What was life like in South Africa in 1948? Flashcards
(22 cards)
What were the four racial categorisations of SA when the NP came to power in 1948?
Whites, Africans, coloured people, Indians
Who were the original inhabitants of SA?
Who then migrated there roughly 2,000 years ago?
What did they form?
The San/Bushmen people (hunters/gathers)
African Farming people
They formed larger, more powerful chiefdoms- with some San being integrated.
Before the British conquered them by 1885, which was the largest African kingdom?
Name one other, less spoken, centralised state in the area.
Despite sharing many social features, what was an issue for nationalists trying to create a common African identity during the 20th century?
In the 1951 census, how many Africans were there?
The Zulu
Tswana
The languages could be far apart… e.g: Zulu and Tswana:French and Spanish
8.5 million
In the 1951 census, how many Afrikaners were there?
What percentage of whites did this makeup?
When did they settle in SA?
Why were they still divided in the 19th century?
1.6 million
60%
17th and 18th centuries
Politically between those in the British Cape and those in two separate Boer republics, especially due to Boer war.
In what year did the Cape become a part of the British Empire?
In the 1951 census, how many British descendants were there?
Comparison to other groups?
Name two other minorities that settled when the cape became a part of the empire
1806
1 million
Tended to be wealthier, more educated, dominated business and other professions
Irish, Jewish
In the 1951 census, how many Coloureds were there?
What percentage of the population was this?
Who were they?
Where were they largely based?
What did they largely speak?
1.1 million
9%
descendants of slaves from South East Asia brought in by the Dutch.
The Western Cape
Afrikaans
Where were the Indians in SA imported to, why?
Along with Indian traders, what percentage of the population did they form?
What language did they largely speak?
Natal- to work on sugar plantations
3%
English
When Britain handed SA self-government in 1910, what did Britain not require?
Where could Africans and coloureds be MPs? Why?
When did white women get the vote?
When were Africans completely disenfranchised?
What percentage of the population decided the 1948 vote?
Whites to share power with the black majority
The old cape colony… Due to British liberal ideas they could apply for office.
1930
1936
21%
When was gold discovered in Transvaal?
Roughly how many people did the city of Johannesburg grow by from 1886 to 1900?
By 1948 what was the population approaching?
Who were some of the mineworkers, where did they live?
1886
0 to 100,000
1 million
African Migrants who lived in huge male-only compounds
Towards the second half of the 20th century, what did the gold centred industry begin to diversify into?
Another major industry developed?
What did SA largely generate electricity from?
Production of textiles, clothing, food, chemicals and machinery
Iron and steel industry
Coal
What was the “poor white problem”?
Who were the “poor whites”?
A concern from the gov/churches that whites should be kept as a separate group as many were absorbed into black people’s work.
Afrikaners that hadn’t been able to make a living on the land.
How did Townships come about?
Where was the largest township, what was it called?
The influx of black migrants to cities was too large to keep cities white… resulted in shack settlements… townships in suburbs were hastily created to house black migrants
South-West of Johannesburg, SOWETO
By 1948 what percentage of land did Whites own?
Who were in the majority on farms? What did they work as?
What was baakskap?
What was South Africa’s staple crop (which blacks also harvested)?
What was the most valuable farm product, where was it exported to?
80%
Blacks, labourers and tenants
(bosshood) - the ability of the whites to maintain authority in the rural areas
Maize
Wool from Merino sheep, British textile industries
In which two places would African rural communities live?
What had become the dominant religion within SA? Why?
What forced the African people into the cash economy, what did this lead to?
Name three of the jobs that women did in the reserves
What did the men often do?
On average (large variations between homesteads), what percentage of African reserve food was produced by themselves, in 1948?
What two key things did African reserves lack and, where did vital income come from?
On white-owned farms or on reserves
Christianity. Missionaries.
Taxation. Many people now wore modern clothes from imported textiles
Collected water from streams, collected firewood, domestic/agricultural labour
Become migrant labourers in the cities
50%
local industry, employment opportunities, migrant workers from cities.
Between which years did Britain fight the Anglo-Boer war against the two SA republics?
After Union in 1910, what did some politicians, Jan Smuts, attempt to do? What did many Afrikaners feel about this?
Who opposed Smuts, in what year did they create their exclusively Afrikaner party? Election won when?
Name major gains for the Afrikaners that achieved due to victory.
1899 and 1902
Unify the white population within the British empire. Afrikaners felt resentful of the lingering imperial presence and English speakers supporting Britain
J.B.M Hertzog, 1913. Won election 1924
Afrikaans rather than Dutch as the national language (alongside English), the compulsory teaching of both languages in white schools.
In the year 1938, what did Afrikaners commemorate (with a dramatic re-enactment)?
Other things that demonstrated increased Afrikaner nationalism in the 1920/30s
What was this increased sense of Afrikaner nationalism called?
What did politicians do to increase their vote?
Centenary of the Great Trek
Afrikaans bibles, newspapers, books and magazines, new Afrikaner communities within towns/suburbs.
Volk
Appeal to the sense of Volk
What was South Africa still a part of in 1948?
Who represented the British monarch, based in Cape Town? How was the government run?
What percentage of the white population was of British descent at this time?
Name three other ways English links influenced SA to join WW2 on the side of Britain
The British Empire
A Governor-General, in imitation to the Westminster parliament
40%
British investors dominated mines and industry, English was the joint official language, British sports such as rugby, cricket and football dominated
What year did Afrikaans replace Dutch as the official language?
1925
Which 2 states were known as Boer republics, why were they created?
Transvaal and Orange free state, Afrikaner emigrants were unhappy with British rule at the Cape
Where were Africans in cities forced to live before 1948?
What was this policy called?
Townships
Segregation
How did the SA industry deal with WW2?
How many whites served in the armed forces?
How did this affect blacks?
As importing from Britain became difficult, industry expanded to supply itself.
180,000
Major job competition in cities when they returned from the war
Why did Hertzog and Smuts have to join together? Year? What was the new party name?
Who split from Hertzog and what did he re-found?
How did this affect Afrikaners?
The great depression undermined him… 1934… United Party
D.F. Malan, the National Party
They were deeply divided between the two political directions
