Question

How did economic sanctions affect apartheid in Africa?

Answer 1

When the Afrikaner-backed National Party Came to power in South Africa in 1948, it implemented its campaign promises in the form of high apartheid. This contrasted with the segregationist policies of the pre-war government. While much of that legislation was designed to restructure the organization of economic opportunity in South Africa, apartheid legislation lacked the trademark of systematic exploitation of native Africans (Butler 19). The English speaking whites who had held power before the war were sidelined as the white constituency was consolidated under the National Party, a Afrikaner dominated political group. This allowed the National Party to enact such legislation as the Population Registration Act, which enforced classification into four racial categories: white, Co loured, Asiatic, or native. The next high apartheid landmark was the Group Areas Act of 1950. This act enforced the separate areas of residence by race across the country. It would be this act that eventually led to Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 that transferred Africans’ political rights to these quasi-states, which allowed the South African government to treat natives as foreigners and allow them no political representation in the South African government.