Transvaal Province

Transvaal ( afr.: [ tɾʌnsfɑ ː l] ) was from 1910 to 1994 one of the four provinces of South Africa. Previously, the area of the mid-19th century until 1902, the independent Republic of South Africa, 1902 to 1910, the British Transvaal Colony. The capital was Pretoria.

Geography

Transvaal was in the northeast of the Republic of South Africa, between the Limpopo and Vaal rivers ( Transvaal meaning " Beyond the Vaal "). The province bordered on the south by the provinces of Cape Province, Orange Free State and Natal and Swaziland. The northern neighbors were Botswana and Zimbabwe; in the east were Mozambique and Swaziland. Its area was 262,500 km ².

Economy

The area is one of the most important industrial areas of South Africa and rich in mineral resources such as gold, platinum, iron, copper, coal and apatite.

History

By 1835, the so-called Great Trek Boers migrated into the area and founded the independent Republic of South Africa. In the Sand River Convention the independence of the South African Republic was recognized in 1852 by the British, but had contractually agreed that slavery be abolished. After a first annexation in 1877, the United Kingdom with a riot of Buren faced that resulted after the Battle of Majuba Hill, Transvaal that the Treaty of Pretoria 1881 extensive autonomy was granted ( First Boer War ). In 1884 the Republic was finally recognized by the United Kingdom as an independent state. After the Second Boer War Transvaal in 1900 again by the British, this time successfully, annexed and incorporated in 1910 as a province in the Union of South Africa.

In the 1960s, the black population were separated by the provincial territory as a measure of the South African apartheid policy tribal areas. It created the homelands Bophuthatswana (also in the area of ​​Cape Province and the Province of the Orange Free State ), Lebowa, KwaNdebele, Venda, Gazankulu and Kangwane.

As part of the provincial reform after the first free and fair elections in 1994, the Transvaal province was dissolved and divided into the present provinces North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga and Gauteng. In this also the areas of the homelands were integrated.