The Causes Of Apartheid In South Africa

707 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: What are the effects of colonialism in africa

Apartheid in South Africa began in 1948, leading to decades worth of confusion and power control. As an outsider looking in, how did a minority party gain governmental rule over South Africa, leading to years of discriminations and division among their people?

Many factors come into play when asking how apartheid even gained momentum. To go back to the basics, Christianity founded its roots in Africa, stemming from many different cultural ideas and wisdoms. Through the art of storytelling, religion spread quickly throughout the continent and rose to be a power for many people. As time passed and colonialism eventually gained ground throughout Africa, these missionaries and European powers quickly learned that they could take over these African lands and exploit them for their generous amounts of gold and diamonds. …show more content…

They dehumanized the people of Africa and saw them as potential to make a profit, as well as spread their personal ideals to gain power over as many territories as possible. Even though these Europeans were obviously a minority, they used their hierarchy and structural ways to impose their ideals of how this country should be run.

The Dutch Reformed Church, otherwise known as NGK, were the masterminds behind making South Africa their property for financial and spiritual gain. Through practices of farming, mining, religion, and day-to-day lifestyle changes, the Dutch wanted to conquer this land quite badly.

Apartheid began when the National Party was elected in 1948, passing many laws that lead to segregation of races. The most ridiculous laws were passed – including the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, The Population Restriction Act, and the creation of Bantustans to further more discriminate against Africans but more geographically than mentally. Apartheid lasted for 50 years, slowly eating away at the spirits of Africans and their desires for

Show More
Related

  • Ap World History Dbq Essay

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Europeans may have seemed like they only cared about the money but they also cared about helping too. The Europeans had a moral duty that they felt they needed to fulfill. In document F, the White Man’s Burden poem says “ Fill full the mouth of famine and bid the sickness cease.” The Europeans felt it was their moral duty to help those in famine and poverty, they also wanted these colonies and smaller countries to try and be like them. The Europeans did not only help Africa they also helped China and India. Their most important motivation for colonization of Africa was their moral duty to help smaller countries.

    Read More

  • Decolonization Of Africa Essay

    829 Words  | 2 Pages

    It took over one hundred years for Africans to reclaim the continent that was stolen and occupied from European imperial powers that were pushed by greed. It was a major step in the year 1994 when Nelson Mandela became the first president of an independent South Africa. For many years they had to fight for equality and justice in their own homeland. In the year 2000 Africa was recognized as a continent full of independent nations, and were self-ruled by their own indigenous people.

    Read More

  • Imperialism In Africa Dbq

    635 Words  | 2 Pages

    In conclusion, the motives concerning imperialism in Africa are a matter of expanding empires, helping natives, and natural resources. Europeans countries constantly tried to compete with their neighbors in fair ways to become the most dominating country. Just as much as they took possession of Africa, their will was also to assist Africa on their right path and put an end to any dilemmas they may be

    Read More

  • Hendrik Verwoerd And The Apartheid Essay

    411 Words  | 1 Pages

    Apartheid as defined by Hendrik Verwoerd is a policy in which one can do in the direction of what one regards as an idea . Apartheid is the form of a systematic segregation where people are isolated by social-economic status, race, gender and other classifications. Race is a coined modern term in which people are classified upon their distinct physical characteristics. Oxford dictionary explains that racism is prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. In South Africa, the Apartheid legislation began in 1856 beginning with the Masters and Servants Act of 1856 . Over the years, multiple prime ministers up held this act and added even more to the Apartheid legislation. In the constant reinforcement of the apartheid, South Africa elected J.G Strijdom as the Prime Minister in November of 1954. He was a firm believer of segregation and he believed that the country should be full of pure white bred people . After he died,

    Read More

  • An Outline for a Speech on The Life of Nelson Mandela

    697 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • End of Apartheid

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    Around the 1970s, due to South Africa’s internal contradictions with its economy and people, the Apartheid began its slow demise. Soon the united nation began to take notice of South Africa and began to get involved. With South Africa now in the spot light, Prime Minister P.W Botha left office due to his belief that he had failed to keep order in the country. After the reassignment of P.W Botha, F.W Klerk had taken office. The final stage of the demise of the Apartheid began when Klerk lifted the ban off the ANC and other African political parties. The last blow was the release of Nelson Mandela after 27 years in prison. Now that South Africa’s hope was out of prison he continued to ...

