Maritz rebellion

Part of the South-West Africa Campaign

Date	15 September 1914 – 4 February 1915
Location	South Africa
Result	Rebellion suppressed Rebel leaders imprisoned South Africa occupies German South West Africa

Belligerents

United Kingdom

Union of South Africa

South African Republic

Commanders and leaders

Christian Frederick Beyers †

Jan Kemp

Strength

32,000

12,000

Casualties and losses

101 killed and wounded

124 killed
229 wounded

United Kingdom

The Maritz rebellion, also known as the Boer revolt or Five Shilling rebellion was an armed insurrection which occurred in South Africa in 1914 at the start of World War I, led by Boers who supported the reestablishment of the South African Republic in the Transvaal. Many members of the government were themselves former Boers who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Boer War, which had ended twelve years earlier. The rebellion failed, and the ringleaders received heavy fines and terms of imprisonment.

At the end of the Second Boer War twelve years earlier, all former Boer combatants had been asked to sign a pledge that they would abide by the peace terms. Some, like Deneys Reitz, refused and were exiled from South Africa. Over the following decade many returned home, and not all of them signed the pledge upon returning. At the end of the second Boer War, those Boers who had fought to the end were known as "bittereinders" ("bitter enders"); by the time of the rebellion, those who had not taken the pledge and wanted to start a new war had also become known as the "bitter enders."

A German journalist who interviewed the former Boer general J.B.M. Hertzog for the Tägliche Rundschau wrote:

Hertzog believes that the fruit of the three-year struggle by the Boers is that their freedom, in the form of a general South African Republic, will fall into their laps as soon as England is involved in a war with a Continental power.

Paraphrasing the Irish Nationalists' "England's misfortune is the bitter enders' opportunity," the "bitter enders" and their supporters saw the start of World War I as that opportunity, particularly since England's enemy, Germany, had been their old supporter.

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