In recent years, efforts have been made to understand the institution of apartheid in South Africa. From the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to the general study of South African history, many studies have been devoted to studying the effects of apartheid and the atrocities committed in the period following the Second World War. World War. However, one topic remains largely unexplored: the origins of the vast apartheid structure instituted by Herenigde's (United) National Party (HNP) in the late 1940s and early 1950s, different and broader than the program from any other nation. Apartheid has existed for a long time in most countries, but its persistence is a South African peculiarity. Although most African countries had similar programs of racial discrimination during the colonial period, during the postcolonial period only South Africa was able to institute the South African apartheid system due to the the large population of white settlers in South Africa and their dedication to the South African state. South Africa over any colonial power. From the beginning of colonization in South Africa, white settlers wanted to create a separate land, away from black South Africans, for both moral and economic reasons. Apartheid laws, such as the passing of laws prohibiting marriage between blacks and whites, were supported by white settlers in order to ensure a separate existence from blacks and maintain their moral purity. Afrikaners believed in their moral superiority over other South Africans and considered themselves to be the true South Africans. Because of this perceived moral superiority, Afrikaners felt they had to create a new, better world for themselves, while segregating black South Africans into their own personal tribes and ancestral lands. From 1839, Afri...... middle of paper...... Paris: Octagon Books, 1977.Cooper, Frederick. Africa since 1940: the past of the present (new approaches to African history). New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Herbst, Jeffrey. “Chapter Three: Europeans and the African Problem.” In States and power in Africa. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000. 53-96. Klein, Martin and Richard Roberts. “Building Colonial States and Emerging Political Economies of Colonial Rule, 1880-1914.” In Unknown. N/A: Unpublished, 2010. Moodie, T. Dunbar. The rise of Afrikanerdom: power, apartheid and the Afrikaner civil religion. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975. Yudelman, David. The emergence of modern South Africa: State, capital and the incorporation of organized labor in the South African goldfields, 1902-1939 (Contributions to Comparative Colonial Studies). New York: Greenwood Press, 1983.