Citation

Hyslop J. J. Hist. Sociol. 2009; 22(2): 234-268.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2009, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-6443.2009.01349.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper seeks to provide a new approach to analysing the crucial period of the building of the South African state between the Boer War and 1924. Drawing on the sociology of Michael Mann, it argues that the construction of networks of military power was of central and partly autonomous importance in giving shape to the new state. It goes on to contend that this generated a legal order which was in many ways shaped by practices which derived from martial law. The paper also asserts that these questions of military power and martial law need to be analysed within a framework which does not limit itself to the boundaries of the South African state itself, but is placed within the wider context of the British Empire and the southern African region. A biographical exploration the role of Jan Smuts as the key leader is used to focus the paper's study of this process of state-making.