| Empire-Republic War of South Africa | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||||||
 Pride Empire SWAPO MPLA FNLASupported by:  Soviet Union Yugoslavia Tunisia
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 South Africa South-West Africa PortugalSupported by:  United Kingdom United States
| ||||||||||
| Commanders | |||||||||||
| Ouroboros XX Pride Ouroboros XXI Pride Roma Tierra Molteno Zaieyd Zackly Erde Grado Theimer
|
Charles Swart H.F. Verwoerd Pieter Grobbelaar Rudolph Hiemstra Hugo Biermann Américo Tomás António de Oliveira Salazar António Augusto dos Santos
| ||||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||||
| ~39,000 Pride separatists initially; swelled to >500,000 supporters Pride Empire: 133,750 Kommandos 3,345 foreign mercenaries 7,825 SADF deserters SWAPO: 2,387 fighters MPLA: 1,601 fighters FNLA: 594 rebels |
South Africa: 201,312 soldiers, policemen, Commandos South-West Africa: 14,235 policemen & paramilitaries Portugal: 18,258 colonial troops | ||||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||||
| Total casualties: 72,620 72,350 fighters 270 supporters ~110,000 supporters injured 20 supporters arrested |
Total casualties: 119,644 98,756 South African forces 1,034 Portuguese forces 19,854 South African civilians | ||||||||||
The Empire-Republic War of South Africa or commonly, Empire-Republic War was fought on the west side of South Africa, the so-called "Cape Provinces", during the last days of the Union of South Africa when the United Kingdom withdrew from the country in 1960. Seizing the opportunity, the Afrikaner-dominated National Party sought to turn the Union into a Republic through a referendum on 5 October 1960. South African Boers identifying themselves as Prides lobbied instead for the partitioning of the Union to reinstate the Boer colonies especially that of their homeland, the Imperial Realm of the Pridelands or Pride Empire but this was heavily opposed by other South Africans. Ouroboros XX Pride, successor to the House Pride which was forcibly deposed from the throne and exiled to Cape Town, started supporting the movement which gained momentum from then with other Boers and Afrikaners in the Cape Provinces. On 13 November, Ouroroboros XX had his son, Ouroboros XXI, who was then staying in Europe, clandestinely prepare for a possible insurgency to meet their independence and separatist demands.
Though the widely recognized start of the war was on 3 January, the conflict has already started back in October 1990 with sporadic fighting and civil unrest in the Cape Provinces aggravated by the absence of an option for partition in the referendum. To South Africans, especially those wanting to have the Union transition into a republic, it was known as the Separatist War while for the Prides it was known as the Liberation War.
Background[]
The Imperial Realm of the Pridelands or Pride Empire was forcibly merged with the Cape Colony to form the Union of South Africa upon the signing of the Treaty of Springbok. Following it, Ouroboros III and the whole House Pride was exiled overseas with the exception on 1947 when Ouroboros XIX successfully petitioned for his family to be allowed to go back to South Africa but with a compromise that it be restricted only within the city limits of Cape Town. Upon reaching there, Ouroboros XIX was able to restore fundamental ties with other Boer families and former subjects thus stoking the revival of Pride-nationalistic sentiments and gave rise to the separatist movement.
Foreign involvement[]
The Soviet Union and SFR Yugoslavia, initially did not wish to support the Pride Empire as it is not a Communist revolution. Months of dialogue occurred between Ouroboros XX and the Soviet Union and between Josip Broz Tito before the two soon gave support to counter rising American influences in Africa. The influence required by the support of the USSR and Yugoslavia can be seen in the economic and social policies of the Pridelands as it adopted a socialistic approach despite being ruled by an aristocracy.
Ouroboros XX was also able to hold dialogues with SWAPO, MPLA, and FNLA using political promises of mutual support in their respective armed struggles despite racial tensions stemming from differences.
Complications[]
The separatist movement and war where the Prides emerged victorious and regained their independence and liberation inspired other African nationalistic movements and the downfall of many European colonies in Africa especially in Angola and Mozambique, and in Namibia.
The SWAPO, MPLA and FNLA all received their preliminary combat experience during this war. The military lessons learned and experiences in guerrilla warfare would be applied in their respective fights.
End[]
A general armistice was signed on 26 May 1961 that would take effect at 12:00PM the next day, 27 May 1961. Peace negotiations have been carried out since 4 May when South Africa reached out for a request for a 1-day ceasefire before that Ouroboros XX had been attempting to bring South African leaders to the negotiating board but was consistently ignored. The reasons for the ceasefire that was observed on 10 May were not divulged but it granted Ouroboros XX the leverage to be given an audience with the South African parliament on that day; his addressing speech was kept confidential.
The armistice lasted until 1975 with both the Pride Empire and South Africa accusing each other of violating the armistice; this resulted to the Frontier Wars of the Pride Empire. The Imperial government upholds that it launched a "retaliatory strike" against South African military threats on 13 June 1975 while South Africa recognizes it as a "pre-emptive strike" and therefore a "bellicose deliberation to bring harm that is a form of a war action". Months leading to the 13 June attack, South Africa have been raiding suspected locations harboring anti-Apartheid insurgents whether internal or abroad. Pride Empire insists that two of such raids occurred well within the borders, notwithstanding several others that have been launched precariously close to the borders, of the Imperial Realm but were not punished out of respect to the armistice. Diplomatic calls were made but blatant denial of such events were instead offered by South Africa. On a third raid inside the Realm's borders on 27 May (14th anniversary of the armistice), the South African operatives were ambushed which resulted to 9 deaths and 4 arrests. South African diplomats carried out attempts to recover the bodies and imprisoned men but were rebuffed by the Imperial government. Another raid was carried out on 11 June which the Imperial government assumed to be to forcibly recover the operatives but it was foiled. Ouroboros XXI soon addressed the Realm calling for military mobilization.