How South Africa Became an Apartheid State - Cold War DOCUMENTARY

apartheid is most certainly a stain on world history but it is an integral part of understanding South Africa and southern Africa during the Cold War the elaborate system of racial segregation and the struggle against it would Define South African politics throughout the 20th century however in order to understand the bloody fight against this oppression we first have to look at how it all began from Dutch Farmers to British industrialism and religious ethno nationalism I'm your host David and t

oday we will be looking into the foundations of apartheid in South Africa this is the Cold War we're looking at a topic today that many of you have been requesting for a while but before we get into today's video I need to recommend a fantastic series that I watched recently called the Reagan presidency on the sponsor of this week's video Magellan TV the series looks at Ronald Reagan from his presidential run in 1980 through to his leaving office in 1989 and all of the key moments of his two ter

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colonial South Africa had humble beginnings as a Dutch trade outpost on the Cape of Good Hope and expanded throughout its history to become a society of mostly Dutch Farmers with a large slave underclass made up of native Africans this was until 1806 when the British took over control of the colony from the then bankrupt Dutch East India Company with them Caiman influx of English Scottish Irish and Welsh settlers and the cape Colony expanded moving further from the coast and deeper into the inte

rior however as the English language and British laws came to dominate The Colony the Dutch or as they now call themselves afrikaners felt they weren't being treated fairly this would eventually result in the great Trek where after the abolition of slavery in 1834 the afrikaners would migrate even further into the interior to escape British oversight these Trek bores eventually just shortened to Boris established three republics on the frontier of the colony the natal Republic the transva Republ

ic and the orange free state would see the birth of an africanor identity this new group idolized the free frontier lifestyle they LED away from the British rule while also hypocritically perpetuating the practice of slavery over their native subjects but this lifestyle only lasted for a short amount of time as the discovery of diamonds in southern Africa in 1867 Drew more and more British interest to the region this new interest saw a rapid industrialization and urbanization of the colony with

Native Africans used as cheap labor to work in the ever-growing mines the mineral Revolution as it was called saw the expansion of a practice known as deep mining in which many thousands of workers and a great deal of expensive Machinery was used to dig to Great depths to extract ore for mineral separation it was an expensive process and to complicate matters The Ore found was often of poor quality and soon companies were struggling to turn a profit especially off the gold industry to rectify th

is mine owners sought to make their labor as cheap as possible and thus the colonial government saw fit to Levy heavy taxes on Native Africans forcing them to work in the mines in order to pay off the taxes as time went on more African land was seized more people were taxed and more gold and diamond deposits were found this turned the structure of the cape colony from one of economic class to one of racial segregation native Africans formed the lowest underclass of society made poor by the work

in the mines and magnified by a plague which killed nearly 90 percent of cattle in 1896. entering the 20th century the second world war saw the eventual capitulation to the British of the remaining four republics eventually building to unification in 1910 to form the union of South Africa almost immediately after this the British government began passing laws to further disenfranchise the non-white racial groups in the Union as South Africa became increasingly independent it is important to unde

rstand that racial structure that would be used to define the apartheid era at the very top of the South African racial hierarchy or white people from both Africana and European descent under them were Asian and mixed race people as South Africa had a significant Indian minority which had been imported as migrant labor in the late 1800s native Africans were the lowest class in society they were relegated to the lowest jobs in the mining industry and the 1913 natives Land Act sought native land o

wnership restricted to just eight percent of the countryside on designated natives Reserves this restriction of living space would become standard in apartheid era South Africa and the lines of physical segregation between white and Native communities can still be seen to the present day resistance to these laws began almost immediately tax boycotts and Strikes despite being illegal for Africans to take part in were commonplace but unfortunately sought little to no progress in 1912 the African N

ational Congress formed as an organization to fight racial segregation by sending petitions to the government in London however these please fell on deaf ears believing active resistance was futile the ANC adopted an ideology of passive resistance while typically avoiding large-scale protests the organization did launch a series of major non-violent demonstrations against the past books the identity and employment booklets that were required by law for every African this however only ended up wi

