James Barry Munnik Hertzog (1866-1942) was a South African soldier and political leader. His government isolated Africans from the political process and laid the groundwork for the separatist apartheid system, which allowed the white minority to oppress blacks.

James Hertzog was born in Wellington in Cape Province on April 3, 1866, a descendant of German immigrants. Educated at Stellenbosch University near Cape Town, Hertzog studied law in Holland, France, and Germany. Returning to South Africa in 1893, he served as reporter to the Transvaal High Court and subsequently became a judge of the High Court of the Orange Free State. Hertzog resigned this post when the Anglo-Boer war broke out in 1899, enlisted for service, and assumed command of the burgher forces in June 1900. The Treaty of Vereeniging, which ended the war, set him on a public career that was to make Afrikaner nationalism the most important influence in South African politics...