On this day in 1914, as part of an attempt to display its loyalty to the British empire and, perhaps more importantly, enlarge its own sphere of influence on the African continent, South Africa sends troops to occupy Swakopmund.
When World War I broke out in 1914, South African Prime Minister Louis Botha immediately pledged full support for Britain, antagonising a portion of South Africa’s ruling Boer population, who were still resentful of their defeat at the hands of the British in the Boer War of 1899–1902. In 1914, Botha and Minister of Defence Jan Smuts, both generals and former Boer commanders, were looking to extend the Union’s borders further on the continent.
Invading German South West Africa would not only aid the British – it would also help to accomplish that goal. The plan angered some Afrikaners, who were resentful of their government’s support of Britain against Germany, which had been pro-Boer in their war against the British.
Several major military leaders resigned over their opposition to the invasion of the German territory and open rebellion broke out in October 1914. It was quashed in December and the conquest of South West Africa (Namibia), carried out by a South African Defence Force of nearly 50 000 men, was completed in only six months.
On 9 July 1915, Germans in South West Africa surrendered to South African forces there; 16 days later, South Africa annexed the territory. At the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919, Smuts and Botha argued successfully for a formal Union mandate over Southwest Africa, one of the many commissions granted at the conference to member states of the new League of Nations allowing them to establish their own governments in former German territories.
In the years to come, South Africa did not easily relinquish its hold on the territory, not even in the wake of the Second World War, when the United Nations took over the mandates in Africa and gave all other territories their independence.
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