For those who aren't aware, the Maritz Rebellion was a rebellion by a group of South African Boers as Britain was entering the Great War. The Revellion was delt with internally by South Africa for the most part and didn't last too long. What if it had been bigger and more successful? What if it ultimately succeeded? What if it were bigger and the British sent AZNAC forces there to quell the Boers? Would there be a "Boer Question" about what to do with the Boer South Africans? Would they be expelled? If so, where would they go?
A Bigger Maritz Rebellion?
- Thread starter Sevarics
- Start date
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maritz_rebellion
This is the Maritz Rebellion wiki page for those who need more info
This is the Maritz Rebellion wiki page for those who need more info
It might depend on just how much bigger and successful the Rebellion might be. In the end The Empire might cut off all support to the areas occupied by the rebels. This might save German SW Africa for awhile, but in the end the Empire will come down hard on the rebels. Though that might have to wait until later in the War.
I do imagine the hammer doesn't truly fall until the war is over and then the Brits come down hard on the Boers
If rebels had waited until 1917 or 1918, the British Army would've been too exhausted to respond.
The other issue was British families (living in South Africa) losing too many sons during WW1. With British (ancestry) leadership gutted, it would have been easier for Afrikaners to assume key posts in the gov't.
After the Armistice (1911, November 11) the British Empire was too war-weary to raise a finger against uppity Boers.
The other issue was British families (living in South Africa) losing too many sons during WW1. With British (ancestry) leadership gutted, it would have been easier for Afrikaners to assume key posts in the gov't.
After the Armistice (1911, November 11) the British Empire was too war-weary to raise a finger against uppity Boers.
Deleted member 94680
Nonsense. There would always be troops made available to put down a rebellion against the Empire.
But it isn't even necessary that you need Empire troops, Anglo-South Africans were just that South Africans, they'd be available to put down any rebellion.
A bigger Maritz rebellion could lead to a wider Civil War (although this is fairly ASB).
This is pretty ASB. And remember the PM at the time, Louis Botha was an Afrikaner, as was his deputy, Jan Smuts. Expelling every single Afrikaner in SA is not going to happen.
Deleted member 94680
I'm pretty sure Smuts would oppose any rebellion, he may have been an Afkikaner, but he was an "Empire Man". I'm not so sure about Botha, does anyone know where his loyalties lay?
This also points to not even the Afrikaners being united in their opposition to the British. IIRC the Martiz Rebellion was a pretty small scale, extreme fringe kind of deal OTL. They didn't represent the majority view of Afrikaners, it would seem.
That was the point I was (poorly) trying to make.
Smuts and Botha were 'establishment' men, no way would they support a rebellion. And remember, although Britain won the war, the Afrikaners won the peace. It wasn't in the interests of most Afrikaners to take up arms against the South African state (which is what it woulkd have been, it wouldn't have been a fight against the Empire).
Precisely- what exactly would a Maritz victory look like? A South Africa that spent the twentieth century dominated by Afrikaner nationalists?
So hard to imagine.
So hard to imagine.
Deleted member 94680
Well, yes, exactly. But if a Maritz rebellion became successful (very hard to imagine, given the lack of support it had OTL) South Africa would be worse off. The Maritz Rebellion was conducted in alliance with the Germans in South West Africa, that's treason to the government in London. Maritz succeeding won't change the result of the war as a whole, meaning they'll be crushed once hostilities cease in the other theatres of war.
I wonder if you might see the political centre of gravity shift back towards the Cape?
I mean, in the unlikely event that the rebels gain momentum their support base will be the old republics. If we're handwaving the necessary surge in support to allow the rebels a victory, then "loyalist" strongholds are going to be in the Cape and Natal.
Perhaps the Dominion is reconstituted at the end of the war with the capital shifted to Capetown, Durban or a new purpose built settlement a la Canberra- somewhere within close range of a British task force.
Also, Rhodesia will probably be attached to South Africa at the end of the war whether the Rhodesians like it or not as a way of getting a few more English speakers into the Dominion.
I mean, in the unlikely event that the rebels gain momentum their support base will be the old republics. If we're handwaving the necessary surge in support to allow the rebels a victory, then "loyalist" strongholds are going to be in the Cape and Natal.
Perhaps the Dominion is reconstituted at the end of the war with the capital shifted to Capetown, Durban or a new purpose built settlement a la Canberra- somewhere within close range of a British task force.
Also, Rhodesia will probably be attached to South Africa at the end of the war whether the Rhodesians like it or not as a way of getting a few more English speakers into the Dominion.
The boers were pro-german. So, it could've helped Germany take South Africa from the British. Or it could've delayed the invasion of German South West Africa.