To fully understand the rise of apartheid (Afrikaans: apartness) and its subsequent sources, it is necessary to first understand the history of South Africa prior to 1948. For many years, this area, once known as the Boer Republic, had been ruled for as long as a long time by whites who had come from Europe. Until 1899, this area was ruled by Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers. When the British Empire invaded in 1899, the Boer Republic consisted of two independent states: the Republic of South Africa and the Orange Free State.
This Second Boer War, which lasted almost three years, would end with a British victory. Both Boer republics were annexed by the British Empire and subsequently incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910. Although they had once been enemies, Great Britain and the Union of South Africa became allies and joined forces against the Germans. Empire in the First World War. Former generals in the Boer War against Great Britain, Prime Minister Louis Botha and Defense Minister Jan Smuts, were now members of the Imperial War Cabinet.
Defense Minister Smuts was a member of the United Party. In 1948 his party was defeated by the Reunited National Party (RNP) headed by Protestant cleric Daniel Malan, who followed a policy of apartheid. The RNP joined forces with the Afrikaner Party and later merged to form the National Party (NP). Malan became prime minister and thus began the apartheid era.
The apartheid legislation was actually nothing new, as it was in fact based on old British laws that Britain had put into effect after the Anglo-Boer War in an effort to keep the different races segregated. Using British law as a model, the NP leaders reasoned that South Africa was not a united nation, but four nations separated by racial lines. While some of their reasoning may seem strange to us today, it was in fact in line with most beliefs of the day that tended not only to despise interactions between different races, but in many cases considered them immoral, or even in certain situations. illegal.
Although there were several designated subgroups, the country was divided into four main racial groups: white, black, Indian, and of color. The whites were immigrants or descendants of English- and African-speaking immigrants from Europe.
Two types of apartheid laws were instituted: the great apartheid and the little apartheid. The great apartheid was the separation of peoples on racial grounds. The laws of the great apartheid separated the cities into small municipalities to which people were transferred according to the color of their skin. Any interaction between the races was illegal. The little apartheid laws were the ones that covered everyday places like beaches, clubs, restaurants, and the like.
An article on the Stanford.edu website states that “with the enactment of the apartheid laws in 1948, racial discrimination was institutionalized. Racial laws affected all aspects of social life, including the prohibition of marriage between whites and non-whites. , and the sanction of works “only for whites” “. (History) The first law was the Law of Prohibition of Mixed Marriages that made it a crime for people to marry outside of their race.
The second such law was the Population Registration Act of 1950, which required individuals to carry an identification card indicating which racial group they belonged to.
In 1950 the Group Areas Act was passed. This apartheid law officially sanctioned the separation of the races into areas based solely on race. Forced removal was often implemented.
According to an article on the website africanhistory.about.com, the Separate Services Reservation Act of 1953 was “the forced segregation in all public services, public buildings and public transportation with the aim of eliminating contact between whites and other races “. Only posters were placed “and” Only non-Europeans. The law establishes that the facilities provided for the different races do not have to be the same. ” (Boddy-Evans)
The Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 banned the Communist Party of South Africa and any other party that subscribed to any form of communism. However, the law was drafted in such a broad sense that any form of government that opposed apartheid could be banned regardless of whether it had anything to do with communism or not.
The Bantu Education Act of 1953 created a system of schools and universities that were tailored to individual careers. With this type of educational system, it was impossible for blacks to become anything other than ordinary workers.
While interracial contact in sports was frowned upon, there were no official laws separating careers in sports.
Other nations, through the United Nations (UN) began to show concern about the apartheid laws in 1946, but it was considered that it was an internal matter that was best left to the care of South Africa. Finally, in 1960, after the Sharpeville massacre, in which the police killed 69 protesters, the UN agreed to concerted action against apartheid. The elimination of apartheid and racial segregation in South Africa was demanded.
In 1962, the UN passed Resolution 1761 which formally condemned South African policies. Resolution 181 was passed in 1963 calling for a voluntary arms embargo against South Africa. Apartheid officially became illegal and was classified as a crime against humanity, open to prosecution by any perpetrator. In 1977, Resolution 181 was changed from a voluntary arms embargo to a mandatory one.
During the 1980s, many leaders tried to reform apartheid in an effort to quell various uprisings, but to no avail. It was determined that the only way to solve the problems in South Africa was to repeal the apartheid laws, and in 1990 then-President Frederik Willem de Klerk began negotiations to repeal them. Although all apartheid laws were repealed in 1990, the recognized end of apartheid was not until 1994 that South Africa celebrated its first country without
Racial general elections that were won by the African National Congress under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, who only 4 years earlier had been released from prison after serving 27 years of life in prison for leading anti-apartheid protests.