From 1867 there were discoveries of gold and diamonds in South Africa. The British wished to control the gold mines and this was a large contributing factor to the Boer War 1899-1902. The Boers used guerrilla tactics during the war; they would return to their farms occasionally for supplies, knowing this the British burned down the Boer farms and took their wives and children to concentration camps. Many of the women and children died from malnourishment and disease although this was not the aim of the concentration camps. The word Boer means farmer in Afrikaans. After the war the Boers were called the Afrikaners because British had burnt down their farms. The British won the war, after the war the Afrikaners were forced to speak English instead of Afrikaans this gave more reasoning behind the Afrikaners idea of segregation ‘had it not been for...his extreme measures we Afrikaners would...quite happily have been speaking English by now’. The fact that the British had burnt down the Afrikaner farms meant the Afrikaners had lost their independence, they now relied on the British for their livelihood. This deepened Afrikaner nationalism and gave them a common enemy, the British had hired Black people to help them in the war, to Afrikaners being beaten by Blacks was worse then being beaten by British. The British did not want to lose Afrikaner support so they disallowed the Black vote, and in 1913 the first Native lands act was put into place. This forced hundreds of thousands of Blacks to move from the Orange Free State and the Transvaal to Bantustans, black homelands. This was important to the establishment of Apartheid as it increased segregation.
Two significant events that helped establish Apartheid were the World Wars. During WW1 the Afrikaners were forced to fight alongside the British who had oppressed them in the Boer War. Also they were fighting against Germany which was considered an Afrikaner homeland. This caused increased hatred and more Afrikaners wanting segregation. During WW2 some Afrikaners fought alongside Germany. Germany promised after winning they would give South Africa to the Afrikaners. Germany had similar beliefs that whites were superior. When the Afrikaners went to war, Blacks took their jobs in the city and were paid less, because of this many Afrikaners returned to unemployment. The World Wars merely consolidated on existing nationalism, caused by events such as the Boer War. Without these events the Afrikaners would have no solid reasoning behind their hate for the British, which made them want to segregate.
Another important year was 1948 when Dr Malan won the general election, becoming Prime Minister. Malan established Apartheid in 1948. He passed 11 laws during his tenure maintaining segregation of the races. Malan used past events as reasons for his ideas, and “black peril” as a method of persuasion. Malan created a new Afrikaner only government. The Broederband society were a secretive Afrikaner only nationalist organisation, they played a major part in implementing Apartheid policies. Verwoerd consolidated on existing ideas and policies of Apartheid when he was elected in 1958. He was known as the ‘Architect of Apartheid’ because of his role in shaping the regime, under Malan he was the minister of native affairs. He enhanced the Baaskap society with the 4 major acts he implemented.
Apartheid was ended in 1994 by F.W. de klerk. Overall it was a combination of events and a matter of time which helped create the Apartheid state, because without each event occurring there would have been no reasoning behind the Afrikaners hatred for other races. Time allowed the Afrikaners hate to grow and create ways to segregate the races. Individuals were equally important in establishing Apartheid, Malan contributed more to Apartheid than Verwoerd, because he introduced and created many acts to maintain Apartheid. Without the individuals there would have been no one to create support for the Afrikaners ideas on segregation. The most significant event was the Boer War, without which there would be no justification for hating the British. This created greater needs to segregate.