PAGE 3 OF 6 - APARTHEID GOVERNMENT
I find it fairly difficult to choose a point at where to actually start this page. yes, their was apartheid and Yes, There was separate living before 1994.
South-Africa before 1994 had a policy of attacking guerrilla-bases and safe-houses of the ANC, PAC and SWAPO in neighbouring countries beginning in the early 1980's.These attacks were
in Retaliation for acts of terror such as Bomb explosions, massacres and guerrilla actions ( Like sabotage ) by the ANC, PAC and SWAPO guerrillas in South-Africa and Namibia.
From the earliest times in South-Africa there are book after book written about who was where first, who had conflict with who and why. fact remains, Conflict and war between Bantu tribes, white and black people, white and Koi People has been a reality for many Decades.
Facts are, If you put a Lion in the same cage as a Leopard there will be Conflict. one of the arguments that can be raised here is the Natural Relationship between different Groups or Nations. People with European decent would see themselves as Civilized and the bantu tribes as Un-civilised. For the same reason the bantu has their own view possibly thinking Europeans are wrong in their believes as the African way is the way to live. Fact is, The two groups in their own right, are Different in all aspects of life. What could the only possible outcome be suddenly forcing such two totally different powers in one cage. WAR like the Xhosa Wars ( Also known as the Cape Frontier Wars or "Africa's 100 Years War") where a series of Nine wars or flare-ups ( From 1779 to 1879 ) Between the Xhosa tribes and the European settlers, in what is now the Eastern Cape in South-Africa.
The Reality of the conflicts between the Europeans and Xhosa involves a Balance of tension. At times, tensions existed between the various Europeans in the Cape region, Tensions between empire administration and colonial governments and tensions and alliances of the Xhosa Tribes.
World wide wars are fought between different nations for several different reasons. the so called apartheid south-Africa was no different. a typical situation where enemies collide.
Early History of the Eastern Cape
During the early years before
Dutch occupation of the region, the Xhosa, Khoikhoi and San people focused primarily on hunting, agriculture and stock farming. In the 1700s, the lack of sufficient space for proper stock farming forced the farmers to pack their possessions into their ox wagons and move deeper into the interior of the Cape Colony. These farmers were called a "
Trek boers" (Migrant farmers).
Until 1750 (29 years before the First Frontier War), migrant farmers rapidly advanced rapidly into the interior using force. For instance, the use of superior weapons such as guns quickly subdued resistance from local people. Those people who were subdued and those submitted to Trek Boers as an attempt to protect their livestock and land were employed to tend to the cattle and provide other labour needs of the white famers. However, the
Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) became worried about the migrant farmers moving so far because it became increasingly difficult to exercise any authority over them.
In order to maintain its authority, the V.O.C. was forced to follow in their tracks. This constant moving also resulted in the V.O.C. having to continually change the boundaries of the eastern part of the Cape Colony. Eventually, in 1778 less than a year into the First Frontier War,River be
the Great Fish River became the eastern frontier. It was also here that the migrant farmers first experienced problems with the Xhosa.
Until that time, the migrant farmers had only experienced serious clashes with the San people when the San attacked them with poisoned arrows and hunted their cattle. The migrant farmers frequently organised hunting parties in reprisal for the San attacks. When the frontier farmers, as they were now called, met with the Xhosa, serious clashes broke out. Each group felt that the other was intruding on their territory and disrupting their livelihood, and both wanted to protected themselves at all costs.
The V.O.C. established new districts such as Swellendam and Graaff- Reinet in order to maintain authority over the frontier and to quell the ongoing violence, but to no avail. The frontier farmers kept on moving across the border and the Xhosa vigorously resisted this incursion. A number of wars followed as both groups fought each other over territory and resources.
The chronology of all nine Frontier Wars is briefly discussed below:
First Frontier War (1779-1781)
It is widely believed that the First Frontier War which broke out in 1779-1781 was really a series of clashes between the Xhosas and Boers. Around 1779, allegations of cattle theft by Xhosas had become so common on the south-eastern border, forcing the Boers to abandon their farms along the Bushmans River. Subsequently, in December 1779 an armed clash between Boers and Xhosas ensued, apparently sparked by irregularities committed against the Xhosa by certain white frontiersmen.
In October 1780 the Government appointed Adriaan van Jaarsveld, a highly experienced commando leader, to be field commandant of the whole eastern frontier, and a commando led by him captured a very large number of cattle from the Xhosa and claimed to have driven all of them out of the Zuurveld by July 1781.
Second Frontier War (1789-1793)
This led to considerable bitterness among the eastern frontiersmen, particularly since war among the Xhosas in 1790 increased Xhosa penetration into the Zuurveld, and friction mounted. In 1793 a large-scale war was precipitated when some frontiersmen under Barend Lindeque, including the lawless Coenraad de Buys who had previously been involved in outrages against the Xhosa, decided to join Ndlambe, the regent of the Western Xhosas, in his war against the Gunukwebe clans who had penetrated into the Zuurveld. But panic and desertion of farms followed Ndlambe's invasion, and after he left the Colony his enemies remained in the Zuurveld.
Farmers developed the technique of a laager for defence at Zuurveld.Source: newhistory.co.za [Accessed: 26 January 2012]
In spite of the fact that two Government commandos under the landdrosts of Graaff-Reinet and Swellendam penetrated into Xhosa territory as far as the Buffalo River and captured many cattle, they were unable to clear the Zuurveld, peace was made in 1793. Frontier discontent over Government policy precipitated revolts in Graaff-Reinet and Swellendam in 1795.
Although the northern part of the Zuurveld was re-occupied by Boer farmers by 1798, many Xhosa clans remained in the southern Zuurveld area, some even penetrating into Swellendam, partly as a result of a civil war between the followers of Ndlambe, the acting regent of the Western Xhosas, and his nephew Gaika, the legitimate heir. The Government found it impossible to persuade the Xhosa clans in the Colony to go back across the Fish River. Stock theft and employment of Xhosa servants increased tensions, and in January 1799 a second rebellion occurred in Graaff-Reinet. This precipitated the Third Frontier War (1799-1803).
Third Frontier War (1799-1803)
In January 1799 a second rebellion occurred in Graaff-Reinet necessitating the Third Frontier War. In March of the same year, Government of the First British Occupation sent some British soldiers under Gen T P Vandeleur to crush the Graaff-Reinet revolt.
