The Union of South Africa 1910 | South African History Online South African History Online Home » The South African War and Union » The Union of South Africa 1910 The South African War and Union Related articles Celebrating Republic Day 1961 © Bailey's Archives The Union of South Africa 1910 Towards Union It is often assumed that the discovery of gold at the Rand was the chief cause of the South African War. This is not completely true, as British imperialism was chiefly concerned with expanding its territory in Southern Africa, in so doing enforcing dominion over all the inhabitants of annexed territories. The Boer Republics, however, were chiefly concerned by British attempts to annex their self-declared republics, a move that would once again put them at the mercy of capital and politics as dictated by England proper. A further concern was that the Boers were chiefly agriculturalists, with little or no skill in industry and manufacturing, and their conceptualization of their relationship to the land was less utilitarian and more Romantic/Calvinist. Finally, denying the franchise to foreigners in the Boer republics, by their reasoning, was repayment for the treatment the Boers received at the Cape.

The Union Buildings were designed by the British Architect Sir Herbert Baker and inaugurated in 1913. The two wings symbolised the Union of the 'two races' in South Africa: the English speakers and the Afrikaners. The abortive Jameson raid and the issued ultimatum thereafter assured that a confrontation would occur between the Boer republics and the British colonial machine. Initial confrontations between the Boers and British resulted in a number of victories for the Boers; however, this momentum could not be sustained, because Britain as a superpower had more resources and manpower to realise its expansionist policy. Secondly, with the institution of Kitchener’s scorched earth policy, Boer commandoes were denied any material support. Finally, by arming a large number of Blacks – in addition to employing them as ditch diggers, scouts and logistical support – they ultimately tipped the balance in the direction of the British. Only the realization that, as a population, Europeans were vastly outnumbered by the Black population of South Africa, prevented the British from exterminating the Boers.

By this, I mean that the British realised that for racial domination to be viable, they would need to forge an alliance with the Boers – hence the generous terms of the Treaty of Vereeniging. The result of the South African War was a polarising of South African politics into conservative and liberal streams. This is evident when one examines developments before, during and after South Africa became a Union. These would include the loss of life during the South African War, both in combat and within the internment camps, the tension between the ‘bittereinders’ and the ‘hensoppers’ (those who refused to surrender and those who saw the conflict as futile). A number of issues resulted from the arming of large numbers of ‘blacks’ to fight on both sides of the war. This became a source of tension that made difficult an alliance between a Boer and British. Lastly, an increasing number of educated ‘blacks’ were emerging from the mission education system, and this challenged the notion that ‘blacks’ could be denied the vote because of an inferior educational status. On 31 May 1902, Representatives of the Boer Republics and the British government signed the Peace of Vereeniging.

From the outset of the negotiations, British Prime Minister Chamberlain intimated that Britain would negotiate a peace that fostered unity among the settler populations, with the condition that British culture and loyalty to the crown would be the foundation of this peace. Kitchener went as far as to suggest that the Boers accept the terms of a British peace and tie their hopes for independence to regime change, which would surely, he said, speed up the process. Among the more notable consequences of this treaty was that the Dutch language was granted equal status to English in legislation and that self-rule would eventually be granted to the Union colonies. In order to make this peace acceptable to the Boer republics, it was decided to exclude from the terms an insistence on universal franchise for both Black and White. This would have far-reaching consequences, as Britain in effect abdicated its responsibility to influence the policies and laws enacted by South Africa. During this process, Britain continued the subjugation of traditional African structures of governance through its policies of indirect government.

Black responses to the tug-of-war between the British and the Boer republics The Bambatha rebellion was a notable Black South African response to the encroachment that resulted from the constitutional tug-of-war between the British and the Boer republics. The root of the Bambata/Bambatha Rebellion was the sustained pressure put by colonial authorities on traditional societies to force indigenous peoples into the European-controlled labour market. Discontent was welling up among many black people in Natal, particularly with regard to the allocation of land for sugar plantations and the heavy tax burdens that the colonial government imposed on blacks in Natal. After Dinizulu was deposed by the Natal government, the traditional way of life of the Zulu people came under renewed pressure, as the colonial administration continued with its policy of subjecting pre-colonial social structures to the colonial purpose. This policy was known as indirect rule. Among the first indications of a brewing rebellion was the killing of a farmer, Henry Smith, on 17 January 1906 by one of his workers. When questioned during his trail, the worker admitted killing the farmer out of resentment for having to enter in a labour relation with him in order to pay tax.

In response to Bambatha’s refusal to pay taxes, the colonial government of Natal sent an armed force to arrest him. Bambatha fled to the Mpanza valley with his family and was given refuge by the Zulu king Dinizulu. On 14 April 1906, the Natal Government offered a reward of £500 for the capture of Bambatha. On his return to his chieftaincy, Bambatha discovered that the colonial government had installed his uncle as ruler in his place. After deposing his uncle, Bambatha and his followers fled into the Nkandla forests and from there proceeded to wage a guerrilla war against the colonial government. Government measures to suppress this rebellion by Bambatha only served to garner him more support among the Zulu people, and many chieftaincies joined up with him. On 5 May 1906, Bambata’s forces engaged a colonial force dispatched to end the rebellion for good. The colonials, armed with firearms, inflicted heavy losses on Bambatha’s forces. Bambata was forced to flee, but his forces were tracked to the Mome Gorge.

In the battle that followed, Bambatha was captured and killed on 10 June 1906. The response to this rebellion was to set the tone for the constitutional developments that eventually resulted in the Union of South Africa. The status and views of Blacks were considered a secondary concern, as the British were more concerned with encouraging unity and loyalty to England among the settler population. This was played out in the National convention of 1908 National Convention 1908 The most important reason for the National convention of 1908 was to foster closer relations between the four colonies with regard to policies concerning labour, the relationship of between Britain and South Africa, education, fostering equality between Afrikaans/Dutch and English and the question of extending franchise to Black South Africans. This convention can be considered the prelude to South Africa becoming a Union. It is important to note that each of the colonies that participated in this process were considered self-governing territories. Among the major debates at this convention was the question of whether the unification of the South African Colonies would take on the form of a union or a federation.

What the shape of the South African economy would take and legislative procedures that would be followed to empower laws were also debated. The final concern was the apportioning of constitutional authority in such a way as to avoid a situation in which the political interests of one group would dominates the other. This convention in many regards constituted the foundation for the Union of South Africa, as many of the issues discussed and examined would form part of the laws of the eventual Union. South Africa Act 1909 and the denial of franchise to Black South Africans The South Africa Act of 1909 could be considered as an empowering of the decisions reached at the National Convention of 1908 by the British Parliament. This is to say that draft laws, such as language policy and the denial of the franchise to Black South Africans, as well as the eventual form the Union of South Africa were now finalised. The passing of this act, however, was not made without opposition as the South African delegation – known as the Schreiner mission – travelled to Britain in order to convince the English parliament of the need to make amendments to the South Africa Act, specifically to confer the right to vote upon all South Africans.

