Die Britse imperialisme, die Anglo-Boereoorlog en die ontstaan van Apartheid

Abstract

Historical events are not beforehand cast in stone, and this is also the case with the Afrikaners' eventual choice for apartheid and an authoritarian system. In this paper the authors show that an Afrikaner protoliberalism existed during the nineteenth century, and that things could have gone either way, had external factors in the form of British imperialism not intervened. This protoliberalism came under pressure during the last years of the century due to the advance of British imperialism, which reached its zenith during the Anglo~Boer War. The war and ils aftermath, including the impoverishment it caused (which culminated during the Depression in the thirties). subjectively caused Afrikaners to fear for the survival of their people. In these circumstances, the proto-liberalism of the nineteenth century was effectively extinguished. A zero-sum game grew in the relations between Afrikaners and blacks, and in the end aparlheid was devised as an instrnment for survival. In this process, the only liberal paradigm surviving in South Africa was the Biitish variant, which was subjectively seen as a tool of British imperialism, thereby closing ojfthe liberal avenue in the political culture of the Afrikaners.