Social security is very important and of far-reaching importance to Italy, but it is the current international situation that is even more important for Italy at the moment.

First of all, in South Africa, the British Empire could finally proudly claim that it had conquered the Boers.

On 10 January 1900, Roberts, commander-in-chief of the South African Expeditionary Force, and Kitchener, chief of staff, arrived in Cape Town.

They brought with them the Seventh Army, reinforcements from Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, and three cavalry units in India and Ceylon.

By the end of January 1900, the British army on the battlefield in South Africa had increased to 190,000, and by March it had increased to 250,000. In addition, several thousand military horses arrived in South Africa from Britain and Australia, increasing the mobility of the British army.

That's right, the fiasco some time ago made the British Empire ruthless.

The inaugural Lord Roberts also changed his strategy after a battlefield investigation, moving the direction of attack from Natal West to the Orange region with weaker troops in the center, and at the same time changing the rigid frontal attack tactics and adopting a roundabout and flanking strategy.

On the Western Front, the British defeated the militia under the command of Piert Cronye, the fiercest "black general" of the Burenos Aires, and liberated Kimberley, which had been besieged for months, on 27 February. On the Eastern Front, the British launched an offensive on 28 February and defeated the Boers at Dodrecht on 5 March, finally relieving the siege of Lattice Smith.

Having eliminated the threat to the left flank from the most formidable Cronye, Roberts turned his main forces back to Orange and steadily advanced northward.

Having learned the lessons of the failures of the first stage, the British changed their tactics. When ambushed by the Cloth army, the infantry units no longer maintained formation, but dug trenches nearby to cover the cavalry to launch a roundabout attack on the Cloth army's position.

Under this tactic, the Cloth army's resistance in poplar forests, Abraham's bullpen and other places failed one after another. On 20 March, the British 6th and 7th Divisions defeated the Johannesburg Police Force, the best equipped of the Bono Army, at the Abraham Bullpen.

On March 22, Mathius Stein, President of the Orange Free State, led government and parliamentary officials out of the capital, Bloemfontein, and fled to Kronstad in the north.

On the afternoon of 23 March, the British army marched into Bloemfontein.

In late March, the British army had an epidemic of typhoid fever, and Roberts had to order a rest on the spot, and the British offensive was forced to be interrupted. On 2 April, the commander-in-chief of the Burunes army, Joubert, was seriously wounded in another fall from his horse during the battle at Willow Farm, and died on 3 April. In accordance with his last wishes, Louis Botha, who was skilled in guerrilla warfare, succeeded him as commander-in-chief of the Boer field forces.

At a time when good news came from all fronts of the British army, a large number of British reinforcements arrived in South Africa. Yes, the lion fights the rabbit with all its might, and the British Empire is determined to show off its army (although the previous battles have revealed its army in its true form).

Since there are reinforcements, there is no reason not to use them, and after the adjustment of troops, the British Imperial army has changed.

In the direction of the main attack, Roberts had eight infantry divisions (3rd, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th, Colonial Division) and the 12th Cavalry Division. Roberts, with the main forces, resumed the offensive in mid-May. On 29 May, Roberts' army captured Kronstad, the new capital of the Orange Free State.

As a result of successive defeats, the morale of the Boers plummeted. With Roberts' lenient promise, many of the militia members operating in the rear of the British surrendered to the British, surrendered their weapons, and returned to their farms. By mid-June, only more than 20,000 Boers were left fighting.

On 24 June 1900, Lord Milner announced the British annexation of the Orange Free State at Bloemfontein.

After the annexation of Orange, the British intensified their offensive on the Transvaal.

On 29 June, General French, commanding an Australian cavalry unit, defeated the last defensive force at the Klip River on the southern outskirts of Johannesburg. On 30 June, President Kruger left the capital, Pretoria, by train. On 31 June, Roberts entered Johannesburg and on the early morning of 5 July left for Pretoria.

On 1 September 1900, Roberts announced the British annexation of the Transvaal and declared the end of the war.

On 11 September, President Kruger was authorized by the exiled Transvaal government to arrive in Lorenço Marques, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique. On October 19, Kruger sailed to Europe on the cruiser Gerdland, sent by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands, to ask for help.

When Roberts declared the war over, the British Empire lost more than 13,000 casualties. Most of them were the losses suffered by the army, and of course the army was wounded and missing more than 19,000 people, in addition to the dead soldiers.

