II.

Early Life

Smuts was born on May 24, 1870, near Malmesbury in the British-ruled Cape Colony (see Cape Province) where his Afrikaner family had farmed since the 18th century. He displayed remarkable intellectual ability at school and won a scholarship to the University of Cambridge in England, where he graduated with distinction in law in 1894.

On his return to South Africa he was appointed attorney-general of the South African Republic (Transvaal) and played a key role in advising the government of Paul Kruger in the build up to the South African War with Britain. He helped shape the republic’s military strategy and took an active part as a commando general, especially during the guerrilla phase of the war. In 1902 he persuaded reluctant Boer commanders to sign a peace treaty with the British, and in the post-war period he joined with fellow-Transvaal general Louis Botha in proposing reconciliation with British South Africans as the only way to safeguard white supremacy. The policy was rewarded with favourable terms in the resulting Union of South Africa (1910). Smuts drafted the clause that excluded black Africans from the franchise throughout the Union except in the former Cape Colony.