-Thesis statement:The evolution of South Africa in The 20th century witnessed an increase in economic expansion an establishment of oppressive labor controls by the white people government. This paper will seek and explore the integration of these historic actions, marked by ‘the new Union of South Africa” administration of severe regulations like the pass system and apartheid laws impacted the establishment of South Africa’s current sociopolitical environment resulting in a long-lasting effect on the nation’s progress.
– 5 MLA article sources
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~Michael C. Beaubien. “The Cultural Boycott of South Africa.” Africa Today, vol. 29, no. 4, 1982, pp. 5–16. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4186110. Accessed 10 May 2024.
~(PDF) The Colonization of South Africa and the British Impacts on Development, www.researchgate.net/publication/343557990_THE_COLONIZATION_OF_SOUTH_AFRICA_AND_THE_BRITISH_IMPACTS_ON_DEVELOPMENT. Accessed 18 May 2024.
~Shea, Dorothy C. The South African Truth Commission: The Politics of Reconciliation. United States Institute of Peace Press, 2000.
~Reddy, Thiven. South Africa, Settler Colonialism and the Failures of Liberal Democracy. Wits University Press, 2016.
outline: Introduction: The history of African and European settlement in South Africa. Keep this very brief. The Afrikaners, Zulus, and British all spread out over the area we know today as South Africa by the 1840s. Please do not spend more than a few sentences on this.
The Transvaal and Orange Free State were Afrikaner states, the Cape Colony and Natal were British colonies around 1890. Then you get into the Second Boer War, which the British initiated to take the resources in the Afrikaner states, including gold and diamonds. The war ended in 1902 with the British absorbing the Afrikaner states.
Who were the main players? Lord Milner, Cecil Rhodes, and the British South Africa Company. On the Afrikaner side; Paul Kruger. Include these people. What were their goals?
Another key point: remember to discuss the history of South Africa’s economic development. The restrictions to movement and settlement enacted by the South African government had a lot to do with the massive growth in the mining and industrial sectors after the Second Boer War, and even more so after the declaration of the Dominion called the “Union of South Africa” in 1910.
The country became an industrialized powerhouse early in the 20th century because of the need to create the infrastructure to support mining. They built modern cities, roads, railroads, and factories.
So restrictions on the movements of laborers, and later, more systematic restrictions on different populations, had a lot to do with managing the labor system and supporting the profits of big firms. Again, look at the British South Africa Company, which almost ran South Africa. Remember the importance of gold mining, palladium mining, etc. South Africa was the largest producer of gold in the world for many decades. South African society was changing rapidly because of gold and diamond mining. How did Africans respond to this?
Consider the development of the pass systems — these are travel documents that often restricted people based on race and “tribe”. Who invented these, who used them? Why? This is part of your discussion of the economic developments of the country.
After decades of being dominated by English-speakers, the white minority government of South Africa is challenged from within, by Afrikaners. These developments led to the rise of the Afrikaners as a political block, when the National Party finally won the elections in 1948.
By the way, when you speak about the “white people government,” what you actually mean is “white minority rule.” This is the concept that whites should have the final say in government and should effectively run the government on behalf of the entire population, even though they are the minority. Why? They justified it because they controlled most of the economic wealth, and they knew “better”. But white minority rule was not united, and the English-speaking British settlers had more power than the Afrikaners who had been in the country since 1652. This changed in 1948 when the Afrikaner-led National Party won the elections.
The National Party implemented apartheid — this was a more systematic version of restrictions that existed before. It did not come out of the blue. By 1950 the Group Areas Act had been put in place. This was the law that established extensive rules on the movement and transactions of different peoples. Why?
Then talk about the struggle against apartheid. The African National Congress had been founded in the 1910s, but it now had even more compelling reasons to fight. Obviously bring in Mandela. It seems that this discussion could take up the last third of you body paragraphs.
I would not take your paper beyond 1994. That is when minority rule ended and African National Congress (ANC) took power. If you go beyond this date the paper would get too long and try to cover too much material. You should use your sources to fill in the details.
