Lesson 11 Essay

Submitted By litebredcali
Words: 419
Pages: 2

Apartheid was a legal system of racial segregation in South African, brought about by Nationalist rule during colonial times. In 1652, Europeans began settlements in South Africa, establishing the Dutch East Company colony in Cape Town. As Dutch slave owners moved further inland, Britain began to acquire parts of South Africa, welcoming more British and East Indian immigrants into the area. Although the British and Boer wars freed enslaved blacks and granted them political and civil rights, certain laws that only applied to them, such as segregated public areas and curfew restrictions, still remained in effect.

Upon the end of British colonial rule in 1948, Afrikaners assumed government control, formalizing White supremacy and attempting to revert to slavery through Apartheid. At this time blacks we not able to travel freely, hold jobs without government approval or obtain proper healthcare or education. Voting rights were stripped and they were forced to live small backhouses, away from real homes. This form of ethno-national conflict generated resistance against governmental policy from the black population who had been fiercely battling the brutality and social injustices of discrimination for years. In 1990, South African Prime Minister F.W. De Clerk took action to legalize 60 banned black organizations and set free Leader of Africian National Congress Nelson Mandela after 27 years of being imprisoned. Two years later, nearly 70% of Whites voted in favor of signing a referendum to end Apartheid and a new constitution was created, in which over a quarter of agricultural land was returned to Black South Africans.

Although the system was completely abolished in 1994 by