History of South Africa's Apartied
HISTORY OF SOUTH AFRICA’S APARTIED
South Africa is a land of abundant natural resources with a mild climate, and lush fertile land. With natural resources like diamonds, gold, and platinum, it’s no wonder that the Dutch East India Company set up settlements on the Cape of Good Hope. These settlements established a trade port between South Africa and other countries. The 17th and 18th centuries, saw settlements popping up all over Africa. Settlers from France, England, Portugal, Belgium and Spain came, forcing the Africans from their lands and turning them into a labor force. By the 20th century the British had taken over most of the settlements in the northeast, east, west, and the center of South Africa and the French controlled most of the northwest. The Republic of South Africa has had a very turbulent 20th century. Although apartied officially started in 1948, South Africa’s history for racial domination began much earlier. The Land Act was put into place in 1913, restricting Black African citizens from buying land outside special areas or reserves. This act also allowed for black sharecroppers, living on “white land”, to be relocated to these reserves. Although the Act was not enforced often, it set the stage for the “Black Homelands”, which would come into play later. The National Party, a white pro-segregation party, was voted into power after WWII. They began preparing racial legislation, and in 1949, the Mixed Marriage Act became law, prohibiting whites and blacks from marrying. In 1950, the Immorality Act made it a crime for whites to have sexual relations with any other race. The Population Registration Act required all people living in South Africa to register their race. A child born from any union would immediately be registered with their race/ethnicity. Many other acts were introduced in the coming years. All were passed to seriously limit any economic, political, or educational opportunities for the black
South Africa is a land of abundant natural resources with a mild climate, and lush fertile land. With natural resources like diamonds, gold, and platinum, it’s no wonder that the Dutch East India Company set up settlements on the Cape of Good Hope. These settlements established a trade port between South Africa and other countries. The 17th and 18th centuries, saw settlements popping up all over Africa. Settlers from France, England, Portugal, Belgium and Spain came, forcing the Africans from their lands and turning them into a labor force. By the 20th century the British had taken over most of the settlements in the northeast, east, west, and the center of South Africa and the French controlled most of the northwest. The Republic of South Africa has had a very turbulent 20th century. Although apartied officially started in 1948, South Africa’s history for racial domination began much earlier. The Land Act was put into place in 1913, restricting Black African citizens from buying land outside special areas or reserves. This act also allowed for black sharecroppers, living on “white land”, to be relocated to these reserves. Although the Act was not enforced often, it set the stage for the “Black Homelands”, which would come into play later. The National Party, a white pro-segregation party, was voted into power after WWII. They began preparing racial legislation, and in 1949, the Mixed Marriage Act became law, prohibiting whites and blacks from marrying. In 1950, the Immorality Act made it a crime for whites to have sexual relations with any other race. The Population Registration Act required all people living in South Africa to register their race. A child born from any union would immediately be registered with their race/ethnicity. Many other acts were introduced in the coming years. All were passed to seriously limit any economic, political, or educational opportunities for the black
References: Apartied Timeline. (n.d.). Apartied Timeline. Retrieved from http://cyberschoolbus.un.org/discrim/race_b_at_print.asp Apartied in South Africa. (n.d.) In Wikipedia (Rep.). (n.d.). Retrieved from www-cs-studentsstanford.edu/~cale/cs201/apartied.hist.html White, G.W., & Bradshaw, M. J. (2011). Essentials of world regional geography (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.