Apartheid was a system of racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa between 1948 and 1994. It was created by the National Party government to maintain political and economic power for the white minority population of European descent. Some key apartheid laws included the Population Registration Act of 1950, which classified all South Africans by race; the Group Areas Act of 1950, which enforced racial segregation in residential areas; and the Bantu Education Act of 1953, which provided an inferior education to black South Africans. The apartheid system aimed to separate the races and deprive the black majority of political and civil rights through a system of legalized racial discrimination and segregation.