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Apartheid in South Africa -- Historical Context
Simple history of apartheid in south africa
Apartheid in South Africa -- Historical Context
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In 1948 the National Party took power of South Africa. The all-white minority government began enforcing already existing laws that encouraged segregation and separatism in the non-white majority country. Under these new sanctions apartheid, which literally means a policy or system of segregation or discrimination on grounds of race, non-whites would be forced to not only go to separate public facilities but would later be force to live on separate lands similar to that of the Native Americans in the United States. Even though there was strong opposition to the new set of laws both from within and form outside the country these outrages and unethical policies remained in effect for almost 50 years
In the Seventeenth century the English and the Dutch colonized what is now South Africa. After the English dominated the Dutch posterities the Dutch chose to form two new colonies known as the Orange Free State and Transvaal. Sometime in the early 1900’s the discovery of vast amounts of diamonds spurred the English to invade the Dutch colonies spurring the Boer Wars (1880-81, 1899 – 02). After South Africa won its independence from English both the Dutch and English still held influence in the country.
Long before the National Party took power in South Africa discriminatory regulations were already taking effect. In 1913 the very divisive Land Act was passed. This act made is what started the formal segregation of black Africans. The Land Act of 1913 forced black Africans to live on reserves and also disallowed them from being sharecroppers, a chief form of income in South Africa.
In the 1940’s the Afrikaner National Party finally managed to gain majority control and officially initiate an apartheid government. The invention of th...
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...were killed. It was at this point that the United Nations Security Council agreed that an effort must be made to put a stop to the oppressive apartheid government and demanded that they cease any segregation immediately. Shortly after the ANC began a violent operations that would later be classified as 193 counts of terrorism raging from the murder of individual citizens to the bombing of government buildings. This had little effect except to strengthen the suppression by the South African government resulting in the banning of all anti-government organizations.
It was not until 1963 that the United Nations did made any moves of real consequence against the apartheid government. With the passing of Resolution 181 the United Nations placed a voluntary arms embargo on the South African government. However it was not until 1964 that the arms embargo became mandatory.
This may have led to little international opposition from some countries, which is why I do not think it was one of the major causes in the ending of apartheid. Another long-term cause was black resistance. In the 1970's the black South Africans fought back against the government in a far more powerful, bold way than they ever had done before. Extremist groups began to form in all the townships, and riots broke out. There was also the introduction of black consciousness, which was about blacks standing up for themselves without the help of whites.
Imperialism in South Africa began with the Dutch when a sea route to Asia was discovered by sailing around the Cape of Africa and
It showed the inhumanity of the apartheid government who committed evil deed by killing unarmed twelve and thirteen year olds. For this reason, The UN Resolutions state, “We appeal again for a total embargo on all supplies for the armed forces and police in South Africa, and for the total isolation of the South African racist regime. It also states, the killing of the black school children of Soweto is a crime. Desmond Tutu also declared, “ We could not have achieved our freedom and peace without the help of people around the world.” more, the international community helped end apartheid by boycotting the apartheid government, and isolating South Africa as a whole in effort to punish them for their racist apartheid
The integration of the English, Dutch, and Africans began with the Colonization of South Africa in the seventeenth century. South Africa housed an abundant supply of natural resources such as fertile farmland and luxury metals and minerals. South Africa is the leading producer of gold, platinum, and diamonds. It's mild climate, resembling that of San Francisco, made it an ideal location for colonization. The Dutch East India Company occupied South Africa until 1797, when the British took over. The British had power over the colonies of Natal and the Cape at the beginning at the nineteenth century. When diamond deposits were found in the Dutch colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal, the British invaded, sparking the Boer War. The Dutch decedents, known also as Afrikaners or Boers, sought to fight for their colonies as well as take over the British colonies of Natal and the Cape. The Boers lost the war and their two colonies to the British in defeat. The four colonies of Natal, Orange Free State, Transvaal and the Cape were brought together under British rule by means of the Act of Union of 1910. After some time, the British grew weary of their involvement in Africa and gave power to all of the whites i...
In 1990, South Africa became a totalitarian state. Apartheid is still in full effect. There is extensive racial violence in the streets. The country is economically suffering from sanctions from many other countries in protest of Apartheid.
