Jan Christian Smuts is a South African statesman and military leader, being an important general of the Second Boer War and the Middle Eastern theatre of the Weltkrieg as well as South African Prime Minister between 1919 and 1924 and, once again, since 1929.
As the head of the South African Party (SAP) for almost two decades, Smuts, despite being of Boer descent, stands in for a British loyalist South Africa with close connections to the Entente, militarily, diplomatically and economically. However, with the SAP slowly being in decline, with resistance to the right and to the left alike, reforms and compromises are needed to keep the party from falling apart in the long-term.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Smuts was born on 24 May 1870 at the family farm Bovenplaats near Malmesbury in the British Cape Colony to a family of highly respected prosperous Afrikaner farmers, who had been living in the region for quite a while.
As the second son of the family, rural custom dictated that Jan would remain working on the farm. In this system, typically only the first son was supported for a full, formal education. However in 1882, when Jan was twelve, his elder brother died, and Jan was sent to school in his place. He attended the school in nearby Riebeek West and made excellent progress despite his late start. At the age of 16, he was admitted to Victoria College in Stellenbosch.
At Stellenbosch, he learned High Dutch, German, and Ancient Greek, and immersed himself in literature, the classics, and Bible studies. His deeply traditional upbringing and serious outlook led to social isolation from his peers. He made outstanding academic progress, graduating in 1891 with double first-class honours in Literature and Science.
On graduation from Victoria College, Smuts won the Ebden scholarship for overseas study. He decided to attend the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom to read law at Christ's College. Smuts found it difficult to settle at Cambridge. He felt homesick and isolated by his age and different upbringing from the English undergraduates. Worries over money also contributed to his unhappiness, as his scholarship was insufficient to cover his university expenses.
Smuts graduated in 1894 with a double first. Over the previous two years, he had received numerous academic prizes and accolades, including the coveted George Long prize in Roman Law and Jurisprudence. One of his tutors, Professor Maitland, a leading figure among English legal historians, described Smuts as the most brilliant student he had ever met. By June 1895, he had returned to the Cape Colony, determined to make his fortune there.
Career in South Africa[]
Smuts began to practice law in Cape Town, but his abrasive nature made him few friends. Finding little financial success in the law, he began to divert more and more of his time to politics and journalism, writing for the Cape Times. Smuts was intrigued by the prospect of a united South Africa, and joined the nationalist Afrikaner Bond, led by Jan Hofmeyr (uncle of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr). Hofmeyr recommended Jan to the influential British businessman and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony Cecil Rhodes, who owned the De Beers mining company and was responsible for the colonisation of Rhodesia. In 1895, Smuts became an advocate and supporter of Rhodes.
When Rhodes launched the Jameson Raid in the summer of 1895–96, Smuts was outraged. Feeling betrayed by his employer, friend and political ally, he resigned from De Beers, and left political life. Instead he became state attorney in the capital of the South African Republic, Pretoria.
After the Jameson Raid, relations between the British and the Afrikaners had deteriorated steadily. By 1898, war seemed imminent. Orange Free State President Martinus Steyn called for a peace conference at Bloemfontein to settle each side's grievances. With an intimate knowledge of the British, Smuts took control of the delegation of the South African Republic. Sir Alfred Milner, head of the British delegation, took exception to his dominance, and conflict between the two led to the collapse of the conference, consigning South Africa to war.
Boer Wars[]
In October 1899, the Second Boer War began, which would see the Orange Free State and the South African Republic launching an offensive into British Natal and the Cape Colony. At the beginning of the conflict, Smuts was responsible for handling propaganda, logistics, communication with generals and diplomats in Pretoria, but from mid-1900, he actively served on the battlefield in Western Transvaal. Smuts excelled at hit-and-run warfare, and his unit evaded and harassed a British army forty times its size. However, over time, the British got access to reinforcements and grew stronger and stronger, while their scorched-earth policy left little grazing land in the northeast. By 1902, Smuts realized that continuing the war with the current strategy would only cause more damage to his brothers in arms and his homeland.
Therefore, to finally end the conflict, Smuts sought to take a major target, the copper-mining town of Okiep south of the German South West African border. With a full assault impossible, he packed a train full of explosives, and tried to push it downhill, into the town, in order to bring the enemy garrison to its knees. Although this failed, Smuts had proved his point: That he would stop at nothing to defeat his enemies. Combined with the British failure to pacify the Transvaal, Smuts' success left the British with no choice but to offer a ceasefire and a peace conference, to be held at Vereeniging.
Before the conference, Smuts met Lord Kitchener, discussing the proposed terms of surrender. Smuts then took a leading role in the negotiations between the representatives from all of the commandos from the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. Although he admitted that, from a purely military perspective, the war could continue, he stressed the importance of not sacrificing the Afrikaner people for that independence. He was very conscious that "more than 20,000 women and children have already died in the concentration camps of the enemy". He felt it would have been a crime to continue the war without the assurance of help from elsewhere and declared, "Comrades, we decided to stand to the bitter end. Let us now, like men, admit that that end has come for us, come in a more bitter shape than we ever thought."
His opinions would be representative of the conference, which then voted by 54 to 6 in favour of peace. Representatives of the Governments met Lord Kitchener and at five minutes past eleven on 31 May 1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed, spelling an end to the war, but also to the independent Boer Republics.
Rise to power[]
In the direct aftermath of the treaty, the British would establish full control over all of South Africa, excluding the Boers from political participation - which deeply enraged the latters. In early 1905, he decided to join with the other former Transvaal generals to form a political party, Het Volk ('The People'), to fight for the Afrikaner cause. Louis Botha, who would become Prime Minister a few years later, was elected leader, and Smuts his deputy. Eventually, the British could be convinced to agree to full self-government for the Transvaal within British South Africa. Following that, Smuts would become an influential politician in the local Pretoria government, eventually becoming Colonial Secretary and Education Secretary. He proved to be an efficient leader, but often came in conflict with the Dutch Reformed Church and with South Asian worker immigrants (led by the young Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi), who pushed for equal rights.
Eventually, plans for full South African unification were brought to the table. Smuts favoured a unitary state, with power centralised in Pretoria, with English as the only official language, and with a more inclusive electorate. To impress upon his compatriots his vision, he called a constitutional convention in Durban, in October 1908. His plan met fierce resistance with the delegates from the former Orange Free State (now called Orange River Colony), among them J. B. M. Hertzog. Smuts however had predicted this opposition, and their objections, and tailored his own ambitions appropriately: He allowed compromise on the location of the capital, on the official language, and on suffrage, but he refused to budge on the fundamental structure of government. Eventually, a constitution could be agreed upon, which would be brought to London, passed by Parliament and given Royal Assent by King Edward VII in December 1909.
The Union of South Africa was born, and the Afrikaners held the key to political power, as the majority of the increasingly whites-only electorate. Although Botha was appointed Prime Minister of the new country, Smuts was given three key ministries: Interior, Mines, and Defence. Undeniably, Smuts was the second most powerful man in South Africa. To solidify their dominance in South African politics, the Afrikaners united to form the South African Party, a new pan-South African Afrikaner party.
Conflict within the Boer community[]
The harmony and cooperation soon ended. Smuts was criticised for his overarching powers, and the cabinet was reshuffled, with Smuts losing many of his positions. At the 1913 South African Party conference, the Old Boers (influential Boers from the former Orange Free State, among them J. B. M. Hertzog, but also Christiaan de Wet and Martinus Theunis Steyn), called for the Transvaal Boers, namely Botha and Smuts, to step down. The two narrowly survived a confidence vote, and the troublesome triumvirate stormed out, leaving the party for good.
With the schism in internal party politics came a new threat to the mines that brought South Africa its wealth: Strikes. Throughout 1913 and 1914, the region around Johannesburg was plagued by several mining and railway strikes, all of which were suppressed with police brutality. Threats of a revolution caused Smuts to eventually declare martial law. He acted ruthlessly, deporting union leaders without trial and using Parliament to absolve him and the government of any blame retroactively. That was too much for the Old Boers, who set up their own National Party to fight the all-powerful and increasingly violent and dictatorial Botha-Smuts partnership.
The Weltkrieg[]
When the Weltkrieg began, Smuts was tasked with forming the Union Defense Force. His first task was to suppress the Maritz Rebellion, which was accomplished by November 1914. Next, he and Louis Botha led the South African army into German South West Africa and ohad ccupied all of it by mid-1915. In 1916, Smuts was sent to Kenya to lead the troops fighting against Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck in German East Africa; He would be promoted to temporary lieutenant general on 18 February 1916.
However, Smuts' tactics, which avoided direct confrontation with the Germans, were critizised by his superiors, as his inconsequential flanking movements prolonged the campaign where thousands of Imperial troops died of disease. Early in 1917 Smuts left Africa and went to London as he had been invited to join the Imperial War Cabinet and the War Policy Committee by David Lloyd George.
Smuts initially recommended renewed western front attacks and a policy of attrition, lest with Russian commitment to the war wavering, France or Italy be tempted to make a separate peace. Lloyd George wanted a commander “of the dashing type” for the Middle East in succession to Archibald Murray, but Smuts refused the command, so Edmund Allenby was chosen instead. Smuts instead focused on the Western Frot, but his commitment to Western Front efforts was shaken by the Battle of Passchendaele.
Early in 1918 Smuts was sent to Egypt to confer with Allenby and William Marshall and prepare for major efforts in that theatre. They worked out a plan to reinforce the troops in the Levant with 3 divisions from Mesopotamia, to reach Haifa by June and Damascus by the autumn, the speed of the advance limited by the need to lay fresh rail track. Smuts' successful plannings would lead to the Megiddo Offensive in autumn 1918, which would see British troops pushing up until Maraş where they would be stopped by Turkish troops under Mustafa Kemal Pasha, but almost caused the complete collapse of the Ottoman Empire.
The rest of the war however remained quite stagnant and the British eventually had to retreat back to Palestine. Peace arrived in late 1919 with the Treaty of Versailles, but the British were not willing to give up their gains in the Middle East. Smuts remained in Palestine and lead the British negotiations with the Central Powers until mid-1920, when the Jerusalem Accord was signed, which granted Britain concessions in Mesopotamia and Palestine. By mid 1920, all British forces had been evacuated and Smuts was finally able to return to his native South Africa.
Prime minister & opposition leader of South Africa[]
Already in August 1919, Prime Minister Botha had died of heart failure, leading to Smuts then becoming the second Prime Minister of the Union, even though he was still stationed in the Levant at that time. However, with the August 12 Armistice already in effect, Smuts was able to return to South Africa temporarily, where he was forced to call for elections after a barrage of criticism from the Boer community. The election resulted in a hung parliament with the National Party winning the majority of the seats. Smuts’ South African Party then decided to form a coalition with the Unionist Party, a party dominated by British settlers, reaffirming him as South Africa’s Prime Minister, in spite of the National Party’s technical success.
The coalition between the Unionists and the South African Party managed to stay in power until new elections were called in 1921, where it had become evident that the coalition alone wouldn’t be enough to keep the current position in the government: Therefore, the Unionist Party and the South African Party agreed to merge, which led to the party only barely managing to win the majority of the seats, however with clear resentment from many voters over having returned South West Africa to Germany as per the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.
With the SAP victory, it was widely believed that the status quo would prevail, and stability would remain. However, this was not the case, as a large socialist-inspired armed uprising of white miners broke out in the Witwatersrand in March 1922, called the Rand Rebellion. Smuts once again sent a military detachment of 20.000 men to put down the revolt, like back in 1914, and once again, it severely impacted the SAP’s popularity, which would have drastic effects only two years later.
In 1924, the loss of the constituency of Wakkerstroom in a by-election to the National Party caused Smuts to call for early elections, hoping to retake the region and strengthen his position in the Parliament. However, with the brutal response to the Rand Rebellion having driven the left-leaning Labour Party into the hands of the National Party, this proved disastrous for the SAP. The National and Labour parties, together in a coalition, won a majority in the Volksraad and formed a government with J. B. M. Hertzog as Prime Minister: The beginning an an unusual alliance, the Afrikaner Welfare State.
Smuts remained the leading opposition politician for the next few years. The worldwide recession following the British Revolution and the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange, would drastically decrease the NP's popularity. Additionally, the controversial coalition would be struck by several political scandals, leading to the resignation of Walter Madeley (Labour) and Tielmann Roos (NP), who both would leave their parties for good and began working with the opposition. This proved to be decisive, as the now severely split National Party-Labour coalition, slowly losing many of its most influential members, began to lose popularity in the polls, just as an election was right around the corner.
By June 1929, when elections were called, the NP-Labour coalition had lost most of its popular support and was not able to keep the majority in parliament anymore. However, Smuts' now firmly British loyalist SAP, while making considerable gains, was also unable to attain a majority government. After a few grueling weeks of negotiations and compromises, the SAP managed to form a minority government thanks to the support of Tielmann Roos and his newly founded Central Party: Smuts would become Prime Minister for the second time.
The SAP’s first move in power was then to pull South Africa out of the gold standard, while also maintaining the lucrative trade agreements of the former government with the German sphere, which swiftly improved the South African economy as low grade mines started to become profitable again as the price of gold rocked up. This would eventually lead to a noticeable recovery for the white electorate, who widely credited Smuts and the SAP with solving the economic hardships of not just the Great Depression, but also of the Post-Weltkrieg depression. With this boost in popularity, the South African Party managed to secure a working majority in the parliament in the June 1933 elections. However, while the SAP position seemed strong, the death of Tielman Roos in March 1935 caused the dissolution of the Central Party. Many of the CP's former members and voters have now returned to the National Party, giving it a resurgence in popularity entering 1936. With the 1938 elections not far away, the SAP will need to adapt to these circumstances if it wants to keep its strong influence on South African politics and lead South Africa into a brighter, British-aligned future.
Smuts, famous for being a skilled negotiator, is known for being open to reconcile with his former Boer comrades and is said to be willing to negotiate a NP-SAP coalition, blocking off Labour influence in the government while finally uniting the two feuding Boer parties of old. Only the future will reveal if this daring plan is going to succeed...