No sooner was this done (April 1799) than some discontented Khoikhoi revolted, joined with the Xhosa in the Zuurveld and began attacking white farms, reaching as far as Oudtshoorn by July 1799. Vandeleur's force on its way back to Algoa Bay was
attacked by a Gqunukwebe clan, fearing expulsion from the Zuurveld. Commandos from Graaff-Reinet and Swellendam were mustered, and a string of clashes ensued.
The Government dreaded a general Khoi rising, and so made peace and allowed the Xhosas to remain in the Zuurveld. In 1801, another Graaff-Reinet rebellion began, forcing further Khoi desertions. Farms were abandoned en masse, and the Khoi bands under Klaas Stuurman, Hans Trompetter and Boesak carried out widespread raids. Although several commandos took the field, including a Swellendam commando under Comdt Tjaart van der Walt, who was killed in action in June 1802, they achieved no permanent result. Even a 'great commando' assembled from Graaff-Reinet, Swellendam and Stellenbosch could not make any real headway.
In February 1803, just before the British government handed over the Cape Administration to the Batavian Republic, and an inconclusive peace was arranged. The Batavian authorities propitiated the resentment of the eastern-frontier Khoi-khoi but could not persuade the Xhosas to leave the Zuurveld (1803-1806).
Fourth Frontier War (1811-1812)
The Fourth Frontier War was neither the direct or indirect consequence of the anger emanated from the three previous frontier wars and the violation of the agreements that declared the Zuurveld region a ‘neutral ground’. Ignoring the agreement, the Xhosas occupied the 'neutral ground', an act that prompted the Cape government in 1809 to send Lt-Col Richard Collins to tour the frontier areas. After touring the areas he recommended that the Xhosa be expelled from the Zuurveld, which should be secured by dense white settlement, and that the area between the Fish and the Keiskamma Rivers be unoccupied by black or white. Many historians believe that the Fourth Frontier War came as a surprise to the Xhosa as the opposition troops were well prepared, unlike in three previous encounters.
The British Army charging the enermy at Zuurveld. Source: www.bedford.co.za [Accessed: 25 January 2012]
In 1811, Colonel John Graham took the area with a mixed-race army. Subsequently, in January and February 1812, 20 000 Gqunukwebes and Ndlambes were driven across the Fish River by British troops in conjunction with commandos from Swellendam, George, Uitenhage and Graaff-Reinet under the overall command of Lt-Col John Graham. On the site of Colonel Graham's headquarters arose a town bearing his name
Grahamstown. It is one of the first towns to be established by British in South Africa. Post the war, a line of frontier forts was built to hold the frontier, but an attempt to establish a dense Boer settlement behind them botched. Consequently the Governor, Sir Charles Somerset, made a verbal treaty with Gaika, the supposed paramount chief of the Western Xhosas. Unfortunately this agreement between Sir Charles Somerset and Gaika helped provoke a quasi-nationalist movement among the Western Xhosas, led by the 'prophet' Makana, which led to a renewal of the civil war between Gaika and Ndlambe. During the
Fifth Frontier War (1818-1819), Lt-Col John Graham never had a direct role as he was at Simonstown where he was a commando.
During the dying phase of the Fourth Frontier War,
Piet Retief and three commandants of the new Stellenbosch commando went to relieve serving burghers on the eastern frontier. At the end of 1813 Retief moved to the eastern districts, where he married the widow Magdalena Johanna Greyling.
Fifth Frontier War (1818-1819)
Following Gaika’s defeat at Debe Nek in 1818, he asked the Cape for help. Subsequently, colonial forces invaded Xhosa territory in December 1818 and triumphed over Ndlambe’s warriors. When they left, however, Ndlambe was again able to defeat Gaika, and then continued into the Colony and attacked Grahamstown in April 1819. The attack was repulsed, and Cape forces defeated Ndlambe and marched as far as the Kei River.
In October 1819 the Xhosa chiefs were obliged to recognise Gaika as paramount chief of the Western Xhosas, and he and Somerset made a verbal treaty that provided that the whole area between the Fish and the Keiskamma Rivers, except for the Tyume Valley, which remained Xhosa territory, should be a neutral zone closed to both black and white occupation. Behind the Fish River, the 1820 Settlers were established in the Zuurveld in an attempt to provide the dense white settlement that alone could make a frontier line viable.
Sixth Frontier War (1834-1835)
By early 1830s the line of clashes had spread to the Keiskamma River, now regarded as the Cape's eastern frontier. Segregation had broken down. Whites, Khoikhoi and Xhosas lived in the 'neutral', now significantly called the 'ceded', territory, and trade and employment were permitted. Insecurity persisted. The effective extension of the Cape frontier to the Keiskamma River increased overcrowding among the Xhosas beyond, already subject to considerable pressure from other tribes displaced by the Zulu empire. The Government pursued a vacillating policy towards allowing Gaika's sons to occupy land in the Tyume Valley.
In 1829 Maqoma and his tribe were expelled from the Kat River area (where Khoikhoi were settled) and settled on inferior land farther east, but were allowed to return to the Tyume Valley in 1833, to be expelled again almost immediately. Tyali and Botumane ('Botma'), other Gaika chiefs, were treated in a similar fashion. In 1834 the British government instructed Sir Benjamin D'Urban to institute a civil defence system supplemented by treaties with chiefs paid to keep order and advised by Government agents. Before this could be done, the bitterness aroused by the renewed expulsion of
Maqoma and Tyali from their Tyume lands in 1833 was exacerbated by drastic reprisals by colonial patrols as a result of increased cattle theft by Xhosas during a period of drought.
On 31 December 1834 a large force of some 12 000 Western Xhosas - led by Maqoma, the regent of the Gaika Xhosa tribe, Tyali, other Gaika chiefs, as well as some clans belonging to the Ndlambe branch - swept into the Colony. Raiding parties devastated the country between the Winterberg and the sea. Piet Retief managed to defeat them in the Winterberg, and Lt-Col Harry Smith was immediately sent on his historic six-day ride from Cape Town to Grahamstown to take command of the frontier. Reinforcements were sent by sea to Algoa Bay and burgher and Khoi troops were called out.
After a series of engagements, including that of Trompetter's Drift on the Fish River, the chiefs fighting between the Sundays and Bushmans Rivers were defeated, while the others (Maqoma, Tyali and Umhala) retreated to the fastnesses of the Amatole Mountains. D'Urban arrived at the frontier on 14 December 1834. He believed Hintsa, the chief of the Eastern Xhosa (Galekas) and presumed paramount over the whole Xhosa nation, to be responsible for the attack on the Colony, and held him responsible for the theft of colonial stock captured during the invasion.
Therefore D'Urban led a force of colonial troops across the Kei to Butterworth, Hintsa's residence, and dictated terms to him. They comprised the annexation of the area between the Keiskamma and Kei Rivers as British territory (to be called Queen Adelaide province) and the expulsion across the Kei of all tribes involved in the war. Queen Adelaide would be settled by loyal tribes, by rebel tribes who disowned their chiefs and by Fingos, remnants of tribes who had been destroyed by the rise of the Zulu empire and who had hitherto been living in Hintsa's territory under Xhosa subjection.
However, expulsion of the undefeated Xhosa from Queen Adelaide proved impossible, so in September 1835 D'Urban made treaties with the 'rebel' chiefs, allowing them to remain in locations there on condition of good behaviour as British subjects under the control of magistrates who, it was hoped, would rapidly undermine tribalism with missionary help. But territorial expansion contradicted British desires for economy, and the British government, doubtful of the justice of the war and ignorant of the details of D'Urban's actions because of his long delays in sending explanations, disannexed Queen Adelaide. New treaties made the chiefs responsible for order beyond the Fish River (December 1836).
Seventh Frontier War (1846-1847)
The Seventh Frontier War ('War of the Axe') began in March 1846 with the defeat at Burnshill of a colonial force under Col John Hare. The Colonial force invaded Xhosa territory following the ambush of a patrol sent to arrest a Xhosa accused of stealing an axe. The Xhosas retaliated by invading the Colony and carrying off large numbers of cattle. Although the Mfengus (Fingos) cooperated with the colonial forces, who were able to defeat the Xhosas at the Gwanga (June 1846), drought hampered the movement of troops, and the attempt to defeat the tribes in the Amatole Mountains (July/August 1846) proved unsuccessful.
Allegedly a Xhosa man stole an axe and that sparked the war.Source: www.dipity.com [Accessed: 26 January 2012]
However, burgher forces under Sir Andries Stockenström pushed into the Transkei forced Kreli, the Gcaleka chief, to acknowledge responsibility for the attacks of the Gaikas, restore the stock captured in the war and surrender all land west of the Kei. But the war was not yet over. Its end was delayed by drought, which hampered the movement of colonial forces, by quarrels between the burgher forces and the regular troops, and by the fact that several tribes remained undefeated and able to conduct guerrilla operations, despite the 'scorched earth' tactics of the Cape forces. Only in December 1847 did the last chief submit.
Eighth Frontier War (1850-1853)
In October 1850 Sandile, the principal Gaika chief, was deposed for refusing to attend a meeting of chiefs called by the Governor, subsequently, on 24 December the Gaikas attacked a colonial patrol at Boomah Pass and destroyed three military villages. The Gaikas received support from the Thembus and some Gcalekas. They were later joined by some rebellious 'black police' and some Khoikhoi from the Kat River settlement under Hermanus Matroos and Willem Uithaalder.
The Khoi revolt undoubtedly helped to keep the momentum of the war, since the Khoikhoi were experienced in white fighting methods. Military camps such as Fort Beaufort (January 1852) were attacked and caused the Government constant anxiety as to the loyalty of its Khoi auxiliaries. The Kat River revolt also meant that the burghers of the eastern districts did not respond to the call to commando duty, while only 150 burghers from the western areas had gone to the front by February 1851.
Towards the end of February 1851, The Kat River rebellion was crushed. Meanwhile Comdt Gideon Joubert began the attack on the rebel Thembus, and a combined force of Thembus and Gcalekas was defeated on the Imvani River by Captain V Tylden in April 1851. Although the Government enjoyed the support of the Mfengus, most of the Ndlambe tribes and a large number of Khoikhoi, its operations were hampered by the paucity of regular troops. For the first time the Gaikas and their allies were using firearms. In addition, fighting was also going on against the Basuto in the Orange River Sovereignty. All these factors contributed to delay the end of the war.
The Waterkloof valley one of the battlefields during Eight frontier War.Source: www.molweni.com [Accessed: 26 January 2012]
By early 1852, Sir George Cathcart arrived at the Cape to replace Sir Harry Smith. Under his command the war was vigorously pursued to its close. A combined force of regular troops, under Generals H Somerset and V Yorke, continued a previous operation started in December 1851 and defeated Kreli. In September 1852 the Amatole region had been cleared of Gaikas, and by November the last Khoi rebels had been defeated.
In the new settlement, the rebellious tribes were moved out of the Amatole Mountains to locations in British Kaffraria and their lands given to white settlers. Shortly after, Sir George Grey's vigorous attempt to break down tribalism in British Kaffraria aroused the 'cattle-killing movement' among the Xhosa ethnic groups on both sides of the Kei (1857) and left the Kaffrarian Xhosas destroyed. British Kaffraria was incorporated into the Cape in 1866.
Xhosa warriors during the Eight Frontier War. Source: www.ezakwantu.com [Accessed: 26 January 2012]
In 1858 Sir George Grey, convinced of Kreli's complicity in the cattle-killing episode, sent an expedition to drive the Gcalekas beyond the Bashee River into Bomvanaland. The vacated Transkeian territory was at first administered as a dependency of British Kaffraria, and annexed to it in March 1862. Locations were established there, for Mfengus at Butterworth, and for some Ndlambes at Idutywa. But the British government felt it would be too expensive to hold this new frontier, so disannexation back to the Kei occurred in 1864.
Ninth Frontier War (1877-1878)
Kreli was allowed to return to the Transkei, but the Gcalekas were forced to share their old lands with the Mfengus, whom they despised. In August 1877, when tensions were high between the two tribes, a quarrel arising at a Mfengu wedding party provoked the Ninth (and last) Frontier War. The Cape Frontier Police under Col Charles Griffith crossed the Kei with a volunteer force to protect the Mfengus, and with the aid of the Thembus and Mfengus pushed the Gcalekas beyond the Mbashe River (September 1877). But Sir Bartle Frere, the High Commissioner, overthrown Kreli, and decided that Galekaland should be settled by whites and the Gcalekas disarmed once and for all.
One minor Gcaleka clan was chased into the location of Sandile, the Gaika chief. The Gaikas fired on the police, were joined by the Gcalekas in an attack on the Colony and gained support from the Thembus. The war provoked a constitutional crisis at the Cape, which had received responsible government in 1872. The Cape ministry under Molteno insisted that the combined force of regular troops, colonial police and volunteers be under the full command of Comdt Gen Griffith. Sir Bartle Frere insisted that he, as Imperial Commander-in-Chief, take charge of the conduct of the war, subsequently; he dismissed the Molteno cabinet, appointing a new ministry under Gordon Sprigg in its place.
The ninth war was soon over. In February 1878 Kreli's forces were defeated at Kentani, and Kreli surrendered in June. By then Sandile had died and an amnesty was granted to his followers. In 1879 Mfenguland and the Idutywa district were annexed to the Cape, and Gcalekaland, though not formally annexed, was administered by the Cape under the chief magistrate of the Transkei. By 1894 the boundaries of the Cape had been peacefully extended to the Mtamvuna River by the piecemeal annexation of the remaining nominally independent tribal areas.
For the next 37 Years Conflict between Europeans, Afrikaners, boers and Black Tribes continued( 1878 - 1915 )
Founding and early history of the National Party ( NP )
The National Party was founded in
Bloemfontein in 1915 by
Afrikaner nationalists soon after the establishment of the
Union of South Africa. Its founding was rooted in disagreements among
South African Party politicians, particularly Prime Minister
Louis Botha and his first Minister of Justice,
J.B.M. Hertzog. After Hertzog began speaking out publicly against the Botha government's "one-stream" policy in 1912, Botha removed him from the cabinet. Hertzog and his followers in the Orange Free State province subsequently moved to establish the National Party to oppose the government by advocating a "two-stream" policy of equal rights for the English and Afrikaner communities. Afrikaner nationalists in the Transvaal and Cape provinces soon followed suit, so that three distinct provincial NP organisations were in existence in time for the
1915 general elections.
The NP first came to power in coalition with the Labour Party in 1924, with Hertzog as
Prime Minister. In 1930, the Hertzog government worked to undermine the vote of
Coloureds (South Africans of mixed white and non-white ancestry) by granting the right to vote to white women, thus doubling white political power. In 1934, Hertzog agreed to merge his National Party with the rival
South African Party of
Jan Smuts to form the
United Party. A hardline faction of Afrikaner nationalists, led by
Daniel François Malan, refused to accept the merger and maintained a
rump National Party called the
Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party (
Purified National Party). The Purified National Party used opposition to South African participation in
World War II to stir up anti-British feelings amongst Afrikaners. This led to a reunification of the Purified Nationalists with the faction that had merged with the South African Party; together, they formed the
Herenigde Nasionale Party (Reunited National Party), which went on to defeat Smuts' United Party in 1948.
Apartheid
Upon taking power during the
1948 general election, the National Party began to implement a program of
apartheid – the legal system of political and social separation of the races – a policy intended to maintain and extend political and economic control of South Africa by the white minority.
In 1959, the
Bantu Self-Government Act established so-called Homelands (sometime pejoratively called
Bantustans) for ten different black tribes. The ultimate goal of the National Party was to move all Black South Africans into one of these homelands (although they might continue to work in South Africa as "guest workers"), leaving what was left of South Africa (about 87 percent of the land area) with what would then be a White majority, at least on paper. As the homelands were seen by the
apartheid government as embryonic independent nations, all black South Africans were registered as citizens of the homelands, not of the nation as a whole, and were expected to exercise their political rights only in the homelands. Accordingly, the three token parliamentary seats that had been reserved for white representatives of black South Africans in
Cape Province were scrapped. The other three provinces –
Transvaal, the
Orange Free State, and
Natal – had never allowed any black representation.
Coloureds were removed from the Common Roll of Cape Province in 1953. Instead of voting for the same representatives as white South Africans, they could now only vote for four white representatives to speak for them. Later, in 1968, the Coloureds were disenfranchised altogether. In the place of the four parliamentary seats, a partially elected body was set up to advise the government in an amendment to the
Separate Representation of Voters Act. This made the electorate entirely white, as
Asians had never had any representation.
In a move unrecognised by the rest of the world, the former German colony of
South West Africa (now
Namibia), which South Africa had occupied in
World War I, was effectively incorporated into South Africa as a fifth province, with seven members elected to represent its White citizens in the
Parliament of South Africa. The White minority of South West Africa, predominantly German and Afrikaner, considered its interests akin to those of the Afrikaners in South Africa and therefore supported the National Party in subsequent elections.
These reforms all bolstered the National Party politically, as they removed black and Coloured influence – which was hostile to the National Party – from the electoral process, and incorporated the pro-Nationalist whites of South West Africa. The National Party increased its parliamentary majority in almost every election between 1948 and 1977.
Numerous segregation laws had been passed before the National Party took power in 1948. Among the most significant were the Natives Land Act, No 27 of 1913, and The Natives (Urban Areas) Act of 1923. The former made it illegal for blacks to purchase or lease land from whites except in reserves, which restricted black occupancy to less than eight percent of South Africa's land. The latter laid the foundations for
residential segregation in urban areas. Apartheid laws passed by the National Party after 1948 included the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act, the Immorality Act, The Population Registration Act, and the Group Areas Act, which prohibited nonwhite males from being in certain areas of the country (especially at night) unless they were employed there.
From dominion to republic
The National Party was a strong advocate of
republicanism. Republics had existed in South Africa prior to the British invasion, and Afrikaner nationalists had been pursuing them ever since.
The republican ideal was a new one to Cape Dutch descended Afrikaners but not to those of Boer descent: in the 1830s, the Great Trek had brought about the formation of three independent Boer republics – the ephemeral Natalia Republic (today KwaZulu-Natal), the South African Republic (later Transvaal) and the Orange Free State (called simply Free State today). Boers governed themselves within these republics and were not required to answer to the British. This liberty was short-lived however, as Britain extended its rule over all of southern Africa. Natalia was annexed in the 1840s, and the other two republics were taken over by the British in the
Second Boer War (1899–1902).
The republican ideal was not crushed, however. In 1914, the Afrikaners led the failed
Maritz Rebellion against the government; in 1916, an NP congress called initially for a return to republicanism but then decided that it was too early; 1918 saw the founding of the
Broederbond (Brother Bond), a cultural establishment with powerful Afrikaner nationalist and republican overtones. The Republican Bond was established in the 1930s, and other republican organisations such as the
Purified National Party (Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party), the
Voortrekkers, Noodhulpliga (First-Aid League) and the Federasie van Afrikaanse Kultuurverenigings (Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Organisations, FAK) also came into being. There was a popular outpouring of nationalist sentiment around the 1938 centenary of the Great Trek and the
Battle of Blood River. It was seen to signify the perpetuation of white South African culture, and anti-British and pro-republican feelings grew stronger.
It was obvious in political circles that the
Union of South Africa was headed inexorably towards republicanism. Although it remained a British
dominion even after unification in 1910, the country became all the more self-regulating; indeed, it already had complete autonomy on certain issues. It was agreed in 1910 that domestic matters would be looked after by the South African government but that the country's external affairs would still remain British-controlled.
Hertzog's trip to the 1919
Paris Peace Conference was a definite (if failed) attempt to gain independence. In 1926, however, the
Balfour Declaration was passed, affording every British dominion within the
British Empire equal rank and bestowing upon them their own right of direction of foreign issues. This resulted the following year in the institution of South Africa's first-ever Department of Foreign Affairs. 1931 saw a backtrack as the
Statute of Westminster resolved that British dominions could not have
total control over their external concerns, but, in 1934, the Status and Seals Acts were passed, granting the South African Parliament even greater power than the British government over the Union.
The extreme National Party members of the 1930s were known collectively as the Republikeinse Bond. The following organisations, parties and events promoted the republican ideal in the 1930s:
Malan
DF Malan, leader of the party from 1934–1953.
There was some confusion about the republican ideal during the war years. The
Herenigde Nasionale Party, with Hertzog its leader, pushed the issue into the background. After Hertzog left the party, however, it became Republican. In 1942 and 1944, DF Malan introduced a motion in the House of Assembly in favour of the establishment of a Republic, but this was defeated.
When the National Party came to power in 1948 (making it the first all-Afrikaner cabinet since 1910), there were two uppermost priorities which it was determined to fulfill:
- Find a solution to the racial problem.
- Lead South Africa to independence and Republican status.
Between 1948 and 1961, Prime Ministers Malan, Strijdom and Verwoerd were all to work very hard for the latter, implementing a battery of policies and changes in a bid to increase the country's autonomy. Divided loyalty, they felt, was holding South Africa back. They wanted to break the country's ties with Britain and establish a Republic, and many South Africans grew confident that a Republic was possible.
Unfortunately for its Republicans, however, the NP was not in a strong parliamentary position. Although it held a majority (only five) of seats, a large number of these were in rural constituencies, which had far fewer voters than urban constituencies. The United Party held a 100,000-vote lead. Consequently, the NP had to rely on the Afrikaner Party's support. It did not, therefore, have the groundswell of public support that it needed to win a referendum, and only when it had that majority on its side could a referendum be held on the Republican matter. However, with a small seating majority and a total vote-tally minority, it was impossible for now for Malan and his ardently Republican Nats to bring about a Republic constitutionally. In the interim, the NP would have to consolidate itself and not antagonise the British.
Many English-speakers did not want to break their ties with the United Kingdom. However, in 1949, at the
Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference in London (with Malan in attendance), India requested that, in spite of its newly attained Republican status, it remain a member of the British Commonwealth. When this was granted the following year by the
London Declaration,
[1] it roused a great deal of debate in South Africa between the pro-Republican NP and the anti-Republican UP (under Strauss). What it meant was that, even if South Africa did become a Republic, she did not automatically have to sever all of her ties with Britain and the British Commonwealth. This gained the movement further of support from the English-speaking populace, which was less worried about being isolated; and the republican ideal looked closer than ever to being fulfilled.
Although he could not yet make South Africa a Republic, Malan could prepare the country for this eventuality. In his term of office, from 1948 to 1954, Malan took a number of steps to break ties with Britain:
- The South African Citizenship Act was passed in 1949. Before, South Africans had not been citizens but rather subjects of the British Crown, regardless of whether they were permanent residents or had only recently immigrated. The 1949 Act established South African citizenship. Before, British citizens needed a mere two years in the country to qualify as South Africans; now, however, a British alien was just like any other alien: he or she would have to register and linger in South Africa for five years to become a citizen of the country. It was believed that this could well have an influence on a Republican referendum. The Act ensured that the British immigrant population would not reduce the Afrikaner majority.
- In 1950, the right of appeal to the British Privy Council in London was revoked. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein was now South Africa's highest court.
- Malan was a crucial player in the move to get the word "British" taken away from "British Commonwealth". This change was taken as affirmation of the fact that all member countries were voluntary and equal members.
- In 1951, pro-republican EJ Jansen was assigned the post of South African Governor General (or Head of State). This endorsed the idea of Afrikaner leadership.
- The title of the just-crowned Queen was modified in 1953 from "Elizabeth II, of Great Britain, Ireland and the British Dominions beyond the Seas, Queen" to "Elizabeth II, Queen of South Africa". This was meant to indicate that the South African upper house had bequeathed the title upon her.
The 1953 ballot votes saw the NP fortify its position considerably, winning comfortably but still falling well short of the clear majority after which it hankered: it had 94 seats in parliament to the UP's 57 and the Labour Party's five. The Nats still did not have a clear majority, though.
Strijdom
JG Strijdom, leader from 1953–1958.
Malan retired in 1954, at the age of eighty. The two succession contenders were JG Strijdom (Minister of Lands and Irrigation) and Havenga (Minister of Finance). Malan personally preferred the latter and, indeed, recommended him. Malan and Strijdom had clashed frequently over the years—particularly the question of whether a South African Republic should be inside or outside the Commonwealth.
Strijdom, however, had the support of Verwoerd and
Ben Schoeman, and it was he who was eventually voted in as Prime Minister. Strijdom was a passionate and outspoken Afrikaner and Republican, and he wholeheartedly supported apartheid. He was completely intolerant towards non-Afrikaners and liberal ideas, utterly determined to maintain white supremacy, with zero compromise. Known as the "Lion of the North", Strijdom made few changes to his cabinet and pursued with vigour the policy of apartheid. By 1956, he successfully placed the Coloureds on a separate voters' roll, thus further weakening ties with the Commonwealth and gaining support for the NP.
He also took several other steps to make South Africa less dependent on Britain:
- In 1955, the South African parliament became recognised as the highest authority.
- In 1957, following a motion from Arthur Barlow MP, the flag of the South African Union became the country's only flag; the Union Jack, alongside which the Union Flag had flown since 1928, was flown no longer, to be hoisted only on special occasions.
- Likewise, "Die Stem van Suid-Afrika" ("The Voice of South Africa") became South Africa's only national anthem and was also translated into English to appease the relevant population. God Save the Queen would only be sung on occasions relating to Britain or the Commonwealth.
- In 1957, the maritime base in Simonstown was reassigned from the command of the British Royal Navy to that of the South African government. The British had occupied Simonstown since 1806.
- In 1958, "OHMS" was replaced by "Official" on all official documents.
- CR Swart, another staunch Afrikaans republican, became the new Governor General.
Anti-republican South Africans recognised the shift and distancing from Britain, and the UP grew increasingly anxious, doing all that it could to persuade Parliament to retain Commonwealth links. Strijdom, however, declared that South Africa's participation (or otherwise) in the Commonwealth would be determined only by her best interests.
Verwoerd
The question of apartheid dominated the 1958 election and the NP took 55 per cent of the vote, thus winning a clear majority for the first time. When Strijdom died that same year, there was a tripartite succession contest between Swart, Donges and Hendrik Verwoerd. The latter, devoted to the cause of a South African Republic, was the new Prime Minister. Verwoerd, a former Minister of Native Affairs, played a leading role in the institution of the apartheid system. Under his leadership, the NP solidified its control over South African, apartheid-era politics.
To gain support of the English-identified population of South Africa, Verwoerd appointed several English-speakers to his cabinet. He also cited the radical political movements elsewhere in the African continent as vindication of his belief that black and white nationalism could not work within the same system. Verwoerd also presented the NP as the party best equipped to deal with the widely-perceived threat of communism.
By the end of his term (and, as a result of his assassination, his life), Verwoerd had solidified the NP's domination of South African politics. In the 1966 elections, the party won 126 out of the 170 seats in parliament.
By 1960, however, much of the South African electorate were calling for withdrawal from the Commonwealth and the establishment of South Africa as a republic. It was decided that a
Republican referendum was to be held in October. International circumstances made the referendum a growing necessity. In the aftermath of the
World War II, former British colonies in Africa and Asia were gaining independence and publicising the ills of apartheid. Commonwealth members were determined to isolate South Africa.
There were numerous internal factors which had paved the way for and may be viewed as influences on the result:
- Harold Macmillan's "Winds of Change" speech, in which he declared that independence for black Africans was an inevitability;
- Many white South Africans were unwilling to give up apartheid and realised that South Africa would have to go it alone if it was to pursue its racial policies.
- The assertion that economic growth and a relaxation of racial tensions could be achieved only through a Republic;
- The Sharpeville Massacre;
- The attempted assassination of Verwoerd; and, most importantly,
- The 1960 census, which revealed that there were more Afrikaners in the country than English, thus almost guaranteeing the NP victory in a Republican referendum.
The opposition accused Verwoerd of trying to break from the Commonwealth and the West, thus losing South Africa all of its trade preferences. The NP, however, launched a vigorously enthusiastic political campaign, with widely-advertised public meetings. The opposition found it very difficult to fight for the preservation of British links.
There were numerous pro-Republican arguments:
- It would link more closely the two European language groups.
- It would eliminate confusion about South Africa's constitutional position.
- The monarchy was essentially a British one, with no roots in South Africa.
- South Africans desired a home-grown Head of State.
- The Queen of South Africa, living abroad, inherited her title as the United Kingdom's monarch without the assistance or approval of South Africa.
- In a Republic, the Head of State would not be another country's ruler but rather the elected representative of the nation, a unifying symbol.
- A Republic symbolised a sovereign-free and independent state.
- South Africa would be able to approach its internal problems more realistically, since they would be strictly South African problems, to be solved by South Africans rather than foreign intervention.
- It would clear the misconception amongst many blacks in South Africa that foreigners had the final say in their affairs.
There were also, of course, numerous arguments
against the establishment of a South African Republic:
- It could lead to a forced withdrawal from the Commonwealth.
- With the entire world in a state of political unrest, bordering on turmoil, it was dangerous to change South Africa's political status quo.
- It could lead to isolation from allies.
- A Republic would solve none of South Africa's problems; it would only make them worse—especially the race one, to which the Commonwealth was increasingly opposed.
- The NP had supposedly not given one good reason for the change.
- The ruling party had already had twelve years to bring about national unity but had only driven the two white sects further apart.
- A Republic could be established by a majority of just one vote. This did not entail unity nor, indeed, democracy.
- Countries did not generally change their form of government unless the present form was inefficient or unstable due to internal strife or hardship. Nothing like this had happened in (white) South Africa, where so many were so content.
On 5 October 1960, 90.5 per cent of the white electorate turned out to vote on the issue. 850,458 (52 per cent) voted in favour of a Republic, while 775,878 were against it. The Cape, Orange Free State and Transvaal were all in favour; Natal, a mainly English-speaking province, was not. It was a narrow victory for the republicans. However, a considerable number of Afrikaners did vote against the measure. The few Blacks, Indians and Coloureds allowed to vote were decidedly against the measure.
English speakers who voted for a Republic had done so on condition that their
cultural heritage be safeguarded. Many had associated a Republic with the survival of the white South African. MacMillan's speech had illustrated that the British government was no longer prepared to stand by South Africa's racialist policies. Nevertheless, the referendum was a significant victory for Afrikaner nationalism as British political and cultural influence waned in South Africa.
However, one question remained after the referendum: would South Africa become a Republic
outside the Commonwealth (the outcome favoured by the most Afrikaner nationalists)? Withdrawal from the Commonwealth would likely alienate English speakers and damage relations with many other countries. Former British colonies such as India, Ceylon, Pakistan and Ghana were all republics within the Commonwealth, and Verwoerd announced that his would follow suit "if possible".
In January 1961, Verwoerd's government brought forth legislation to transform the Union of South Africa into the Republic of South Africa. The constitution was finalised in April. It merged the authority of the British Crown and Governor-General into a new post, State President. The president would have rather little political power, serving more as the ceremonial head of the country. The political power was to lie with the Prime Minister and head of government. The South African Republic would also have its own monetary system, employing Rands and cents.
In March 1961, Verwoerd visited the Imperial Conference in London to discuss South Africa becoming a republic within the Commonwealth, presenting the
Republic of South Africa's application for a renewal of its membership to the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth had earlier declined to predict how republican status would affect South Africa's membership—it did not want to be seen to be meddling in its members' domestic affairs. However, many of the Conference's affiliates (prominent among them the Afro-Asia group and Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaker) attacked South Africa's racial policies and rebuffed Verwoerd's application; they would go to any lengths to expel a South African Republic from the Commonwealth. In Britain, numerous anti-apartheid movements were also campaigning for South Africa's exclusion. Some member countries warned that, unless South Africa was expelled, they would themselves pull out of the organisation. Verwoerd discarded the censure, arguing that his Commonwealth cohorts had no right to question and criticise the domestic affairs of his country. On this issue, he even had the support of his parliamentary opposition.
Thus, on 15 March 1961, ostensibly to save Britain an awkward decision and causing a split within the Commonwealth, but more likely to avoid further condemnation and embarrassment, Verwoerd withdrew his application and announced that South Africa would become a republic
outside the Commonwealth. His decision was received with regret by the Prime Ministers of Britain, Australia and New Zealand, but was met with obvious approval from South Africa's critics. Verwoerd issued a statement the next day to the effect that the move would not affect South Africa's relationship with Britain. On his homecoming, he was met with a rapturous reception. Afrikaner nationalists were not at all deterred by the relinquishment of Commonwealth membership, for they regarded the Commonwealth as little more than the British Empire in disguise. They believed that South Africa and the United Kingdom had absolutely nothing in common, and even UP leader Sir De Villiers Graaff praised Verwoerd for his handling of the situation.
On 31 May 1961, South Africa became a republic. The date was a significant one in Afrikaner history, as it heralded the anniversary of a number of historical events—the 1902 Treaty of Vereeniging, which ended the Anglo-Boer War; South Africa's becoming a union in 1910; and the first hoisting of the Union flag in 1928. The Afrikaner republican dream had finally come to reality.
The significance of Commonwealth withdrawal turned out to be less than had been expected. It was not necessary for South Africa to amend its trading preferences, and Prime Minister Macmillan reciprocated Verwoerd's assurance that withdrawal would not alter trade between South Africa and Britain.
South Africa had now its first independent constitution, although the only real constitutional change was that the President, in charge for seven years, would assume the now-vacant position of the Queen as Head of State. CR Swart, the State President elect, took the first Republican oath as President of South Africa before Chief Justice Steyn (DRC).
Although white inhabitants were generally happy with the Republic, united in their support of Verwoerd, the blacks defiantly rejected the move. Nelson Mandela and his National Action Council demonstrated from 29 to 31 May 1961. The republican issue would strongly intensify resistance to apartheid.
Support
The National Party won a majority of parliamentary seats in all elections during the
Apartheid era. Its popular vote record was more mixed: While it won the popular vote with a comfortable margin in most general elections, the National Party carried less than 50% of the electorate in 1948, 1953, 1961, and 1989. In 1977, the National Party got its best-ever result in the elections with support of 64.8% of the white voters and 134 seats in parliament out of 165. After this the party's support declined as a proliferation of right wing parties siphoned off important segments of its traditional voter base.
Throughout its reign, the party's support came mainly from
Afrikaners, but other white people were courted by and increasingly voted for the National Party after 1960. By the 1980s however, in reaction to the "verligte" reforms of PW Botha, the majority of Afrikaners drifted to the Conservative Party of Andries Treurnicht, who called for a return to the traditional policies of the NP.
In the 1974 General elections for example 91% of Afrikaners voted for the National Party, however in the 1989 General Elections only 46% of Afrikaners cast their ballot for the National party.
Division and decline
Following the assassination of Verwoerd,
Balthazar Johannes Vorster took over as party leader and prime minister. From the 1960s onwards, the National Party and the Afrikaner population in general was increasingly divided over the application of Apartheid (the legal opposition being similarly divided over its response), leading to the emergence of the
verkramptes and
verligtes. They were divided over such issues as immigration, language, racially mixed sporting teams, and engagement with black African states. In 1969, members of the
verkrampte faction including
Albert Hertzog and
Jaap Marais, formed the
Herstigte Nasionale Party which claimed to be the true upholder of pure Verwoerdian Apartheid ideology and continues to exist today. While it never had much electoral success, it attracted sufficient numbers to erode support for the government at crucial points, although not to the extent that the Conservative Party would do. Meanwhile, the
verligtes began to gain some traction inside the party in response to growing international opposition to Apartheid. Perhaps a precursor to the split came around 1960 when Japie Basson, a moderate, was expelled for disagreements on racial questions and would form his own National Union Party, he would later join the United Party and Progressive Federal Party before rejoining the National Party in the 1980s. Former Interior Minister Theo Gerdener formed the
Democratic Party in 1973 to attempt its own
verligte solution to racial questions.
Beginning in the early 1980s, under the leadership of
Pieter Willem Botha, prime minister since 1978, the National Party began to reform its policies. Botha legalised interracial marriages and multiracial political parties and relaxed the
Group Areas Act. Botha also amended the constitution to grant a measure of political representation to Coloureds and Indians by creating separate parliamentary chambers in which they had control of their "own affairs." The amendments also replaced the parliamentary system with a presidential one. The powers of the Prime Minister were essentially merged with those of the
State President, which was vested with sweeping executive powers. Black South Africans were not included, however, and Botha ensured that the real power remained in white hands--and in practice, in the hands of the National Party. Whites had large majorities in the electoral college which chose the State President, as well as on the President's Council, which settled disputes between the three chambers and decided which combination of them could consider any piece of legislation. On the central issue of granting meaningful political rights to black South Africans, Botha and the National Party refused to budge. Most black political organisations remained banned, and prominent black dissidents, including
Nelson Mandela, remained imprisoned.
While Botha's reforms didn't even begin to meet the opposition's demands, they sufficiently alarmed a segment of his own party to engender a second split. In 1982, hardline NP members including
Andries Treurnicht and
Ferdinand Hartzenberg formed the
Conservative Party, committed to reversing Botha's reforms, which by 1987 became the largest parliamentary opposition party. The party later merged into the
Freedom Front, which today represents Afrikaner nationalism. On the other hand, some reformist NP members also left the party, such as
Dennis Worrall and
Wynand Malan, who formed the
Independent Party which later merged into the
Democratic Party (a similar breakaway group existed for a time in the 1970s). The loss of NP support to both the DP and CP reflected the divisions among white voters over continued maintenance of Apartheid.
F.W. de Klerk, the leader of the National Party, meeting his successor Nelson Mandela, the freed anti-Apartheid activist and leader of the
African National Congress, 1992.
In the midst of rising political instability, growing economic problems and diplomatic isolation, Botha resigned as National Party leader, and subsequently as State President, in 1989. He was replaced by
F.W. de Klerk. Although conservative by inclination, De Klerk had become the leader of an "enlightened" NP faction that realised the impracticality of maintaining apartheid forever. He decided that it would be better to negotiate while there was still time to reach a compromise, than to hold out until forced to negotiate on less favourable terms later. He persuaded the National Party to enter into negotiations with representatives of the black community. Late in 1989, the National Party won the most bitterly contested election in decades, pledging to negotiate an end to the very apartheid system that it had established. On 2 February 1990, the
African National Congress was legalised, and Nelson Mandela was released after twenty-seven years of imprisonment. In the same year, the National Party opened its membership to all racial groups and moves began to repeal the racial legislation which had been the foundations of Apartheid. A
referendum in 1992 gave De Klerk
plenipotentiary powers to negotiate with Mandela. Following the negotiations, a new interim constitution was drawn up, and multiracial elections were held in 1994. These elections were won by the African National Congress. The National Party remained in government, however, as a coalition partner to the ANC in the
Government of National Unity until 30 June 1996, when it withdrew to become the Official Opposition.
Post-apartheid era
The National Party won 20.39% of the vote and 82 seats in the National Assembly in the first multi-racial elections in 1994. It became the official opposition in most provinces and also won a majority in the Western Cape province, winning much of the white and Coloured vote. Its Coloured support also earned it a strong second place in the Northern Cape. Whilst the party participated in the Government of National Unity, it was wracked by further internal wrangling and a gradual loss of support from its voter base, which gradually shifted to the
Democratic Party (DP).
In 1997, the National Party renamed itself the New National Party to distance itself from its past. The NNP however fared poorly in the 1999 general election, losing votes both to the DP and ANC and dropped to 6.87%. It was replaced at the national level by the Democratic Party as the official opposition, but faced comparatively smaller losses in the Western Cape where it remained in power through a coalition with the DP. The party then merged with the Democratic Party to form the
Democratic Alliance (DA) in 2000.
By 2001 the party had broken away from the DA and instead entered close co-operation with the ANC. The Democratic Alliance retained its position of Official Opposition in the 2004 general election while the NNP started to disintegrate as a party: with a result of just 1.65% it was all but wiped out in most provinces and retained only limited support in the cape. Its federal council voted to dissolve the party on 9 April 2005, following a decision the previous year to merge with the ANC.
Re-establishment
On 5 August 2008 a new party using the National Party name was formed and registered with the
Independent Electoral Commission.
[2] The new party had no formal connection with the now defunct
New National Party. The relaunched National Party of 2008 pushes for a non-racial democratic South Africa based on federal principles and the legacy of
FW De Klerk.
[2][3][4]
Election results
|
| 1915 | 02 !2nd | 20.77 |
| South African Party |
| 1920 | 03 !3rd | 32.84 |
| South African Party |
| 1921 | 04 !4th | 33.58 |
| South African Party |
| 1924 | 05 !5th | 46.67 |
| National Party–Labour Party |
| 1929 | 06 !6th | 52.70 |
| National Party–Labour Party |
| 1933 | 07 !7th | 50.00 |
| National Party–Labour Party |
| 1938 | 08 !8th | 18.00 |
| United Party |
| 1943 | 09 !9th | 28.67 |
| United Party |
| 1948 | 10 !10th | 45.75 |
| National Party |
| 1953 | 11 !11th | 60.26 |
| National Party |
| 1958 | 12 !12th | 66.03 |
| National Party |
| 1961 | 13 !13th | 67.31 |
| National Party |
| 1966 | 14 !14th | 75.90 |
| National Party |
| 1970 | 15 !15th | 71.10 |
| National Party |
| 1974 | 16 !16th | 71.90 |
| National Party |
| 1977 | 17 !17th | 81.20 |
| National Party |
| 1981 | 18 !18th | 79.40 |
| National Party |
| 1987 | 19 !19th | 74.10 |
| National Party |
| 1989 | 20 !20th | 56.63 |
| National Party |
| 1994 | 21 !21st | 20.50 |
| African National Congress |
Leaders
How many blacks were killed during Apartheid?
The ANC went around the world while "struggling through correspondence" and told everybody that the whites are killing millions of blacks in South Africa.
To this day, people in the West think that the Apartheid government killed "millions of blacks".
This article proves that the ANC was responsible for far more "black on black" killings than the Apartheid government ever was.
Max Coleman's authoritative book analyses all deaths due to political violence from 1948 to 1994 in South Africa and Namibia.
According to the HRC statistics,
21,000 people died in political violence in South Africa during apartheid - of whom 14,000 people died during the six-year transition process from 1990 to 1994. The book lists the number of incidents, dates, and those involved.
This includes SA Defence Force actions, for instance the 600 deaths at Kassinga in Angola during the war in 1978.
Of those deaths, the vast majority, 92%, have been primarily due to Africans killing Africans -- such as the inter-tribal battles for territory: this book's detailed analyses of the period June
1990 to July 1993 indicates a total of 8580 (92%) of the 9,325 violent deaths during the period June 1990 to July 1993 were caused by Africans killing Africans, or as the news media often calls it, "Black on Black" violence - hostel killings, Inkatha Freedom Party versus ANC killlings, and taxi and turf war violence.
The activities of the Civil Cooperation Bureau as outlined by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, were also included in these figures.
The security forces caused 518 deaths (5.6%) throughout this period.
And again, during the transitional period, the primary causes of deaths were not security forces nor white right-wing violence against blacks, but mainly due to "black-on-black necklace murders", tribal conflict between the ANC-IFP, bombs by the ANC and PAC's military wings in shopping centers, landmines on farm roads, etc.
I trust that the facts on this page will give the Internasional Community a better understanding of the Truth.
Map of the Eastern Frontier. Source: 
