External Pressure in South Africa

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Explain the part played by external pressure in the fight against apartheid and minority rule in South Africa

        In this essay I am going to explain the part played by external pressure in the fight against apartheid and minority rule in South Africa. Within this, I will describe and explain the role economic sanctions had in ending apartheid. I will also describe and explain the role that international isolation in sport had in ending Apartheid. In the 1960’s the World imposed economic sanctions on South Africa, from 1960-80 they failed because South Africa was more powerful, in the 80’s public view of South Africa changed dramatically. All countries engaged sporting boycotts on South Africa to oppose Apartheid, for example they stopped playing sports with them like Rugby, Tennis, Cricket and Golf.

        An economic sanction is when a group of countries decide to cripple another country by stopping all imports into it. This is used in many wars to stop countries using money to power their armies. Most Countries around the World tried to use this method to make South Africa poor. In the early 1960’s to the 1980’s this method failed to work because South Africa was already to powerful and people still came to make a fortune from the land. Many huge companies still made dealerships with South Africa, as there was a lot of wealth. South Africa also had a lot of investment from other big countries, as they believed it would pay a lot of money back. They believed South Africa to be a growing country with high pay rates. Between 1960 and 1980 these sanctions failed as South Africa was too rich and powerful already. It is clear to see that the economic sanctions introduced in the 1960’s failed. We can tell this by the fact that many big companies still provided trade within South Africa and other white colony owned African countries stuck together with South Africa so they wouldn’t lose power either.

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        South Africa was split into two main groups, Blacks and Whites, the whites gained most of the rights and better standard of living as they were given the best quality jobs for best pay while the blacks were made to work on the worst jobs for near to nothing. Whites controlled most of the land in South Africa and had the best items, For example whites would own all of the best cars as they could afford them whereas blacks could not. Blacks were made to be servants for wealthy whites and get hardly any pay; they could only leave ...

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