MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · South Africa

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

South Africa, on the map of history

What was South Africa before it was South Africa? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Union of South Africa · The Great War, 1914–1918

The Union of South Africa — a British dominion eleven years old — first crushed a pro-German Boer revolt at home, then conquered German South-West Africa (1915) and fought Lettow in East Africa. It administered its conquest as a mandate so thoroughly that Namibia became independent only in 1990. Its non-white labor contingents served without arms, by policy — the war’s racial lines ran through its own ranks.

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South Africa · The Cold War, 1945–1991

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South Africa · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

The hardest case, saved for last. Under white-minority rule since 1910 and total apartheid from 1948, South Africa was the redoubt the whole liberation struggle finally reached: Sharpeville, the armed struggle, Soweto, Biko, the ungovernable townships, sanctions, and Cuito. Mandela walked free in 1990 and, through four years that nearly failed, a negotiated revolution brought the first free election in April 1994. The completion of the map — and the beginning of a harder question.

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