Developments in South Africa 1880–1994

Diamonds near the Orange River (1867) and gold on the Witwatersrand in the Transvaal (1886).

Foreign, mostly British, immigrants who flooded into the Transvaal to work the goldfields but were denied the vote by President Kruger.

Economic (control of gold), political (Uitlander franchise dispute), and strategic (fear of German influence and protecting the route to India).

A failed British-backed attempt to overthrow Kruger's government in the Transvaal by force; it hardened Boer distrust of Britain before the war.

1) Conventional war with Boer sieges (1899–1900). 2) Guerrilla war led by Boer commandos (1900–02). 3) Kitchener's scorched-earth policy and concentration camps forced Boer surrender.

It left the question to be settled later by self-governing white colonial administrations, effectively guaranteeing Africans would be excluded from the political settlement.

A single self-governing British dominion, the Union of South Africa, merging the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange Free State — with a whites-only Parliament.

Smuts (South African Party) prioritised reconciling Boer and British whites within the British Empire. Hertzog (National Party) championed Afrikaner nationalism and full independence from Britain.

Banned Africans from buying or renting land outside designated reserves (about 7–8% of the country), passed under Louis Botha and Jan Smuts's government.

Passed under Hertzog; removed African voters in the Cape from the common voters' roll, ending the last African parliamentary franchise in the Union.

Through legal, cautious methods — petitions, deputations to London, and court appeals — led by groups like the SANNC (founded 1912, renamed ANC in 1923), with little success against the segregationist state.

Segregation restricted African rights piecemeal through separate laws on land, labour, and voting. Apartheid was a far more total, systematic ideology governing every part of life.

Police killed 69 people protesting pass laws; the government then banned the ANC and PAC, pushing resistance underground.

The ANC's armed wing, formed after Sharpeville, led early on by Nelson Mandela; targeted infrastructure and government buildings through sabotage.

Convicted of sabotage at the Rivonia Trial for his role in Umkhonto we Sizwe; sentenced to life and sent to Robben Island.

Black Consciousness: psychological liberation (pride, unity, self-reliance) must come before political liberation.

A government policy forcing schools to teach half their lessons in Afrikaans; police killed protesting students, including 12-year-old Hector Pieterson.

Formed 1983; coordinated rent boycotts, school boycotts and protests across townships during the 1980s unrest.

Sporting boycott (Olympic ban from 1964), trade/economic sanctions, and the 1977 UN arms embargo.

It shrank South Africa's economy and cut off foreign capital, pushing business leaders to demand reform to end isolation.

Lifted the ban on the ANC, PAC and other organisations, and announced the release of political prisoners.

Convention for a Democratic South Africa; negotiations from December 1991 between the government, ANC and other parties over a new constitution.

South Africa's first democratic election open to all races; the ANC won and Mandela became the first Black president.

Internal resistance (Sharpeville, Soweto, 1980s unrest) made the country ungovernable; international pressure (sanctions, boycotts) weakened the economy — together they created conditions for De Klerk and Mandela's negotiated transition.