South Africa

1. South Africa

2. Goal of Today • We will be looking at the Berlin Conference and the factors surrounding the founding of South Africa and the struggle for control of the country. • Terms • Cecil Rhodes • Great Trek • Boers • Nelson Mandela • Sharpeville Massacre • Apartheid • The Soweto Uprising

3. South Africa • Although the Portuguese first reached the Cape of Good Hope in 1488, the first serious traders were the Dutch, or as they came to be known, the Boers, or Afrikaners. They came to South Africa in 1652. Boer means farmer, the occupation of most of the settlers.

4. As Dutch maritime power declined, British power rose and sought to control trade routes to Asia. The British seized Cape Town in 1795, and the peace treaties of 1815 which ended the Napoleonic Wars granted the Cape to Britain. For the British, as it had been for the Dutch, the goal was a colony which could supply their ships to and from Asia.

5. When the British joined the Dutch in South Africa in 1795 there was a battle for for dominance which resulted in the Afrikaner (Boer) defeat in 1806. • In 1807, the British banned slave ownership. • In 1828 the British took a bold step by imposing Ordinance 50 which declared that all free citizens (including Blacks) were equal in the eyes of the law. • In 1834 they banned the sale of slaves. This caused bitter tension between the Afrikaners and the English.

6. The Great Trek, 1836-38

7. The Great Trek • In 1835, the Afrikaners responded to reports of fertile land across the Orange and Vaal Rivers and began a trek northward. Over the next 10 years about 14,000 whites with their servants traveled in groups of several hundred on horseback and in wagons. • Many died in confrontations with natives who resisted the white incursion into their lands, but eventually settlements sprang up in the new lands. The Afrikaners called this area the Transvaal. • This region was to become a new battleground for dominance because it contained some of the largest gold deposits in the world. They established two republics, the Orange Free State in 1852 and the South African Republic (Transvaal) in 1854.

9. Diamonds and Gold In 1867, diamonds were discovered in South Africa; in 1886, gold was discovered. Diamond mining in South Africa

10. Diamond Mines

12. Cecil Rhodes • British imperialist who made huge profits from Africa’s natural resources • Founder of the state of Rhodesia in Africa • While in South Africa, he formed his own mining company, De Beers Consolidated Mines. Today, De Beers is perhaps best known for its diamonds.

13. With the rise of the gold industry and the growth of Johannesburg, the South African Republic had been flooded with so many English-speaking immigrants (called uitlanders by the Boers), most of them skilled mine workers, that by the 1890s they constituted a majority of the white male population. • The state's constitution limited the vote to males who had lived in the South African Republic for at least seven years, and Kruger (Boer President) feared that expanding the franchise would only enable mine owners to manipulate their workers and to thereby win political power. • British mine owners and officials complained about Kruger's refusal to extend the vote. • Moreover Kruger, attempted to lessen his state's long-term dependence on Cape merchants by developing a rail link to Portuguese East Africa. Such a link threatened British commercial interests and revived old fears of the Boers' gaining direct access to the sea and thus to other European powers.

14. Outbreak of Boer War • The war began when the Boers gave an ultimatum to the British to cease reinforcement of the British garrison in South Africa. This happened because The South African Republic had refused to grant political rights to the Uitlander (foreigners, mostly English) in the mining areas, and the English were aggressively persistent about it.

16. On Oct. 11, 1899, the fighting began.The British eventually had over 400,000 men in South Africa. The Boers, at their peak had 52,000, using boys as young as 9. The Boers were mostly untrained farmers, fighting what was perhaps the greatest power in the world. • The Boers were fighting on their home ground and used unconventional guerilla tactics to good advantage. They achieved some early victories over the British.The Boer commandos lived off the land and off the help that they got from sympathetic homesteads. • The British responded by removing this advantage. They burned farms and created the first "concentration camps" as a place to put the women and children they cleared off the farms. The camps were inadequate and dirty and disease spread through them quickly. Around 25,000 women and children died from epidemics of dysentery, measles, and enteric fever. International opinion began to turn against the British and there were outspoken critics at home as well.

17. Photograph showing casualties in an early battle of the Boer War, 1900

18. Due to lack of supplies and concern over their families, the Boer Republics finally surrendered their independence in 1902. In return they got assurances that the question of African rights would be put on hold. The war was over and all of the colonies of South Africa were under the control of the British. In May of 1910, Transvaal, Orange Free State, Cape Colony, & Natal combined to form the Union of South Africa.

19. Imperialists Divide Africa Outcome of the Boer War: Creation of self-governing Union of South Africa controlled by the British. Resulted in the development of apartheid, a policy of rigid segregation. Separate jobs, living-space, education and facilities.

20. Apartheid • An official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites. • A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.

21. What did it do? • Basically, it reduced the native population of South Africa to little more than slaves within their own country. • Laws were introduced to legalize racial separation. Each child who was born in Apartheid South Africa was given a racial classification on their birth certificate, either Black, White, Coloured or Asian. • Black people were not permitted to travel where they liked (and were constantly stopped by police and asked to provide identification). • Black people could not live where they liked, but were instead herded into areas called ‘Bantustans,’ often the least desirable parts of their own country.

24. In 1958, the government separated black people from white people by making blacks live on reserves, or homelands. Blacks also lived in shanty towns – overcrowded towns full of poorly built shacks on the edges of cities.

27. Protest was outlawed by the government. Anyone caught organizing a demonstration, reading banned newspapers or speaking against the Apartheid system was in danger of being detained without trial, tortured, imprisoned, even sometimes murdered. • Nelson Mandela’s group, the African National Congress committed itself to using non-violent means to protest against this system • That is, until the Sharpeville Massacre in 1960.

29. Sharpeville Massacre • The Sharpeville Massacre took place on March 21st, 1960. Police opened fire on blacks demonstrating against the policies of the National Party government. • 69 people were killed simply for expressing an opinion. • This event was credited by Mandela as forcing the hand of his ANC organisation. They soon resorted to violent methods themselves. Though never targeting civilians, they began to blow up railway lines and other economic targets. • Later, the Soweto Massacre was to have a similar effect on public opinion around the world….

31. The Soweto Uprising • Young black people had been forced to learn Afrikaans in school, the language of the Dutch settlers. • They were not allowed to speak or learn in their own language. • On June 16th 1976, school-children protesting the right to be taught in their own language were shot by police. 23 school-kids died. The day is now commemorated in South Africa as Youth Day. • People around the world were outraged.

32. Jail and Prison Time for Mandela Mandela was arrested in 1962 along with several other members of the ANCYL and sentenced to 5 years of hard labor in prison. Convicted of Treason in 1964 and was sentenced to life in prison at Robben Island maximum-security prison While in prison, Nelson Mandela’s reputation and name became known through all of South Africa and other parts of the world. People all over the place called him “ The most significant black leader in South Africa and the symbol of the anti apartheid movement Over and over again, he would refuse to compromise for his freedom. As he was held in jail, his Apartheid movement became stronger and stronger. When people began to figure out that what Nelson Mandela was doing right, they began to help with the movement for Apartheid and his freedom. He was released in 1990 from Robben Island prison and his first order of business was to continue and strengthen the movement.

33. Nelson Mandela • “During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” • Nelson Mandela’s speech from the dock, Pretoria Courthouse, 1964

34. Released from Prison on February 18, 1990 by former South African President F.W. de Klerk • Served nearly 4 decades in Prison • Was inaugurated as the first democratically elected State President of South Africa on 10 May 1994 • Served as President until June of 1999. • 1993 Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize