Unionist Party (South Africa)
|
Unionist Party
Unionisteparty |
|
|---|---|
| Leader (s) |
Leander Jameson, Thomas Smartt, Lionel Phillips |
| Founded | May 31, 1910 |
| Dissolved | 1920 |
| Preceded by | Progressive Party |
| Merged into | South African Party |
| Headquarters | Cape Town |
| Ideology |
Liberalism Protectionism Anti-immigration Pro-Commonwealth |
| Political position | Centre-left |
| International affiliation | None |
| Colours | Green |
The Unionist Party (Afrikaans: Unionisteparty, UP) was a pre-apartheid South African political party, which contested elections to the Union of South Africa parliament from the 1910 South African general election until its merger into the South African Party just before the 1921 South African general election.
In May 1910, the Unionist ("Progressive") Party of the Cape Colony merged with the Constitutional Party of the Orange Free State (known as the Orange River Colony from 1902 to 1910) and the Progressives of Transvaal to form the Unionist Party of South Africa. Natal had no political parties, before the Union, but some politicians from that province joined the new party. The party was a pro-British conservative party. It favoured the maintenance of a pro-British political culture in South Africa similar to that present in the other 'white dominions'.
It was for the protection of South African industries, particular the mining interests, from foreign competition that would force more unwanted non-white immigration to South Africa, mainly from India. The party's interests were closely tied to those of the Anglo-South African middle class and the mining corporations in the diamond and gold mines of South Africa. It also enthusiastically supported British imperialism, and many of its founding members were those who had championed the British cause in the Second Boer War.
The Unionists, as the largest party in the House of Assembly not included in the government, formed the official opposition in the first two South African parliaments (1910–1920). However, after the formation of the National Party in 1914 and the subsequent outbreak of the First World War, the governing South African Party (SAP) lost its overall parliamentary majority in the South African general election, 1915. The Unionists gave some support to the South African Party government, so it could continue in office as a minority government.
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