th Mounted Police riding over the protesters and encouraging nearby White civilians to attack the demonstrators for those of you who have seen the 1982 Richard Attenborough film Gandhi there is a scene near the beginning depicting the burning of these past books well the African National congress's initial Focus was to see more rights for the African Elite trade unions became much more popular with the oppressed general public beginning in the 1920s these unions organized strikes and protests ag

ainst segregationist laws unfortunately despite all of these efforts the situation for Africans only worsened 1936 saw the repeal of any voting rights the African Elites had and instead three white government representatives were selected to speak on behalf of the entire African population although this seemed like the worst it could possibly get it was only the worst it would get so far in the post-war elections of 1948 were about to change everything 1948 saw the election of the National Party

of South Africa the national party was a concern iterative africanor party which held extreme religious and ethno-nationalist core values in contrast to the previous British Administration the africanor character itself had continued to evolve after the dissolution of the war republics and had since morphed into a whole new monster the reverence for the Dutch colonialist histories combined with the idolization of the slave owning Farmers lifestyle of the frontier and their resentment of the Bri

tish for their crimes during the second Boer War to form a pseudo-religious identity where the perceived racial purity of white africaners was believed to be destined by God and that the existence of other races only diluted South Africa apartheid apartness was seen as the only way to protect this god-given identity now in order to understand the implementation of apartheid it is imperative to understand the ongoing debate on how to handle South Africa's racial and economic segregation in the po

st-worn nation the United party which had led the union for the preceding decade launched the native laws commission also called the Fagan Commission in 1946 with an official report being released two years later the commission provided a more liberal view of segregation in which it argued for a loosening of territorial segregation which it described as utterly impractical in the commission's opinion the gradual reduction of these policies would see a slow influx of Migrant workers to the cities

which would help boost the growing South African industry which it heavily emphasized the importance of the report advocated for a more laissez-faire approach to the segregated economy of South Africa possibly allowing for more social Mobility for the oppressed African underclass and completely rejecting the cause for stricter controls of African workers being made by white Farmers which it described as totalitarian however this report didn't sit well with many in the africanor and general whit

e population who feared what they saw as the volatile African Urban population as a threat to their businesses in response along with their victory in 1948 the National Party launched the sour commission which came out with its findings in the same year in complete contrast to the United party's aims that commissions report advocated for a strong interventionist government which would guide South Africa to a state of total apartheid between white and natives its main points advocated for the rev

ersal of all African urbanization the relegation of their population to tribal reserves and a total removal of white-owned Industries dependence on African labor spearheaded by the South African Bureau of racial Affairs the report advocated for a state program in which quote the entire migration into and from the cities should be controlled by the state which will enlist the cooperation of Municipal bodies migration into and from the reserves shall likewise be strictly controlled Surplus natives

in the urban areas should be returned to their original habitat in the country meaning the white farming areas or to the reserves natives from the country areas shall be admitted to the urban areas or towns only as temporary employees obliged to return to their homes after the expiration of their employment although in the following years it became clear that South Africa lacked the infrastructure to implement apartheid to this extent that didn't stop the government in Pretoria from trying its

best after their Ascent to power the National Party passed a series of laws to codify the apartheid system the first two were the prohibition of marriages Act passed in 1949 and the population registration Act passed in 1950 these laws worked to classify the entirety of South Africa's population into three racial groups and then banned them from intermarrying one another these groups were white mixed race and Africans people of Asian descent were placed in the mixed-raced category when looking i

nto this topic it becomes apparent however that the term mixed race was not actually used the term used was a term now recognized as both racist and offensive but these three categories were also further subdivided to prevent communication as a form of resistance the group areas act also passed in 1950 divided the entirety of South Africa between the three racial groups of course the whites held the best land around 86 percent of the total land available representing only 20 percent of the popul

ation furthermore segregation was established in everyday life from public transportation to government buildings everything was separate the immorality acts would further ban sexual relations between whites and other racial groups cementing the national party's ideal of racial superiority finally with the Cold War ramping up the suppression of Communism Act was passed to Define any resistance to apartheid measures as equivalent to support of Communism and the perpetrators could be punished acco

rdingly on the economic side Africans were taught only the basics required to work in low-wage and unspecialized jobs the government controlled schools and prevented access to higher education what education native Africans did receive was taught in only English or Africans not in any of the Native languages of southern Africa the history of South Africa focused specifically on the white experience this continued the practice of Africans being used and abused by the white ruling class as low-cos

t labor large cities were almost exclusively reserved for white people with mixed race townships designated on the outskirts and African townships placed even further from the center workers that needed to commuted into the city to work as servants Factory workers or manual labor any rural land reserved for Africans was almost useless and tough to firm leading to many people migrating to the cities for work living conditions were not existent as families often lived in homes without electricity

running water or sewage systems as time went on and the situation worsened resistance to apartheid only stiffened and the government in Pretoria became increasingly hell-bent on eliminating those groups which threatened to unite the general public against them the African National Congress had by this point dropped their attempts to petition away racial segregation and took a more active stance in politics the youth league a subgroup of young activists within the ANC became a vocal driver of inc

reased strikes and demonstrations this is the time that also saw the beginning of militancy amongst the opposition movements although still young these underground groups would go on to wage a form of Guerrilla war in the following decades for now though the biggest movements were still those of non-violence and it would all culminate under the Defiance campaign this mass movement would be the largest ever recorded in South African history made possible by collaboration between the ANC and the S

outh African Indian Congress an Indian focused anti-apartheid group founded by Mahatma Gandhi April 6 1952 would see Mass rallies held in Cape Town and Pretoria and a boycott of the festivities being held in honor of the 300th anniversary of the Dutch arrival at the Cape of Good Hope given the apparent success more demonstrations were planned for the 26th of June here began a multi-month movement where groups of African Asian and mixed-race protesters would March into areas without permits enter

white only spaces and commit other minor offenses these were only punishable with a few days in jail or a small fine by mid-December when the momentum petered out over 8 000 people had been arrested magistrates sometimes even acquitted the defendants of their crimes as the offenses were minor and the court system was totally backed up while there were reports of prison abuses and assaults they weren't pervasive horrifically however whippings were sometimes handed out as a punishment to people u

nder the age of 21. the reaction from the government was to arrest the leaders and to try them under the suppression of Communism act but many would be released on bail or have their sentences suspended the campaign overall didn't see any reform of the apartheid policies like had been the hope but it did achieve the goal of international recognition especially at the United Nations the campaign also served to boost membership of the anti-apartheid movement with the ANC in particular seeing tens

of thousands more people signing up the initial International reaction was relatively weak South Africa was an important Ally to the West in the fight against communism and would remain so throughout the Cold War similarly apartheid policies were argued to be as South African domestic matter and thus fell outside the scope of the United Nations whenever it was brought up in committee nevertheless the 1952 Defiance campaign finally brought some scrutiny upon the nation in the form of some Interna

tional outcry and condemnation this however was it for the time being though world was going through major changes in the 1950s and Beyond and apartheid at least for the time being seemed like a minor concern somewhere in the background so we can see that with its foundations laid in the history of Dutch farmers in the cape colony to their great Trek and subsequent idolization of the boers to the mineral Revolution and the creation of an African underclass apartheid was birthed from a form of hi

story of Oppression to grow into a vile system of racial segregation that would take decades to dismantle to the people of South Africa regardless of the color of their skin it was clear that apartheid wouldn't go down without a fight and that many lives would be lost before it eventually fell however that is the story for another time we hope you've enjoyed this episode and to make sure you don't miss our future work please make sure you subscribe to our Channel and you have formed a popular mo

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