Apartheid timeline

  • 90% of Africa divided

    90% of Africa divided
    The Europeans take 90% of africa for there own
  • The South African government severely restricts the freedom of Black Africans

    The South African government officially launches the system of apartheid, severely restricting the freedom of Black Africans.
  • Mandela and Tambo open the first firm with black partners

    Mandela and Tambo open the first firm with black partners
    Mandela and Tambo was a South African law firm established by Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo in Johannesburg in late 1952. It was the first "Attorney Firm" in the country to be run by black partners
  • Nelson Mandela was charge with high treason and found not guilty

    Nelson Mandela was charge with high treason and found not guilty
    The Treason Trial was a trial in Johannesburg in which 156 people, including Nelson Mandela, were arrested in a raid and accused of treason in South Africa in 1956. The main trial lasted until 1961, when all of the defendants were found not guilty.
  • 69 killed in the black township of Sharpeville

    69 killed in the black township of Sharpeville
    In the black township of Sharpeville, near Johannesburg, South Africa, Afrikaner police open fire on a group of unarmed black South African demonstrators, killing 69 people and wounding 180 in a hail of submachine-gun fire. The demonstrators were protesting against the South African government’s restriction of nonwhite travel.
  • Nelson Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment

    Nelson Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment
    He was arrested and imprisoned in 1962, and subsequently sentenced to life imprisonment for conspiring to overthrow the state following the Rivonia Trial. Mandela served 27 years in prison, split between Robben Island, Pollsmoor Prison and Victor Verster Prison.
  • Rhodesia (South Africa) gained its independence. Only whites were represented in the new government

    Rhodesia (South Africa) gained its independence.  Only whites were represented in the new government
    After the war the imperial powers were under strong international pressure to decolonize. In Southern Africa, however, the transfer of power to an African majority was greatly complicated by the presence of entrenched white settlers. After an initial phase from 1945 to about 1958, in which white power seemed to be consolidated.
  • South Africa is expelled from the U.N. because of apartheid

    South Africa is expelled from the U.N. because of apartheid
    in 1973 a U.N. resolution labeled apartheid a “crime against humanity.” In 1974, South Africa was suspended from the General Assembly. After decades of strikes, sanctions and increasingly violent demonstrations, many apartheid laws were repealed by 1990.