Jan Smuts

Jan Smuts (1870–1950) was a South African military leader and politician who served twice as prime minister and helped shape the League of Nations and the United Nations.

Louis Botha: A Boer general and South African politician who became the Union of South Africa’s first prime minister. Botha led Smuts’s military and political partner in building the Union government.
Cape Colony: A British colony at southern Africa’s southwestern tip that preceded the Union of South Africa. Smuts was born in the Cape Colony before its unification with other territories.
South African invasion of German South West Africa: The 1914–1915 campaign in which South African forces conquered the German colony during the First World War. Smuts commanded forces in this campaign as a member of the Union government.
Preamble to the Charter of the United Nations: The introductory statement of the UN Charter, setting out the purposes and principles of the organization. Smuts drafted language for this text, including its opening commitment to future generations.
Winston Churchill: British prime minister during the Second World War and a leading Allied statesman. Churchill worked with Smuts on wartime strategy and postwar international institutions.
Afrikaners: A South African people descended chiefly from Dutch-speaking European settlers, with Afrikaans as their language. Smuts’s Afrikaner identity shaped his political base and his dealings with Britain.
East African campaign: A First World War campaign in which Allied forces fought German troops across East Africa. Smuts commanded British and imperial forces in East Africa in 1916.
South African Defence Force: The national military of South Africa, established under that name in 1957. Smuts’s wartime leadership helped build the country’s military capacity and traditions.
Woodrow Wilson: U.S. president from 1913 to 1921 who promoted a League of Nations after the First World War. Wilson and Smuts both advocated a League, though their visions differed.
First Boer War: An 1880–1881 conflict in which the South African Republic defeated British forces and regained self-government. Its aftermath formed part of the political world in which Smuts came of age.

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