logo

Video encyclopedia

Jan Christiaan Smuts

Biography

1:42

General Jan Smuts Appeals For Peace

 

3:17

SOUTH AFRICA: General Jan Smuts addresses audience at the Guildhall (1943)

 

2:38

Honour For Field Marshal Jan Smuts AKA Smuts Honoured In Holland (1948)

 

0:57

Prime Minister Jan Smuts of South Africa visits Holland (1946)

 

1:21

Field Marshal Jan Smuts

Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts was a prominent South African and British Commonwealth statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948. Although Smuts had originally advocated racial segregation and opposed the enfranchisement of black Africans, his views changed and he backed the Fagan Commission's findings that complete segregation was impossible. Smuts subsequently lost the 1948 election to hard-line Afrikaners who created apartheid. He continued to work for reconciliation and emphasised the British Commonwealth’s positive role until his death in 1950.
  • Personal 

  • Law and politics 

  • The Boer War 

  • A British Transvaal 

  • The Old Boers 

  • First World War 

  • Statesman 

  • Second World War 

  • Later life 

  • Death 

  • Relations with Churchill 

  • Race and segregation 

  • Holism and related academic work 

  • Zionism 

  • Legacy 

  • Orders, decorations and medals