The difference is that this segregation was not just between whites and blacks; it was among whites, and all the other races. The races were broken up into four categories: whites, Africans, Asians, and coloreds. How the people lived in South Africa depended on the race the person was. Everything was affected from education, employment, medical care and even where that person lived depended on their race. The apartheid was established to keep up white dominance in this country.
Nelson Mandela’s commitment to politics and the ANC grew stronger after the 1948 election victory of the Afrikaner dominated National Party, which formed a formal system of racial classification and segregation “apartheid” which restricted non whites basic rights and barred them from government.
How the Apartheid fell was a chain link of events. The early stages of the demise began around the early 1900s when new laws were placed out and riots broke out in the streets. When the Apartheid outlawed and banned the African National Congress (ANC) as well as sent many of its leaders to prison by convicting them of treason, including Nelson Mandela, the black community of South Africa were outraged. After the ban was placed out, the remaining anti-Apartheid fled to other surrounding independent African countries including Nambia, Zimbabwe, and Botswana. There, they continued to set up camps and fight the Apartheid. Back in South Africa, protesting increased during the middle years of the apartheid after Nelson Mandela is imprisoned again after being suspected to heave being involved in a bombing. This time he is imprisoned for life.
Apartheid was a system of separation of the races both politically and socially in South Africa in the second half of the twentieth century. This system was said to be one of the last examples of institutionalized racism, and has been almost universally criticized. These Apartheid rules and restrictions were put in place by the National Party which had power over South Africa during this time period. The purpose of Apartheid legislation was to bring the Afrikaner ethnic group to a higher power in South Africa, and accomplished just that. The Afrikaner group was made up of descendants from Dutch colonists who settled in South Africa in order to make a refreshment station, a sort of rest stop, for the Dutch East India Company. The longer people stayed in Africa, the more they started to associate with it as their home. With the enslavement of many Africans, it is easy to see how these Afrikaners would associate themselves as above them and would feel entitled to power over them. This entitlement it how Apartheid rules were born.
The End of Apartheid - HistoryWiz South Africa. (n.d.). HistoryWiz: for students, teachers and lovers of history. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from http://www.historywiz.org/end.htm
APARTHEID AND THEIR LEGACIES INTRODUCTION In 1994, South Africa had taken a significant twist in history, where the ruling Apartheid government had collapsed entirely. There were many factors which contributed to this collapse, in general it can be described through the many years of segregation and oppression of non-whites, aiming to achieved their true goals of a nation- the removal of the Apartheid system and introduction of a Democratic legislature. The Apartheid regime had left a legacy of hatred and shame for the means of a nation’s history.
Apartheid consisted of a set of unequal laws that favored the whites (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). The Race Classification Act, which divided everyone into four race groups, whites, blacks, coloreds, and Indians were the first of many major laws (Evans, 8). Hundreds of thousands of black South Africans were forced to leave their homes and move into special reservations called “homelands” or Bantustans that were set up for them (Evans, 8). There were twenty-three million blacks and they were divided into nine tribal groups, Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, North and South Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Swansi, and South Ndebele, and each group were moved into a separate homeland (Evans, 8). Another major law was the Groups Area Act, which secluded the twenty-three million blacks to 14 percent of land, leaving 86 percent of the land for the 4.8 million (Evans, 9). Under apartheid laws a minority ...
It can be easily stated that the apartheid movement bestowed cruel and unusual punishments upon the people of South Africa, in order to execute its purpose. However, apartheid could have not been carried out if they were not individuals who believed in its principles. In order to understand the National parties ideologies regarding the issue of apartheid, it is essential to acknowledge the history of Boer soc...
Apartheid was considered a necessary arrangement in South Africa, as the Afrikaner National Party gained a strong majority political control of the country after the 1940’s and the economic dependence on their fertile natural resources, such as diamond and gold mines and other metals such as platinum. This required intense labor and the white dominant control over the repressed black majority allowed for an
The apartheid was a very traumatic time for blacks in South Africa. Apartheid is the act of literally separating the races, whites and non-whites, and in 1948 the apartheid was now legal, and government enforced. The South African police began forcing relocations for black South Africans into tribal lines, which decreased their political influence and created white supremacy. After relocating the black South Africans, this gave whites around eighty percent of the land within South Africa. Jonathan Jansen, and Nick Taylor state “The population is roughly 78 percent black, 10 percent white, 9 percent colored, and l...