Race Relations in the USA and South Africa since 1945 : How external pressure brought down Apartheid.
History Coursework Assessment Objective 2: Analysis and Explaining the Past
Race Relations in the USA and South Africa since 1945
The aim of this essay is to see how the opposition of other countries affected the end of apartheid in South Africa. I shall find this out using statements, books, encyclopedias and the Internet. These will then enable me to write a conclusion. I need to find out whether apartheid ended in South Africa by national or international events.
Apartheid is the total segregation of the races. In this case South Africa took it as far as making the Black African citizens stay in their designated country. The White Afrikaans made every Blacks African have a passbook, which said which countries they could enter. The rulers of apartheid gave the Black Africans no political rights; this meant that they could not change the way the country was being run. The only way they could make themselves heard was to riot and protest. Another strange fact about apartheid was that the vast majority of the population was the Blacks, so this meant that the minority had come into their county and total changed society.
The British and Dutch colonized South Africa in the seventeenth century. Due to greater military power the British dominated the Dutch descendents (known as Boers or Afrikaners) and in the early 19th century the British took control of Cape Town because of their natural resources of diamonds and gold.
In 1836 the Dutch embarked on the "Great Trek" and moved north establishing their new colonies of Orange Free State and Transvaal. This trek took place because the British had abolished slavery' given the Blacks the right to vote and had imposed taxes on the Afrikaners. The Dutch didn't give any power or rights to the Blacks that lived in their two provinces.
In the 1850's the discovery of diamonds in these new Afrikaners States resulted in a British invasion. This conflict reached its climax in 1899 with the start of the Boer War. In 1902 after 3 years of war the British finally won and took control of the Afrikaners Republics.
In 1910 the British decided to give self-government to South Africa in the Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free States. These States were joined together to form the Union Of South Africa.
Following independence from Britain, an uneasy power sharing between the two groups (Afrikaners and descendants of the British) held sway until the 1940's, when the Afrikaner National Party was able to gain a strong majority.
Strategists in the National Party invented apartheid as a means to cement their control over the economic and social system. Initially, the aim of the apartheid was to maintain White domination while extending racial separation. The South Africa Unions idea for the Blacks was to totally separate them from the Whites, and also for the Blacks to have no political right on how the country was run. The Dutch did this because of strong religious beliefs and lived apart from the native Blacks population. The Afrikaners were convinced that they were supreme compared to the native Blacks
In 1913 the Union passed the Native Land Act, which forbids Black ownership of 90% percent of land in South Africa. The Pass Laws controlled the movement of Black Africans; the law was that every Black had to carry around a passbook.
In 1924 James Hertzog was elected to be Prime Minister of the Nationalists. During his time in power, laws were passed to strengthen the power of the White people. Workers Amendment Achievement meant that only White workers could hold skilled jobs with the best pay. The Immorality Act was passed in 1927, the Immorality ...
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In 1913 the Union passed the Native Land Act, which forbids Black ownership of 90% percent of land in South Africa. The Pass Laws controlled the movement of Black Africans; the law was that every Black had to carry around a passbook.
In 1924 James Hertzog was elected to be Prime Minister of the Nationalists. During his time in power, laws were passed to strengthen the power of the White people. Workers Amendment Achievement meant that only White workers could hold skilled jobs with the best pay. The Immorality Act was passed in 1927, the Immorality Act made it illegal for a White person to marry a Black person.
In 1932 the Native Service Contract Act said an African labourer could not be absent from the property of his employer with out permission. Once the Blacks were able to vote there were still rules they had to follow. These rules were that they would have to vote separately from Whites and they had to vote for a Black member from a different Black party. But this still knew well to the Blacks because no Blacks had a good enough education to be a political leader.
The Afrikaners enforced the idea of total apartheid (total separation of the races) in 1948 and in the 60's; a plan of ``Grand Apartheid'' was executed, emphasizing territorial separation and police repression.
During the years of Apartheid there were many ways in which other countries expressed their feelings towards the way South Africa was treating the Blacks community. The main countries that affected the end of Apartheid were the USA, Europe and the surrounding countries around South Africa. In 1960 Harold Macmillan, the British Prime Minister told South Africa's government that it could not ignore the rights of the Blacks community and that Britain would not support them in Apartheid.
Quotation: 'There must not only be justice to the Black man in South Africa but also to the White man".
This was Verovoerds reply:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This basically meant that this would not change the policy on Apartheid and in the same year South Africa voted to become a republic. This meant changes so that a President would be elected to run each state and the British Queen would no longer be the Head Of State if the Union.
In 1961 the leader of the neighboring country of Rhodesia, Ian Smith, declared his country independent without Britain's consent. But Britain had been working towards an independent Rhodesia in which the Blacks people had a greater political power. The United Nations declared the actions of Rhodesia to be illegal. Therefore the United Nations imposed economic sanctions on Rhodesia. However, South Africa ignored the sanctions and carried on assisting the independence of Rhodesia and they also gave help from the police to deal with the Blacks Guerrilla forces in Rhodesia.
The United Nations soon imposed a trading boycott in 1962, this was to try and get the government to reverse the policy of Apartheid. This was the first step that the international countries took to try and make an end of Apartheid. However trading boycotts prove to be ineffective, this was because in the 1960s they found that South Africa had large amounts of Gold and Diamonds as natural recourses.
