South Africa, History of. The story of human settlement in southern Africa spans many thousands of years. The San, who were descendants of prehistoric Africans, were the only inhabitants of the region for several thousand years. People speaking Bantu languages began arriving in the area nearly 2,000 years ago (see Bantu). Europeans first visited South Africa in the A.D. 1400’s and began settling there permanently in the 1600’s.
South Africa had no written history until the Europeans arrived. For evidence of earlier times, scholars must study oral tradition, ancient artifacts (objects made by human hands), cultural patterns, and the languages spoken by South African peoples.
Early times
Scientists have found fossil remains that suggest hominins (the group that includes modern humans, their close relatives, and their ancestors) lived in South Africa about 3 million years ago. Archaeologists have found hominin remains at Taung, Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai, Makapansgat, and other sites. The scientists uncovered remains of the species Australopithecus africanus and the heavier-boned Paranthropus robustus. The oldest of these remains, at Sterkfontein, are more than 3 million years old. See Australopithecus.
Scientists have also found evidence that the first tool-using hominin, Homo habilis, lived in southern Africa about 2 million years ago. Homo erectus lived in southern Africa after about 1.8 million years ago. Most scientists believe that Homo erectus developed into our own species, Homo sapiens, between about 100,000 and 200,000 years ago. See Prehistoric people.
For thousands of years, the San were the only inhabitants of the region. They moved about in small bands hunting animals and gathering wild plants for food. Around the A.D. 100’s, a related group called the Khoikhoi began to move into the area from the north. They settled in the eastern coastal belt and the eastern Transvaal. The Khoikhoi raised cattle and sheep and settled in communities. When Europeans arrived in the 1600’s, they called the San Bushmen and the Khoikhoi Hottentots. Both of these European terms are now considered offensive. The two groups have come to be known collectively as the Khoisan. 
In the A.D. 200’s, peoples who spoke various Bantu languages began to move into the area that is now eastern South Africa. These groups migrated from the north. They raised cattle, grew grain, made tools and weapons out of iron, and traded among themselves.
By about A.D. 500, the Khoikhoi occupied what is now western South Africa, and Bantu-speaking people occupied much of the eastern part of the country. Some Bantu speakers had begun to group together and form chiefdoms. Each chiefdom was headed by a wealthy chief who regulated trade, controlled cattle ownership, and settled disputes. Within the chiefdoms, senior men exercised authority over individual homesteads. After the 1200’s, a few chiefdoms grew large and powerful, especially among the Sotho-Tswana people in the central area and the Nguni farther east. 
The economies of the early South African peoples depended on the environment. Mixed farming flourished in the well-watered eastern regions of the Bantu, while Khoikhoi in the dry western regions relied on herding cattle. In places that had resources of iron, copper, and salt, the Bantu traded with those who lacked these goods in exchange for cattle. The environment also determined the size of settlements. Villages in the west generally had about 50 people in them. Those in the east tended to be larger, with a few hundred people.
European settlement
European interest in South Africa began in the 1400’s, when the Portuguese explored the African coast in search of gold and a sea route to India. In 1488, a storm blew the ships of Bartolomeu Dias, a Portuguese explorer, around the Cape of Good Hope. Dias sailed up the east coast of Africa beyond the Great Fish River until his crew made him turn back. In 1497, another Portuguese expedition, headed by Vasco da Gama, rounded the cape and continued the sea journey northward along the east coast. Da Gama continued across the Indian Ocean to India. See Dias, Bartolomeu; Da Gama, Vasco.
The Portuguese showed little interest in South Africa because the land had no apparent mineral wealth or trade goods. They also found the weather unpleasant and the Khoikhoi unfriendly. However, the success of the Portuguese in trading with India and other parts of Asia prompted other European nations to follow their lead. In the 1500’s, the English began to make voyages of trade and exploration. The English explorer Sir Francis Drake sailed around the world, passing the Cape of Good Hope in June 1580. The same year, Spain occupied Portugal and closed Portuguese ports to Dutch shipping. The Dutch then took over some of Portugal’s ports and established new ones.
Settlement by the Dutch.
The Cape of Good Hope served as a useful base to the Europeans. It provided ships with fresh water. Traders could exchange European goods for fresh meat from the Khoikhoi. Two English fleet commanders, Andrew Shilling and Humphrey Fitzherbert, claimed the cape for England in 1620. But the English government did not recognize their claim.
The first European settlers arrived in South Africa in 1652. They worked for the Dutch East India Company, a powerful Dutch trading company. The company sent the settlers, headed by the Dutch commander Jan van Riebeeck, to set up a base at the present site of Cape Town. The base served as a station where company ships could pick up supplies on the way to and from the East Indies. The company brought enslaved people—mostly from Southeast Asia—to do manual labor at the base and to work on its nearby farms. See Van Riebeeck, Jan.
Beginning in 1657, the Dutch East India Company allowed some employees to leave the company and start their own farms. These independent farmers were called free burghers (citizens) or Boers (farmers). In 1657, the first free burghers set out to farm along the Liesbeek River, east of the Table Mountain. Their population grew slowly at first, as more Dutch and German employees joined them. In 1679, the company also began to offer free passage and land to new settlers from Europe. Then the population grew more quickly. In 1688, French Huguenots also settled at the Cape. The Huguenots were a group of Protestants who had fled from France to escape religious persecution.
The Khoikhoi reaction.
The growing free burgher population soon came into conflict with the Khoikhoi. The two groups fought an inconclusive territorial war from 1659 to 1660. Late in 1672, another war broke out between the Dutch and Khoikhoi groups living north of the settlement. This war continued until 1677, ending with the defeat of the Khoikhoi.
By 1700, Europeans occupied most of the good farmland around Cape Town. Then, they moved into drier areas and became sheep and cattle ranchers. As the European-controlled territory expanded, the Khoikhoi and San population declined. More and more Khoikhoi traded their cattle and sheep with the Europeans in return for such goods as copper, food, and tobacco. Many Khoikhoi who traded their animals joined the San and reverted to hunting and gathering or became servants of the Europeans. European settlers killed some in conflicts and forced many others out of the area. Many Khoikhoi and San also died of diseases, such as smallpox. Many Khoikhoi living near the areas of European settlement were brought into the white society and became the ancestors of those people of mixed race later known as Coloured people.
The Khoikhoi and San, however, continued to resist white expansion in the 1700’s. Some displaced Khoikhoi, together with escaped enslaved people, ships’ deserters, rebel farmers, and others, formed strong clans, such as the Griqua, along the northern borders of the Cape Colony. They traded their cattle for guns.
During this period, the Dutch language spoken in the area began to change. It incorporated words and sounds from the languages of other European settlers, and from enslaved Southeast Asian people and San and Khoikhoi servants. A new language, called Afrikaans, developed, and the people who spoke it were called Afrikaners.
During the 1700’s, many white South Africans became trekboers (cattle and sheep herders). They were seminomadic, moving from place to place to graze their animals. The trekboers forced many Khoikhoi and San from their land. Violence also broke out between the trekboers and the Khoikhoi and San, who continually attacked the trekboers’ cattle.
About 1770, white settlers spread into the area occupied by the Xhosa, a Bantu-speaking people, in what is now Eastern Cape. The white people called the Xhosa Kaffirs, which is now considered an offensive term. In 1778, Dutch Governor Joachim van Plettenberg made a tour of the colony to redefine its boundaries. He attempted to make the Great Fish River the boundary between the Xhosa and the trekboers. This attempt led to conflict because both Xhosa and trekboers lived in the disputed area. Frontier wars failed to resolve the situation.
By the end of the 1700’s, the white people had spread about 300 miles (480 kilometers) north and more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) east of Cape Town. The area became a colony known as the Cape Colony. It had a total population of about 60,000. Nearly 20,000 were white. The rest consisted mostly of Khoikhoi, San, and enslaved people.
The spread of British rule
In 1795, after France conquered the Netherlands, British troops occupied the Cape Colony to keep it out of French control. The British returned the colony to the Dutch in 1803 but reoccupied it in 1806. A treaty between the British and the Dutch in 1814 formally recognized the Cape as a permanent British colony.
The British set out to establish a government at the Cape Colony and to resolve the conflicts with the Xhosa in the frontier area. The British fortified the Great Fish River boundary and set up a base at Grahamstown. They made an agreement with Ngqika (also spelled Gaika), the senior chief of the western Xhosa, to help prevent cattle raiding. Ngqika was defeated by Ndlambe in 1818. In 1819, Ndlambe’s men, led by the prophet Makana (also called Nxele), attacked Grahamstown but were defeated.
The defeat of Makana was followed by a period of peace. During that time, the British government tried to fortify the frontier by increasing the number of European farmers in the area. This created greater pressure on Xhosa territory. About 5,000 British settlers settled there in 1820, adding to the existing Dutch population.
The Zulu and the Mfecane.
