greatwar-1914:October 27, 1915 - Prime Minister Louis Botha Re-Elected in South Africa, First Colour
greatwar-1914:October 27, 1915 - Prime Minister Louis Botha Re-Elected in South Africa, First Coloured Battalion FormedPictured - An unlikely road to prime ministerial success: Louis Botha is pictured here in 1900 when he was a Boer commando. Louis Botha, the incumbent Prime Minister of South Africa, decisively won his campaign for re-election in 1915. Once a renowned anti-British guerrilla during the Second Boer War, Botha had striven for reconciliation afterwards and blazed the path towards South African recognition as a British Dominion. In 1914 Botha joined Britain in declaring war on Germany, sensing it as an opportunity to pinch territory from neighboring German South-West Africa, a goal he accomplished by the beginning of 1915, and crushing an anti-British rebellion by Boer soldiers.Botha’s success led to victory for himself and his party in the election, where his South Africa Party swept the field, winning 99 seats. Another historic occurrence for South Africa occurred that week as well. For the first time, Botha agreed to the formation of an armed unit of coloured soldiers, composed of Cape Town volunteers of mixed descent. A departure from the all-white forces previously employed, the creation of a colored unit was in part due to Botha’s promise to send support to East Africa, to help hunt down the elusive German general von Lettow-Vorbeck. -- source link
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