Jan Smuts

Jan Christiaan Smuts, OM (May 24, 1870 – September 11, 1950) was a prominent South African statesman and general. He was Prime Minister of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 and from 1939 to 1948. He was also a lawyer and an intellectual.

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As Prime Minister, he opposed a majority of Afrikaners that wished to continue and further the de facto Apartheid of the inter-war years. After the Second World War, he established and supported the Fagan Commission, which advocated the complete abandonment of all segregation in South Africa. However, Smuts lost a general election before he could implement the suggestion, and died, just as de jure Apartheid was being implemented.

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He led commandos in the Second Boer War for the Transvaal. Later, he led the armies of South Africa against Germany, capturing Namibia and commanding the British Army in East Africa. He became a Field Marshal in the British Army in 1940, and served in the Imperial War Cabinet under Winston Churchill.

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Perhaps his greatest accomplishment was in the establishment of the League of Nations, the idea for which is usually credited to Woodrow Wilson, but the inception of which was the design of Smuts. He later urged the formation of a new international organisation for peace: the United Nations. He sought to redefine the relationship between the United Kingdom and her colonies, by establishing the Commonwealth of Nations.

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In 2004 he was named by voters in a poll held by the South African Broadcasting Corporation as one of the top ten Greatest South Africans of all time. The final positions of the top ten were to be decided by a second round of voting, but the programme was taken off the air due to political controversy, and Nelson Mandela was given the number one spot based on the first round of voting. In the first round, Jan Smuts came sixth.

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OM: The word Om and similar words have these meanings:-...

May 24: May 24 is the 144th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (145th in leap years). There are 221 days remaining....

1870: 1870 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar)....

Jan Smuts related Images and Photos (experimental)

Jan Sterling	Jan-Michael Vincent	"Skiing Woman " Jan/Feb 84	1984 Jan Sterling Edmond O'Brien 1956
Jan Van Riebeeck Lands in Table Bay Where He Founds Cape Town	The Martyrdom of Jan Hus	The Brady Bunch 'Real Jan Brady' T-Shirt - Yellow	The Brady Bunch 'Real Jan Brady' T-Shirt - Yellow
Boris Mark and Jan Hambourg Russian-Born Musicians	The Landing of Jan Van Riebeeck (1619-77) 6th April 1652 1850	Portrait of Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck 1624	Portrait of Jan Both Engraved by Johannes Meyssens