National Party controlled the government of South Africa from 1948 to 1994. The party was founded in 1914 by General James Barry Munnik Hertzog. It aimed to protect the interests of white Afrikaners (South Africans of Dutch, German, or French ancestry) against Black Africans and British influence. Under the party, the policy of apartheid (racial segregation) was reinforced by laws that classified and restricted people according to color. The National Party took South Africa out of the Commonwealth of Nations, making it a republic in 1961.
In 1994, President Frederik Willem de Klerk of the National Party led South Africa to its first truly democratic elections, in which the African National Congress (ANC) was victorious. In 1996, de Klerk removed the National Party from South Africa’s Government of National Unity, in order to form an opposition party to run against the government in elections. The party changed its name to the New National Party (NNP) in 1998. In 2000, the party merged with South Africa’s Democratic Party to form the Democratic Alliance. However, the NNP withdrew from the alliance the following year.
In 2004, the NNP won only 1.7 percent of the vote in parliamentary elections. The following year, the party officially disbanded.
See also South Africa, History of.