Between 1818 and 1828, the Bantu-speaking Zulu clan grew to be the most powerful Black kingdom in southern Africa. This kingdom, established by the Zulu leader Shaka, covered most of what is now KwaZulu-Natal. It incorporated a number of Nguni chiefdoms, including the Xhosa. As the Zulu kingdom grew in size and power, many Nguni peoples fled to other parts of southeastern Africa. The refugees often came into conflict with other peoples during their migrations. The greatest disruption was caused by Mzilikazi, one of Shaka’s warriors, who rebelled against his king and moved into the central interior. He built up a strong kingdom from the remnants of the clans he conquered. Only the Pedi of the eastern Transvaal survived the onslaught of Mzilikazi and his Ndebele (Matabele) warriors. See Mzilikazi.
In the southern plateau, however, Moshoeshoe, chief of a small Sotho clan, built up a new nation out of the remaining Sotho clans. He resisted attacks by Zulu, Ndebele, and Griqua warriors through skillful diplomacy and a strong defensive strategy based on a mountain stronghold called Thaba Bosiu, in what is now Lesotho. See Moshoeshoe.
This period of forced migrations and battles, known as the Mfecane (or Difaqane), led to the emergence of new kingdoms, including the Sotho, Swazi, and Ndebele. Other groups, however, were wiped out. The destruction and chaos caused by the Mfecane made it easier for white settlers to expand northward from the Cape in the 1830’s. See Mfecane.
White occupation of the interior.
The Boers soon came to resent British colonial rule. The British government made English the colony’s only official language in 1828. That same year, the Khoikhoi and Coloured people received the same legal rights as white people. In 1834, the United Kingdom freed all enslaved people throughout its empire, ruining a number of Boers who depended on slave labor to work their fields.
Many Boers decided to leave the Cape Colony to get away from British rule. Beginning in 1836, several thousand made a historic journey called the Great Trek. They loaded their belongings into ox-drawn covered wagons and headed inland. They were known as the voortrekkers (pioneers). They traveled into lands occupied by Bantu-speaking peoples, including the Zulu kingdom, hoping to establish an independent republic. 
Settlement of Natal.
In the spring of 1837, an Afrikaner farmer and businessman named Piet Retief led a party of voortrekkers and their servants into Zulu-dominated territory across the Drakensberg Mountains in Natal. Retief attempted to negotiate a land agreement with the Zulu king, Dingane. But several of Retief’s actions led Dingane to believe the voortrekkers would be a threat to his power. In February 1838, the Zulus killed Retief and his negotiating party in Umgungundlovu. See Retief, Piet.
The Zulu army then attacked the Boers, killing about 500 voortrekkers and their servants. On Dec. 16, 1838, a Boer raiding party led by the Afrikaner pioneer Andries Pretorius defeated the Zulu at the Battle of Blood River. The voortrekkers then began to settle in Natal and set up the independent Republic of Natalia, which eventually became what is now roughly the state of KwaZulu-Natal.
The British annexed Natalia in 1843 and renamed it Natal. However, they recognized the independence of two other Boer republics: the Transvaal in 1852 and the Orange Free State in 1854. In 1858, the Boers in the Transvaal named their government the South African Republic (SAR). In Natal and the Boer republics, white people claimed the best land and steadily extended their control over Black Africans and Coloured people.
Both Boer republics then set up their own ethnically exclusive, white governments. The government of the Orange Free State was fairly stable. But disagreements among the western, eastern, and northern regions of the SAR delayed the election of the first government there until 1859. Some of the Transvaal Boers still did not accept this government, and between 1860 and 1864, there was civil war in the SAR.
British colonies.
In 1853, the British government gave the Cape Colony a constitution. Colonists of all races who passed certain wage or property qualifications could vote for members of the legislature. In 1856, the British government granted a similar constitution, though this time effectively for white people only, to Natal.
The production of sugar in Natal began to play an important part in the economies of the colony. The British brought in Indian people to work as indentured laborers on sugar plantations. Under this system, the Indian people worked for a specified time in exchange for payment of their voyage, food, clothing, shelter, and a small wage from the British. After that time, the workers had the opportunity to purchase their land. The first Indian people arrived in 1860 and eventually formed a sizeable and permanent part of the population of Natal.
Conflicts with African states.
Despite the European occupation of the interior of southern Africa, many independent African states continued to exist up to the 1870’s and beyond. The British annexed lands of the Xhosa between the Keiskama and Great Kei rivers as an area called British Kaffraria after a frontier war in 1846 and 1847.
