How suppression was achieved - the characteristics of the apartheid regime

At the core of the original apartheid system was the intention to drive back English influence in South Africa, in order that the Boers themselves might achieve a position of political and economic supremacy. It is clear from this that the term apartheid is one that has its roots deep in Sough African history. In the section on the creation and development of apartheid this historical aspect is addressed in more detail. On this page we are more interested in the main basic thinking on which apartheid ideology is founded.

Following the end of the Second World War, as the threat from Great Britain and white South Africans of British descent no longer existed, the National Party (NP) gained power in South Africa and began to emphasize the racist side of its political philosophy.

The term segregation formed the cornerstone of apartheid ideology. This ideology assumed that South Africa's individual ethnic populations, namely the whites (15%), the coloreds (8.5%), the Indians (2.5%) and the country's black majority (74%) could not be assimilated: Each group had its own character, its own potential for development and its own destiny. Therefore, so the thinking went, the Christian Boers had the responsibility to preserve these God-given differences and to prevent the races from mixing. Without apartheid, the white minority would be overrun by the "black danger", their privileges taken away and drowned out. This ideology sought to legitimize the separation of the races and mobilize the Boers against South Africa's black population.

Hidden behind the term segregation, however, was the intention to systematically transform the system of apartheid into institutionalized racism, which would have deep implications in many areas of life for South Africa's colored population. Each of these characteristics of the apartheid system has been given its own section:

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