This article is about Jan Smuts as a minister in the government of Louis Botha, from the creation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 until the outbreak of the First World War in 1914. The formation of a new pan-South African Afrikaner party seemed to promise a new age of cooperation, but the party was soon wracked by dissent, identity crisis, and division. The breakdown of government control, and the descent towards civil war, was only further prevented by the advent of the First World War. During this period, Smuts further solidified his political alliance and personal friendship with Louis Botha.