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global terms, it is not a major player on the international scene, ranked 31 st in termsof GDP by the IMF, behind countries such as Turkey, Iran and Venezuela. 338 Thecountry’s internal market is small by global standards, a situation compounded byhigh poverty rates, necessitating the cultivation of markets abroad.South Africa was a colonial possession first of the Netherlands, and then of GreatBritain for most of its 300 years under white minority rule. The country becameindependent of Britain in 1910, and in 1961 it withdrew from the Commonwealth(under pressure from member states over apartheid) and became a republic, underits own head of state, a prime minister. This was done mainly with a view toprotecting and enhancing the autonomy of Afrikaner development within SouthAfrica, already predicated on the separate development and apartheid policies of theNational Party. With the National Party’s entry into power in 1948, and itsreprehensible policies of formal apartheid, the South African government becameprogressively more marginalised from international life. Campaigns against thetreatment of Indians in South Africa were waged by the Indian government in theGeneral Assembly of the United Nations. In addition, there was strident oppositionto South Africa’s position on South West Africa (discussed below). The country wasultimately suspended from the UN General Assembly (in 1974) and never joinedthe Organisation of African Unity. However, the government maintained stronglinks with the Western capitalist powers, namely the US and UK, because of SouthAfrica’s perceived role in inhibiting the spread of Communism in southern Africa,in the former case, and for various historical and economic reasons, in the latter.Because of its domestic policies, the South African government operated with a‘siege mentality’ in most of its international relations, seeking to defend itself fromCommunist and Black African subversion emanating from within the country oroutside of its borders. As noted by Barber and Barratt, “The overriding aim ofSouth African governments [between 1945 and 1988] was the preservation of awhite controlled state, although the means employed to maintain white power anddestinations in Africa” (2011). Accessed online at:http://www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/outlook/external-financial-flows/directinvestment-flows/fdi-destinations-in-africa/on 24 June, 2011.338 IMF. 2009. “Gross Domestic Product”, World Development Indicators Database, 14April, 2011. Accessed at:http://siteresources.worldbank.org/DATASTATISTICS/Resources/GDP.pdf on 29 June,2011.149