The Xhosa waged another frontier war against the British from 1850 to 1853 but could not expel them. In desperation, the Xhosa turned to the prophecies (predictions) of a young girl, Nongqawuse. In 1856, she told them that if they slaughtered their cattle and destroyed their crops, they would be rewarded by an end to white rule. They followed her advice, and by early 1857, widespread starvation forced many to leave their land. But, together with such chiefdoms as the neighboring Thembu and Mpondo, the Xhosa remained free of white rule for some time.
Dingane’s half-brother Mpande had ousted him as Zulu king in 1840. Mpande chose to cooperate with the white governments in Natal in return for their recognition of Zulu independence. The Zulu maintained their independence until the reign of Mpande’s son Cetshwayo in the 1870’s.
Moshoeshoe’s Sotho kingdom struggled against the Orange Free State over their common border. The Orange Free State declared war on the Sotho kingdom in 1858 but was forced to withdraw. With the issue unresolved, the war flared up again in 1865. Moshoeshoe received protection from the United Kingdom in 1868, when it created Bastutoland (now Lesotho) as a British dependency. However, the Sotho had already lost valuable land to the Orange Free State.
In the SAR, the Venda peoples and some of the Sotho people to the north clashed with the Boers in the region during the 1860’s. The Pedi to the east and the Tswana chiefdoms to the west faced Boer demands for labor and invasions onto their lands. But they could not preserve their independence.
Discovery of diamonds and gold
In late 1866 or early 1867, children discovered a shiny rock along the banks of the Orange River, near what is now Hopetown. The rock proved to be a diamond, and miners and fortune seekers from the United Kingdom and other countries flocked to the area to search for more. In 1868, miners found diamonds along the Vaal River where it meets the Harts River, and in 1870, prospectors found larger deposits in dry land farther south. An even greater discovery followed in 1871 at Colesberg Kopje (now Kimberley). Both the British and the Boers claimed the area where the Vall and Orange rivers meet. In 1871, the United Kingdom annexed it, and it became part of the Cape Colony.
The mining revolution.
The discovery of diamonds and gold brought an economic revolution to South Africa after 1870. The basis of the economy changed from agriculture to mining. Investment in mines and services, as well as profits generated by the mines, pumped more money into the economy. This money made possible the development of a modern transport and communication network. Coal mining was established to supply fuel for the railways. Investors built factories to provide clothing for mine workers and equipment for the mines.
The mining revolution led to a rapid increase in the size of the mining towns. Tens of thousands of people migrated to the area. Settlers founded such new towns as Kimberley and Johannesburg. By 1911, Johannesburg had overtaken Cape Town as the largest city in South Africa.
The growing population created new markets for agricultural goods. These markets stimulated the development of commercial agriculture and brought about far-reaching changes in the rural areas. Large-scale farming for profit began to replace subsistence farming (producing only what is needed to survive). The remaining seminomadic trekboers, Black sharecroppers, and tenant farmers left as land values increased and the British and Boer governments annexed more territory.
The mineral discoveries created a huge new demand for labor. Both employers and governments took steps to find new workers. The mining industries recruited workers from outside South Africa, notably from Mozambique and China. Companies also established a recruiting network inside South Africa. They exerted pressure on Black people to take paid jobs. In addition, the British and Boer governments imposed taxes on Black people who were not working for white employers. To avoid the tax, leaders of the African kingdoms sent young men to work as laborers in the mines.
British annexation of land.
Diamonds made the region more strategically and commercially important to the United Kingdom. To strengthen its authority over the region, the United Kingdom took advantage of a financial crisis afflicting the SAR and annexed the republic in 1877. It was renamed the Transvaal.
The British also extended their authority over Black African chiefdoms that were still independent. The process of incorporating the Black kingdoms varied. In the case of the Southern Nguni, the British took advantage of a war between two subgroups, the Mfengu and the Xhosa, to extend British control over the Nguni east of the Great Kei River.
By 1879, the Zulu kingdom remained the region’s only major African state. The British saw the Zulu as a threat to the eventual confederation of South Africa’s colonies, and so they invaded Zulu territory in January 1879. Although the Zulu defeated the British at Isandhlwana later that month, the British army crushed the Zulu in July. By 1898, white rule extended over all independent Black African states. See Anglo-Zulu War. 
Settlements of white farmers and fortune seekers split the lands of the Western Tswana (Rolong and Thlaping) into two small republics, Stellaland and Goshen. These republics passed to British rule in 1885.
Also in 1885, the United Kingdom gave the Northern Tswana chiefdoms protection against the Transvaal (SAR) to the south and the Ndebele to the north. In the eastern Transvaal (SAR), British forces defeated the Pedi in 1879, ending a long period of resistance to white advance. In the north, the Venda and their allies held out against the Transvaal (SAR) until their defeat in 1898. By 1898, the annexations were complete, and all Black Africans had lost their independence.
