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Following the defeat of the Boers in the Second Anglo–Boer War or South African War (1899–1902), the Union of South Africa was created as a self-governing dominion of the British Empire on 31 May 1910 in terms of the South Africa Act 1909, which amalgamated the four previously separate British colonies: Cape Colony, Colony of Natal ...
Although opinion among the United Kingdom government, the South African government and the British South Africa Company favoured the union option (and none tried to interfere in the referendum), when the referendum was held the results saw 59.4% in favour of responsible government for a separate colony and 40.6% in favour of joining the Union ...
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa.Its nine provinces are bounded to the south by 2,798 kilometres (1,739 miles) of coastline that stretches along the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean; [15] [16] [17] to the north by the neighbouring countries of Namibia, Botswana, and Zimbabwe; to the east and northeast by Mozambique and Eswatini ...
The Government of South Africa, or South African Government, is the national government of the Republic of South Africa, a parliamentary republic with a three-tier system of government and an independent judiciary, operating in a parliamentary system. Legislative authority is held by the Parliament of South Africa.
The Union of South Africa was tied closely to the British Empire, and automatically joined with Great Britain and the allies against the German Empire.Both Prime Minister Louis Botha and Defence Minister Jan Smuts were former Second Boer War generals who had fought against the British, but then became active and respected members of the Imperial War Cabinet.
Where the Boers and their ideas had before gone largely unchallenged, European Southern Africa now had two language groups and two cultures. A pattern soon emerged whereby English-speakers became highly urbanised, and dominated politics, trade, finance, mining, and manufacturing, while the largely uneducated Boers remained on their farms.
A small western area of the Republic of the Orange Free State is home to many of the diamond mines of South Africa. Before the rush to discover diamonds, many of the indigenous people of Africa already used these diamonds as simple tools. John O’Reilly finding diamonds in the 1850s sparked what is known as the diamond rush.
The first ministry of the Union of South Africa under Prime Minister Louis Botha, in 1910.The front row - JW Sauer, Botha, and Abraham Fischer (left to right) - were all present at the National Convention, and JBM Hertzog (far left), FR Moor (second from left), JC Smuts (fourth from right), Henry Charles Hull (third from right) and FS Malan (second from right) were also present.