Apartheid In South Africa
The National Party arrived in 1948 in South Africa, it's all-white government began to enforce racial segregation policies, which eventually resulted in the infamous apartheid policy. Apartheid segregated black and white South Africans, and although the black South Africans take up the majority of the population, they were treated unequally. They were limited in almost every way, and their basic rights were taken away from them. They were unable to use the same public facilities, and no cross race contact was allowed. The system, as notorious as it is, lasted 50 years.
The National Party
Founding and Early History
The National Party was founded in Bloemfontein in the year 1915 by Afrikaner nationalists following the formation of the Union of South Africa. Upon the foundation, Prime minister Louis Botha and his first Minister of Justice, J.B.M. Hertzog disagreed upon the "one-stream" policy that Botha established. After Hertzog began speaking publicly against the policy, he left the party with a group of followers to establish the National Party.
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Growth in Influence and Power
The National Party first came to power in coalition with the Labour Party in 1924, with Hertzog as the Primi Minister of the conjoined alliance. In order to get the votes of Coloureds (South Africans of mixed white and non-white ancestry), Hertzog's government granted them the right to vote to white women, thus doubling in terms of white political support. In 1934, Hertzog's National Party merged with their rival South African Party to form the United Party. Daniel François Malan, a prominent member of the National Party, refused to accept the merger and formed the Reunited National Party.
The Legalization of Apartheid
"Upon taking power during the 1948 general election, the National Party began to implement a program of apartheid – the legal system of political and social separation of the races – a policy intended to maintain and extend political and economic control of South Africa by the white minority."
-from quickiwiki(online database)
-from quickiwiki(online database)
"National Party leaders D. F. Malan and Hendrik F. Verwoerd were the architects of apartheid. Malan used the term "apartheid" from the 1930s as he distanced his party from British traditions of liberalism and the earlier policy of segregation, which he saw as too lenient towards blacks." |