A failed pro-German Boer insurrection in 1914 that tested the loyalty of South Africa's new Union government at the outbreak of World War I.
Key Facts
- Rebel force size
- approximately 12,000 combatants
- Killed in battle
- at least 124 rebels
- Deaths during Kalahari retreat
- approximately 300 rebels
- Wounded
- at least 229 rebels
- Executed ringleader
- Jopie Fourie
- Common alternate name
- Third Boer War / Five Shilling Rebellion
By the Numbers
Location
Cause → Event → Consequence
At the outbreak of World War I, many Afrikaner Boers remained embittered by their defeat in the Second Boer War twelve years earlier. When South Africa's new Union government aligned with Britain against Germany, a faction of Boers—some of them former officers—sought to exploit the moment to re-establish the independent South African Republic in the Transvaal, with tacit German encouragement.
Beginning around 15 September 1914, Boer commander Manie Maritz and associated leaders launched an armed insurrection against the South African government. Roughly 12,000 rebels took up arms in a pro-German uprising. Government forces suppressed the rebellion through a military campaign; at least 124 rebels died in battle, and around 300 more perished during a desperate retreat into the Kalahari Desert.
The rebellion collapsed and its surviving leaders were captured, fined heavily, and imprisoned. Jopie Fourie was executed. The failure of the uprising consolidated the authority of the Union government under Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, and South Africa proceeded to contribute forces to the Allied war effort, including the campaign against German South West Africa.