South Africa is an economically thriving country and probably the most advanced country on the African continent. However, the entire African continent is probably the least developed part of the world. Why is South Africa so different from the rest of its continent? Karen Politis Virk explains that this is due to South Africa's developed economy and diverse population (Virk 40). South Africa has three main ethnic groups: African, Afrikaner and mixed race. Afrikaners and mixed races have many roots in Europe and Asia, giving the nation even more diversity and a cultural melting pot. This distinguishes the nation from the rest of the African nation where the majority of residents are of native African descent (Virk 38). There has been no mixing of cultures or ideas in nations as has occurred in South Africa. South Africa has fewer disease problems and socioeconomic problems. The reason for South Africa's success may be because it has had a tumultuous and interesting history compared to the rest of the continent. Most of the African continent is underdeveloped for one simple reason: diversity (Abdullkadir, 634). The rest of Africa had some sort of external influence, but the influence did not remain in the hands of the people. The Boers developed differently than the rest of Africa, and the breaking point is the Boer War. The Boer War is a forgotten war. Many educated people can't tell you anything about this war, except perhaps where it was fought. The war has many names: South African War, Anglo-Boer War, and the Boers call it Engelse oorlog, or English War. The result, after many decades of quarrels and conflicts between the Afrikaans, the Dutch settlers in the...... middle of the document...... South African Journal of Science 105.5 (2009): 171-. Press.University of Oxford. "Boer Wars". The Oxford Companion to British History. Ed. Giovanni Cannone. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997. 111. Print.Pakenbam, Thomas. The Boer War. New York: Random House, 1979. Print.Sparks, Julie. "Consensus for the Boer War". English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920 44.3 (2001): 385-8. Print.Van Heyningen, Elizabeth. "Costly Mythologies: The Concentration Camps of the South African War in Afrikaner Historiography*". Journal of Southern African Studies 34.3 (2008): 495-513. Print.van Heyningen, Elizabeth. "A Tool for Modernization? The Boer Concentration Camps of the South African War, 1900-1902." South African Journal of Science 106.5 (2010): 1-10. Print.Virk, Karen Politis. "South Africa today." Applied Clinical Studies 18.11 (2009): 38-44. Press.