|RNature and holiday:|N From the coast the land raises in terraces to the Kalahari highlandplateau, which have its southern parts in the republic. In the eastern parts there are several mountainchains of which Drakenberg is the highest and reaches well over 3000 m.a.s.l.
Most of the country is covered by subtropical savannah. In the north is a part of the Kalahari desert. The big animals that were common, antilopes, zebroes, lions, elephants, giraffes and rhinocerus, are nowadays pushed into wildlife preserves.
By the northern Atlantic coast is a desert climate with a percipitation between 100 and 200 mm. By the southern coast the climate is warmtempered and percipitation is between 500 and 700 mm. Percipitation by the northern coast of the Indian Ocean is 1000 mm.
Average temperature between 20 and 27°C in January and between 7 and 15°C in July.
|RPeople:|N 70% blacks, most of them Bantu-negroes of different tribes that invaded from the north in the 15th century. Of the aboriginal Bushmen and Hottentots there are only a few descendants living in the traditional ways.
18% whites, of whom 60% are descendants of Dutch immigrants called Afrikaans or Boers. 40% of the whites are descendants of British immigrants.
3% East Indians and 9% mulattoes.
|REconomy:|N South Africa have extensive mineral resources and is the worlds largest producer of gold, diamonds and chromium. There are also resources of platinum, antimony, manganese, vanadium, litium, coal and the worlds largest reserves of uranium.
Manufacturing was first developed to process the many minerals and have later been diversified and is nowadays manufacturing everything from simple household articles to cars and aeroplanes.
Agriculture managed by whites is highly mechanized and effective, while agriculture managed by blacks are self-subsistence farming.
Agriculture produces food enough for the population.
|RHistory:|N South Africa was originally inhabited by the San-people. Different Bantu-people, mainly Zulu and Xhosa, invaded in the 15th century and established vast kingdoms. In 1488 the Portuguese sailor Bartholomew Diaz discovered and named the Cape of Good Hope. In 1652 the Dutch East Indian Company founded a tradestation in the Cape area. A lot of protestant settlers from all of Europe was enticed to the area and after a series of wars the Xhosa-people was forced away and the Cape-colony was founded.
During the Napoleon-wars the Cape-colony was occupied by the British and at the Congress of Vienna their sovereignty over the colony was recognized.
After this there was a considerable immigration of British settlers and the original settlers, the Afrikaans or Boers, in 1836 emigrated to the north were they founded the Oranje Free State and Transvaal. The British first recognized these new nations but when diamonds were found in the Oranje Free State and gold in Transvaal there was a massimmigration of British that de facto seized control over the two nations.
The Boers in the area made uprisings first 1881 to -82 and then 1899 to 1902, but both these wars, the so called Boer-wars, were won by the British.
After these wars Great Britain started a policy of reconciliation and in 1910 the South African Union was founded by the Cape-colony, the Natal province, the Oranje Free State and Transvaal. with internal self-rule and the Boer-general Botha as the first prime minister.
In 1931 the South African Union received full independence but remained a member of the Commonwealth until 1961 when the South African Republic was proclaimed.
After World War II the Nationalist Party won the elections and introduced the Apartheid-policy. This policy meant that people of different races should live in separate areas and develop their own political institutions. The South Africans were divided in four racial groups; whites, blacks, Asian and coloureds.
From the start this policy provoked strong international protests and already 1946 India broke diplomatic relations with South Africa.
By independence 1961 the black civil rights movement, the African National Congress, ANC, was banned and its leader Nelson Mandela was imprisoned.
At several times the policy of Apartheid has been condemned internationally and by the UN and many nations have participated in the UN trade embargo against South Africa.
In an attempt to conciliate the international opinion South Africa founded a number of so called homelands where the black people were made citizens. But the blacks still were dependent on South Africa were they had their jobs. These homelands were totally dependent on South Africa and none of them were recognized as independent countries internationally.
During the years the pressure on the white minority have increased both internationally and from the liberation and civil rights movements within the republic, and 1989 the South African president met the ANC-leader Nelson Mandela in the prison. Mandela was released in 1990 and negotiations between all the liberation and civil rights movements and the government started.
The first general and free elections were held in april 1993 and May 10 Nelson Mandela was installed as president, the first South African president ever elected in general and free elections.
