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Louis Botha

Louis Botha
September 27, 1862 – August 27, 1919
Place of birth	Greytown, Natal
Allegiance	Natal, South African Republic, Union of South Africa, British Commonwealth
Years of service	1899 - 1902 (Boer Army)
Rank	General
Commands	Boer, South African Republic
Battles/wars	Second Boer War, Colenso, Spion kop, retreat from Pretoria, First World War, South-West Africa Campaign
Other work	Prime Minister of Transvaal, First Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa, First Leader of the South African Party, member of the parliament of Transvaal representing the Vryheid District

Louis Botha (September 27, 1862 – August 27, 1919), was an Afrikaner and first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa—the forerunner of the modern South African state.

He became a member of the parliament of Transvaal in 1897, representing the district of Vryheid. Two years later Botha fought in the Second Boer War, initially under Lucas Meyer in Northern Natal, and later as a general commanding and fighting with impressive capability at Colenso and Spion kop. On the death of P. J. Joubert, he was made commander-in-chief of the Transvaal Boers, where he demonstrated his abilities again at Belfast-Dalmanutha. After the fall of Pretoria, he led a concentrated guerrilla campaign against the British together with Koos de la Rey and Christiaan de Wet. The success of his measures was seen in the steady resistance offered by the Boers to the very close of the three years' war.

He was the chief representative of his countrymen in the peace negotiations of 1902, After the grant of self-government to the Transvaal in 1907, General Botha was called upon by Lord Selborne to form a government, and in the spring of the same year he took part in the conference of colonial premiers held in London. During his visit to England on this occasion General Botha declared the whole-hearted adhesion of the Transvaal to the British empire, and his intention to work for the welfare of the country regardless of racial differences (in this era referring to Boers/Afrikaners as a separate race to British South Africans).

He later worked towards peace with the British, representing the Boers at the peace negotiations in 1902. In the period of reconstruction under British rule, Botha went to Europe with de Wet and de la Rey to raise funds to enable the Boers to resume their former avocations. Botha, who was still looked upon as the leader of the Boer people, took a prominent part in politics, advocating always measures which he considered as tending to the maintenance of peace and good order and the re-establishment of prosperity in the Transvaal. His war record made him prominent in the politics of Transvaal and he was a major player in the postwar reconstruction of that country, becoming Prime Minister of Transvaal on March 4, 1907. In 1911, together with another Boer war hero, Jan Smuts, he formed the South African Party, or SAP. Widely viewed as too conciliatory with Britain, Botha faced revolts from within his own party and opposition from James Barry Munnik Hertzog's National Party. When South Africa obtained dominion status in 1910, Botha became the first Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa.

After the First World War started, he sent troops to take German South West Africa, a move unpopular among Boers, which provoked the Boer Revolt.

At the end of the War he briefly led a British Empire military mission to the Second Polish Republic during the Polish-Soviet War. He argued that the terms of the Versailles Treaty were too harsh on the Central Powers, but signed the treaty.