Dominion of South Africa (Rise and Fall)

South Africa, or more properly, the Dominion of South Africa is the southernmost nation in the Old World, or the Eastern Hemisphere, with a population of 62.5 million, of which 49 million are of European heritage, 5 million are of Indian or Asian heritage, and the remaining 8.5 million are of native African or coloured heritage.

History
Great Britain occupied Cape Town between 1795 and 1803 to prevent it from falling under the control of the French First Republic, which had invaded the Low Countries. Despite briefly returning to Dutch rule under the Batavian Republic in 1803, the Cape was occupied again by the British in 1806. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, it was formally ceded to Great Britain and became an integral part of the British Empire. British emigration to South Africa began around 1818, subsequently culminating in the arrival of the 1820 Settlers. The new colonists were induced to settle for a variety of reasons, namely to increase the size of the European workforce and to bolster frontier regions against Xhosa incursions.

In the first two decades of the 19th century, the Zulu people grew in power and expanded their territory under their leader, Shaka. Shaka's warfare indirectly led to the Mfecane ("crushing"), in which 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 people were killed and the inland plateau was devastated and depopulated in the early 1820s. An offshoot of the Zulu, the Matabele people created a larger empire that included large parts of the highveld under their king Mzilikazi.

During the early 1800s, many Dutch settlers departed from the Cape Colony, where they had been subjected to British control. They migrated to the future Natal, Orange Free State, and Transvaal regions. The Boers founded the Boer Republics: the South African Republic (now Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and North West provinces), the Natalia Republic (KwaZulu-Natal), and the Orange Free State (Free State).

The discovery of diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1884 in the interior started the Mineral Revolution and increased economic growth and immigration. This intensified British efforts to gain control over the indigenous peoples. The struggle to control these important economic resources was a factor in relations between Europeans and the indigenous population and also between the Boers and the British.

In light of the Confederate-Union War, as it was called in London at the time, the British believed it was in their interest to create additional settler destinations within the empire which could also secure the valuable resources of those territories. Beginning in 1868, the British began sending increased numbers of settlers to South Africa, including a number of Dutch who agreed to help build up the territory, dissidents of the Dutch Reformed Church. The increased numbers of Dutch acted as a mildening influence on the Boers who were there beforehand, as they were Dutch-speaking as well as loyal to the British crown.

By 1879, there were 3 million persons in South Africa, of which roughly 1 million were European and Indian. The Anglo-Zulu War in 1879, between the United Kingdom and the Zulu Kingdom, which resulted in the destruction of the Zulu capital and the exile of nearly half of their people to Madagascar and Angola. Land was quickly given to both families and soldiers who moved into the area to secure it for the British Empire, while the British agreed to allow remaining Zulu to assimilate to avoid being deported from their lands.

The Boer War soon followed in 1880-81, a rebellion of Boers against British rule in the Transvaal, but with the much larger British population, which also included a number of Dutch, the fight was fierce, but the outcome was not in doubt. Boers who had resisted were moved from the land to the northwest, near the border with Bechuanaland, where they eked out an existence in the harsher landscape, but did manage to achieve a semblance of independence in what became Transvaal province. Gold's discovery encouraged a surge of European immigration, from Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Russia, Greece, and every other country including Britain, bringing in a plethora of new foods, experiences, and cultures which would blend together into the unique South African experience.

By 1900, South Africa, like Canada, was federated with a number of states retaining a large amount of sovereignty, but the federated government in common acting for external affairs like trade, its capital being negotiated as Pretoria. The population of 5.1 million included 3.2 million Europeans, which were having larger families in South Africa, with ranchers and farmers being a large portion of the population. A number of Africans desiring not to assimilate were placed in Lesotho and Swaziland, while the remaining Africans assimilated to speaking either English or Dutch, joining the Anglican, Presbyterian, Lutheran, or Dutch Reformed Church, or left for Mozambique or Angola, where Portugal was not forcing such a stringent assimilation process other than language. In 1910, the 5.9 million people included 3.65 million Europeans.

During the first World War (1912-1917) South Africans fought in Europe and in Africa against the French, Ottomans, and Russians for the British Empire, with black and white forced fighting segregated (at first), but when Confederates joined in early 1916 with integrated units, the British changed policy by late 1916. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers fought bravely, suffering over 87,000 casualties. Experiences such as this would form the beginning of the South African civil rights movement, with certain provinces having different levels of discrimination and segregation against the native African populations.

Once the war ended, South Africa experienced a boom of immigration, with thousands of veterans and their families having come back to Britain were looking for peace, and couldn't find it at home, leading them to emigrate to other places in the Empire, from Australia and New Zealand, to Patagonia, Kenya, Canada, and South Africa. By 1920, the population had grown to 6.5 million, mostly due to immigration and natural growth in the European population. In the east, the more Afrikaaner provinces had a stronger apartheid policy, while the western English provinces had a much milder segregation policy that allowed pay discrimination and limitation of opportunities for advancement, but not separate facilities in most places.

The 20s were a boom time for the dominion, while the 1930s caused a depression in the land, which hit the Africans harder than the Europeans, who were the last to be fired. The danger of the second World War encouraged the increase of the South African Armed Forces, both black and white. From 1939 to 1945, South Africa's contribution to the war also helped awaken a new sense of national pride, as well as helping to knock down a large amount of lingering racism in the armed forces, which were ordered integrated by the Crown. Over 450,000 South Africans served in all theaters of war, from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Atlantic, and the Pacific.

Once peace was attained in 1945, South Africans returned home, finding the homeland a welcome sight, but its lingering apartheid outdated and repugnant, considering the ugliness of humanity and racism they saw while at war in Europe or the Pacific. The official beginning of the South African Civil Rights Movement was 1946, with veterans, both black and white, who marched peacefully for an end to segregation across South Africa.

Interestingly, a number of Confederates and Americans did emigrate, choosing to live in South Africa (along with Patagonia, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya, Namibia, and Tanzania), looking for a new adventure, and bringing with them their experiences and worldviews, which helped spur along the movement for civil rights, which culminated in 1958's Equal Rights Act, which forbade discrimination in businesses, schools, and government, and required equal treatment but government, and unified facilities for blacks and whites.

The 1960 population was 14.8 million, of which 8.8 million were European, and 1.8 million were Indian or Asian. In 1963, the first African cabinet member was selected as the Minister of the Interior, and in 1964's elections, eighteen Africans were elected to Parliament.