1. What Was Life Like In 1948 Flashcards
What were the 4 racial groups in 1948 already?
Whites, Africans, coloured people,Indians
What did the four racial groups already in 1948 do?
Shaped key rights e.g to vote
Who were the original inhabitants of South Africa
Sam/ bushmen People
Hunters and gatherers
They left a legacy of rock paintings
Who were the Khoikhoi?
Around 2000 years ago black African farming people migrated into the region. Some SAN people adopted their farming and became known as Khoikhoi
How were the chiefdoms formed?
Africans formed larger and more powerful chiefdoms and many san and Khoikhoi were displaced or absorbed into these units.
What was the largest African kingdom until mid 1800s?
Zulu until Britain conquered it between 1878-1885 but the language and identity still remained significant.
What we’re the differences and similarities between the Zulu and Tswana kingdoms?
They shared many social features but the language was different.
Shows a major challenge in the 20th century was creating common African identity.
How many Africans were there in 1951?
8.5 million
Where did white people come from?
The two main groups were afrikaners and British descent.
How many afrikaners were there in 1951 and what did they make up of the white population?
1.6 million and 60% of whites
Who were the afrikaners?
They came from Dutch, French and German settlers who came to South Africa in the 18th and 17th century.
How were whites divided in the 19th century?
They achieved some shared identity and spoke a local version of Dutch but it was still divided between those in the British cape and those in two separate boer republics.
Boer
Farmers. Used to identity the Dutch heritage.
Later called themselves afrikaners or Afrikaans speaking people.
Who were the whites who spoke English as their first language?
Descendants of British colonists who arrived after the cape became part of the British empire. They were Irish and Jewish and tended to be more wealthier.
How many white English speaking people were there in 1951?
1 million
Wo were the coloured and Indian people?
Descendants from san and Khoikhoi.
Slaves brought from Asia and other parts of Africa.
Relationships of blacks and whites.
They were based in western cape and were Africaan speaking
Hi many coloured and Indian people were there in 1951?
1.1 million (9% of population)
Africaan
Language spoken by many groups. It evolved from dutch (came from European settlers).
Majority of white and coloured spoke it as first language, some African farmers spoke it as their second.
In what ways did discrimination exist in South Africa before 1948?
- when Britain gave SA a self government in 1910, they didn’t require whites to share any power with blacks.
- members of parliament were white.
- Africans were completely disenfranchised in 1936.
- African people in city were forced to live in separate areas known as townships. (Policy called segregation).
- black slaves lived in same houses as white and did childcare arc however their was still discrimination e.g not using the same cutlery.
When were blacks disenfranchised and what did it mean?
1946.
Meant the 1948 election was therefore entirely decided by the minority white population (21%).
What did gold being discovered in the rand in 1886 mean?
The city of Johannesburg quickly grew to provide service to mines.
Mines needed workers and so the population reached 100,000 in 1940 and in 1948 it reached 1 million. Blacks were overtaking whites for the first time.
What happened when the gold industry declined?
After the first few decades of the 20th century , clothes, food and machinery started to supply the industrial economy .
The state developed a massive iron and steel industry (ISCOR) and generated electricity from coal.
Why did ww2 expand the industry further?
SA couldn’t import.
Why did ww2 improve life for blacks?
180,000 whites served in the armed forces increasing job opportunity for blacks.
What happened when the war was over?
Blacks and whites competed for jobs in the same areas.
What was the poor white problem?
The majority of Africans lives in the countryside and whites lived in cities. But there were many poor white afrikaners who hadn’t been able to get jobs which was the poor white problem. it became a concern to churches and government
How did the nationalist party take advantageous the poor white problem?
They promised to protect their employment so they got the white vote.
What caused informal/shack settlements?
The government prior to 1948 were keen to maintain cities as mainly white spaces but the influx of migrants was too large.
What happened because of the shack settlements?
Areas outside the cities were allocated to house black migrants (townships). The biggest was soweto, Johannesburg.
The land rights were tenuous and health care and sanity were poor.
What was rural land use before 1948?
Land ownership was divided by race and class. White owned over 80% of the land (mostly large farms) but they didn’t live her black farmers did.
What was the inequality in rural society before 1948?
Whites and blacks lived and worked together but there was a strict hierarchy. Whites had racial authority (baaskap). They didn’t do manual labour and blacks did the farming.
Where did most afrikaners rural communities live before 1848?
On white owned farms or on reserves
What are reserves?
Heartland of old African kingdom protected for the occupation of Africans. It stopped whites taking their land however it mean Africans couldn’t purchase land outside the reserves.
What impact did religion have in rural society before 1948?
Christianity was the main language.
African churches competed for congregations with old missionaries denominations who started schools.
Why was their little local industry and people migrate for work?
Taxation Force African people into the cash industry and consumer tastes had grown
In rural societies, what did people wear?
Modern clothes and even traditionally dresses were made from imported textiles.
In what ways did women work hard?
Their duty was to fetch water, firewood and do agricultural and domestic labour.
What percentage of their food was produced in reserves in 1948?
50%
In summary what was rural society like?
It wasn’t separate from cities or social change but it was a peasant economy, supplemented by income from migrant workers with very little opportunity for employment and little local industry
What was the Anglo-boer war?
Between 1899 and 1902, Britain fought the South Africa war against two Afrikaner republics to cement control of religion.
What happened after the Union was created in 1910?
politicians such as jan smuts attempted to unify the white white population within the British empire. However some afrikaners remained resentful about the lingering imperial presence and about the role of English speaking people supporting Britain. Smuts was opposed by j b m hertzog won Found the Afrikaner national party, who then won the 1924 election.
What the Afrikaner nation party gain for afrikaners in the 1924 election?
Afrikaans rather than Dutch as a national language and compulsory teaching of both Afrikaans and enligh in white schools
Why did hertzog and smuts join together?
The Great Depression undermined hertzog that he and smuts joined together to form the United party.
What was the United party?
A government of national unity
When was the national party refounded?
When malan split from hertzog and afrikaners were deeply divided between these two political directions.
In what ways did the 1920s and 30s see an increased pride in Afrikaner culture?
- in 1938 the great trek (in the 1830s one quarter of afrikaners left the cape colony which was under British control to establish independent republics) was re-enacted. Afrikaans bibles, Christian tracts, newspaper etc poured off the presses.
- afrikaners were creating new communities in towns, often in largely Afrikaans speaking suburbs
- studies of nationalism emphasised the importance of media and symbols that create an imagined community
Why was the Afrikaner vote significant in 1948?
It was the culmination of a rising Afrikaner sense of themselves as people with their own language, religion and culture. This sense of self could be appealed to by politicians.
What percent of British descent made up the white population?
40%
What cultural and political links encouraged SA to join the Second World War in the side of Britain?
- it was part of the British empire with a parliament and governors general to represent the British monarch.
-British investors dominated mines and industries
English was the joint official language
British sports like rugby, football and cricket were popular
Why did ties to Britain provoke strong reactions among some afrikaners in 1948?
They were attracted to the possibility of a republican government, where the country is considered a “public matter”, not the private concern or property of the rulers.
