WI if no Union of SA is formed in 1910, and the four colonies (Orange Free State, Transvaal, Cape, Natal) stay independent. What would the various states look like today? Would a form of apartheid still evolved? Would there eventually have been a coming together of the various polities or not? What is the effect on the rest of the continent?
No Union of South Africa
- Thread starter Marius
- Start date
Well, you'd probably see stronger apartheid, but limited to Transvaal and Orange. IIRC, Cape was very socially advanced for the time, either already enfranchising the natives or considering it, I forget. I'm sure you know though.
The Cape is probably more liberal than the Transvaal or OFS, but the intellectual foundation of apartheid is largely based in the Cape, with the National Party and its ideals having its intellectual home in Stellenbosch, the second oldest town in South Africa and only a few miles from Cape Town. DF Malan, the first apartheid PM was from the Cape, as was HF Verwoerd, seen by many as the intellectual midwife of so-called "grand" apartheid which instituted the homelands system. There would probably be a stronger liberal opposition though. In fact, the only province in SA without a strong history of liberal white opposition to apartheid is the OFS (during apartheid it was illegal for ethnic Indian South African to reside in the province).
Yeah it would have been, but I'm just saying the intellectual birthplace of apartheid was the Cape. And its likely that the various individuals who played such big parts in the history of SA (eg. Malan, Verwoerd) would have made that mark in a hypothetical Cape Commonwealth, just as surely as they did in a united SA.
Well, it's probably up for debate that they'd develop the same way without certain influences. Or that if they did, they'd still gain support in their... Er... What was the proper term for the provinces pre-Union?
Hendryk
Banned
Flocc once wrote a story, Marching to Pretoria, which takes place in a TL in which South Africa split in 1956 between an Afrikaner-dominated United Provinces and a more multicultural, Anglophone Southern Provinces. Would something like that emerge from your POD?
I remember that story Hendryk, was very well-written. I'm not sure if that would occur. Despite the Transvaal being majority Afrikaans there is a strong liberal tradition in Johannesburg, with probably the most liberal university in SA, Wits, being there, and many liberal thinkers have come out of Joburg. Also Natal whites were often as reactionary as their Afrikaner counterparts so I don't know if there would be such a clear north-south divide, with the northern provinces being racist monstrosities, and the ones in the south being fluffy multicultural happy places.
Yeah the cape had its for want of a better word fascists but without the mass support of the general purpose racists of the boers they would remain on the fringe.
The Cape had enfranchised the blacks (not the natives
) sometime back in the first half of the 19th century. It was all based on land ownership back then though.
The Cape had enfranchised the blacks (not the natives
) sometime back in the first half of the 19th century. It was all based on land ownership back then though.I was thinking, perhaps several of the major black African ethnicities in the area could get together a "United States of Mpumalanga."
After the Boer War the British realized that South Africa was gonna forever be a battle between the Afrikaners and the British, which meant that either you would have four separate nations or one union.
Cape Colony started to enfranchise blacks by the mid 1800s, and even some Afrikaners believed in that. Afrikaners are largely divided into three groups - those who stayed in service of the Dutch (and later the British), those who stayed in contact with Europe and those who were too proud and African-souled, most of which went on the Trek.
Overall, I guess a liberal Cape Colony (people like Malan and Verwoerd would likely have been overruled as most of the Afrikaner unity came from the Transvaal and Orange Free State), a war-torn and likely troubled Natal (forget Durban being a major tourist place as it was in OTL and two very nationalist, racist nations in Transvaal and OFS.
Of course, by the 1950s the Cape Colony would likely have advanced like Canada/Australia/New Zealand did and be a first world nation, but Natal would be a mess and the Afrikaner republics would be economically and politically isolated.
Cape Colony started to enfranchise blacks by the mid 1800s, and even some Afrikaners believed in that. Afrikaners are largely divided into three groups - those who stayed in service of the Dutch (and later the British), those who stayed in contact with Europe and those who were too proud and African-souled, most of which went on the Trek.
Overall, I guess a liberal Cape Colony (people like Malan and Verwoerd would likely have been overruled as most of the Afrikaner unity came from the Transvaal and Orange Free State), a war-torn and likely troubled Natal (forget Durban being a major tourist place as it was in OTL and two very nationalist, racist nations in Transvaal and OFS.
Of course, by the 1950s the Cape Colony would likely have advanced like Canada/Australia/New Zealand did and be a first world nation, but Natal would be a mess and the Afrikaner republics would be economically and politically isolated.