Included in this delegation were Dr Abdurahman, as leader of the ‘Coloured’ delegation, and JT Jabavu, as leader of the ‘African’ deputation. The main concern of the Schreiner mission was that the unification of the colonies would empower the Union parliament to remove the franchise from persons of colour at the Cape. Britain, as indicated earlier, had at this point given up on influencing governance in South Africa as long as South Africa remained loyal. The granting of self-governance to the different South African colonies as well as marked encouragement toward closer economic ties brought the vision of a unified South Africa closer to reality. In 1909, Lord Elgin, the British Colonial secretary, met with the leaders of the different colonies in South Africa and discussed the issue of a potential union as well as a proposed constitution for the Union of South Africa. Old divisions hampered this process though, as the smaller and less wealthy colonies feared that the larger and wealthier ones would dominate them. The Cape colony, in particular, feared that in a union, the other colonies would eliminate Black voters from the voters’ roll, and these voters were the electoral base for many Cape politicians.

Natal, on the other hand, wished to retain some of its independence, but eventually relented on this condition. When it came to actually forming the Union, an important concern was who would lead the government. Initially Steyn, who was once president of the Orange Free State, was asked to form a government, but he declined the offer, while Merriman, as last prime minister of the Cape Colony, indicated he would never serve under Louis Botha. Thus, it was decided that Botha would form the first government as Prime Minister. Launch of Union 1910 On the 31 May 1910, exactly eight years after the Boers had made peace with the English through the Treaty of Vereeniging, South Africa became a Union. Despite the mistrust in the Boer camp, the Afrikaners, as they now became known, had negotiated and achieved self-determination. Politically, it was nothing short of a miracle that the British and Afrikaners were able to unite to form the Union of South Africa despite the hatred, tensions and damage that the two South African Wars had inflicted on the psyche and landscape of the country.

It must be admitted that the formation of the Union was a direct result of the Treaty of Vereenging. By ignoring the wishes of the majority of the population, the formation of the Union of South Africa contributed to the political upheaval and turmoil that would engulf the country for the next eighty years. Black response to the formation of the Union The response of the African press to the formation of Union was one of undisguised hostility. Much effort was directed at stalling or changing the draft Act of the South African Union. But despite all efforts, the act was passed through the colonial parliaments. In response, John Tengu Jabavu convened the Cape Native Convention. Jabavu was an important Black political leader, educationist and journalist, and he played an important role in the establishment of what was to become the African National Congress. The principle objection of this convention was that Britain would no longer be able to intervene on behalf of the native people and that the relationship between them and the Crown would be broken. The attempt was doomed to fail, despite the fact that every politically conscious black person was against the terms and not the principal of the Union.

The representatives of the National Convention and various colonial governments gave their support to the formation of the Union under terms that virtually ignored the Black population. Despite vocal objections to the terms, the establishment of the Union of South Africa went ahead. The Formation of the ANC 1912 Preliminary drafts of the Union governments Natives’ Land Act were debated in 1911 and the Mines and Works Act was passed in 1911. These laws and the formation of the Union were important factors leading to the formation of the South African Native National Congress on 8 January, 1912, in Bloemfontein, renamed the African National Congress in 1923. Land dispossession lies at the heart of South Africa’s history and heritage of inequity. The new ANC was created against the backdrop of massive deprivation of Africans’ right to own land. To read more about the formation African National Congress in 1912 and the factors leading to the formation. Sol Plaatje.

Source: South African tourism1913 Natives’ Land Act Although the Colonial Government passed many discriminatory laws against Blacks, the most severe, the 1913 Natives’ Land Act, codified those injustices by preserving the large majority of the Union’s land for the exclusive use of the white minority. The Act effectively meant that access to land and other resources depended upon a person’s racial classification. This legislation caused endemic overcrowding, extreme pressure on the land, and poverty. Activity – There is a lot of information on the SAHO website about this act. Using the websites search function, try to consolidate all these bits of information and write one page on how the native land act impacted on Black families at the time. – Secondly, search the SAHO website for Sol Plaatje. Who was he, and what role did he play at this time in history? South Africa - Formation of the Union of South Africa, 1910 Formation of the Union of South Africa, 1910 South Africa Table of Contents Accepting the fact that English speakers would never constitute a majority in white South Africa, the Liberal government sought to come to terms with the Afrikaner majority.

In 1907 the British granted limited self-government to both the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony, and in subsequent elections, Het Volk and the Oranje Unie swept to victory. In the following year, the South African Party (SAP), led by an English-speaking critic of British imperialism and dependent on the support of the Afrikaner Bond, came to power in the Cape Colony. Reassured by the readiness of Het Volk's leaders, Botha and Smuts, to assist the gold-mining industry in obtaining larger supplies of cheap black labor (although without the Chinese workers who were repatriated in 1908) and in repressing militant white miners (who protested conditions of labor and job competition from blacks), the British government encouraged negotiations in South Africa among white representatives of the four self-governing colonies with the aim of establishing a single state.

Negotiations held in 1908 and in 1909 produced a constitution that embodied three fundamental principles: South Africa would adopt the Westminster style of government and would become a unitary state in which political power would be won by a simple majority and in which parliament would be sovereign; the question of voting rights for blacks would be left up to each of the four self-governing colonies to decide for itself (the Cape and Natal based their franchise on a property qualification; the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal denied all blacks the vote); and both English and Dutch would be official languages. The constitution also provided for future incorporation of the British-governed territories of Southern Rhodesia, Bechuanaland (present-day Botswana), Basutoland (present-day Lesotho), and Swaziland into the union. In May 1910, Louis Botha became the first prime minister of the newly established Union of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire, and Jan Smuts became his deputy.

Just eight years earlier, both men had been generals in Kruger's army; now, through the SAP, they governed a country of 4 million Africans, 500,000 coloureds, 150,000 Indians, and 1,275,000 whites. Custom Search Louis Botha | prime minister of South Africa | Britannica.com prime minister of South Africa Written By: Prime minister of South Africa born Jacobus Hercules de la Rey Louis Botha, (born Sept. 27, 1862, near Greytown, Natal [now in South Africa]—died Aug. 27, 1919, Pretoria, S.Af.), soldier and statesman who was the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa (1910–19) and a staunch advocate of a policy of reconciliation between Boers and Britons, as well as of limiting the political rights of black South Africans. Louis Botha. Photos.com/Jupiterimages The son of a voortrekker (Boer pioneer settler of the interior), he grew up in the Orange Free State , where he received his only formal education at a German mission school.

In 1884 he helped to found the New Republic in the Vryheid district in Zululand (now northern KwaZulu-Natal ). There he purchased a farm and married Annie Emmett, granddaughter of an Irish patriot. When the New Republic became part of the South African Republic ( Transvaal ) in 1888, Botha became politically active and held a number of posts before he was elected to the Volksraad (parliament) in 1897. There he sided with the moderates against Pres. Paul Kruger ’s hostile policy toward the Uitlanders (non-Boer, mostly English, settlers). Rising tensions between Great Britain and the Boer republics led to the outbreak of the South African War in 1899. Botha rose rapidly in the Boer army to command the southern force besieging Ladysmith . While leading an ambush, he captured an armoured train; Winston Churchill was among the prisoners. When Piet Joubert , the commandant general of the Transvaal forces, died (March 1900), Botha was named to succeed him.

Despite his talents as a general, he could not hold back the overwhelming numbers of British reinforcements. After the surrender of a large Boer army at Paardeberg and the fall of Pretoria , Botha organized a guerrilla campaign, but Britain eventually forced him to negotiate. He was one of the signatories at the Peace of Vereeniging (May 31,1902). After the war, Botha returned to politics and in 1904 helped form a new party in the Transvaal, Het Volk (“The People”). When Het Volk won the Transvaal elections of February 1907, Botha became prime minister. Botha and his colleague Jan Smuts , showing political realism, downplayed the fostering of Afrikaner (Boer) interests and stressed conciliation with Britain. The National Convention of 1910 chose Botha as the first prime minister of the Union of South Africa (precursor to the Republic of South Africa ), which amalgamated the British colonies (the Cape and Natal) and the former Boer republics (Orange Free State and the Transvaal) into one political entity.

Botha was adamantly opposed to granting political rights (either to vote or eligibility as members of parliament) to black South Africans. He thus played an important role in creating the problems relating to majority political disenfranchisement and minority rule in the 20th-century South Africa. Britannica Stories Ringling Bros. Folds Its Tent While serving as prime minister, Botha established the South African Party in 1911. Botha pursued subtle policies of white (British-Boer) conciliation and greater autonomy for South Africa. The most important measure of his administrations was the Natives’ Land Act of 1913, which segregated land throughout the Union, laid down the basis for a system of “native reserves” for black South Africans, and began the policy of “influx controls” to reduce their access to cities. Botha’s policy of white conciliation provoked opposition from extremist Afrikaner groups led by J.B.M. Hertzog , who formed the National Party in early 1914.

Botha’s support for Britain after the start of World War I in 1914 led to further splits among Afrikaners and provoked the rebellion led by Christiaan Rudolf de Wet and C.F. Beyers . One point of contention was the use of South African troops to attack German interests in Africa, including the mobilization against Germans troops in German South West Africa (now Namibia ). The German defeat there in 1915 at the hands of a campaign that was personally led by Botha further exacerbated the situation. South African troops were also sent to German East Africa (now Burundi, Rwanda, mainland Tanzania, and part of Mozambique), Egypt, and the Western Front in France. Before his death in 1919, Botha participated in the Paris Peace Conference and advocated leniency for the former enemies. European penetration into Southern Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Union Of South Africa, 31 May 1910 Union Of South Africa African History Expert By Alistair Boddy-Evans The politicking behind the scenes for the formation of the Union of South Africa allowed the foundations of Apartheid to be laid. On 31 May 1910 the Union of South Africa was formed under British dominion. It was exactly eight years after the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging, which had brought the Second Anglo-Boer War to an end. Each of the four unified states was allowed to keep its existing franchise qualifications and Cape Colony was the only one which permitted voting by (property owning) non-whites. Whilst is it argued that Britain hoped that the 'non-racial' franchise contained in the constitution courtesy of the Cape would eventually be extended to the whole of the Union, it is hardly likely that this was truly believed possible. (A delegation of white and black liberals traveled to London, under the leadership of the former Cape prime minister William Schreiner, to protest against the colour bar enshrined in the new constitution.) The British government was far more interested in creating a unified country within its Empire; one which could support and defend itself.

continue reading below our video 10 Facts About the Titanic That You Don't Know A union, rather than a federalized country, was more agreeable to the Afrikaner electorate since it would give the country a greater freedom from Britain. (Louis Botha and Jan Christiaan Smuts, both highly influential within the Afrikaner community, were closely involved in the development of the new constitution.) It was necessary to have Afrikaner and English working together, especially following the slightly acrimonious end to the war, and the satisfactory compromise had taken the last eight years to reach. Written into the new constitution, however, was a requirement that a two-thirds majority of parliament would be necessary to make any changes. The British High Commission Territories of Basutoland (now Lesotho), Bechuanaland (now Botswana), and Swaziland were excluded from the Union precisely because the British government was worried about the status of the indigenous populations under the new constitution. It was hoped that, at some time in the (near) future, the political situation would be right for their incorporation.

(In fact, the only country which may have been considered for inclusion was Southern Rhodesia, but the Union had become so strong that white Rhodesians quickly rejected the concept.) Although not truly independent, most historians1, especially those in South Africa, consider 31 May 1910 to be the most appropriate date to be commemorated. South Africa's independence within the Commonwealth of Nations was not officially recognized by Britain until the Statute of Westminster in 1931, and it was not until 1961 that South Africa became a truly independent republic. 1 Africa since 1935, Vol VIII of the UNESCO General History of Africa, published by James Currey, 1999, editor Ali Mazrui, p108. South Africa: History South Africa History Early History The San (Bushmen) are among the oldest indigenous peoples of South Africa. About 2,000 years ago, the pastoral Khoikhoi (called Hottentots by Europeans) settled mainly in the southern coastal region. By at least the 8th cent., Bantu speakers moving southward from E central Africa had settled the N region of present-day South Africa.

These Bantu-speaking groups developed their own complex community organizations. In 1488, Bartolomeu Dias , a Portuguese navigator, became the first European to round the Cape of Good Hope (so named by King John II of Portugal). The diaries of shipwrecked Portuguese sailors attest to a large Bantu-speaking population in present-day KwaZulu-Natal by 1552. Colonialism and African-European Relations Although European vessels frequently passed by South Africa on their way to E Africa and India, and sometimes stopped for provisions or rest, no permanent European settlement was made until 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck and about 90 other persons set up a provisioning station for the Dutch East India Company at Table Bay on the Cape of Good Hope. Soon van Riebeeck began to trade with nearby Khoikhoi, gave Europeans land for farms, and brought in Africans (from W and E Africa) and Malays as slaves. By 1662, about 250 Europeans were living near the Cape and gradually they moved inland, founding Stellenbosch in 1679.

In 1689 about 200 Huguenot refugees from Europe arrived; they established a wine industry and intermarried with the earlier Dutch settlers. By 1707 there were about 1,780 freeholders of European descent in South Africa, and they owned about 1,100 slaves. By the early 18th cent., most San had migrated into inaccessible parts of the country to avoid European domination; the more numerous Khoikhoi either remained near the Cape, where they became virtual slaves of the Europeans, or dispersed into the interior. A great smallpox outbreak in 1713 killed many Europeans and most of the Khoikhoi living near the Cape. During the 18th cent. intermarriage between Khoikhoi slaves and Europeans began to create what became later known as the Coloured population. At the same time white farmers (known as Boers or Afrikaners) began to trek (journey) increasingly farther from the Cape in search of pasture and cropland. By 1750 some farmers had migrated to the region between the Gamtoos and Great Fish rivers, where they encountered the Xhosa.

At first the whites and blacks engaged in friendly trade, but in 1779 the first of a long series of Xhosa Wars (1789, 1799, 1812, 1819, 1834, 1846, 1850, 1877) broke out between them, primarily over land and cattle ownership. The whites sought to establish the Great Fish as the southern frontier of the Xhosa. The British and the Boers During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars the British replaced the Dutch at the Cape from 1795 to 1803 and again from 1806 to 1814, when the territory was assigned to Great Britain by the Congress of Vienna. In 1820, 5,000 British settlers were given small farms near the Great Fish River. They were intended to form a barrier to the southern movement of the Xhosa, but most soon gave up farming and moved to nearby towns such as Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown .

They were the first large body of Europeans not to be assimilated into the Afrikaner culture that had developed in the 17th and 18th cent. Great Britain alienated the Boers by remodeling the administration along British lines, by calling for better treatment of the Coloured and blacks who worked for the Boers as servants or slaves, by granting (Ordinance 50, 1828) free nonwhites legal rights equal to those of the whites, and by restricting the acquisition of new land by the Boers. In 1833 slavery was abolished in the British Empire, an act that angered South African slaveowners, but the freed slaves remained oppressed and continued to be exploited by white landowners. To escape the restrictions of British rule as well as to obtain new land, about 12,000 Boers left the Cape between 1835 and 1843 in what is known as the Great Trek. The Voortrekkers (as these Boers are known) migrated beyond the Orange River. Some remained in the highveld of the interior, forming isolated communities and small states.

A large group traveled eastward into what became Natal, where 70 Boers were killed (Feb., 1838) in an attack by Dingane's Zulu forces. Andries Pretorius defeated (Dec., 1838) the Zulu at the battle of Blood River, and the Boers proceeded to establish farms in Natal. After Britain annexed Natal in 1843, however, most of the Boers there returned to the interior. In the 1850s the Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal were established. In 1860 the first indentured laborers from India arrived in Natal to work on the sugar plantations, and by 1900 they outnumbered the whites there. Natural Riches and British Victory Diamonds were discovered in 1867 along the Vaal and Orange rivers and in 1870 at what became (1871) Kimberley ; in 1886 gold was discovered on the Witwatersrand.

These discoveries (especially that of gold) spurred great economic development in S Africa during 1870–1900; foreign trade increased dramatically, rail trackage expanded from c.70 mi (110 km) in 1870 to c.3,600 mi (5,790 km) in 1895, and the number of whites rose from about 300,000 in 1870 to about 1 million in 1900. At the same time there were complex political developments. In 1871 the British annexed the diamond-mining region (known as Griqualand West), despite the protests of the Orange Free State. Britain annexed the Transvaal in 1877 but, after a revolt, restored its independence in 1881. In 1889, Cape Colony and the Orange Free State joined in a customs union, but the Transvaal (led by Paul Kruger ) adamantly refused to take part. In 1890, Cecil J.

Rhodes , an ardent advocate of federation in S Africa, became prime minister of Cape Colony, and by 1894 he was encouraging the non-Afrikaner whites (known as the Uitlanders) in the Transvaal to overthrow Kruger. In Dec., 1895, Leander Starr Jameson , a close associate of Rhodes, invaded the Transvaal with a small force, planning to assist a hoped-for Uitlander rising; however, the Uitlanders did not revolt, and Jameson was defeated by early Jan., 1896. Tension mounted in the following years as British Prime Minister Joseph Chamberlain and the British high commissioner in South Africa, Alfred Milner , supported the Uitlanders against the dominant Afrikaners. In 1896, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State formed an alliance, and in 1899 they declared war on Great Britain. The South African War (Boer War; 1899–1902) was won by the British.

The Union of South Africa In 1910 the Union of South Africa, with dominion status, was established by the British; it included Cape of Good Hope, Natal, the Orange Free State, and the Transvaal as provinces. Under the Union's constitution, power was centralized; the Dutch language (and in 1925 Afrikaans) was given equal status with English, and each province retained its existing franchise qualifications (the Cape permitted voting by some nonwhites). After elections in 1910, Louis Botha became the first prime minister; he headed the South African party, an amalgam of Afrikaner parties that advocated close cooperation between Afrikaners and persons of British descent. In 1912, J. B. M. Hertzog founded the Afrikaner-oriented National party. By 1914, largely as a result of the efforts of Mohandas K. Gandhi , the Indians living there were receiving somewhat better treatment. Botha led (1914) South Africa into World War I on the side of the Allies and quickly squashed a revolt by Afrikaners who opposed this alignment.

In 1915, South African forces captured South West Africa (present-day Namibia ) from the Germans, and after the war the territory was placed under the Union as a League of Nations mandate. In 1919, Botha was succeeded as prime minister by his close associate J. C. Smuts . In 1921–22 skilled white mine workers on the Witwatersrand, fearful of losing their jobs to lower-paid nonwhites, staged a major strike, which Smuts ended only with a use of force that cost about 230 lives. As a result, Hertzog was elected prime minister in 1924 and remained in office until 1939; from 1934 to 1939 he was supported by Smuts, with whom he formed the United South African National party.

Hertzog led an Afrikaner cultural and economic revival; was influential in gaining additional British recognition of South African independence (through the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Westminster of 1931); took (Dec., 1932) South Africa off the gold standard, thus raising the price of gold and stimulating the gold-mining industry and the economy in general. He also curtailed the electoral power of nonwhites and furthered the system of allocating "reserved" areas for blacks as their permanent homes, at the same time regulating their movement in the remainder of the country. The Smuts-Hertzog alliance disintegrated over whether to support Great Britain in World War II. Winning a crucial vote in parliament (Sept., 1939), Smuts became prime minister again and brought South Africa into the war on the British (Allied) side; Hertzog, who was not alarmed by Nazi German aggression and had little affection for Great Britain, went into opposition. South African troops made an important contribution to the Allied war effort, helping to end Italian control in Ethiopia and fighting with distinction in Italy and Madagascar.

National Party Ascendancy and Apartheid The National party won the 1948 elections, partly by criticizing the more liberal policy toward nonwhites associated with Jan Hofmeyr, Smuts's close aide. D. F. Malan of the National party was prime minister from 1948 to 1954, and he was followed by J. G. Strijdom (1954–58), H. F. Verwoerd (1958–66), B. J. Vorster (1966–78), and P. W. Botha (1978–89)—all members of the National party, which won the general elections between 1953 and 1979. These governments greatly strengthened white control of the country. The policy of apartheid in almost all social relations was further implemented by a varied series of laws that included additional curbs on free movement (partly through the use of passbooks, which most blacks were required to carry) and the planned establishment of a number of independent homelands for African ethnic groups.

Black South Africans had long protested their inferior treatment through organizations such as the African National Congress (ANC; founded 1912) and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa (founded 1919 by Clements Kadalie). In the 1950s and early 60s there were various protests against the National party's policies, involving passive resistance and the burning of passbooks; in 1960 a peaceful protest against the pass laws organized by the Pan-Africanist Congress (an offshoot of the ANC) at Sharpeville (near Johannesburg) ended when police opened fire, massacring 70 protesters and wounding about 190 others. In the 1960s most leaders (including ANC leader Nelson Mandela ) of the opposition to apartheid were either in jail or were living in exile, and the government proceeded with its plans to segregate blacks on a more permanent basis. The Republic of South Africa and Racial Strife In 1961, South Africa left the Commonwealth of Nations (whose members were strongly critical of South Africa's apartheid policies) and became a republic. The first president of the new republic was C. R.

Swart; he was succeeded by T. E. Donges and J. J. Fouché. In the 1960s there were international attempts to wrest South West Africa from South Africa's control, but South Africa tenaciously maintained its hold on the territory. In 1966, Prime Minister Verwoerd was assassinated by a discontented white government employee. From the late 1960s, the Vorster government began to try to start a dialogue on racial and other matters with independent African nations; these attempts met with little success, except for the establishment of diplomatic relations with Malawi and the adjacent nations of Lesotho, Botswana, and Swaziland, all of which were economically dependent on South Africa. South Africa was strongly opposed to the establishment of black rule in the white-dominated countries of Angola, Mozambique, and Rhodesia, and gave military assistance to the whites there. However, by late 1974, with independence for Angola and Mozambique under majority rule imminent, South Africa, as one of the few remaining white-ruled nations of Africa, faced the prospect of further isolation from the international community.

In the early 1970s increasing numbers of whites (especially students) protested apartheid, and the National party itself was divided, largely on questions of race relations, into the somewhat liberal verligte [Afrikaans, = enlightened] faction and the conservative verkrampte [Afrikaans, = narrow-minded] group. In the early 1970s, black workers staged strikes and violently revolted against their inferior conditions. South Africa invaded Angola in 1975 in an attempt to crush mounting opposition in exile, but the action was a complete failure. In 1976, open rebellion erupted in the black township of Soweto near Johannesburg as a protest against the requirement of the use of Afrikaans as the medium of instruction in black schools. Over the next months rioting spread to other large cities of South Africa, resulting in the deaths of more than 600 blacks. In 1977, the death of black leader Steve Biko in police custody (and under suspicious circumstances) prompted protests and sanctions. After Botha became prime minister in 1978, he pledged to uphold apartheid as well as improve race relations.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the government granted "independence" to four homelands: Transkei (1976), Bophuthatswana (1977), Venda (1979), and Ciskei (1981). In the early 1980s, as the regime hotly debated the extent of reforms, it launched military strikes on the exiled ANC and other insurgent groups in neighboring countries, including Lesotho, Mozambique, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zambia. In 1984, a new constitution was enacted which provided for a tricameral parliament. The new Parliament included the House of Representatives, comprised of Coloureds; the House of Delegates, comprised of Indians; and the House of Assembly, comprised of whites. This system left the whites with more seats in the Parliament than the Indians and Coloureds combined. Blacks violently protested being shut out of the system, and the ANC, which had traditionally used nonviolent means to protest inequality, began to advocate more extreme measures as well.

A Regime Unravels As attacks against police stations and other government installations increased, the regime announced (1985) an indefinite state of emergency. In 1986, Anglican Bishop Desmond Tutu , a black South African leader, addressed the United Nations and urged further sanctions against South Africa. A wave of strikes and riots marked the tenth anniversary of the Soweto uprising in 1987. In 1989, President Botha fell ill and was succeeded, first as party leader, then as president, by F. W. de Klerk . De Klerk's government began relaxing apartheid restrictions, and in 1990, Nelson Mandela was freed after 27 years of imprisonment and became head of the recently legalized ANC. In late 1991 the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), a multiracial forum set up by de Klerk and Mandela, began efforts to negotiate a new constitution and a transition to a multiracial democracy with majority rule. In Mar., 1992, voters in a referendum open only to whites endorsed constitutional reform efforts by a wide margin.

However, there was continuing violence by opponents of the process, especially by supporters of Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi , leader of the Zulu-based Inkatha movement, with the backing and sometimes active participation of South African security forces. There were also reprisals by supporters of the ANC and the Pan-Africanist Congress. In Sept., 1992, government-backed black police fired on a crowd of ANC demonstrators in Ciskei, killing 28. In Apr., 1993, the secretary-general of the South African Communist party was murdered by a right-wing extremist. The New South Africa Despite obstacles and delays, an interim constitution was completed in 1993, ending nearly three centuries of white rule in South Africa and marking the end of white-minority rule on the African continent. A 32-member multiparty transitional government council was formed with blacks in the majority. In Apr., 1994, days after the Inkatha Freedom party ended an electoral boycott, the republic's first multiracial election was held. The ANC won an overwhelming victory, and Nelson Mandela became president.

South Africa rejoined the Commonwealth in 1994 and also relinquished its last hold in Namibia, ceding the exclave of Walvis Bay . In 1994 and 1995 the last vestiges of apartheid were dismantled, and a new national constitution was approved and adopted in May, 1996. It provided for a strong presidency and eliminated provisions guaranteeing white-led and other minority parties representation in the government. De Klerk and the National party supported the new charter, despite disagreement over some provisions; Inkatha followers had walked out of constitutional talks and did not participate in voting on the new constitution. Shortly afterward, de Klerk and the National party quit the national unity government to become part of the opposition, after 1998 as the New National party. The new government faced the daunting task of trying to address the inequities produced by decades of apartheid while promoting privatization and a favorable investment climate. A Truth and Reconciliation Commission (1996–2003), headed by Archbishop Tutu, sought to establish the truth about atrocities committed during the country's apartheid era, while avoiding the expense and divisiveness of trials.

The commission's final report said the apartheid government had institutionalized violence in its fight against racial equality but was also critical of most of the groups involved in the liberation struggle, including the ANC. By the end of the 1990s, many blacks had entered the middle class, often through government jobs. Unemployment remained critically high, however, and crime and labor unrest were on the rise. In the 1999 elections Thabo Mbeki , who had succeeded Mandela as head of the ANC, led the party to a landslide victory and became South Africa's new president. The liberal Democratic party became the leading opposition party, and in 2000 it joined with the New National party to form the Democratic Alliance (DA). That coalition, however, survived only until late 2001, when the New National party left it to form a coalition with the ANC. The end of apartheid led as well to a reemergence of South Africa on the international stage, particularly in Africa.

The country has become active in the African Union (the successor of the Organization of African Unity) and the nonaligned movement, and has helped broker peace agreements in strife-torn Burundi (2001) and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (2002). In Apr., 2002, the small Federal Alliance party joined the Democratic party in the Democratic Alliance; and in Nov., 2003, the Alliance agreed to form a coalition with Inkatha against the ANC in the 2004 elections. AIDS has become a significant health problem in South Africa, and in late 2003 the government finally agreed to provide a comprehension anti-AIDS prevention and treatment program through the public health system. Parliamentary elections in Apr., 2004, resulted in a resounding victory for the ANC, which won nearly 70% of the vote; the DA remained the largest opposition party and increased its share of the vote. The new parliament subsequently reelected President Mbeki. As a result of its poor showing, the New National party merged with the ANC, and voted to disband in Apr., 2005.

