At the start of the 20th century the Afrikaners were a defeated nation after daring to challenge the British in the Anglo-Boer war. World War II and The Great Depression brought increasing economic troubles to South Africa, and convinced the government to strengthen its policies of racial segregation. In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party won the general election under the term ‘apartheid’. Their aim was not only to separate South Africa’s white minority from its non-white majority, but also to separate non-whites from each other, and to divide black South Africans along tribal lines in order to decrease their political power. Afrikaner Nationalists were determined to create a social policy which was discriminating in order to protect the interests
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This policy was initially expounded from a theory drafted by Hendrik Verwoerd and was presented to the National Party by the Sauer Commission. It called for a systematic effort to organise the relations, rights, and privileges of the races as officially defined through a series of parliamentary acts and administrative decrees. Segregation had thus been pursued only in major matters, such as separate schools, and local society rather than law had been depended upon to enforce most separation; it should now be extended to everything. The party gave this policy a name – apartheid (apartness). Apartheid was to be the basic ideological and practical foundation of Afrikaner politics for the next quarter of a century. The National Party's election platform stressed that apartheid would preserve a market for white employment in which nonwhites could not …show more content…
It could be said that apartheid was created for economic gain. The South African gold rush made the relationship between white-owned capital and abundant black labour overpowering. The gains from cooperation between eager British investors and thousands of African workers were sufficient to bridge gaping differences in language, customs, and geography. At first, however, the white capitalist could deal directly only with the few English and Afrikaner managers and foremen who shared his tongue and work habits. But the premium such workers commanded soon became an extravagance. Black workers were becoming capable of taking over industrial leadership roles in far greater numbers and at far less cost. Driven by the profit motive, the substitution of black for white in skilled and semi-skilled mining jobs rose high on the agenda of the mining companies. White workers feared the large supply of African labour as the low-priced competition that it was. Hence, white tradesmen and government officials, including police, regularly harassed African workers to discourage them from travelling to the mines and competing for permanent positions. Nonetheless, the state instituted an array of legal impediments to the promotion of black workers. The notorious Pass Laws sought to sharply limit the supply of non-white workers in “white” employment centres. Blacks were not allowed to become lawful citizens,
This policy was initially expounded from a theory drafted by Hendrik Verwoerd and was presented to the National Party by the Sauer Commission. It called for a systematic effort to organise the relations, rights, and privileges of the races as officially defined through a series of parliamentary acts and administrative decrees. Segregation had thus been pursued only in major matters, such as separate schools, and local society rather than law had been depended upon to enforce most separation; it should now be extended to everything. The party gave this policy a name – apartheid (apartness). Apartheid was to be the basic ideological and practical foundation of Afrikaner politics for the next quarter of a century. The National Party's election platform stressed that apartheid would preserve a market for white employment in which nonwhites could not …show more content…
It could be said that apartheid was created for economic gain. The South African gold rush made the relationship between white-owned capital and abundant black labour overpowering. The gains from cooperation between eager British investors and thousands of African workers were sufficient to bridge gaping differences in language, customs, and geography. At first, however, the white capitalist could deal directly only with the few English and Afrikaner managers and foremen who shared his tongue and work habits. But the premium such workers commanded soon became an extravagance. Black workers were becoming capable of taking over industrial leadership roles in far greater numbers and at far less cost. Driven by the profit motive, the substitution of black for white in skilled and semi-skilled mining jobs rose high on the agenda of the mining companies. White workers feared the large supply of African labour as the low-priced competition that it was. Hence, white tradesmen and government officials, including police, regularly harassed African workers to discourage them from travelling to the mines and competing for permanent positions. Nonetheless, the state instituted an array of legal impediments to the promotion of black workers. The notorious Pass Laws sought to sharply limit the supply of non-white workers in “white” employment centres. Blacks were not allowed to become lawful citizens,