Jan Christiaan Smuts

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Smuts, Jan Christiaan ( Christian Smuts) (b. 24 May 1870, d. 11 Sept. 1950). Prime Minister of South Africa 1919–24, 1939–48 Born in Bovenplaats (Cape Colony) and a childhood friend of Malan, he was educated at Stellenbosch and studied at Cambridge University (1891–4) before returning to the Cape in 1895. He moved to the Transvaal and was appointed state attorney (1898). He became a distinguished leader in the South African War, agreeing with Louis Botha in 1902 that it was better to accept an honourable peace while Afrikaner forces were still relatively strong.

Throughout his life, he was committed to Botha's ideals of reconciliation between English-and Afrikaans-speaking Whites. In Botha's first Transvaal government of 1907, he became Colonial Secretary and Minister for Education. In 1908, he had a pivotal role in drawing up the Constitution of the Union of South Africa, becoming Minister of the Interior, Mines, and Defence in 1910, exchanging the first two portfolios for Finance in 1912. As Botha's deputy he supported the invasion of German South-West Africa (Namibia) during World War I, which he led as second-in-command. In 1916, he accepted a British request for help in the struggling campaign in East Africa, and was appointed a lieutenant-general in the British army. He represented South Africa at the Imperial Conference of 1917, and was persuaded by Lloyd George to stay in London and join the British War Cabinet. He set up the Royal Air Force as an independent service, became involved in British domestic politics (e.g. persuading Welsh miners not to go on strike), influenced strategic planning, and undertook countless diplomatic missions. He influenced the establishment of the League of Nations, and took part in the Paris Peace Conference.

‘Weary and sick of honours’ bestowed upon him by the British, he retired to South Africa, only to be made Prime Minister on Botha's death a few days later (27 August 1919). His conciliatory attitude towards the Unionists who favoured close ties with Britain continued to anger the Afrikaners, while his suppression of the general strike in the gold mines of 1922 triggered the opposition of Labour. Meanwhile, his suppression of the millenarian Black peasant Israelite movement in Bulbek in 1921 showed his willingness to use force against the last remnants of rural Black resistance to colonialism. In opposition, he was hostile to Hertzog's nationalist policies which he feared would alienate the English-speaking population. Under the influence of the Great Depression, he became Minister of Justice and Deputy Prime Minister under Hertzog in 1933.

While less of a segregationist than Hertzog, he accepted the 1936 racial laws (which formed the basis of the introduction of apartheid in 1948), satisfied that he had secured a good compromise. He broke with Hertzog when the latter opposed South Africa's entry into World War II and was defeated in Parliament. Despite continuing Afrikaner opposition he committed troops to the British war effort. In 1945, he took part in the establishment of the UN in San Francisco, successfully drawing up a preamble to the charter enshrining fundamental human rights. However, he was subsequently shaken by the UN's hostility to South Africa's racial policies and its desire to annex South-West Africa.

Accepting that an industrializing South Africa needed a skilled labour force, he improved the rights of Indians in Natal, invested in the education of Blacks, and relaxed the controls over Black urbanization. These measures were met with general hostility, however, and in 1948 he unexpectedly lost the elections to Malan. The most internationally respected South African statesman before De Klerk, at home his intellect became a burden as he failed to develop a ‘common touch’, while never fully appreciating the potential of Afrikaner nationalism on the one hand, and African grievances against segregation on the other.

Jan Christiaan Smuts , 1870-1950, South African statesman and soldier, b. Cape Colony.

Of Boer (Afrikaner) stock but a British subject by birth, he was educated at Victoria College (at Stellenbosch) and at Cambridge, where he won highest honors in law. In 1895 he was admitted to the Cape Colony bar. When the Jameson Raid (see Jameson, Sir Leander Starr ) convinced him that Great Britain intended to conquer the South African Republic, he renounced his British citizenship and moved to the republic, where he became (1898) state attorney.

In the South African War , Smuts commanded (1901-2) Boer guerrilla forces in the Cape Colony. By 1904 he concluded that the cooperation of Boer and British elements was essential to the greatness of South Africa, and he joined with Louis Botha to achieve this alliance. Smuts was instrumental in the creation (1910) of the Union of South Africa (see South Africa ). Smuts continuously held office in Botha's cabinet, serving as minister of defense (1910-19), of interior and mines (1910-12), and of finance (1912-13). His use of military force and of admittedly illegal deportations in breaking a miners' strike cost him the support of labor.

Early in World War I, Smuts smashed a new Boer uprising, and in 1916 he served successfully as a general in South Africa's campaign against German East Africa. He was a member (1917-18) of the imperial war cabinet in London, and he signed the Treaty of Versailles. However, he protested that its terms would outrage Germany and prevent the harmonious world order that he believed could best be served by the League of Nations.

Upon Botha's death (1919), Smuts headed the United South African (Unionist) party, and from 1919 to 1924 he was prime minister and minister for native affairs. Weakened by his frequent absences and another strike-breaking incident, his party lost the election of 1924 to a coalition of labor and anti-British nationalists. Smuts in retirement wrote Holism and Evolution (1926, 3d ed. 1936), in which he developed the view that evolution is a sequence of ever more comprehensive integrations; in the political sphere the British Empire and the developing world community provided the highest examples.

Smuts was (1933-39) minister of justice in a coalition cabinet, but when Prime Minister Hertzog opposed entering World War II, Smuts became prime minister. In 1941 he was created field marshal. He spent most of the war in London, where he had a high place in the British war councils, and he was very active in organizing the United Nations. In South Africa, however, Smuts's party lost the election of 1948 to the Nationalists. Smuts represented that portion of South African sentiment that stood for cooperation with the British Empire and that had somewhat less extreme racial views than the Nationalists.

Bibliography: Smuts's speeches are collected in Plans for a Better World (1942). See also J. Van Der Poel, ed., Selections from the Smuts Papers (7 vol., 1966-73); biographies by J. C. Smuts, his son (1952, repr. 1973), W. K. Hancock (2 vol., 1962-68), J. Joseph (1969), and T. J. Haarhoff (1970); B. Williams, Botha, Smuts, and South Africa (1946, repr. 1962).

Smuts, Jan Christiaan (1870–1950) South African statesman and soldier, Prime Minister (1919–24; 1939–48). He led Boer forces during the Second Boer War, but afterwards supported Louis Botha's policy of Anglo-Boer cooperation and was one of the founders of the Union of South Africa. During World War I he led Allied troops against the Germans in East Africa (1916); he later attended the peace conference at Versailles in 1919 and helped to found the League of Nations. He then succeeded Botha as Prime Minister. After World War II Smuts played a leading role in the formation of the United Nations and drafted the preamble to the UN charter.

Smuts, Jan Christiaan (1870–1950) South African statesman, prime minister (1919–24, 1939–48). He was a guerrilla commander during the South African Wars (1899–1902), but afterwards worked with Louis Botha to establish the Union of South Africa (1910). During World War I, he suppressed a pro-German revolt, commanded British forces in East Africa, and became a member of the British war cabinet. Upon Botha's death, Smuts succeeded as prime minister. He formed a second administration after James Hertzog opposed entry into World War 2. After the war, Smuts was defeated by the apartheid policies of the Nationalist Party.