1948 - Rise of the National Party and Apartheid

Afrikaner nationalists spoke of themselves as a chosen people, ordained by God to rule South Africa. They established their own cultural organizations and secret societies, and they argued South Africa should be ruled in the interests of Afrikaners rather than English businessmen or African workers. Throughout the 1920s through the 1940s, the Afrikaner nationalist movement grew in popularity, fueled by fears of black competition for jobs, antipathy toward the English-speaking mine magnates, the memory of past suffering, and by the impact of World War II, especially massive black urbanization. 

In 1948, with the support of a majority of Afrikaners, the National Party won the election on its Apartheid platform by playing off the fear that Blacks would take over: “Fight for your right to be White”. Led by Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, they took control over the entire nation. South Africa was to be governed by a party that would implement government policies to favour whites in general and Afrikaners in particular. Furthermore, the National Party denied that Africans, Asians, or Coloureds could ever be citizens or participate in the political process.