The Anglo-Boer Wars
The British were determined to bring the Boer republic of the Orange Free State (OFS) under their rule, in addition to the Transvaal (SAR). When the English statesman Lord Carnarvon became colonial secretary in 1874, he was determined to make South Africa a federation. But negotiations with the OFS failed.
The Anglo-Boer War of 1880-1881.
In 1880, the Transvaal Boers rose in revolt in the Anglo-Boer War of 1880-1881 (also called the Anglo-Transvaal War). After several victories, they finally defeated the British in a battle on Majuba Hill on Feb. 27, 1881. The British agreed to withdraw from the Transvaal under the Pretoria Convention of 1881. The Boers thus regained independence in the Transvaal and again named it the South African Republic (SAR).
In 1886, prospectors discovered the Witwatersrand gold field north of the Vaal River, where Johannesburg now stands. Fortune seekers rushed to the area. By 1895, these Uitlanders (foreigners) made up about half the SAR’s white male population. The SAR became economically stronger than the other parts of South Africa. Its wealth and independence threatened British supremacy. To maintain control, the Boers restricted the political rights of the Uitlanders, most of whom were British. As a result, tension grew between the United Kingdom and the SAR.
The Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902.
In 1895, Cecil Rhodes, the British prime minister of the Cape Colony, plotted to overthrow the government of the SAR. He sent a force led by Leander Jameson, a Scottish-born government administrator, to invade the republic. But the Boers captured the invaders, and the so-called Jameson Raid failed. Relations between the British and the SAR grew more strained. In 1899, the SAR and the Orange Free State declared war on the United Kingdom. During the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 (also called the Boer War or the South African War), the Boers fought against huge odds before they finally surrendered. The two Boer republics then became British colonies, and the SAR was once again renamed the Transvaal. See Anglo-Boer Wars.
The Union of South Africa
As a first step toward union, the United Kingdom granted self-government to the Transvaal in 1906 and to the Orange Free State in 1907. In 1908 and 1909, representatives from these colonies and from the Cape Colony and Natal met at the National Convention. They drew up a new constitution for a united South Africa. The British accepted this plan of government, and the union was established on May 31, 1910. Louis Botha, a former Transvaal premier, became the union’s first prime minister. The former colonies became provinces. The Cape continued to allow all races to vote. In Natal, a few Black people who met certain property requirements could vote. But in the other two provinces, only white people could vote. No Black person could be elected to the central parliament.
The struggle for equal rights.
Several Black African, Coloured, and Indian groups tried to defend themselves against repression by the white government. A lawyer from India, Mohandas K. Gandhi, worked for greater rights for Indian South Africans. Gandhi urged the Indian people to defy unjust laws, such as a law requiring them to register and be fingerprinted. Gandhi’s methods of nonviolent resistance resulted in the Indian people’s gaining some additional rights. Using the same methods, Gandhi later helped India gain independence from British rule.
A number of Black political parties met in a national convention in 1909 to protest the exclusion of Black people from government in the proposed union constitution. This convention sent a delegation to London to plead for “equal rights for all civilized men,” but it was unsuccessful. In 1912, a meeting of Black political leaders in Bloemfontein set up the South African Native National Congress (SANNC). The SANNC began as an organization of mostly educated people. It hoped to educate Black and white public opinion, and to work through constitutional means for greater rights for Black people. In 1923, the SANNC shortened its name to the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC became the main political voice for Black people.
World War I.
In World War I (1914-1918), the British Empire and its allies fought the Central Powers, led by Austria-Hungary and Germany. Two Boer generals, Louis Botha and Jan Christiaan Smuts, led South African forces against Germany. Botha seized German South West Africa (now Namibia) from Germany in 1915, and Smuts drove the Germans from German East Africa (now Tanzania) in 1917. In 1920, the League of Nations, a forerunner of the United Nations, gave South Africa control of South West Africa. Botha and Smuts were the first two prime ministers of the Union of South Africa. Botha served from 1910 to 1919. Smuts served from 1919 to 1924, and from 1939 to 1948.
The rise of Afrikaner nationalism.
Botha and Smuts had fought the British in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. But as prime ministers, they tried to unite Afrikaners (as the Boers came to be called) and English-speaking white people. Many Afrikaner authors and religious leaders, however, urged their people to consider themselves a nation. They said Afrikaners had a heroic history, a rich culture, and a God-given mission to rule South Africa. In 1914, James Barry Munnik Hertzog, another Boer general who had fought the British, founded the National Party to promote these ideas.
