Jan Christian Smuts: egy „tiszteletbeli” közép–európai Dél–Afrikából
Jan Christian Smuts: an „honorary” Central European from South Africa

Author(s): Gábor Búr
Subject(s): Diplomatic history, Political history, Social history, Pre-WW I & WW I (1900 -1919)
Published by: Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, Új-és Jelenkori Egyetemes Történeti Tanszék
Keywords: South Africa; Anglo–Boer war; British Empire; South African Republic; scorched earth policy; concentration camps; Treaty of Vereeniging; res-ponsible government; dominion of the British Empire; Union
Summary/Abstract: Jan Christian Smuts is one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th century. His fate has crossed twice Central Europe, firstly in 1917 when he had held secret negotiations with the representatives of Austria-Hungary in Switzerland and secondly in 1919 when he was sent to a mission to Bu-dapest. His „Cape Dutch”, i.e. Afrikaner or „Boer” origin created expecta-tions in Central Europe that he will be able to understand the ethnic, etc. complexity of our region much better than the representatives of the gre-at nations and powers. It was not his fault that he was not able to fulfill those expectations. His deeds during World War I and after is a well pro-cessed and documented topic in the Central European historiography but not the decade between 1899–1909 when the legend of Smuts got cre-ated as of a person who is able to win the peace after military defeat.

• Details
• Contents