Verwoerd was an authoritarian, socially conservative leader and an Afrikaner nationalist. He was a member of the Afrikaner Broederbond, an exclusively white and Christian Calvinist secret organization dedicated to advancing the Afrikaner "volk" interests, and like many members of the organization had verbally supported Germany during World War II. Broederbond members like Verwoerd would assume high positions in government upon the Nationalist electoral victory in 1948 and come to wield a profound influence on public and civil society throughout the apartheid era in South Africa.
Verwoerd's desire to ensure white, and especially Afrikaner dominance in South Africa, to the exclusion of the country's nonwhite majority, was a major aspect of his support for a republic (though removing the British monarchy was long a nationalist aspiration anyway). To that same end, Verwoerd greatly expanded apartheid.[citation needed] He branded the system as a policy of "good-neighborliness", stating that different races and cultures could only reach their full potential if they lived and developed apart from each other, avoiding potential cultural clashes,[neutrality is disputed] and that the white minority had to be protected from the majority non-white in South Africa by pursuing a "policy of separate development" namely apartheid and keeping power firmly in the hands of whites.[citation needed] Given Verwoerd's background as a social science academic, he attempted to justify apartheid on ethical and philosophical grounds. This system however saw the complete disfranchisement of the nonwhite population.[2]
Verwoerd heavily repressed opposition to apartheid during his premiership. He ordered the detention and imprisonment of tens of thousands of people and the exile of further thousands, while at the same time greatly empowering, modernizing, and enlarging the white apartheid state's security forces (police and military). He banned black organizations such as the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress, and it was under him that future president Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for life for sabotage.[3][4] Verwoerd's South Africa had one of the highest prison populations in the world and saw a large number of executions and floggings. By the mid-1960s Verwoerd's government to a large degree had put down internal civil resistance to apartheid by employing extraordinary legislative power, draconian laws, psychological intimidation, and the relentless efforts of the white state's security forces.
Apartheid as a program began in 1948 with D. F. Malan's premiership, but it was Verwoerd's large role in its formulation and his efforts to place it on a firmer legal and theoretical footing, including his opposition to even the limited form of integration known as baasskap, that have led him to be dubbed the "Architect of Apartheid". His actions prompted the passing of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1761, condemning apartheid, and ultimately leading to South Africa's international isolation and economic sanctions. On 6 September 1966, Verwoerd was stabbed several times by parliamentary aide Dimitri Tsafendas. He died shortly after, and Tsafendas was jailed until his death in 1999.
Martin Luther King Jr. was the voice for thousands of African-Americans. His famous letters and speeches are still talked about and he is admired as a hero, a great leader in the African-American civil rights movement.
Rosa Parks is a hero because she stood up for African-American civil rights, and was a brave, smart, and strong woman. She was given many honorable titles such as <span>"the first lady of civil rights" and "the mother of the freedom movement". She is a hero for standing up for what he believes is right.
Just like everyone else in this list, Harriet Tubman is in history textbooks and is still very famous 'till this day. She was behind the brilliant Underground Railroad. She freed many slaves including her own parents and other family members. She risked her life many times for others in need. Colin Powell is known for being the first African-American to be appointed the secretary of state and for serving in the Army. All of these people will be remembered and admired forever. They will all be looked as heroes. </span>
Answer:
The American Revolution was principally caused by colonial opposition to British attempts to impose greater control over the colonies and to make them repay the crown for its defense of them during the French and Indian War (1754–63).
