The National Party wins on apartheid
1948 · Event
D.F. Malan's Nationalists win a whites-only election on a single word — apartheid, 'apartness' — promising to entrench white supremacy in systematic law. They win fewer votes than Smuts but more seats; from this rural-weighted fluke of an election comes half a century of engineered separation.
On these timelines: The Fall of Apartheid, Sub-Saharan Africa, Master
More from The Fall of Apartheid
- Apartheid (1948)
- Soweto uprising (1976)
- Sharpeville massacre (1960)
- Mandela imprisoned (Rivonia Trial) (1964)
- Mandela inaugurated as President (1994)
- The Freedom Charter (1955)
- De Klerk takes power (1989)
- The assassination of Chris Hani (1993)
Around 1948
- Berlin Airlift (1948)
- US Civil Rights Movement (1954)
- Indian independence and Partition (1947)
- Cuban Revolutionary War (1953)
- Decolonisation of Africa (1952)
- The Holocaust (1941)
- Battle of Stalingrad (1942)
- Battle of Britain (1940)
- Chinese Civil War (resumed) (1945)
- Korean War (1950)