A short history of South Africa

The history of South Africa includes conflicts between different groups of people: colonialists and tribes. Ancestral land, natural resources, strategic position and political interests are part of the disputes.

Modern humans have inhabited Southern Africa for more than 100,000 years. At the time of European contact, the dominant indigenous peoples were tribes who had migrated from other parts of Africa about one thousand years before. From the 4th-5th century, Bantu-speaking tribes had steadily moved south, where they displaced, conquered and assimilated original Khoikhoi and San peoples of southern Africa. At the time of European contact, the two major groups were the Xhosa and Zulu peoples.

European settlement began with the Dutch in the mid-17th century. The region passed to Great Britain in 1814 but was hotly contested by descendants of the Dutch settlers in the Boer War (1899-1902), in which Britain took possession of the entire territory, creating the Union of South Africa in 1910 that was a dominion of the British Empire.

During the Dutch and British colonial years, racial segregation was mostly informal, though some legislation was enacted to control the settlement and movement of native people. Power was held by the European colonists.

In 1948, the National Party was elected to power. It intensified the implementation of racial segregation begun under Dutch and British colonial rule, and subsequent South African governments since the Union was formed. The Nationalist Government systematized existing segregationist laws, classifying all peoples into three races, developing rights and limitations for each. The white minority controlled the vastly larger black majority. The system of segregation became known collectively as apartheid.

After years of internal protests, activism and insurgency by black South Africans and their allies, finally, in 1990 the National Party government took the first step towards dismantling discrimination when it lifted the ban on the African National Congress and other political organizations. It released Nelson Mandela from prison. The government repealed apartheid legislation. South Africa held its first universal elections in 1994, which the African National Congress won by an overwhelming majority. It has been in power ever since.

Adapted from Wikipedia.