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Arrival of the Dutch
The Portuguese who already lived in South Africa showed little interested in colonization. The weather proved to be a threath to their ships and many of their attemps to trade with the local people - the Khoikhoi - proved unsuccesful.
In the late 16th century the dutch arrived. They expelled all Portugues and began establishing farms and supplied the VOC with their harvest. This settlement proved very succesful, and the Dutch succeeded, where the Portuguese had failed. -
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The History of South Africa
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The Burghers (Boers)
During the Dutch period, virtually all Burghers from this were employees of the VOC.TheY employed not only Dutchs, but also people from Germany, Sweden, Denmark and Austria.
As the burghers continued to expand into the rugged hinterlands of the north and east, many began to take up a semi-nomadic pastoralist lifestyle, not far removed from that of the Khoikhoi they displaced. In addition to its herds, a family might have a wagon, a tent, a Bible, and a few guns. -
The British colonisation
At the tip of the continent the British found an established colony with 25,000 slaves, 20,000 white colonists, 15,000 Khoisan, and 1,000 freed black slaves. Power resided solely with a white élite in Cape Town, and differentiation on the basis of race was deeply entrenched. Outside Cape Town and the immediate hinterland, isolated black and white pastoralists populated the country. -
The British Empire
The Union of South Africa was tied closely to the British Empire, and automatically joined with Great Britain and the allies against the German Empire. South Africa was part of significant military operations against Germany. In spite of Boer resistance at home, the Afrikaner-led government of Louis Botha unhestitatingly joined the side of the Allies of World War I and fought alongside its armies. -
After WW2
South Africa emerged from the Allied victory with its prestige and national honor enhanced as it had fought tirelessly for the Western Allies. South Africa's standing in the international community was rising, at a time when the Third World's struggle against colonialism had still not taken center stage. In May 1945, Prime Minister Smuts represented South Africa in San Francisco at the drafting of the United Nations Charter. Just as he did in 1919, Smuts urged the delegates to create a powerful -
The Election of 1948
In the run-up to the 1948 elections, the main Afrikaner nationalist party, the Herenigde Nasionale Party (Reunited National Party) under the leadership of Protestant cleric Daniel Francois Malan, campaigned on its policy of apartheid.[18][19] The NP narrowly defeated Smuts's United Party and formed a coalition government with another Afrikaner nationalist party, the Afrikaner Party. Malan became the first apartheid prime minister, and the two parties later merged to form the National Party (NP). -
The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act
This act prohibited marriage between persons of different races, and the Immorality Act of 1950 made sexual relations with a person of a different race a criminal offence.
This law would grant much difficulty and many conflicts in the years to come. -
Apartheid legislation
National Party leaders argued that South Africa did not comprise a single nation, but was made up of four distinct racial groups: white, black, coloured, and Indian. The state passed laws which paved the way for apartheid". The first grand apartheid law was the Population Registration Act which formalised racial classification and introduced an identity card for all persons over the age of eighteen, specifying their racial group. -
The Bantu Education Act
This act crafted a separate system of education for African students and was designed to prepare black people for lives as a labouring class.
