Ethnic Identities in a Transnational Context: The Dutch American Reaction to the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902

Dutch Americans viewed the Afrikaner struggle for independence against the British as parallel to their own struggles to maintain a Dutch Calvinist identity in the face of Americanisation pressures. The war’s international impact went beyond politics and economics, and included a significant cultural component, as it contributed to a transnational rejuvenation of ethnic consciousness. Dutch Americans drew on the pro-Boer movement in the Netherlands, and adapted it for their own purposes.