In 1923, Hertzog made an election pact with the Labour Party leader, Frederick H. P. Creswell. The two parties agreed to support each other’s candidates in the 1924 general election. They won the election and formed what became known as the Pact government. Hertzog became prime minister.
The Pact government led by Hertzog governed South Africa until 1933. During his leadership, Hertzog achieved many Afrikaner goals. His government’s main achievement was to strengthen and diversify the economy through protective tariffs (taxes on imported goods). The government developed industries to reduce dependence on British imports. In 1925, the Pact government made Afrikaans, instead of Dutch, an official language along with English. Hertzog also tried to introduce stricter segregation (separation) between Black and white people. In 1931, South Africa gained full independence as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of the United Kingdom and some of its former colonies.
The Great Depression,
a worldwide business slump that began in 1929, led to a decline in the fortunes of Hertzog’s government. In 1933, Hertzog accepted a proposal from Smuts to form a government of national unity with Hertzog as prime minister and Smuts as deputy. In 1934, the National Party and the South African Party merged to form the United Party. The more extreme Afrikaner nationalists opposed the United Party. They saw the South African Party as the party of the British, and they feared that it would lead South Africa into another British war. Under the South African statesman Daniel Francois Malan, leader of the Cape National Party, the extremists broke away to form their own “purified” National Party.
White people benefited under the coalition government, but Black Africans did not. For example, Black Africans in Cape Province, who had retained the right to vote after the Union was formed, lost their voting rights. The government also passed laws that made it difficult for Black Africans to live in cities. In contrast, it made city jobs available for poor Afrikaners, who were leaving their farms in search of work in the cities.
World War II.
Cooperation between Smuts and Hertzog ended at the start of World War II (1939-1945). Hertzog wanted South Africa to be neutral. But Smuts wanted the country to join the United Kingdom and the other Allies against Germany. Smuts won a narrow victory in Parliament, Hertzog resigned, and Smuts formed a new government in 1939. Most of Hertzog’s supporters joined Malan’s National Party. During the war, South Africans fought in Ethiopia, northern Africa, and Europe. After the war, South Africa became a founding member of the United Nations (UN).
The war brought changes to South Africa. Economic growth led to rapid industrialization. This resulted in increased political activity, notably among the voteless Black majority. The ANC began to develop into a mass movement. With new dynamic leadership provided by its Youth League, it became more militant.
The Smuts government came under pressure from white people as well as Black people. The Afrikaner Broederbond (brotherhood) organization, a right-wing group, had helped build an Afrikaner national movement (see Afrikaner Broederbond). This strengthened Malan’s National Party, which saw itself as the party of the Afrikaans volk (people). The Smuts government became unpopular with most Afrikaners, who wanted to support the Nazis instead of the Allies. The wartime’s rapid industrialization attracted Black people into the cities, and Black people soon outnumbered white people. Cities became overcrowded and poverty spread, especially among Black people. As a result, crime, racial conflicts, and other social problems increased. Many white people feared the growing demands from Black South Africans and were determined to retain white supremacy. Malan’s party won a narrow victory over the United Party in the general election of 1948.
Apartheid.
The National Party, under Malan, began to implement an apartheid program, which greatly intensified the legal segregation of racial groups (see Apartheid). The cornerstone of apartheid was the Population Registration Act of 1950, under which all South Africans were classified according to race. The government established separate schools, universities, residential areas, and public facilities for each racial group. 
Hendrik F. Verwoerd, who served as minister of native affairs from 1950 to 1958 and prime minister from 1958 to 1966, was the main architect of the apartheid state. His government began a program that gave the police and the military extensive powers to enforce apartheid.
Internal opposition to apartheid
grew swiftly during the 1950’s under the leadership of ANC presidents James Moroka and later Albert Luthuli. In 1955, the ANC, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and other groups representing Coloured, Indian, and white people joined to form the Congress Alliance. The alliance convened a meeting called the Congress of the People in Kliptown, (now part of Johannesburg), in 1955. At that meeting, the Congress Alliance adopted a statement of goals called the Freedom Charter. The charter emphasized equality of races, liberty, and human rights.
In 1959, some members of the ANC left to form the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) because they opposed the ANC’s participation in the multiracial Congress Alliance. The PAC first targeted the pass laws. Apartheid laws required all people classified as Black to carry passes (identity papers), which restricted Black Africans from moving freely around the country. PAC leaders told Black people to appear on March 21, 1960, at police stations without their passes—and so invite arrest. In most places, the police broke up the crowd without incident. But at Sharpeville, (now part of Vereeniging), the police opened fire and killed 69 Black people. The government then banned both the ANC and PAC. With all avenues of peaceful protest closed to them, the ANC and PAC began waging armed struggle against the state.
