Early Constitutional Development toward a republic
Introduction to the Balfour Declaration and Status and Seal Acts
After Union in 1910, South Africa was a dominion. Effectively it was no longer a colony, but it was not independent and could not leave the empire or ignore the monarchy. One of Hertzog’s aims was secession from Britain, but he could not attain this as a result of the Pact agreement. Instead he decided to work towards sovereign independence, which is when a country has supreme power over its own affairs. After WW1 the dominions kept dominion status although in many cases they were given power that should be reserved for an independent country. Cases of this were the signing the Treaty of Versailles, the joining the League of Nations and being given mandates to look after. Hertzog therefore set about getting clarity on the position of the dominions.
