Whats the connection between the Boer War and Apartheid?
Thanks!
Thanks!
Phil
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The Second Anglo-Boer War is one of the most pivotal moments in SA history, as it would determine what would happen in the 20th century.
After the war ended in 1902, Britain was in control of all of South Africa. However, the Boer War impoverished all the Boer people (Afrikaners living in the North of the country) as well as many of the black natives who fought with the Boere. The British were finally in control of all the mines and wished to remain in control. They realised that the Boere were still large in number and may rebel in the future. This was not ideal.
And so in 1905 Britain passed the General Pass Regualtions Act. This law stipulated that non-whites had to live separately to whites, that they needed passes to move around and that they couldn't vote. This immediately disenfranchised all non-whites and most importantly: it gave the Boere something to be grateful for. Although they were impoverished and lost about a third of their population (mostly women and children in British concentration camps), they now had some help that made it easier for them to survive and rebuild their society. So instead of having two groups to worry about, Britain made them turn on each other. The Boere had to choose between help from the British or siding with the black natives. THey chose the British who helped them. Whites now had more rights and the English were the first among equals.
However, there was one group of Boere known as the Bittereinders. They vowed to oppose Britain until the bitter end. At first they were still a very small group. But by the build-up to the Second World War, they had begin to grow in number. It was their desire to be obtain self-rule once again and to have their people lifted out of poverty. After WW2, their National Party became popular enough to almost win the majority vote (but they did obtain the majority of seats). And so in 1948 these people, who wanted to live apart from the influence of any other culture or group and desired their own indepence, finally came into power.
The key to maintain their dominance and to continue rebuilding their society was to continue with the racial segregation system of the British. And the word for this in Afrikaans was: Apartheid. So while Apartheid policies became the focus in 1948, they already existed since 1905. While it is easy enough to understand why these nationalists wanted to be independent, they did so in a very oppressive way. Many of the things that were done to their own people, they were now doing to others. Soon the National Party proved itself to be extremely fascist and eventually began using violent means to maintain control. Britain was not at first much opposed this new government, but it was only in 1960 (when SA voted to become a republic and leave the Commonwealth) that Britain feared losing its mines. Britain responded by suddenly claiming to be against Apartheid (which had already existed for many years). This just made the Boere more determined to have self-rule and strengthen their control over others.
And whil the Boere and British fought for political and economic dominance, they non-white popultaion became second-class citizens with few rights.
Arguably, if the Boer War did not occur (with no concentration camps and Schorched Earth policies) then Britain would not have issued the racial segregation laws in the first place and maybe there would never have been extreme nationalists amongst the Boere.
John
Probably none. After the end of conflicts like the Boer War, or wars in Europe or the Middle East, Britain like other countries would often include in any Peace agreements that the Human and Civil Rights of different groups be respected. Sad to note that almost without exception minorities rights of people left on the wrong side of a new national border whether in Europe or Africa or the Middle East almost always suffer. An exception to this in history is in places like Oregon when American settlers took the land from Britain, the Americans seem to have left the former British settlers alone.