In June, Mbeki dismissed Deputy President Jacob Zuma after Zuma's financial adviser was convicted of paying the deputy president bribes. The ANC, however, refused to remove Zuma from his deputy party leadership post, even after he was arraigned on corruption charges later in the month; he was formally indicted in November. In Dec., 2005, Zuma was also charged with rape in an unrelated case, and suspended his participation in the ANC leadership for the duration of that case. After his acquittal on the rape charge in May, 2006, he resumed his ANC duties; the corruption case was dismissed in Sept., 2006, for procedural reasons. Zuma was elected head of the ANC in Dec., 2007, defeating Mbeki; the result reflected widespread unhappiness with South Africa's president within the ANC. In May, 2008, there were a series of attacks on foreigners in various South African cities and towns, apparently sparked by frustrationss over economic issues; thousands of immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Nigeria were displaced and many fled South Africa.

In Sept., 2008, a judge again dismissed (for procedural reasons) the renewed corruption case against Zuma, but the trial judge also stated that it appeared that Mbeki's government had interfered with the prosecution of Zuma for political reasons. Although Mbeki strongly denied that accusation, the ANC called for him to resign as president and he did. Kgalema Motlanthe , the ANC's deputy leader and a Zuma ally, was elected as South Africa's interim president. The decision in the Zuma case was overturned on appeal in Jan., 2009, and the charges were dropped three months later. In the Apr., 2009, National Assembly elections the ANC again won by a landslide, but it narrowly failed to secure a two-thirds majority, which would have enabled it to amend the constitution without support from another party. The DA, which again increased its share of the vote, remained the largest opposition party, and the Congress of the People (COPE), formed by ANC members who left the party after Mbeki resigned the presidency, placed a distant third. The victory assured Zuma's election as president by the legislature, which occurred the following month.

In July, as South Africa suffered through its worst recession in some two decades, township protests against poor living conditions and inadequate services turned violent in a number of provinces. The murder of Eugene Terreblanche, a white supremist leader, by two black farmhands in Apr., 2010, raised fears that the incident would spark racial violence. The important mining industry was affected by strikes and violence in the second half of 2012 that began in part as a conflict between two competing labor unions; the unrest in the mining industry continued into 2013. Sections in this article: Louis Botha | South African History Online South African History Online Posted by Anonymous (not verified) on People category: Greytown, Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), South Africa Date of death: Pretoria, South Africa Lives of Courage Louis Botha was born near Greytown in Natal in 1862. He was the son of Voortrekker parents and was brought up on a farm in the Free State, and was educated at the local German mission school.

A Boer general and statesman, he was leader of the Transvaal army in the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) from March 1900, and he was one of the architects of the Union of South Africa. His vision of South Africa included both British and Dutch. Botha was a leading figure in the Paris Peace Conference at the end of World War I. A great man of action, he was renowned for his simplicity, humanity, quick wit and good nature. He was endowed with natural gifts, yet his training was hardly sufficient to equip him for fifteen years of unremitting political, diplomatic, and military tasks. Louis Botha's ancestors came from Thuringia in central Germany. Around 1672, a young soldier, Frederich Boot, or Botha, arrived at the Cape and later became a free burgher. Several of his descendants signed themselves as 'Both' and 'Boota'. His paternal grandfather Philip Rudolf took part in the Great Trek. Louis, the ninth among thirteen children, was born near Greytown in the Colony of Natal on 27 September 1862.

The family moved to the Orange Free State near Vrede in 1869. In 1880, at the outbreak of the First Anglo-Boer War, Louis overheard that British spies were crossing into the Transvaal by using rowing boats belonging to farmers along the Vaal riverbanks. He resolved to cut every boat and pontoon adrift and accomplished it. The Volksraad decided to act on Botha's recommendations that the Uitlanders should be granted franchise concessions, dependent on residency prior to July 1892. The folly of the Jameson Raid of December 1895, had however, strengthened stubborn resistance to Uitlander grievances, and weakened the position of Joubert's followers. With Lucas Meyer, De la Rey and others, he was strongly opposed to sending the British the fateful ultimatum. But by October 2, 1899, shortly before Kruger's ultimatum, Botha had already left Pretoria for Vryheid to prepare for military service. Emphatically against war - he was nevertheless prepared to oppose any actions that might affect the integrity of his country.

When war broke out in 1899 Botha at once volunteered as an ordinary burgher for the Vryheid commandos under General Lucas Meyer In December 1900, the republics were annexed under the names of the Transvaal and Orange River Colony. Though the burghers refused to condone this, Lord Roberts reported to the Secretary for War that organized resistance had ceased. Roberts was wrong. With the railways in the hands of the British, Botha returned to guerrilla tactics. This new phase in Botha's war was marked by a change in the Boer morale. They fought on with renewed vigour and belief in their cause, operating from their home areas, living off the country and seizing British supplies. Kitchener determined to end the war at all costs. He built blockhouses linked by fences and telephones which marched for miles across the endless veld, organized systematic drives to catch their quarry, deported prisoners-of-war, and placed the women and children in concentration camps, where the death rate soared. Despite all these measures Botha, De la Rey, De Wet and the other leaders consistently evaded capture. Trains were boldly attacked, railway lines destroyed. Stronger discipline was enforced.

Smuts and Botha carried out raids into the Cape and Natal. Kitchener, on his own initiative, opened peace negotiations with Botha in February and March 1901 using Annie Botha as an intermediary. They met at Middelburg where Kitchener presented draft peace terms, approved by Milner and Chamberlain, granting financial assistance and reconstruction of property, and postponing black voting rights until after representative government had been introduced in the 'annexed colonies', in return for the surrender of Boer independence. The Boers found this unacceptable and many were angered that Botha had agreed to negotiate with Kitchener. Kitchener pressed Milner to soften the terms by introducing representative governments almost immediately and by granting full amnesty to the rebels. But Milner objected. The Boers responded by rejecting the British terms. Though Botha was hard pressed, he got as far as Babanango in Zululand and managed to capture a convoy of thirty-one British wagons in September. But, by October 1901, the commandos had become fugitives and ammunition and supplies were dwindling to nothing; nonetheless, Botha defeated a British force on the 20th at Bakenlaagte.

Botha said he owed much to his wonderful white horse, Dopper, which carried him through the war! A meeting of sixty representatives of the commandos met on 15 May 1902 at Vereeniging to ascertain the views of the burghers. The representatives reported that in every area people were in desperate straits. To continue the war, Botha concluded, would result in total destruction of the two erstwhile republics and the virtual extermination of its people. On May 16, in a carefully reasoned speech, he persuaded the Free Staters that a decision for peace should be declared while they were still a nation, 'Do not let us regard a period of universal burial as the bitter end. If we do, we shall be to blame for national suicide,' he said. On May 28, during negotiations at Pretoria, Lord Milner tried to get the five Boer generals to sign an unsatisfactory document recognizing the proclamations that had annexed the republics as colonies. Botha emphatically rejected this scheme. But negotiations were going anything but smoothly. Lord Milner, unbending, wanted the Afrikaners denationalized and would not be limited by a timetable for self-government.

The only concession he made was at the expense of blacks and Coloureds who were expressly excluded from political participation until some hazy period in the future. Botha succeeded in fixing a sum for economic reconstruction after the war and a draft was drawn up which became the Peace Treaty. The Boers were bitter. On May 29, negotiations were resumed. President Steyn left Pretoria, using his serious illness as an excuse to avoid signing the peace treaty. For three days, the negotiators argued. Then on the last morning, Botha and De La Rey managed to persuade defiant General de Wet to support the cause for peace. General Hertzog expressed his respect for Botha at this time, 'for he has shown himself to be possessed of a heart that feels all these things (the brunt of war), while he has had the courage to tell his people, and us, exactly how matters stand'. Reluctantly the burghers decided to relinquish their independence and to accept the otherwise generous terms of peace. The annexation proclamations were tacitly dropped, and the Treaty of Vereeniging was ratified on May 31 by fifty-four votes to six.

For Milner the task was to control and administer a loyal post-war British South Africa himself. For Botha the task was to transform himself from a fighting man into a politician to ensure lasting peace in southern Africa. Though they had been conquered and impoverished, the Afrikaners had not been denationalised, and Milner failed to swamp them with British immigrants. Having overwhelmed the republics, British supremacy in South Africa began to wane. Botha, De la Rey, and De Wet were appointed to collect money overseas for economic reconstruction of the country. In July, the trio left for Europe, but despite their warm reception, they only raised £125,000. Chamberlain refused to increase the amount agreed on for reconstruction. Botha then wrote a persuasive article in The Contemporary Review, 'The Boers and the Empire', in which he described the advantages a conciliatory and accommodating attitude on the part of the British would have as a humane gesture and as effective politics. Shortly afterward, the British House of Commons voted a further £8-million. Botha also pleaded for an amnesty for the Cape and Natal rebels, and Chamberlain eventually agreed that the two colonial governments should decide on the matter.

Botha interceded with the Cape and Natal premiers and the amnesty was granted. Back in South Africa, Botha determined to bring his people together again. Afrikaners resented Milner increasingly for his repatriation policies, for the way he carried out British compensation, and because he wanted to import Chinese labour to work on the mines. Botha, Smuts and De la Rey refused to serve on the Legislative Council in 1903. A protest meeting, headed by Botha, was held in Heidelberg to ask that Dutch and English be given equal status, to prevent further Chinese immigration, and to push for postponement of further importation of Indians. Milner's Legislative Council ignored the protesters. Smuts and other Boer leaders founded Het Volk in May 1904. Although it was an Afrikaner political party, it was based on principles likely to appeal to Boer and Englishman alike. It aimed for conciliation, self-government, and acceptance of those who had surrendered or had served with the British. One year later, the party's influence had spread so far that a meeting was held at the Wanderers, Johannesburg, to oppose the Lyttelton Constitution.

Here, they protested against Chinese labour, the inadequate government of the former republics as crown colonies, and, finding some support among prominent businessmen, they founded the Responsible Government Association. Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, leader of the Liberal Party, had publicly endorsed his party's abhorrence of Kitchener's farm burnings and concentration camps as 'methods of barbarism'. In Britain, reaction had set in and at the end of 1905, the Liberal Party was swept in to victory at the polls. Botha immediately sent Smuts overseas to plead for self-government. Campbell-Bannerman convinced his cabinet ministers that it would be 'a great act of faith' to make amends and retain Afrikaner co-operation. The Transvaal and the Free State shortly afterward obtained responsible government. (Transvaal in December 1906 and Orange River Colony in June 1907). Het Volk, now including many English-speaking allies, won the next election, and Botha became Prime Minister of the Transvaal on 4 March 1907.

Botha attended the opening of Parliament at Pretoria by Lord Selborne on 21 March 1902 and heard him announce the decision to cease employment of Chinese labour by the Witwatersrand mines. Soon afterwards, he was summoned to attend the Imperial Conference. Botha was conciliatory. He pronounced Afrikaner loyalty to the Empire, presented the Cullinan diamond to Edward VII and was highly praised in England and South Africa. However, there was some tongue wagging in South Africa that Botha was becoming too anglicized. The gracious gesture of the uncommon present was immediately generously returned by the British House of Commons, which approved a loan to the Transvaal of £5 million. This was used mainly to establish the Land Bank to assist farmers, part was used to introduce free primary education, the railways were expanded, experimental farms were developed, and the fight against cattle diseases was given vigorous impetus. With all four colonies self-governing, hopes revived for uniting South Africa under one government. Botha and Smuts worked hard towards this goal. Gold and diamond production expanded and economic prosperity followed. But, politically, Botha was walking a tightrope.

The majority of Chinese were repatriated, but the Indian question was thorny. Indians were very dissatisfied when compulsory registration of Indians in the Transvaal was passed in 1906 and the Gold Law of 1908 further restricted their trade. Afrikaners mistrusted Botha for his friendliness towards the British, especially after the Education Act of 1907 made English, but not Dutch, a compulsory school-learning subject. Nevertheless, supported by moderate Afrikaners and English-speakers, his party grew. In July 1907, the Selborne Memorandum, and in May 1908, the Customs Conference, laid the foundations for the National Convention. Botha played a leading part in the deliberations of the National Convention that produced the constitution for a unified form of government, ratified by the British Parliament on 31 May 1910. Botha becomes the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa on 21 May 1910. In terms of the South Africa Act, the first governor-general, Lord Gladstone, asked Botha to form the government for the Union of South Africa.

John X Merriman, the experienced Prime Minister of the Cape, had been considered, but Botha's great prestige and his standing amongst Afrikaners made him the obvious choice. Instead of choosing a 'Best Man' government from all the parties Botha chose his cabinet from supportive party representatives. Percy Fitzpatrick was disillusioned because Botha had given up his negotiations for choosing a moderate government of the best brains in the country; but Fitzpatrick was stunned when he learned that Botha was to oppose him at Pretoria East. However, on polling day in September 1910, Botha, in a hotly contested election, was sensationally defeated by his former friend. To get into Parliament the member for Standerton was obliged to resign and Botha sought re-election at Standerton. Botha was faced with the problem of what to do with General J B M Hertzog, a controversial but influential figure among the Afrikaners, whom Free Staters especially, regarded as their own spokesman. Botha tried to fob him off by offering him a judgeship instead of a cabinet post but Hertzog turned it down.

Botha was torn, and believing that Afrikaner leaders in his government might accommodate Afrikaner interests, he reluctantly appointed Hertzog minister of Justice and Native Affairs. This alienated many English-speakers, particularly when Hertzog delivered a number of speeches stressing that South African interests should come before those of Empire and that a 'two-stream' policy should be followed regarding Dutch and English-speaking white South Africans. Botha agreed that South Africa came first, but he disapproved of Hertzog's speeches on these issues for being tactless and inappropriate political wrangling. Minister of Commerce Colonel G Leuchars resigned in protest over Hertzog's speeches and Hertzogism divided Botha's party. English-speakers were against the bilingualism clause in the Civil Service and Pensions Bill presented before Parliament in April 1912. Minister of Finance H C Hull and Minister of Railways J W Sauer clashed on overlapping railway and financial matters and Hull resigned. Botha then dissolved his cabinet and excluded Hertzog and Leuchars. By 1913, the Afrikaner people were completely divided and nationalism carried its own momentum.

The National Party was founded in 1914 with Hertzog, as leader, defining a 'two stream policy' -two nationalities flowing in parallel channels of cultural and national development - in contradiction of Botha's avowed 'one stream' policy to merge the two races into one people, the object of union. Like Hertzog, Botha believed in maintaining black traditions and in totally segregating black and white, except where blacks were needed as workers. As agriculture expanded, his attitude to blacks became increasingly illiberal in his efforts to placate the white races. The oppressive Native Land Act of 1913 was a revolution in land tenure; blacks had no rights to hire or buy land in the white areas and their lands were strictly demarcated and inadequate. At the outbreak of World War I, though some 70,000 Africans were recruited and went to France to work behind the lines, generally, they were not affected. Botha thought that while the war continued it would be very unwise to raise any large issues of policy in connection with the African population.

In an attempt to appease and reunify Afrikaners by showing that he and Hertzog shared a mutual approach to segregation, Botha introduced the Native Affairs Administration Bill in 1917. This dealt with the question of the segregation of blacks, the principle of which had been settled by the Act of 1913. Merriman vigorously the bill, predicting that large numbers of Africans would be forced to leave their districts. He foresaw that the promised commission to investigate the purchase of additional land for them would be thwarted by whites, who would never agree to sell their lands. The bill caused intense anxiety among blacks, for what they needed was access to land on easy terms. Among whites, there was such intense disagreement within Botha's party that the bill was finally withdrawn. The industrial colour bar was a related question. It had been introduced to assist impoverished whites in retaining jobs threatened by the influx into the towns of blacks who accepted lower wages. White workers were determined to resist any upward movement of blacks with skills. From 1911, efforts were made to reclassify semi-skilled mining and railway tasks as skilled and thus, reserved for whites. Industrial unrest erupted on the Rand in May 1913.

Neglect and incompetence allowed the situation to get out of hand. In June, fighting and violent outrages broke out in Johannesburg and many people died. The government conceded to nearly all the demands of the Labour leaders, but six months later gold miners, coal miners and railway workers went on strike again. Smuts put down the strike and deported nine foreign leaders. Their political opponents labelled Botha and Smuts military dictators and the Labour Party gained many erstwhile supporters of the SAP. The Great War confronted the Botha Government with a crisis: what part should South Africa play in it, and what action should the Union take in regard to German South West Africa? Botha felt it was a debt of 'duty and honour' to demonstrate gratitude for the early granting of self-government. But he had another motive too: he did not wish any other country to occupy and administer South West Africa. He had an eye on its incorporation into South Africa after the war. He considered the army that the Germans were raising in South West Africa a threat to South Africa itself. He therefore told the British Government that the Union would defend itself, and, as South Africa was part of the British Empire, it would look on Britain's enemies as its own.

This pronouncement estranged influential anti-British Afrikaners. At Britain's request, Botha undertook to seize those parts of South West Africa, which would give it command of Luderitz Bay and Swakopmund. Their aim was to take over the coastal wireless stations and especially the long-distance radio transmitters at Windhoek, which they wrongly thought were able to transmit to German ships and submarines. Hertzog pleaded for neutrality. Many Afrikaners had ties of kinship with Germany and they felt grateful for the sympathy of the German people during the Anglo-Boer War. Though the Kaiser had let them down, Germans had assisted the Boers in the field and through the Red Cross, to the extent that President Steyn had said, 'My people here consider that they are under a debt of obligation to the German race.' Afrikaners did not universally hold these feelings, but there was widespread dissatisfaction. Botha and Smuts took steps to carry out the campaign, using volunteers. Botha did not consult Steyn or Hertzog beforehand and in his patriotic speeches he failed to stress the material advantages to South Africa of such a campaign.

Unintentionally, he set those with German loyalties against those with British loyalties. The chief of the citizen force, General Beyers, resigned on 15 September 1914. That same evening General De la Rey was accidentally shot dead by the police. General De Wet held protest meetings in the Orange Free State and on 10 October Lieutenant Colonel S G (Manie) Maritz, who commanded the north-western Cape border, defected to the Germans. The protest in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State had become a rebellion. Botha defeated De Wet in a sharp skirmish, Beyers was put to flight and subsequently drowned. The rebellion was a formidable revolt of some thirteen thousand inadequately armed burghers who were prepared to follow their leaders blindly. Had it been successful, it would have led to a general civil war. It distressed Botha to take up arms against his own people. Though an amnesty was declared for the rank and file and the leaders were leniently treated, their prison sentences and fines upset Afrikaners and the shooting of Jopie Fourie as a traitor caused deep resentment.

Botha commanded the Union troops in South West Africa, penetrating the region in four different directions; he overran the German positions and put them to flight. Early in July 1915, the Germans surrendered, but the full peace terms were only to be drawn up after the war in Europe had ended. The elections of 1915 were stormy. Botha was attacked for not implementing language equality. The Nationalists pronounced him a disloyal Afrikaner and he lost much support. Though the SAP won the elections, the Prime Minister did not have an outright majority in Parliament. His task was onerous after he took over the portfolio for Defence from Smuts, who had assumed supreme command of the South African forces in German East Africa. Botha was offered a post on the British War Cabinet but refused, and in 1914, Smuts sailed for Britain to attend the Imperial Conference and to take his place on the War Cabinet. Try as he might, Botha could not reconcile or reunite his people. And as the republican movement gained strength, his health began to fail. The Nationalists criticized his war policy and chided him for the country's lack of economic development because of South Africa's war effort.

In 1917, the National Party proclaimed a republican manifesto, which asked Britain to restore independence to the former Boer republics. Unionists set fire to properties belonging to Afrikaners who in turn formed themselves into commandos. Botha swiftly intervened. Then blacks went on strike in Johannesburg and were sternly dealt with. This gave rise to further unrest. Peace. At the end of the war in 1918 Botha personally directed the repatriation of the South African troops in France. He went with Smuts to Paris to join the Allied delegations to the Peace Conference. Botha wanted to annex South West Africa outright but could not obtain general agreement on the issue from Wilson. Under the Peace of Versailles, the territory of South West Africa was handed over to the Union 'to be administered as an integral part of the Union with full power of administration and legislation,' subject to the Mandate of the League of Nations. This obliged the Union to submit annual reports on its administration of the mandated territory. The proposed peace terms were severe. Smuts at first refused to sign, but Botha realized further argument would be futile and persuaded Smuts to sign. Botha was given a tumultuous welcome on his return to South Africa.

Worn out and not in the best of health, he caught a cold at his farm Rusthof that quickly developed into pneumonia. Very ill, he returned to his home in Pretoria where he died of a heart attack a few days later. He was buried in the Rebecca Street cemetery in Pretoria on 30 August. References:

Question: Who was the 1st Premier of the Union of South Africa in 1910?
Answer: Louis Botha