But by 1939 they found they had achieved very little.
In 1952 the ANC held a "Defiance Campaign" which was a non-violent way of challenging petty apartheid laws. By the end of the year over 8500 people had been arrested. In March 1960 the PAC (Pan-Africanist Congress) held a mass campaign against pass laws. The idea was that black workers would deliberately leave their pass books at home and go to their nearest police station and show that they were breaking the law. The theory was that the prison were just not big enough to hold everyone. The action was meant to be a peaceful one, but in the township of Sharpeville this was, unfortunately, not so. A group of around 5 000 gathered in front of the Sharpeville police station. No one is really sure exactly what happened, but it is thought that a scuffle broke out and as the crowd surged forward to see what was happening the police opened fire. In the end sixty-nine blacks were killed and another one hundred and eighty wounded. This event sent shockwaves through the international community and was condemned by many countries.
"The most striking impression I have formed is of he strength of African national consciousness. The wind of change is blowing through this continent, and whether we like it or not, this growth of national consciousness is a political fact." (British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan addressing the South African parliament in Cape Town in February 1960).
Throughout the 1970s and 80s opposition to apartheid rose to all time highs. Violent outbreaks were extremely common and anyone whom the government thought would be a threat to them and their leadership were quietly taken care of. In 1977 alone fourteen political prisoners died while in police custody.
Sanctions and external pressure placed on South Africa by other countries were another reason for the end of apartheid. South Africa is a country rich in minerals, but does not have a supply of oil, heavy machinery, electronic equipment or trucks for its factories and industry, therefore it relies on international trade to buy and sell these things.
