Twentieth Century History of South Africa - 1999 Words

The twentieth century history of South Africa contains many struggles and obstacles as its people worked towards creating a more unified country. Modern human beings have inhabited South Africa for more than 100,000 years and a great deal of colonization has occurred within the last 300 years. During the late 18th century, 90 Dutchmen landed on the Cape of Good Hope as part of the Dutch East India Company, representing the first permanent settlers of South Africa. In 1652, they were instructed to build a fort and to start growing crops to aid the ships travelling along the Eastern trade route. Five short years later, approximately 250 white men occupied the area, bringing with them slaves to aid in growing more crops. Their farmland†¦show more content†¦16). The region began to prosper due to the union of the Boers and the British and the mining of valuable minerals as the British Empire continued to keep a strong hold on the area. In 1909, the British Parliament passed the South Africa Act, which led to the Union of South Africa, becoming an independent dominion of the British Empire in 1910. The administrative capitol of this new region was Pretoria, and Cape Town became the legislative capitol. According to Historyworld.net (2012, para. 15), after the independence in 1910 there were about 1.3 million white citizens in South Africa; the majority being Dutch Afrikaners and the minority were British. The biggest group consisted of Black Africans, which were approximately 4 million people in strength. Both the Dutch Afrikaners and the British origin Africans disagreed on what rights the Black Africans could and could not have, but they did agree that they provided an ample supply of very cheap, manual labor. To combat racial discrimination, the South African Native Congress was created in 1912. The continuations of no parliament representation for blacks and restrictions based on color were two issues that the South African Native Congress were created to eliminate. Nothing changed, however, as the government continued to pass laws that limited blacks from having representation in the government as well as other restrictions based on color (U.S. StateShow MoreRelatedCCOT And CC Essay1549 Words   |  7 Pagesï » ¿UNIT 1 /2 – 8000 bce – 600 bce, 600 bce – 600 ce Africa Compare and contrast life in foraging societies with life in agricultural societies after the Agricultural Revolution Identify two key changes in early African history that resulted in a new period in the history of the region The Middle East Analyze the political changes in the Middle East from the Agricultural Revolution to 600 c.e. Compare and contrast the basic features of TWO of the following religious systems prior to 600 c.e. 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