South Africa: History, Geography, Economy & Culture

South Africa. Perhaps the first word that comes to mind is Apartheid, a system that enshrined in law racial discrimination at a national level. But those days are long gone now, and South Africa is attempting to reinvent itself as the "Rainbow Nation" of ethnic diversity. And there is so much more to South Africa. Having the most concentrated deposits of minerals found anywhere in the world, it's no surprise that South Africa dominated the gold and diamond mining industry for decades. But these days its tourists that bring in much of the wealth, and with so much stunning natural beauty, flora and fauna, it's no wonder. Welcome to South Africa!

🕐TIMESTAMPS🕖
👉0:00 Introduction, Titles
👉2:17 Ancient & Colonial History of South Africa
👉7:33 Modern History of South Africa, Apartheid
👉11:39 South African Government Structure & Symbols
👉13:39 Physical Geography of South Africa
👉15:36 Climate of South Africa, Biomes
👉17:56 Human Geography of South Africa
👉19:56 South African Economy
👉23:12 South African Culture, Famous South Africans
👉25:57 Outro

In this half-hour South African documentary I'll cover the history of South Africa, South Africa's geography, the economy of South Africa and South African culture.

Humans have lived in South Africa longer than almost any other nation, and the predecessors of humans were also here, with South Africa having more pre-hominid fossils in the "cradle of humankind" than any other nation. The Khoisan people (Hottentots or Bushmen) are descendants of the original human settlement, and are still here. Bantu speaking peoples arrived here about 1000-1500 years ago, and make up the ancestors of the Zulu and Xhosa peoples that today form the largest ethnic minorities in South Africa.

Dutch settlers arrived in the 16th century, and soon encountered the natives where fierce wars broke out. And then came the British in the 19th century, who set out to make the whole cape a colony. The Dutch Afrikaners or Boers resented British rule and set out on the Great Trek to found their own republics of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. The British defeated the rising Zulu kingdom in the east, and then defeated the Boer republics in the First and Second Boer Wars. These wars were further motivated by the discovery of rich diamond and gold deposits in the north-east, and South Africa would go on to become the world's #1 producer of gold and diamonds.

In the early twentieth century, South Africa gained independence from Britain, and in response to a large influx of black Africans into the cities, the Republic of South Africa set into infamous law, the Apartheid system, that set out separate areas for living and public spaces between the whites, coloureds, black Africans and Indians. Over the ensuing decades, these laws resulted in the isolation of South Africa from the rest of the world, that condemned the practice. Eventually, in the early 1990s, the system was abandoned, and former prisoner and anti-apartheid leader, Nelson Mandela became president.

The geography of South Africa is rich, and features a central plateau that dramatically falls away in the Great Escarpment to the coast, most notably in the Drakensburg mountains. The climate is largely wet in the east and dry in the west, with savannah, veld (grassland), desert and scrub dominating.

Johannesburg, the centre of the mining industry is the largest city, followed by Cape Town in the far south-west, then Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth all being over one million in population.

South Africa's economy, once dominated by mining, is now highly diverse, with services, manufacturing and tourism all contributing significantly.

The culture of South Africa is a blend of European and African, and many famous people are from this country, including Nelson Mandela, J.R.R. Tolkein, Elon Musk and Charlize Theron.

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https://geodiode.com/nse/south-africa#credits

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Media Procurement Assistance: Richard Torres

Narrated, Written and Produced by
B.J.Ranson

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