Apartheid South Africa

Apartheid in South Africa was a system of institutionalized racial segregation and discrimination that lasted from 1948 to 1994. It enforced policies that physically separated people by race, giving the white minority privileged access to resources, political power, and rights, while denying non-white populations, especially Black South Africans, basic freedoms and equality. This system led to widespread social injustice, violence, and resistance movements. Internationally condemned, apartheid eventually ended through negotiations, leading to the first democratic elections in 1994 with Nelson Mandela as a leader, establishing a multiracial democracy.