Transvaal

Map of the provinces of South Africa during apartheid
(Source:http://www.fotw.net/misc/za(old.gif)

When the Dutch or Afrikaner Boers left the Cape with the Great Trek, they moved north. They did not all move together. There were different groups, called trek parties, and the people who moved were called Voortrekkers. The Voortrekkers wanted their own land where they would not be controlled by the British and where they did not have to fight for land the whole time, like they did with the Xhosa on the eastern border of the Cape. When they moved inland, some of the Voortrekker groups thought the land was uninhabited. There were big open spaces and they thought that they could take the land for themselves.

Today, many people say that this was not true. But it did happen that a lot of Black groups moved around in this time. One reason for this was to flee from the Zulu king Shaka, who started wars with the groups around him. This was called the mfecane or difaqane, which means something like ‘to flee’ or ‘to break up’. But although the Voortrekkers thought that nobody lived there, some of the groups moved back after the mfecane. There were many clashes between them and the different Voortrekker parties. They included the Ndebele, the Pedi and the Batlou. When the Voortrekkers won they took the land for themselves. The Voortrekkers founded towns, including Potchefstroom and Lydenberg, not far from the Vaal River. In 1852 the area that they had taken over were so big that they made it into a republic, called the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek or ZAR (it is Dutch for South African Republic). The first president of the ZAR was Marthinus Wessel Pretorius.

In 1877 the British took control of the ZAR. But the Boers did not want to be controlled by the British again, and fought to get their freedom and independence back. This was the first Anglo-Boer War. The Boers won the war and won their freedom, but only for a little while. Soon another Anglo-Boer War would break out, and this time the Boers would lose.

In 1886, gold was discovered in the ZAR. People from all over the world came to Johannesburg, the new mining town, to find gold. The Boers did not want the foreigners to take their freedom away again and tried to control them very strictly. This angered the British government and they wanted to take over the republic and the gold. This led to the Second Anglo-Boer War between 1899-1902. The war started in the ZAR, but spread to the whole of South Africa. The other Boer republic, the Orange Free State, helped the ZAR. There were also people from the Cape Colony and even from Europe who came to help the Boers, and Blacks fought on both sides of the war. In the end, the Boers lost and the ZAR and the Orange Free State became British colonies, and the ZAR’s name changed to Transvaal, which means ‘across the Vaal River’.

In 1910 the Transvaal became one of the four provinces of the Union of South Africa.

 

The flag of the Zuid-Afrikaanshe Republiek, the Vierkleur (meaning 'four colour')
(Source: http://www.praag.co.za/za-trans.gif )

 

For more old flags and coat of arms, go to http://pumamouse.com/biltongbraaivleisflags.html

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Classroom lesson: Grade 5 Provincial histories