Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
The Orange Free State (Dutch: Oranje Vrijstaat [oːˈrɑɲə ˈvrɛistaːt]; Afrikaans: Oranje-Vrystaat [uˈraɲə ˈfrəistɑːt]) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902.
During the Second Boer War, British forces invaded the Orange Free State, occupying the capital, Bloemfontein by 13 March 1900. Five months later, on 6 October 1900, the British government declared an official annexation of the full territory of the Orange Free State, this in-spite of the fact they had not yet occupied the full territory, nor defeated the Free State forces.
In this war, the Transvaal and Orange Free State were defeated and annexed by the overwhelmingly larger British forces, ceasing to exist on 31 May 1902, with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging. A new British dominion, the Union of South Africa , was established under the South Africa Act 1909 , in which the Transvaal and the Orange Free ...
The Orange River Sovereignty (1848–1854; Afrikaans: Oranjerivier-soewereiniteit) was a short-lived political entity between the Orange and Vaal rivers in Southern Africa, a region known informally as Transorangia. In 1854, it became the Orange Free State, and is now the Free State province of South Africa.
In 1910 the Union of South Africa was created by the unification of four areas, by joining the two former independent Boer republics of the South African Republic (Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek) and the Orange Free State (Oranje Vrystaat)with the British dominated Cape Province and Natal.
This land was originally given to the Orange Free State by the British in 1854. The Orange State was pressurised by the Earl of Carnarvon to become part of the plan to confederate the countries of Southern Africa under British rule, but it refused. Eventually, the Orange Free State was compensated by payment of $525,000 and although it joined ...
Territorial disputes continued, even after the British annexation. When the annexation had taken place, a party in the Orange Free State volksraad had wished to go to war with Britain but the wiser counsels of its president prevailed. The Orange Free State did not abandon its claims, believing that the diamond fields were the means of restoring ...
The State suffered from a secret deal signed between the British Empire and Orange Free State causing unceasing instability. Although the reasons for its annexation are still debated, it was eventually integrated with the Cape Colony in 1880.