After the Sharville massacre, investors started to withdraw their money from South Africa, this was because there was a fear of a civil war breaking out. The investors in the 1960s some how managed to pump money into South Africa even though there had been a trading boycott and economic sanctions. The money that was put into South Africa kept them a wealthy country.
Economic Sanctions brought a higher standard of living and a better wage to Native Black citerzans, but still there were no political freedom. Foreign govements soon started to cut sporting links with South Africa in particular Rugby and Cricket, which were the most popular for the Whites. In 1968 an African-born cricketer called Basil D'Oliveria was a member of the British Cricket Team, when they were touring South Africa he was refused entry of one of the states. The British immediately cancelled the tour; no cricket matches were played with South Africa between 1968 and 1993. This set an example to the rest of the world, Australia also cancelled their tour of South Africa in 1971.
South Africa reacted to the sporting boycotts by relaxing some of the laws concernting sport, they let more Blacks people into sport but the Blacks were not allowed to enter the bar after any sporting activity. Playing sport against South Africa was still thought of as unacceptable; some countries would be still be band if they played sport against South Africa.
In 1970 the opposition of Apartheid in South Africa grew, a Blacks Consciousness Movement was established. The leader of this new movement was Steve Biko he taught the Blacks to celebrate their Blackness. He also taught them to stop thinking they were second class citizens. Most members of the Blacks Consciousness Movement were better educated and younger Blacks who were angry about the way they had been treated.
Since 1919 South Africa was administed to South-west Africa. The South African government was elected to integrate with South-west Africa but the UN refused to allow it because the policy of Apartheid. South Africa didn't like the UN telling their country what to do; they did not accept and carried on to treat Namibia as part of South Africa despite the formation of a powerful guerrilla group- the South West Peoples Organization (SWAPO).
In 1976 Blacks became angry and went into months of rioting, the reason for this rioting was because of the government said that half school subjects were only to be taught in Afrikaans. To the Blacks this was very offensive, for Afrikaans it was the White mans language and the native language of the Boeor.
On the 16th June 15,000 pupils in Soweto proceeded in a demonstration against the decision from the government. Police prevented the march from happening with tear gas and gunfire, killing and wounding a number of children. In August 1983 15,000 delegates from 650 groups joined to form the United democratic Front (UDF). The members of the 'group' were of all races. They all represented organizations from a wide political spectrum- from veterans from the ANC to Christian workers. Archbishop Desmond Tutu was a leading part of the organization. The UDF campaigned to boycott the 1984 election; the success was shown in a poor turn out. The government then arrested and imprisoned the UDF leaders.
Botha's reforms were making him unpopular because he had to raise taxes for the Whites to improve conditions that the Blacks lived in, this meant that the Whites were seeing the clear line between the Blacks and Whites fade. The Afrikaner Resistance movement was set up in 1984; they fought for the end of White supremacy. The leader of The Afrikaner Resistance movement was Eugere Terre Blanche, Terre Blanche saw himself as a Boer nation survivor.
From an International view all trading and sport way boycotted to show their anger towards the rules of Apartheid. The trading boycotts however did not make the country any poorer; this was because parts of South Africa had lots of natural resources of Diamonds and Gold. These resources kept the country wealthy. If South Africa had kept the Apartheid law and had taken no notice of the reaction the other countries, they would have become isolated from the rest of the world. Even if they had kept the law for longer the Trades Union and other groups would have not let them re-join into unions and groups. This also would have led to further war and conflict. There were also many other boycotts; there were protests to boycott Barclays Bank in Trafalgar Square. However there were also many riots in South Africa. There were many groups set up against Apartheid such as, the ANC, Blacks Conscious Movement, SWAPO, Ran-African congress and Umhonto We Sizue.
There were other campaigns such as the National Day of Protest, The Defiance Campaign, The Freedom Charter. In comparison to the International reaction to Apartheid, I would say that the National influence was more affective than the international input. The nations influence I think had a greater affect because of the over numbering of Blacks to Whites, the surrounding countries around South Africa were being liberated to Blacks rule (as shown on map). This reduced the Buffer Zone that the White had to other countries, this meant if a war brook out South Africa would not have White rule countries around it to take the impact of invasion. If they had their Buffer Zone they would have a protective wall that would surround their country. The whites of South Africa were becoming worried about the Blacks reclaiming there power and political rights, this meant that when the majority of Blacks were to vote they could then take over the government of South Africa.
I think that the International boycotts helped the end of Apartheid, this is because it showed South Africa the anger of the world towards the way they treated the Blacks South Africans. The boycotts did not end Apartheid they were more of a gesture to show the Blacks that they had support in their actions against Apartheid.
In conclusion and though sufficient evidence, I think that the importance of the International input to Apartheid had little affect on the end result. The affect that the international opposition had on Apartheid was just to say that they were behind the Blacks movements and to say to South Africa that what they were doing was wrong. The Blacks of South Africa did more to the end Apartheid because they actually held the protests that made the changes. The Blacks had managed to come from a life of poverty and an uneducated child life. So my interpretation of the Coursework question is that the international input was useful to the end of Apartheid but did very little to end it
