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The National Party (Afrikaans Nasionale Party) (with its members sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats) was the governing party of South Africa from June 4, 1948 until May 9, 1994, and was disbanded in 2005. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a republic, and the promotion of Afrikaner culture. Since 1994 the party has been involved in conservative politics but was dissolved and reunited into the New National Party, which then merged with the African National Congress in 2005. A party with the same name and sharing the principles of F.W. De Klerk's National Party of the early 1990's was established in September 2008.

The National Party was founded in Bloemfontein in 1914 by Afrikaner nationalists soon after the establishment of the Union of South Africa. It first came to power in 1924, with J.B.M. Hertzog as Prime Minister. The Hertzog government worked to undermine the Coloured (mixed race) vote by granting, in 1930, voting rights to white women, but not to Coloured women, effectively halving the voting power of the Coloured electorate. In 1934, Hertzog agreed to merge his National Party with the rival South African Party of Jan Smuts to form the United Party. A hardline faction of Afrikaner nationalists, led by D.F. Malan, refused to accept the merger and maintained a rump National Party called the Gesuiwerde Nasionale Party (Purified National Party). Opposition to South African participation in World War II was used by the Purified National Party to stir up anti-British imperialist feelings amongst Afrikaners. This led to a reunification of the Purified Nationalists with the National Party faction that had joined the United Party fusion in 1934; together, they formed the Herenigde Nasionale Party (Reunited National Party), which went on to defeat Smuts' United Party in 1948.

Upon taking power, the National Party began to implement a program of apartheid — the legal system of political and social separation of the races - a policy intended to maintain and extend political and economic control of South Africa by the white minority.

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