    Read More

  • Nelson Mandela's Racist Report

    766 Words  | 2 Pages

    Source A gives a view on the South African governments control over its people and racial discrimination. It is a biased view and makes the South African government seem cruel and racist. It states that the governments "politics are determined by the colour a persons skin". As this is a statement it gives the impression that it is a fact and by giving this impression it also communicates the idea that the South African government IS racist, rather than the South African government COULD be racist. This comes as no real surprise as the advert has been paid for by the ANC (African National Congress), who are a very anti - South African government organization.

    Read More

  • Long-term Effects of European Colonization on Africa

    1281 Words  | 3 Pages

    The European colonization of Africa brought racism, civil unrest, and insatiable greed; all of which have had lasting impacts on Africa. Along with the power of owning vast amounts of land, white explorers brought an air of supremacy to them. They encountered indigenous people and felt superior to them. Segregation and unequal treatment of the black population was widespread throughout the continent. In South Africa, racism took the form of apartheid and lasted until 1994.

    Read More

  • European Imperialism in Africa

    1534 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... reasons. They wanted new land and the natural resources that can only be found in Africa, they wanted the new market opportunities that having colonies in Africa would open up to them, and the wanted to stay in competition with other European countries. The motives of the Europeans quickly deteriorated as they started exploiting the native Africans and abusing the slave trade that they had promised to abolish with the three C’s. The African people suffered a great deal as many of them were killed, harmed, or forced into slavery for the smallest civil unrest. The Europeans involved in the imperial take over lost their humanity as they started to treat fellow humans as though they were no more than cows lined up for slaughter. In their attempts to imperialize Africa, the Europeans became what they hated, feared, and sought out to exterminate, they became savages.

    Read More

  • Apartheid and Separate Development

    1352 Words  | 3 Pages

    As the title infers this essay is an explanation of the event of Apartheid and Separate Development, but to understand this fully some brief history on Apartheid is required, hence this paragraph will be the introduction to the events that transpired before the formation of Separate Development. The idea of Apartheid was born because of the fact that white supremacy was already instituted into South African policy because of the strong European influence. The Land Act of 1913 was what instigated the momentum of Apartheid however. It forced the Africans to live on plots of land that were undesirable and less than twenty percent of the total land even though they were clearly the majority, where the eighty percent was given to the white minority. Eventually restrictions became worse such as, forcing the Africans to carry identity documents authorizing their occurrence in areas that were otherwise restricted, not allowing non-whites to obtain certain jobs, not allowing any contact between whites and non-whites, and eventually forbidding participation by non-whites in government. The paragraphs that follow will outline the emergence of Separate Development, who was responsible, what Separate Development is, and why it happened.

    Read More

  • Apartheid in South Africa

    1113 Words  | 3 Pages

    on him or her. Unless it was stamped on their pass, they were not allowed to

    Read More

  • South African Apartheid

    1513 Words  | 4 Pages

    South Africa really began to suffer when apartheid was written into the law. Apartheid was first introduced in the 1948 election that the Afrikaner National Party won. The plan was to take the already existing segregation and expand it (Wright, 60). Apartheid was a system that segregated South Africa’s population racially and considered non-whites inferior (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”). Apartheid was designed to make it legal for Europeans to dominate economics and politics (“History of South Africa in the apartheid era”).

    Read More

  • Apartheid Essay

    1225 Words  | 3 Pages

    Apartheid started in 1948 during the twentieth century. A few years before apartheid began the arrival of blacks began. Their arrival began the “Malan's Herenigde Nasionale Party (Reunited National Party) which was a political party in the 1940’s and was created by Daniel François Malan and J.B.M. Hertzog” (Herenigde Nasionale Party). This national party allowed the South African government to introduce new laws which gave the minority the power to rule over the majority. Even before apartheid was introduced the few black people that were in South Africa were not treated well. Another reason apartheid was started by the African National Congress (ANC) was because the white South Africans were unable to teach the black population new technology to be able to work in the white world according to the white population. So they enforced the law of apartheid so the whites would not have to associate with the blacks at all. This not only was happening in South Africa, it also happened in America ...

    Read More

  • Theme Of Apartheid In J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace

    995 Words  | 2 Pages

    Old South Africa is best described by Mark Uhlig, “The seeds of such violent conflict in South Africa were sown more than 300 years ago, with the first meetings of white settlers and indigenous black tribes in an unequal relationship that was destined one day to become unsustainable” (116).

    Read More

  • The South African Educational System

    1900 Words  | 4 Pages

    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...

    Read More

More about The Causes Of Apartheid In South Africa

Open Document