Empire · since 1910 · Southern Africa

Union and Republic of South Africa

Also known as Union of South Africa, South Africa

The Union of South Africa was formed in 1910 from four British colonies, the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River, eight years after the Boer War. It was a self-governing dominion of the British Empire, but only white men, with limited exceptions in the Cape, could vote, and the Natives Land Act of 1913 confined Africans to a small share of the land.

Under Louis Botha and Jan Smuts it fought for Britain in both world wars. In 1948 the National Party won power and imposed apartheid, a rigid system of racial segregation enforced by pass laws, forced removals and violence against protest, such as the Sharpeville massacre of 1960. South Africa became a republic in 1961. Resistance and sanctions led F. W. de Klerk to free Nelson Mandela in 1990, and democratic elections in 1994 ended apartheid.

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Years

since 1910

Capital

Pretoria (administrative), Cape Town (legislative), Bloemfontein (judicial)

Greatest extent

1910, about 1.22 million km²

Region

Southern Africa

1,221,000 km²; roughly unchanged since union; South West Africa was also ruled from 1915 to 1990