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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

South Africa, racial policies, Africans, Asians, republic

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

History

Abstract

On March 3, 1961, the South African Prime Minister, Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, departed for a Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference in London in high spirits. By 1961, the inclusion of independent states in the British Commonwealth of Nations was an established principle, and there was no reason to suppose that they would deny South Africa membership in that body because of her new republican status. Nevertheless, he returned later that same month, having withdrawn South Africa’s applications for membership. This was merely one step in South Africa’s troubled path from a pillar of the Allied cause to a pariah in international circles. The reasons for this involve Dr. Verwoerd’s personality, the increasing number of African States gaining independence and growing international abhorrence for South Africa’s racial policies.

Included in

History Commons

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