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Land Act
The Act became law on 19 June 1913 limiting African land ownership to 7 percent and later 13 percent through the 1936 Native Trust and Land Act of South Africa. The Act restricted black people from buying or occupying land except as employees of a white master. -
India Independence Movement
The Indian Independence Movement incorporated the efforts by Indians to liberate the region from British, French and Portuguese and form the nation-state of India. It involved a wide spectrum of Indian political organizations, philosophies, and rebellions between 1857 and India's emergence as an unified nation-state on August 15, 1947. -
Salt March
Passive resistance campaign of Mohandas Gandhi where many Indians protested the British tax on salt by marching to the sea to make their own salt. -
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South Africa Apartheid
The Apartheid in South Africa was the racial segregation under the all-white government of South Africa which dictated that non-white South Africans (a majority of the population) were required to live in separate areas from whites and use separate public facilities.
Years of violent internal protest, weakening white commitment, international economic and cultural sanctions, economic struggles, and the end of the Cold War brought down apartheid. -
Rigid Law Implementation
The government enacted a rigid law that required all African males over the age of 16 to carry a “reference book” containing personal information and employment history. Africans often were compelled to violate the pass laws to find work to support their families, so harassment, fines, and arrests under the pass laws were a constant threat to many urban Africans. -
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Defiance Campaign
The Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws was launched on 26 June 1952 by the ANC together with the South African Indian Congress. More than 8,500 volunteers or ‘defiers’ were imprisoned for peacefully refusing to obey apartheid laws. The campaign, which carried on into 1953, attracted thousands into political activity. -
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Mau Mau Uprising
The Mau Mau stepped up its attacks on European settlers and Kikuyu, culminating in the attack on the village of Lari in March 1953 in which 84 Kikuyu civilians, mainly women and children, were murdered. British troops began to reinforce local forces to try and counter these attacks. -
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Cuban Revolution
The revolution led by Fidel Castro and a small band of guerrilla fighters against a corrupt dictatorship in Cuba. Castro took a key role in the Cuban Revolution by leading the Movement in a guerrilla war against Batista's forces from the Sierra Maestra. After Batista's overthrow in 1959, Castro assumed military and political power as Cuba's prime minister. -
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Algerian War of Independence
A conflict between France and Algerian independence movements from 1954 to 1962. This led to Algeria gaining its independence from France. -
Women's March in Pretoria
The Women's March was a spectacular success. Women from all parts of the country arrived in Pretoria, some from as far afield as Cape Town and Port Elizabeth. They then flocked to the Union Buildings in a determined yet orderly manner. Estimates of the number of women delegates ranged from 10 000 to 20 000, with FSAW claiming that it was the biggest demonstration yet held. -
Ghana Independence Movement
On 6 March 1957, the Gold Coast (now known as Ghana) gained independence from Britain. Ghana became a member of the Commonwealth of Nations and was led to independence by Kwame Nkrumah who transformed the country into a republic, with himself as president for life. -
Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act
This abolished indirect representation of blacks in Pretoria. It also divided Africans into ten ethnically discrete groups, each assigned a traditional “homeland.” -
Congo Independence Movement
The decolonization of Sub-Saharan Africa from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s resulted in several proxy Cold War confrontations between the United States and the Soviet Union over the dozens of newly independent, non-aligned nations. The first such confrontation occurred in the former Belgian Congo, which gained its independence on June 30, 1960. -
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Forced Removals
The apartheid government forcibly moved 3.5 million black South Africans in one of the largest mass removals of people in modern history. More than 860,000 people were forced to move in order to divide and control racially-separate communities at a time of growing organized resistance to apartheid in urban areas; the removals also worked to the economic detriment of Indian shop owners. -
Sharpeville Massacre
On March 21, 1960, police officers in a black township in South Africa opened fire on a group of people peacefully protesting oppressive pass laws, killing 69. The anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre is remembered the world over every March 21 on the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. -
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Cambodian Civil War
The Cambodian Civil War unfolded from 1967 until the fall of Phnom Penh 1975. It happened in the shadow of Cambodia regaining its independence from France in 1953. -
Bantu Homelands Citizenship Act
It declared that all Africans were citizens of “homelands,” rather than of South Africa itself—a step toward the government’s ultimate goal of having no African citizens of South Africa. Between 1976 and 1981, four homelands—Transkei, Venda, Bophuthatswana, and Ciskei—were declared “independent” by Pretoria, and eight million Africans lost their South African citizenship. None of the homelands were recognized by any other country. -
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Iranian Revolution
A revolution against the shah of Iran led by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. This resulted in Iran becoming an Islamic republic with Khomeini as its leader -
Anti-Apartheid Act
In 1986 the United States of America passed an Act designed to help to end apartheid government in South Africa. The 1986 Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act was enacted into law by the US Congress to impose sanctions against South Africa. The Anti-Apartheid Act focused on preventing new trade and investment between the United States and South Africa, as well as working to end any current economic transactions occurring between the two nations. -
Restoration of South African Citizenship Act
South African citizenship was restored to those people who were born outside the four “independent” homelands. The law repatriated those nationals who had lost their nationality when Bophuthatswana, Ciskei, Transkei, and Venda had been declared foreign states.