Historical Organization
Union of South Africa
Union of South Africa
Details
Organization Timeline
The Union of South Africa is established
📅 31 May 1910The four settler colonies formed the Union under the British Crown. The constitution concentrated power in white hands and preserved racial exclusions that stimulated later national liberation...
Indian passive resistance is suspended for negotiations
📅 27 April 1911The resistance campaign paused when Jan Smuts entered negotiations with Gandhi. The unresolved conflict later resumed after government promises were not fully implemented.
The last indenture ship arrives in Natal
📅 11 July 1911The Umlazi arrived with the final group of indentured Indian workers, ending more than fifty years of officially sponsored Indian indenture in Natal.
Gopal Krishna Gokhale begins a South African tour
📅 22 October 1912Gokhale arrived at Gandhi's invitation and met South African ministers about discriminatory laws affecting Indian residents. Government promises made during the visit were not fully kept.
The Immigration Regulation Act restricts Asian migration
📅 14 June 1913The Union government enacted a literacy test and broad exclusion powers that particularly restricted Asian immigration. Indian communities organized against this racial legislation.
The Natives Land Act takes effect
📅 19 June 1913The law confined African land purchase and tenancy to designated reserves comprising about seven percent of the country. It accelerated dispossession, labour coercion and rural poverty.
The Indian Relief Act settles major satyagraha demands
📅 26 June 1914The act recognized Indian marriages and abolished the three-pound tax on former indentured workers. Other racial restrictions remained, but the settlement ended the mass satyagraha campaign.
The Natives Urban Areas Act institutionalizes influx control
📅 14 June 1923The act treated African urban residents as temporary labourers, empowered municipalities to segregate housing and strengthened controls over African movement into towns.
Afrikaans becomes an official language of the Union
📅 8 May 1925Parliament recognized Afrikaans alongside English. The measure strengthened Afrikaner nationalism within a state that excluded the Black majority from national political power.
The Native Administration Act centralizes racial rule
📅 1 September 1927The act expanded executive control over African communities and empowered the governor-general to move people and govern by proclamation, weakening legal protections and African land rights.
The Immorality Act criminalizes interracial relationships
📅 30 September 1927The law prohibited sexual relations outside marriage between Europeans and Africans. It inserted racial policing into private life and anticipated later apartheid classification laws.
White women receive the parliamentary vote
📅 19 May 1930The act enfranchised white women but not Black women. By enlarging the white electorate, it diluted the influence of the limited number of African men still qualified to vote in the Cape.
Parliament passes the Representation of Natives Act
📅 7 April 1936The act removed African voters in the Cape from the common voters' roll and substituted limited, segregated representation. It was a decisive attack on remaining African political rights.
The Native Trust and Land Act comes into operation
📅 31 August 1936The law formalized African reserve areas and created the South African Native Trust. Although it promised additional land, it entrenched territorial segregation and enabled further removals.
South Africa enters the Second World War
📅 6 September 1939Parliament chose war on Germany and replaced Prime Minister Hertzog with Jan Smuts. Black South Africans served and worked for the war effort while racial inequality continued at home.
The United Nations condemns discrimination against Indians in South Africa
📅 8 December 1946After India raised the treatment of people of Indian origin, the UN General Assembly declared that relations between the two countries should conform to international obligations and the UN Charter.
The Group Areas Act becomes law
📅 7 July 1950The act authorized compulsory residential and business segregation and became a major legal instrument for mass forced removals from multiracial neighbourhoods.
The Population Registration Act becomes law
📅 7 July 1950Every resident was assigned a racial classification. These classifications determined residence, schooling, employment, political rights and everyday movement under apartheid.
The Bantu Authorities Act establishes segregated administrations
📅 27 June 1951The law created state-controlled tribal, regional and territorial authorities. It laid administrative foundations for the Bantustan system and excluded Africans from common citizenship.
The Public Safety Act expands emergency powers
📅 4 March 1953The government gained broad authority to declare states of emergency, detain people and rule by proclamation. The measure responded directly to mass resistance.
The Bantu Education Act becomes law
📅 5 October 1953The apartheid state took control of African schooling and designed education to prepare Black children for subordinate labour. Communities, teachers and the ANC opposed the system.
Hendrik Verwoerd becomes prime minister
📅 3 September 1958Verwoerd, previously the minister responsible for Bantu Education, became prime minister and intensified the apartheid programme of racial separation and Bantustans.
The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act is passed
📅 19 June 1959The act abolished limited African parliamentary representation and divided Africans into state-defined ethnic units. It advanced the Bantustan project while denying common South African citizenship.