South African Border War - Roots of Conflict

Roots of Conflict

Xangongo Menongue Cuito Cuanavale Grootfontein Rundu Oshivelo Oshakati Angolan Operational Area: the South African Border War

The roots of the conflict can be traced back to World War I. In 1915 South Africa invaded and conquered the then German South-West Africa on behalf of the Allied Forces. After five years of South African military rule, the territory was granted to South Africa as a C-class mandate by the League of Nations in 1920.

After World War II, the League of Nations dissolved and the South African government of Jan Smuts hoped to be able to take over the territory. They formally applied to the United Nations in 1946 for this, but their request was refused, because the indigenous people had not been adequately consulted. The UN asked South Africa to place the territory under a trusteeship system, requiring closer international monitoring of the territory's administration, but South Africa refused. This resulted in a long-drawn out legal battle.

In 1966 the International Court of Justice decided that it had no legal standing in the case. Upon the announcement the UN General Assembly irreversibly terminated the mandate. In 1971 the International Court of Justice supported the UN, and agreed that South Africa's rule of the territory was illegal, and that South Africa should withdraw. In December of that same year, a general strike of workers showed South Africa the massive amount of resistance against the contract labour system. This was a new element of opposition against South African rule.

Although the South African government wanted to incorporate South-West Africa (SWA) into its territory, it never officially did so: it was administered as the de facto fifth province, with its white minority having representation in the Parliament of South Africa, as per the apartheid system.

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