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History of Apartheid in South Africa

In: Historical Events

Submitted By tjoy99
Words 717
Pages 3
Tiffany Ellis
AC1110567
GE350 - World Geography
Assignment 6_06
1/7/11

South Africa has had a history of treating people of African descent as inferior despite them being the majority. During the 19th century, British settlers tried to restrict the movement of black people in and around areas occupied by whites and controlled by the British. The South Africa Act of 1910 gave whites complete political control over all races. During World War II, Jan Smut led the United Party and began to loosen up on the segregation laws but the Sauer Commission was established in 1947 to focus on the relocation of blacks into urban areas and the negative effects it would have on white businesses and jobs. In the election of 1948, Smuts's United Party lost to the main Afrikaner nationalist party, the Reunited National Party, which joined the Afrikaner Party. Together they became the National Party. Racial segregation in South Africa became legal in 1948 when the National Party began to officially enforce apartheid and the rights of the majority, non-white people were diminished. The National Party then sorted people into racial groups of black, white colored, or Indian so residential areas could be segregated, sometimes by force.

Several apartheid laws were passed since the inception of apartheid in 1948 until 1970. The Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act of 1949 prohibited interracial marriages and the Immorality Act of 1950 made interracial sex a crime. The Population Registration Act of 1950 formally established racial groups and furnished everyone with identity cards to specify their racial group. According to the Apartheid Museum (2003), families could be separated if they were grouped into different races. The Group Areas Act of 1950 forced people to live in separate places defined by race. The Bantu Authorities Act of 1951 separated white and black

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