The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971 Page: 83
616 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
1904, he spent most of his life as a minister of the Dutch Reformed
Church at Warrenton, in the Orange Free State. He was interested
in orphanages and institutions of social service. He died in 1962 at
the age of ninety-one."
Francis William Reitz was born in Swellendam, Cape Province, in
1844. He studied law in Cape Town, London, and Cambridge, and
practiced in Cape Town until 1874, when he became chief justice of
the Orange Free State. In 1888 he became president of the Orange
Free State, a post he held until 1895. In 1897 he was appointed judge
of the Supreme Court of the Transvaal, and in 1898 he became state
secretary; as such he drafted the ultimatum which led to the outbreak
of the South African War. During hostilities he remained in the field,
and he signed the Peace Treaty under protest. He refused to take the
oath of allegiance to Britain and left the country, residing in the
Netherlands and North America until 1907, when the Transvaal was
granted self government and he returned. In 9g lo he became the first
president of the Senate of the Union of South Africa, continuing in
office until 1920o. He strove energetically for the recognition of Afri-
kaans as a language, and wrote poems in the vernacular which attained
great popularity. He died in 1934.'
Similarities between South Africa and the United States are striking:
Kaapstadt and Nieu Amsterdam were settled almost simultaneously;
European colonial exploitation dominated both countries for a cen-
tury and a half; African slavery scarred both (leaving segregation in
one, apartheid in the other); migrations to the interior occurred
simultaneously (both traveled in ox-drawn covered wagons, and in-
dependently devised the defensive wagon ring, the laager) ; both con-
quered native populations and restricted them to reservations; both
survived gold rushes; both seceded from British dominion; both fought
devastating civil wars.
The Civil War in South Africa was in many respects similar to the
Civil War in the United States: a plantation society versus a commer-
cial society, effective guerrilla fighting against superior military power,
application of a scorched earth policy by the victors, and an aftermath
of bitter recriminations in a divided nation. When the Nationalist
Party won the election of 1948, it achieved in South Africa what
9N. van Blerk to M. S. S., interview, November 23, 1963.
8Ibid.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 74, July 1970 - April, 1971, periodical, 1971; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101200/m1/95/: accessed May 9, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.