South Africa: Encyclopedia II - South Africa - History

South Africa - History

South Africa - Pre-history

South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological sites in Africa. Extensive fossil remains at the Sterkfontein, Kromdraai and Makapansgat caves suggest that various australopithecines existed in South Africa from about three million years ago. These were succeeded by various species of Homo, including Homo habilis, Homo erectus and modern man, Homo sapiens. Bantu iron-using agriculturists and herdsmen moved south of the Limpopo River into modern-day South Africa by the 4th or 5th century (the Bantu expansion). They slowly moved south and the earliest ironworks in modern-day KwaZulu-Natal Province are believed to date from around 1050. The furthest south they reached was the Fish River, in today's Eastern Cape Province. These Iron Age populations displaced earlier hunter-gatherer peoples as they migrated.

South Africa - Dutch settlement

The written history of South Africa began on April 6, 1652, when a victualing station was established at the Cape of Good Hope by Jan van Riebeeck on behalf of the Dutch East India Company. For most of the 17th and 18th centuries, the slowly expanding settlement was a Dutch possession. The Dutch settlers initiated a series of wars called Cape Frontier Wars against the Xhosa people, and imported slaves from Indonesia, Madagascar, and India. Descendants of these slaves, who often married with Dutch settlers, were later classified together with the remnants of the Khoikhoi as Cape Coloureds and "Cape Malays", constituting roughly 50 percent of the population in the Western Cape Province.

South Africa - British annexation

Great Britain seized the Cape of Good Hope area in 1797 during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. The Dutch declared bankruptcy, and the British annexed the Cape Colony in 1805. The British continued the frontier wars against the AmaXhosa, pushing the eastern frontier eastward through a line of forts established along the Fish River and consolidating it by encouraging British settlement. Due to pressure of abolitionist societies in Britain, the British parliament first stopped its global slave trade in 1806, then abolished slavery in all its colonies in 1833.

South Africa - Boer wars

The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1886 encouraged economic growth and immigration, intensifying the subjugation of the natives. The Boers successfully resisted British encroachments during the First Boer War (1880–1881) achieving success by basing their tactics on local conditions. For example, the Boers wore khaki clothing, which was the same colour as the earth, whereas the British wore bright red uniforms, making them easy targets for Boer sharpshooters. The British returned in greater numbers without their red jackets in the Second Boer War (1899–1902), which was largely opposed by the Liberal Party in the British Parliament. The Boers' attempt to ally themselves with German South West Africa provided the British with yet another excuse to take control of the Boer Republics.

The Boers resisted fiercely, but the British eventually overwhelmed the Boer forces, using their superior numbers and external supply chains, as well as the controversial scorched earth tactic, which generated massive Afrikaner resentment towards the British, some of which lingers on into the early 21st century in conservative circles. The Treaty of Vereeniging specified full British sovereignty over the South African republics, and the British government agreed to assume the £3,000,000 war debt owed by the Afrikaner governments. One of the main provisions of the treaty ending the war was that blacks would not be allowed to vote, except in the Cape Colony, a concession which caused resentment among black South Africans.

South Africa - Union of South Africa

After four years of negotiations, the Union of South Africa was created from the colonies of Cape Colony, Natal Colony, and the republics of Orange Free State, and Transvaal on May 31, 1910, exactly eight years after the end of the Second Boer War. In 1934 the South African Party and National Parties merged to form the United Party, seeking reconciliation between Afrikaners and English-speaking whites, but split in 1939 over the Union's entry in World War II as an ally of the United Kingdom. The right-wing National Party sympathised with Nazi Germany during the war, and sought greater racial segregation, or apartheid, after it.

South Africa - Apartheid era

After World War II, by the National Party's takeover in 1948, the white minority were able to maintain their hold on political power by implementing the policies that would become known collectively as apartheid, a series of harsh laws segregating the country along racial lines. Apartheid became increasingly controversial, leading to widespread sanctions and disinvestment abroad and growing unrest and oppression within South Africa. (See also special section on History of South Africa in the apartheid era.) A long period of harsh supression by the government on the one hand, and resistance, strikes, marches, protests, and sabotage by various anti-apartheid movements, most notably the ANC on the other hand, followed.

South Africa - Transfer of power

In 1989, F.W. de Klerk took over the leadership of the National Party government, and in 1990 took the first steps towards negotiating a transfer of power by lifting the ban on the African National Congress and other left-wing political organisations, and releasing Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years. On March 18 1992 the (white) voters were polled on their support for the reform process in a referendum, which gave a result of 68.6% in favour, with a very large proportion of registered voters taking part. Apartheid legislation was gradually removed from the statute books, and in 1994 the first multi-racial elections were held. The ANC won by an overwhelming majority, and has been in power ever since.

This peaceful transfer of power, in spite of attempts to de-rail the process (for example, the assasination of Chris Hani in 1993) was widely hailed as an example to the rest of the world. For their contributions to the process, Nelson Mandela and F.W de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Instead of the bloody revolution that was widely predicted by extremists, a national reconciliation was earnestly sought, as exemplified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings supervised by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Instead of meting out harsh punishments to those who had committed politically motivated crimes during the Apartheid era, amnesty was granted on the condition that the perpetrators told the whole truth about their actions. A shift in military policy also took place. The South African Defence Force was integrated, in an uneasy, but broadly successful process. The nuclear weapons programme was ended, making South Africa the first, and to date only, country to build nuclear weapons and then voluntarily dismantle its entire nuclear weapons programme.

South Africa - Current issues

The spirit of reconciliation has lead to a general South African patriotism that cuts across racial lines, and has been exemplified in such projects as the Proudly South African campaign and the concept of the Rainbow Nation. Although common, such sentiment is not shared by all South Africans. Many white people feel betrayed by what they see as the National Party's capitulation, and feel victimized by the government's controversial affirmative action policies. They cite crime in general and rural violence in particular as major problems. Black dissent is also significant. Despite the end of apartheid, millions of South Africans, mostly black, continue to live in poverty. The reason for this is attributed to the legacy of the apartheid regime and increasingly, what many see as the failure of the current government to tackle social issues. However, the ANC's social housing policy has produced some improvement in living conditions in many areas. Many black South Africans do not identify with the progressive economic and social policies of the ANC, and demand more direct social activity from the government. They also feel that the ANC's land redistribution programme does not go far enough, and is not moving fast enough.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki