NAVIGATION

After the end of the Boer War in 1910 the Transvaal, Natal, Orange Free State and the Cape Province were united to form the Union of South Africa, a dominion of the British Empire. Hailed as a colonial triumph for Asquith’s Liberal government as it kept South Africa within the Empire, the Union constitution also ensured that the Afrikaners would remain the dominant political force. The British thus failed to establish black political rights or protect the franchise enjoyed by limited numbers of Africans at the Cape. The Union did not lead, as the British had hoped, to a liberalizing of the South African system, but to white supremacists rule and apartheid.