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2 Geography 3 See Also 4 External links |
History
On January 17, 1852 the United Kingdom signed a treaty with the 5000 or so families of Dutch settlers known as Boers, recognizing their independence in the region to the north of the Vaal River, or the Transvaal. In 1856 the Boers adopted the name South African Republic for the region, and a new racially-biased constitution was put in place.
In 1877, after the republic faced considerable economic hardship and outside threats, Britain annexed the Transvaal, hoping that this move would be perceived by the Boers as salvation. But it wasn't - the Boers viewed it as an act of aggression, and protested. In December 16, 1880 the independence of the republic was proclaimed again, leading to the first Boer War. The Pretoria Convention of 1881 gave the Boers self-rule in the Transvaal, under British oversight, and the republic was restored, but not for long. Gold was soon discovered in Witwatersrand (1885), bringing in a rush of non-Boer European settlers (called uitlanders, outlanders, by the Boers). This lead to a destabilization of the republic, and even to talk about getting protection from Germany. Fearing Britain's immanent annexation, the Boers launched a preemptive strike against the nearby British colonies in 1899, a strike which became the second Boer War, a war which the Boers will lose.
By May 1902, the last of the Boer troops surrendered, and the independent Boer republic in the Transvaal was no more - the region became part of the British Empire. In 1910 the Transvaal became a province of the newly created Union of South Africa, a British Dominion. In 1961, the union ceased to be part of the British Commonwealth and became the Republic of South Africa.
In 1994, after South-Africa's first all-race elections, the former provinces and homelands were restructured, and a separate Transvaal province no longer exists. Parts of the old Transvaal now belong to the new Gauteng, North West, Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces.
Geography
The Transvaal province lied between Vaal River in the south, and the Limpopo River in the north, roughly between 22 1/2 and 27 1/2 S, and 25 and 32 E. To its south it bordered with the Orange Free State and Natal provinces, to its west were the Cape Province and the Bechuanaland Protectorate (later Botswana), to its north Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), and to its east Portuguese East Africa (later Mozambique) and Swaziland. Except on the south-west, these borders were mostly well defined natural features.
Divisions:
Cities in the Transvaal: