Africa and the early years of the Union of South Africa 28/4/19
After the Armistice he met Botha and Smuts in London and they told him that they need him when he returns to SA.
President Wilson was unpopular in the States as he was involved in Versailles without a mandate from the US population. " France had fought for Glory, Britain for more land and America for Souvenirs".
His great grandfather got to the Cape in 1791 and had been a Dutch naval officer in the battle of Doggerbank of 1781 where Britain objected to Dutch merchantmen carry good to the Americas. Voortrekkers left the Cape not so much they hatred of the British but any rule.
Transvall Boer Republic founded 1852, Orange Free State 1854. His father and brothers were born in the Cape and sent to study in Edinburgh while his mother was Swedish. 1889 on the death of John Brand his father Francis Reitz became president of the OFS till 1896. The Jameson Raid was a harbinger of war. Botha founded the South African Party in 1910 with Union.
he became Prime Minister, 1919 Smuts took over on Botha death
Alexander Bay on the SA side of the border opposite Oranjemund on the Namibia side where the Orange river reaches the sea. Hans Merensky found diamonds here in 1925
Lemuel Colaine was a spy for the British and was executed by Smuts, during the Boer War del la Ray and Deneys Reitz werewitnesses in the Cape.
Christian de Wet had supported the Maritz rebellion and was jailed till released by Smuts in 1910
Poison used to kill locust killed cattle.
Bulhoek massacre occurred on 24 May 1921, led by a preacher Enoch Majjima of the Fingo, Xhosa tribe
The 1922 miners uprising led by Australians Fisher and Spendiff took their own lives. 700 people were hurt and 5 leaders were executed including Taffy Long a veteran soldier of Gallipoli.
Bontebok park was set up when only about 16 animals were left near Cape Arugulas.
Kruger had set aside land to be a game park and nobody owned it but only in 1926 was it declared the Kruger National Park.
When the Boer War broke out a foundry was set up by Kruger and Italian artisans were brought to run it. Many of them smoked cigarettes and perhaps that caused the ammunition factory to explode.
1928 the South African flag was designed so with the Union Jack there were now 2 flags.
An academic wrote that the Okavango used to flow into the Kalahari and got blocked up. He went there and saw the abundance of wild life and was against building a canal to let the water flow south. In Uganda he felt it has the largest bicycle population in Africa. South African Parlement felt that Edward VIII should abdicate if he married Wallace Simpson. On a German ship to South America the author was not popular as he told them he disliked Hitler and Nazi terror.
When it was obvious there would be war Herzog refused to give his views. On 1 Sept 1939 he tried to keep SA neutral but parliament happened to be in session to deal with a technical matter and the cabinet split in half and a parliament voted to fight for Britain. 130 000 volunteered of total of 200000 SA soldiers. He felt the British navy was important to protect the Cape as other predator nations would come. Ossewa Brandwag based on Nazi method developed as they believed that Britain was being destroyed. There was fear of Italy invading Kenya from Ethiopia.
Groot Schuur was bequeathed to the Union in 1902 as Prime Minister house. by Rhodes but the Union only came about in 1910.
Graf von Spree and 2 sons died in the Battle of the Falklands in WW1 on a German ship. The ship Graf von Spree was scuttled in the Plata River Dec 1939.
He went to England to coordinate military and in Ireland he told de Lavera that Ireland should have got an autonomy under the British crown that way it would have remained united. He is taken to the Maginot line and says that Germany will just bypass it.
In Portugal he meets Salazar and Dr Saldanha whose ancestors were the first to climb Table Mountain. Travelling back through Spain he sees dozens of destroyed towns and thousands of abandoned cars of people who fled. He saw evidence of how cruel both sides were to each other. In Madrid he was told that Marshal Petain was a defeatist as he thought France was rotten to the core and needed a Fascist leader.
The British navy intercepted several ships on the Madagascar route and 600 French troops were interned on Robben Island.
Many people outside of africa do not know that much about the history of South Africa as in Europe it is usualy shown as a half page in the history book but in fact there was an active part in the 2nd world war
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