More than 30,000 casualties were definitely not small casualties for the British army. Of course, the Boers did not feel well, and their maximum mobilization of 88,000 troops, by the time Lord Roberts declared the end of the war, the Boers had only 31,000 troops.

Instead of laying down their arms when Roberts declared the end of the war, the Boers began to harass the British troops gathered in their homeland.

Among them, the supply line has become the top priority of the attack.

The British army was also not polite to the Boers in all directions, and the brutal heavy pressure policy was carried out, and the concentration camps and the three-light policy were carried forward here. All the Boers who could be found were concentrated in a centralized residence, and their cattle, sheep, food and other materials were also taken away and destroyed. Attempts were made to cut off the connection of the Boers with their army.

In addition, items such as field telephones, armored vehicles suitable for law and order warfare, and lights were all invented during this period.

Although the battle between the two sides continued, everyone knew that the Boers would not last long. After all, its numbers are too small to be an opponent of the British Empire. Of course, the British Empire's inferior performance in this war cost it all face.

And while the Boer War was in full swing, the farcical war in the Far East also ended. After the armies of various countries occupied the capital, the empress dowager finally came to her senses and sent Li Zhongtang to try to sue for peace.

In the face of the Queen Mother's begging, countries reacted differently. In order to induce the Qing court to recognize the legitimacy of its invasion of the three eastern provinces, Tsarist Russia, which had contributed the most troops, first expressed its recognition of Li Zhongtang's qualifications as a representative and agreed to negotiate peace with the Qing court, and at the same time withdrew the Russian envoy and troops from Beijing to Tianjin.

As for other countries, they want to seek more benefits, oppose peace negotiations with the empress dowager, who is known for her pro-Russian tendencies, and refuse to recognize Li Zhongtang's qualifications as a representative. As for Germany, it was even more jealous of the Qing court because its minister Klinder was killed, and even agreed with Britain to prepare for the arrest of Li Zhongtang and obstruct the Qing court's negotiations with Russia.

Li Zhongtang also knew that (someone reported the news), so he did not dare to go north after arriving in Shanghai from Guangzhou, but he also began to make internal and external preparations for negotiations, including asking the Qing court to suppress the Boxers and deal with the foreign powers.

At the same time, in Russia, he tried his best to mediate for the Qing court, and strongly persuaded Britain and Germany to give up their plans to arrest Li Zhongtang.

On 23 August, Li Zhongtang arrived in Tanggu under the protection of the Russian army, and soon went to Beijing to travel among the envoys of various countries.

However, at this time, Germany proposed to punish the Empress Dowager Cixi, Duanwang Zaiyi and other war evildoers as a precondition for peace negotiations, which made peace talks impossible.

The controversy between various countries over whether or not to negotiate peace with the Qing court and Li Hongzhang's qualifications as a deputy is actually a manifestation of the contradictions between various countries in China.

Russia supported the Empress Dowager and Li Zhongtang, who had always been pro-Russian, while Britain, Italy, and Germany supported the reformed emperor. Such a dispute made Germany, which had the second largest number of troops in the Eight-Nation Alliance, dissatisfied.

As the commander-in-chief of the coalition forces who arrived late, Marshal Wadsey led the coalition forces to force into Shanxi. Germany's harboring of evil intentions frightened Britain and made Italy dissatisfied.

In the end, under the strong appeal of the two countries, Germany had to stop there, opening the door for the Qing court to beg for peace.

As for the empress dowager, in order to obtain the forgiveness of the nations, she issued an edict to punish the ministers who caused the trouble. Several governors also tried their best to exonerate the queen mother, blaming Zaiyi's father and son for the declaration of war.

These performances by the Qing court and the important vassals of the feudal realms made the great powers feel that the empress dowager had cleared their minds, and that it would be of great interest to them to continue to support the tame government. In addition, European countries also feared that abandoning the empress dowager would lead to the collapse of the Qing court and the loss of the opportunity and possibility of blackmail from the Far East.

Under such circumstances, the European powers gradually converged, and finally decided to "preserve" the dignity of the empress dowager and began to negotiate peace with the Qing court.

In October 1900, France took the lead in putting forward six demands, including punishing the culprits, paying compensation, and dismantling the Dagu Fort, as the basis for negotiations with the Qing government. On December 24, 11 countries (plus Belgium, Spain, and the Netherlands) jointly submitted 12 articles of the "Outline of Peace" to the Qing court, which was fully accepted by the Qing government.

As a result, the spoils of various countries are about to be held, and the ambassadors of various countries are gearing up to try to capture the most benefits for their countries.