ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the South African Revolution and its causes and consequences. It begins by describing the Dutch settlement of the Cape, the expansion of Dutch settlers into the interior, and the progressive dispossession and enslavement of the indigenous peoples. The British takeover is explained as well as the resulting departure of many Afrikaners further into the interior of southern Africa to establish new white farms and the Afrikaner-controlled Orange Free State and Transvaal Republic. The discovery of valuable mineral resources, as well as the British victory in the Boer War, are discussed. The chapter then explains the creation of the Union of South Africa which maintained the system of white racial domination. The effects of the world wars on South Africa, as well as the creation of the Afrikaner National Party and the implementation of its apartheid system, are depicted. The chapter also describes the creation of the African National Congress, Umkhonto We Sizwe, the South African Communist Party, and the Congress of South African Trade Unions and their struggles against the apartheid system. It explains the roles of Nelson Mandela and other anti-apartheid activists, and finishes by discussing the multiple problems South Africa faced after the end of apartheid.
