Why did the South African Government introduce a policy of Apartheid in 1948?

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Bradley Reynolds 11P1

Why did the South African Government introduce a policy of Apartheid in 1948?

The South African Government introduced a policy of Apartheid in 1948 to “Preserve and promote a white majority over a black majority.” Ever since Dutch colonists (Afrikaners) landed in the mid 1600’s, Blacks and Whites have lived apart in South Africa.  The Afrikaner Nationalist party (ANP) were in power during Apartheid. Some label Apartheid as “a system of racial laws”.

When the Dutch first landed and established a strong colony in South Africa, they got on relatively peacefully with the native black race. Then British and French landed. They were lured by the prospect of all the gold and diamonds that were rich in South Africa's mines. They were much more greedy than the Dutch, pushing the native blacks back, who were powerless against the invader's guns. Over the years, the races got even more segregated, having isolated territories. The whites felt they were far superior to the black people in every way. They took slaves from black communities, and just dominated the race entirely.

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The first thing the ANP did was to establish Apartheid officially. Many new measures were taken, first of which was the Race Classification Act, which made sure that the entire population was split up into 4 groups; White, Black, Coloured and Indian. Also, only the whites (15% of the population) had the right to vote. The second act of the ANP was the Population Regulation Act. It was made to strengthen the first act. It’s details defined to races thoroughly. In some incidents, it was used to decide whether an abandoned or unidentified child was white or coloured. A strand ...

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