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In 1910, South Africa was united for the first time into a single state known as the Union of South Africa. Racial segregation became an official policy throughout the union and laid the foundation for apartheid -
1948 was the year in which the National Party launched its policy of separate development – which enforced laws of segregation and division among its citizens. -
In the 19th century, new pass laws were enacted for the purpose of ensuring a reliable supply of cheap, docile African labor for the gold and diamond mines. In 1952, the government enacted a more rigid law that required all African males over the age of 16 to carry a “reference book” containing personal information and employment history. -
The Bantustans were created by the Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959, which abolished indirect representation of blacks in Pretoria and divided Africans into ten ethnically discrete groups, each assigned a traditional “homeland.
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From 1960 to 1983, the apartheid government forcibly moved 3.5 million black South Africans in one of the largest mass removals of people in modern history. There were several political and economic reasons for these removals
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Four homelands—Transkei, Venda, Bophuthatswana, and Ciskei—were declared “independent” by Pretoria, and eight million Africans lost their South African citizenship. None of the homelands were recognized by any other country. Limiting African political rights to the homelands was widely opposed
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Africans resisted being moved from Crossroads to the new government-run Khayelitsha township farther away; 18 people were killed and 230 were injured.
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There were many protests and by the time the increasingly expensive and ineffective pass laws were repealed in 1986, they had led to more than 17 million arrests.
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South African citizenship was restored to those people who were born outside the four “independent” homelands.
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Became the first Black president of South Africa, forming a multiethnic government to oversee the country’s transition. after retiring from politics in 1999.