Before the national party took over South Africa blacks and whites lived together, but when the white Afrikaners created the apartheid the revolution started.
The whites had set rules on the Africans. Therefore It was illegal for them to work and live in places. Even though they made up 75% of the population they only owned 13% of the land. Public places were segregated and separated by race. lastly Africans could not vote.
A group known as the African National Congress went against the white people. The ANC set up marches, strikes, and protests to stop the laws they created. The government disliked the way they acted so they used violence against them. In 1960 police shot and killed 69 people at a peaceful protest in Sharpeville.
When Nelson Mandela was arrested for treason and other African National Congress members. People reacted violently and broke the laws, so the government banned the African National Congress.
F.W. de Klerk put a end to the apartheid laws. When Mandela was released, him and Klerk worked together to make South Afica a better place. In 1994 South Africa held a all race election, and Mandela became president.