Most of the leadership of the ANC’s armed wing Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) were arrested in 1963. Nelson Mandela, a prominent ANC leader who had been arrested in 1962, and seven other leaders were sentenced to life imprisonment. The ANC transferred its headquarters to Lusaka, Zambia, and continued its struggle against apartheid under the leadership of Oliver Tambo. For most of the next 30 years, the South African government suppressed groups opposed to apartheid through bannings and detentions. The government assumed even greater powers to deal with a growing opposition. 
International opposition to apartheid.
Opposition to apartheid also came from outside South Africa. Many leaders of the Commonwealth of Nations strongly criticized South Africa’s apartheid policies. On May 31, 1961, South Africa became a republic and left the Commonwealth. In 1966, the UN voted to end South Africa’s control over South West Africa. South Africa called the UN action illegal and ignored it.
The Soweto uprising.
During the 1960’s, South Africa’s government introduced its homeland policy. In an attempt to make South Africa a “white” nation, the government set aside separate areas for each racial group. The government granted limited self-rule—and in some cases, full independence—to the Black African homelands (also called bantustans). 
Verwoerd was killed in 1966 by a mentally ill government messenger. Apartheid policies continued under Verwoerd’s successor, Balthazar Johannes Vorster. By the 1970’s, opposition to white rule was increasing both inside and outside the country. On June 16, 1976, several thousand Black African schoolchildren marched through the township of Soweto (now part of Johannesburg) to protest the use of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools. Police opened fire on the children, killing two and wounding several others. Disturbances followed in many parts of the country, and several clashes erupted between Black Africans and the police. At least 575 people, almost all of them Black people, were killed. The protests spread throughout Soweto and to some other townships in what became known as the Soweto uprising.
Vorster’s successor, P. W. Botha, realized that apartheid was causing South Africa’s economy to suffer. In the late 1970’s, the Botha government repealed some apartheid laws. It lifted restrictions against multiracial sports. It also abolished most of the job reservation system, which had reserved certain jobs for certain races. In 1983, trade unions and other political groups formed the United Democratic Front.
The 1984 Constitution.
In an attempt to gain Coloured and Indian support, Botha proposed a new constitution. White South Africans approved it in 1983, and it went into effect in 1984. The new Constitution restructured Parliament to include representation for white, Coloured, and Indian people. The Constitution also created an office of executive state president and eliminated the office of prime minister. Botha became state president.
The new Constitution, like the one it replaced, made no provision for Black representation. Also, like the old Constitution, it excluded Black Africans from voting in national elections. The United Democratic Front, Congress of South African Trade Unions, and other groups protested, and there were further clashes with the police. The protesters targeted not only white people but also Black police officers and other Black people regarded as government collaborators. Many people, mostly Black, were killed in these clashes. At the same time, military branches of the ANC and PAC carried out a series of guerrilla attacks on government targets.
In an attempt to maintain control and stop the violence, the South African government declared a national state of emergency in 1986. Under the state of emergency, the government was allowed to arrest and hold people without charging them.
Many countries expressed opposition to apartheid by reducing economic ties with South Africa. In 1986, the European Community (the forerunner of the European Union), the Commonwealth of Nations, and the United States enacted bans on certain kinds of trade with South Africa. Some companies ended or limited their business in South Africa.
In 1986, the South African government repealed more apartheid laws. It permitted Black Africans, Coloured people, and Asian people to attend white universities. The government also permitted interracial marriages, which apartheid laws had forbidden. It repealed the laws requiring Black Africans to carry passes and allowed them to live in cities without special permission. As a result, more than 1 million Black Africans moved to the cities. But many apartheid regulations continued. Black Africans were still excluded from participation in government.
In 1988, after several years of talks with major Western powers, South Africa agreed to withdraw from Namibia. In 1990, Namibia gained full independence. In 1989, F. W. de Klerk became state president. De Klerk realized that white minority rule could not continue in South Africa without great risk of civil war.
The end of apartheid.
In February 1990, de Klerk lifted the bans on political organizations, including the ANC and PAC. Later that month, de Klerk released Nelson Mandela, the most famous member of the ANC, from prison. Mandela had been arrested in 1962 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 for sabotage and conspiracy against the South African government. While in prison, Mandela had become a symbol of the Black struggle for racial justice. In May 1990, the government held its first formal talks with the ANC. Mandela met with de Klerk several times to discuss political change in South Africa. 
