It also has several interesting facts about what the war caused around the world; many Imperial German officers, newspapers and people felt that Germany should enter the war on the side of the Boer commandos; several Americans believed that the US should enter into the war against the British as well. Another interesting fact: on the day that the capital of the ZAR (South African Republic) fell (without a shot being fired, though it was only the beginning of the bitter long war) a young schoolboy who had travelled all the way from Pensylvania presented ZAR President Kruger (who fled shortly afterwards) with a letter of support signed by several thousand American school-children showing support for their side.
Another thing I noticed is how school history books glossed over some of the facts about the war. I can remember distinctly how my school-history book never actually mentioned who fired the first shot, but only gave the date the war officially began. Turns out it was our side.
(that said, though, a pre-emptive assault was in a sense logical given the fact that the British Empire had made it's designs on attacking the Boer Republics a few years earlier by staging a failed uprising).
Man, history certainly is complicated.
:)
