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The Maritz Rebellion (1914)

Main article: Maritz Rebellion

The Maritz Rebellion, (also know as the Boer Revolt), broke out in South Africa in 1914 at the start of World War I. Men who supported the reinstitution of the old Boer republics rose up against the government of the Union of South Africa. Many members of the government were former Boers who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Anglo-Boer War twelve years earlier. The rebellion was a failure, and the ringleaders were assessed large fines and, in many cases, imprisonment.[28]

After the Maritz Rebellion was suppressed, the South African army continued their operations into German South-West Africa and conquered it by July 1915 (see the South-West Africa Campaign for details).

Compared to the fate of leading Irish rebels of the Easter Rising in 1916, the leading Boer rebels got off lightly with terms of imprisonment of six and seven years and heavy fines. Two years later, they were released from prison, as Louis Botha recognised the value of reconciliation. After this, the "bitter enders" concentrated on working within the constitutional system and built up the National Party which would come to dominate the politics of South Africa from the late 1940s until the early 1990s, when the apartheid system they had constructed also fell.

Walvis Bay (1914-1915)

Main article: Walvis Bay

At the outset of World War I, South West Africa (modern Namibia) was under German control after having been passed back and forth during boundary negotiations over the previous year’s[29] Troops from the Union of South Africa took much of the territory, including Walvis Bay in the north, in 1915. Prior to the attack into South West Africa, the Boers had initially raised their objections to any assault on German forces since the Germans had supported them in the Second Boer War.[30] Martial Law was declared on 14 October 1914, the Boer rebellion was quickly suppressed, and in early 1915 the South African troops began moving into German South-West Africa. South African forces quickly moved through the country, but the German fought until cornered in the extreme north-west before surrendering on 9 July 1915.[31]