created a system of camps for interned persons. How Explains The South African historian Elizabeth Van Hayiningen, at first the British called it refugees camps, but by the end of 1900 the term “concentration camps” was more often used.

Punitive measures in relation to the local population have been used from the beginning of the war: for example, the commander in chief of the British troops Frederick Roberts He ordered Burn the nearest farm after each attack of the partisans. At the end of 1900, he was replaced by Lord Kitchener, who even more tightened the policy towards the Boers.

The first camps appeared in July 1900, after the transition of the capital of Transvaal, Praetory, under the control of the British army. Basically, women and children were sent to camps. Men were considered prisoners of war and sent to hard labor outside South Africa. There was only for the war Created 45 camps for drilling and 64 additional camps for indigenous Africans. The camps were closely set up tents - the inhabitants were constantly in need of water and food, medical care was provided only in extreme cases, and unsanitary conditions reigned everywhere. British civil activist Emily Hobhaus, who visited several such camps, I drew the attention of the press On the unbearable conditions in which women and children found themselves.

During the war in the camps, more than 26,000 women and children were killed, many of whom became victims of typhoid and measles. The practice of forcibly moving the civilian population to places of imprisonment existed the whole war, despite the protests of the public. In 1900, a member of the parliament from the liberal party Lloyd George accused His compatriots in atrocities and reproached them for borrowing experience from the Spaniards, referring to reconstruction in Cuba.

Thus, the first practice of concentration camps began to be used by the Spaniards in 1896 in Cuba. But after a few years, the British expanded this strategy for the fight against the civilian population, creating a whole system of camps.

Image on the cover: Bloomfontsein concentration camp, UK National Archives / Wikimedia Commons

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