Smuts and the politics of colonial expansion : South African strategy in regard to South-West Africa [Namibia] and the League of Nations Mandate, c.1914-1924

Includes bibliography.'Smuts and ,the Politics of Colonial Expansion: South African Strategy in Regard to South-West Africa [Namibia] and the League of Nations Mandate: c.1914-1924' is an analysis of Jan Smuts's central role in the Union's conquest of South West Africa in 1915, the fight for annexation of the territory in 1918-1919, and his subsequent shaping of the Mandate as Prime Minister of the Union until 1924. In addition it is an investigation of Smuts's motivations during this period. Three significant conclusions emerge from this dissertation. Primarily, I argue that Smuts was involved in all three above described stages of the Union's acquisition of South-West Africa, as both a policy-maker and the lead representative of South Africa's interests. Most importantly, I evaluate Smuts's incentives for so passionately leading the attempt to incorporate South-West Africa and contend that Smuts wanted to annex the territory because of his desire to create a white-led superstate in southern Africa, independent of European influence and with regional hegemony, and that the annexation of South-West Africa was an important step in that direction for Smuts. Additonally, I assess Smuts's successes and failures and conclude that his failure to fully realize annexation of the territory was responsible for Namibia's eventual independence. In order to prove my assertions, I rely on both secondary and primary information from South African and Namibian archives. My primary sources are drawn from the papers of the Governor-General of the Union, the Prime Minister of the Union, the Secretary and Administrator of South-West Africa, and others such as the American Ambassador to South Africa