What was apartheid what factors lead to its end?

Answer 1

How white supremacy and apartheid ended'Whites' did NOT stop Apartheid. It was due to multiple factors. Firstly, International pressure played a critical role due to the economic sanctions they imposed on South Africa. President de Klerk and other moderate white Ministers in government were instrumental in starting negotiations for change to majority rule, starting with a shared leadership between Mr Mandela and President de Klerk. Moreover the continuing violence at home was now causing disinvestment as the atmosphere was no longer condusive for business, thus the withdrawal of foreign investors. The collapse of the Communist Socialist Soviet Republic also contributed. The American government withdrew military aid to the South African government as the African resistance was no longer percieved as Communist inspired. The influence of the 'Father Figure', ex President Nelson Mandela (fondly known by all South Africans as MADIBA), can never go unmentioned. His very existence inspired all those who were fighting for the end of Apartheid - white and blacks side by side. The assigning of power to the moderate President de Klerk supporters to power was the final phase as he was prepared to negotiate with Nelson Mandela and his party the African National Congress. Total power was handed over to the ANC after the first ever Free & Fair elections held in 1994. The ANC won a majority of seats in government.

Why did Apartheid end? A combination of events is a reasonable answer. Internal opposition to Apartheid had grown strongly and many areas of South African cities, inhabited by black South Africans, had become ungovernable. There was also considerable labour unrest and strikes were common. There were also occasional bomb attacks. The economy of the country was being affected by both events at home and a growing campaign of international political, sporting, cultural, economic and financial sanctions. In the face of this, the National Party under President FW De Klerk did the sensible thing and repealed Apartheid laws and started negotiations to transform South Africa into a democratic state.

The Apartheid laws had been gradually repealed from the early 1980s, one by one. Resistance to the complete dismantling of Apartheid remained, however, due to white fears of a communist takeover of the country - the ANC had aligned itself with the African communist movements as well as the Soviet Union and China. Furthermore, violence committed by the black liberation movements, both in the townships as well as terror attacks in urban and farming centres also categorised them as terrorist movements, which few governments will ever negotiate with. By the end of the decade, though, the only truly, universally enforced Apartheid laws were those directly linked to limiting political power - for the reasons mentioned above. When the Berlin Wall came down and the 'communist threat' appeared to evaporate, the primary motivation for maintaining what remained of the Apartheid system also disappeared (not to mention the withdrawal of covert support by the US government, which had used white South Africa as a bulwark against communism on the subcontinent). While conservative elements in the country still wanted to maintain Apartheid to protect their cultural dominance, these were in the minority. In a referendum held by De Klerk in 1992, two thirds of whites voted in favour of negotiating a new, non-racial dispensation. In this sense, 'whites did stop Apartheid' all be it under economic and other pressure.

Answer 2

The Apartheid was a system of racial segregation fronted by the National Party of South Africa between 1948 and 1994 and the factors that led to its end included the fall of the USSR, and the the end of Cuban help in Angola.