The policy of the South African government from 1948-92. This was based on the belief that there are different races and that they should be separate. (Apartheid=separateness).

The policy was a continuation of the previous customs of segregation.

The underlying purpose of the policy was to maintain low wage rates for "non-whites". That is, those people designated as "non-white" were paid less for jobs which anyone could do and were restricted to mainly manual labor.

There is not a lot of difference from the condition of outright slavery. The situation could be interpreted as a system of collective slavery by which the "non-whites" were owned collectively by the "whites" .

It has come to an end. The laws enforcing it have been repealed: Group Areas Act; Population Registration Act. The agreements of 1992-3 were followed by a democratic system.

The regimes of other settler states with a large native population have some similarities, especially those in Latin America:

• Bolivia,
• Peru,
• Guatemala.
• In the former Yugoslavia, Kosovo was an example.
• The attitude of the Serbs and Croats to Muslims in Bosnia may be another.
• Israel's treatment of Palestinians follows a similar pattern.

  See also racism.

• The relations of Hutus and Tutsis in Burundi and Rwanda has some similarities, though these are based more on class than race.
• The Burakumin in Japan are a permanently hereditary inferior group.
• The system of Caste in India has lasted much longer but seems to have the same kind of origin, when the invading Aryans enslaved the indigenous inhabitants.