Resultado da Busca
Marechal de campo Jan Christian Smuts PC, OM, CH, DTD, ED, KC, FRS (24 de maio de 1870 – 11 de setembro de 1950) foi um proeminente político, líder militar, filósofo e estadista sul-africano, influente na Commonwealth Britânica.
Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, OM, CH, DTD, ED, PC, KC, FRS (baptismal name Jan Christiaan Smuts, 24 May 1870 – 11 September 1950) was a South African statesman, military leader and philosopher. In addition to holding various military and cabinet posts, he served as prime minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 to 1924 ...
- Overview
- Early life and career
- Role in the Boer War
Jan Smuts (born May 24, 1870, Bovenplaats, near Riebeeck West, Cape Colony [now in South Africa]—died Sept. 11, 1950, Irene, near Pretoria, S.Af.) South African statesman, soldier, and prime minister (1919–24, 1939–48), who sought to promote South Africa as a responsible member of the (British) Commonwealth.
Jan Christian Smuts was born on a farm near Riebeeck West in the Cape Colony. His ancestors were mainly Dutch, with a small admixture of French and German but no English, though he was born a British subject. Until he went to school at the age of 12, Smuts lived the life of a South African farm boy, taking his share in the work of the farm, learning from nature, and developing a life-long love of the land. Many years later, when asked by an American botanist why he, a general, should be an authority on grasses, Smuts replied, “But my dear lady, I am only a general in my spare time.”
At 16 he went to Victoria College (subsequently the University of Stellenbosch), where he studied science and arts and obtained first-class honours in both. At Stellenbosch he fell in love with a fellow student, Isie Krige, whom he later married and who remained a source of strength through the stresses and strains of an eventful life.
In 1891 he obtained a scholarship and entered Christ’s College, Cambridge, where he read law and was generally recognized as one of the most brilliant law students Cambridge had had. He was the first ever to take both parts of the law tripos examinations in the same year, and in both he came first. From Cambridge he went to London, where he came first in the Inns of Court honours examination and was awarded two prizes. It seemed clear that a distinguished academic career lay ahead of him; nevertheless, Smuts wanted to return to South Africa.
Britannica Quiz
World War I Quiz
Apart from law he read widely in philosophy, poetry, and science, and it was at this time that he first read the poems of Walt Whitman. Many years later he compared the effect that Whitman had on him to St. Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus. Whitman’s conception of natural man liberated him, he believed, from the sense of sin induced by a strict Calvinist upbringing. Before he left England he wrote a book about Whitman but failed to find a publisher.
For the first nine months of the South African (Boer) War, which began in October 1899, Smuts was part official and part soldier, moving between Pretoria and the front. When Pretoria was occupied by the British he became a full-time soldier, eventually receiving an independent command. He was an apt pupil in the guerrilla tactics that were so successfully exploited against the overstretched British lines of communication. In April 1902 he invaded the Cape Colony—to within 120 miles (190 kilometres) of Cape Town, but by then his force was too little and too late. When the war ended he had to be recalled, under British escort, to take part in drafting peace terms.
The Boers lost their independent republics, but Smuts remained firm in his belief in the future of a united South Africa. He returned to Pretoria and family life but was inevitably drawn into public affairs. He and Gen. Louis Botha combined to oppose the high commissioner Alfred Milner’s narrow interpretation of the peace terms and to insist on Boer rights. It was a remarkable partnership, in which Smuts supplied the intellectual vigour and Botha a deep knowledge of his fellow men and great wisdom in dealing with them. Their first objective was responsible government for the two former republics; after that would come union of the four colonies. Smuts played a major role in the achievement of responsible government for the Transvaal (1906) and the Union of South Africa (1910).
Jan Smuts fought the British in the Boer War. Fifteen years later, he was a member of Lloyd George’s Cabinet. Smuts was by now a close ally of Prime Minister Lloyd George of Britain, who...
Esse livro é escrito por Smuts com o intuito de servir como um guia introdutório, tanto para a Filosofia quanto para a Ciência, ao pensamento holístico. Smuts apresenta no prefácio do livro o seu objetivo em sistematizar mais tarde a doutrina holística em outra obra.
Learn about the life and achievements of Jan Smuts, a prominent South African politician, military leader, and philosopher. He played a key role in the Union of South Africa, the First World War, the League of Nations, and the concept of holism.
Learn about the life and achievements of Jan Smuts, a South African leader who fought against Britain in the Boer War and later allied with Britain in the First World War. He was also a Prime Minister, a Field Marshal, a League of Nations advocate and a UN founder.