Despite these events, violence continued in South Africa. Some violence resulted from white citizens’ reactions to de Klerk’s reforms, and other fighting broke out between rival Black African groups. Much of the violence occurred between supporters of the ANC and the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party. Thousands of people were killed in the conflicts.
In 1990 and 1991, the South African government repealed most of the remaining laws that had formed the legal basis of apartheid. In late 1991, the government, the ANC, and other groups began holding talks on a new constitution. In 1993, the government adopted an interim constitution that gave Black South Africans full voting rights. The country held its first elections open to all races in 1994. The ANC won nearly two-thirds of the seats in the National Assembly, and the Assembly then elected Nelson Mandela president. After the elections, politically motivated violence decreased. In 1994, South Africa resumed full participation in the UN and rejoined the Commonwealth. 
Recent developments.
In 1995, the government appointed a panel called the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to gather information about human rights violations during the apartheid years. Desmond Tutu, a former Anglican archbishop and winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, headed the commission. In a report issued in 1998, the commission said the apartheid-era government had committed “gross violations of human rights,” including kidnapping and murders. The report also criticized antiapartheid groups, including the ANC, holding them responsible for killings and torture. The commission issued its final report in 2003.
In 1996, South Africa adopted a new Constitution. It provides for a strong presidency and includes a wide-ranging bill of rights. Among the rights it guarantees are freedom of religion, belief, and opinion; freedom of expression, including freedom of the press; and freedom of political activity. It also establishes the right to adequate housing, food, water, education, and health care. In the early 2000’s, health officials criticized the government for the slowness with which it tackled the AIDS epidemic, which had become a major problem. By 2000, more than 10 percent of the population was infected with HIV. Human rights leaders also criticized South Africa for failing to take a strong stand against Executive President Robert Mugabe in neighboring Zimbabwe, whose policies caused financial hardship and food shortages there. 
In 1997, Mandela resigned as head of the ANC. He was replaced in that position by South Africa’s deputy president, Thabo Mbeki. In 1999, Mandela retired as president of South Africa. In elections that year, the ANC won a majority in the National Assembly. The Assembly elected Mbeki president. In 2004, the ANC again won a majority of Assembly seats, and the Assembly reelected Mbeki as president. In 2007, Mbeki lost the ANC leadership to Jacob Zuma. Mbeki stepped down as president in 2008, and Parliament elected ANC Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe to replace him. Later that year, ANC members loyal to Mbeki left the party and formed a new party called the Congress of the People. The ANC again won a majority of parliamentary seats in elections held in April 2009. Zuma became president of South Africa the next month.
Nelson Mandela died on Dec. 5, 2013, after a long battle with a lung infection. People worldwide mourned his passing, and Zuma announced a weeklong period of mourning to honor Mandela’s life. 
In 2014, the ANC won a majority of Assembly seats in a general election, and Zuma remained in office as president. Zuma resigned the presidency in 2018 amid allegations of corruption. Cyril Ramaphosa, who had replaced Zuma as ANC leader in 2017, then succeeded him as president of South Africa. In elections held in 2019, the ANC maintained its majority in the Assembly, and the Assembly chose Ramaphosa for another term as president.
Beginning in 2020, South Africa faced the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic (global epidemic). COVID-19, a sometimes-fatal respiratory disease, was first identified in China in late 2019. The first case in South Africa was reported in March 2020. By late March, South Africa’s government had declared a nationwide lockdown. It banned South Africans from leaving their homes, except for essential goods or services. In the following months, authorities tightened or eased restrictions based on the severity of infection rates. By the end of July 2020, South Africa was among the countries with the most confirmed cases of COVID-19. As in other nations, containment measures strained the economy. The government began to administer vaccines against COVID-19 in January 2021. New strains of the virus, such as Delta, caused a substantial rise in infections later in the year. In November 2021, doctors in South Africa identified a new and rapidly spreading variant of the virus, named Omicron. In April 2022, the government ended the “national state of disaster,” and most remaining COVID-19 restrictions were lifted. By early 2023, there had been more than 4 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in South Africa, and more than 100,000 South Africans had died from the disease.
In April 2022, South Africa also experienced one of its deadliest storms on record. Heavy rains caused severe flooding and mudslides on the east coast of the country. In Durban, a major industrial center and seaport, the storm killed more than 400 people.
In elections in 2024, the African National Congress lost its majority in the National Assembly for the first time since it came to power in 1994. However, the party still won more seats in the Assembly than any other party. Cyril Ramaphosa formed a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance, a white-led party. The Assembly then reelected him as president. 
