The South African Republic (Dutch: Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, abbreviated ZAR; Afrikaans: Suid-Afrikaanse Republiek), also known as the Transvaal Republic, was a landlocked independent Boer republic in Southern Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, when it was annexed into the British Empire as a result of the Second Boer War.
The ZAR was established as a result of the 1852 Sand River Convention, in which the British government agreed to formally recognise the independence of the Boers living north of the Vaal River. Relations between the ZAR and Britain started to deteriorate after the British Cape Colony expanded into the Southern African interior, eventually leading to the outbreak of the First Boer War between the two nations. The Boer victory confirmed the ZAR's independence; however, Anglo-ZAR tensions soon flared up again over various diplomatic issues. In 1899, war again broke out between Britain and the ZAR, which was swiftly occupied by British forces. Many Boer combatants in the ZAR refused to surrender, leading British commander Lord Kitchener to order the adoption of several scorched-earth policies and concentration camps. In the treaty which ended the war, the ZAR was transformed into the Transvaal Colony, and eventually the Union of South Africa. During World War I, there was a failed attempt at resurrecting the republic in the Maritz rebellion.
The land area that was once the ZAR now comprises all or most of the provinces of Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West in the northeastern portion of the modern-day Republic of South Africa.
In 1853 the Volksraad adopted a resolution briefly adopting the name of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic). The same year, the Volksraad renamed the state the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek Benoorden de Vaalrivier (South African Republic to the North of the Vaal River). In 1858, the constitution permanently established the name of the country as the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. The ZAR was also commonly referred to as Transvaal in reference to the area beyond (or "trans") the Vaal River, including by the British and European press. The British objected to the use of the name Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. After the end of the First Boer War, the ZAR came under British suzerainty and in the Pretoria Convention of 3 August 1881, the British insisted on the use of the name Transvaal State over Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. This convention was renegotiated in a subsequent treaty between Britain and the ZAR, the London Convention of 27 February 1884, where Britain acquiesced to the ZAR's demands to revert to the use of the previous name.
The name of the South African Republic was of such political significance that on 1 September 1900, the British declared by special proclamation that the name of the country had been changed from Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek to "the Transvaal". This proclamation was issued during the British occupation of the region in the Second Boer War and while the ZAR was still nominally an independent country.
On 31 May 1902, the Treaty of Vereeniging was signed with the government of the South African Republic, the Orange Free State government, and the British government, ending the war, and converted the ZAR into the Transvaal Colony. Following the establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910, the Transvaal Colony became Transvaal Province. The name Transvaal was finally changed in 1994, when the post-apartheid African National Congress-dominated South African government broke up the province into four provinces and renamed the core region Gauteng.
The Boer republics emerged when the British had annexed the Cape Colony from the Dutch in 1806, in order to prevent the sea routes to the East (India etc.) from falling to Napoleon. This area was inhabited by the Boers, who, dissatisfied with British rule, decided to leave the colony and move into the hinterland of South Africa in what became the Great Trek. These Boers then settled these lands, becoming farmers.
The South African Republic came into existence on 17 January 1852, when the British signed the Sand River Convention treaty with about 40,000 Boer people, recognising their independence in the region to the north of the Vaal River, which had previously been under British annexation as the Orange Rivers Sovereignty.
The first president of the ZAR was Marthinus Wessel Pretorius, elected in 1857, son of Boer leader Andries Pretorius, who commanded the Boers to victory at the Battle of Blood River. The capital was established at Potchefstroom and later moved to Pretoria. The parliament was called the Volksraad and had 24 members.
The South African Republic bordered Portuguese Mozambique, and the Portuguese port city of Lourenço Marques grew out of trade with the republic as its main export port, but the difficult route to it could only be solved through the construction of a railway. In 1869, the republic signed a treaty with Portugal settling the border with Portuguese Mozambique, in which it acknowledged Portuguese sovereignty over the Maputo Bay and the surrounding territory as far as the Lebombo Mountains. Britain contested Portuguese control of the bay, but it was later confirmed through international arbitration in 1875. That same year, Portugal and the South African Republic signed another agreement to build a railroad between Pretoria and Lourenço Marques, a similar one being signed with the Orange Free State the following year.
By the 1870s, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Carnarvon, adopted a policy of confederating South Africa, in order to solve the problems of a restless frontier and of containing the Boers, which both threatened their colonies of Natal and the Cape of Good Hope. These colonies were absolutely vital in providing a route to India, which was Britain's prime colony. Confederation of the South African region was thought to be very beneficial for the British, as it would "cheapen the administration of affairs" and reduce the need for imperial money and troops.
The first issue that prompted the annexation of Transvaal was the prospect that the Boers might gain an outlet to the sea, which the British government was trying to prevent, as shown by the annexation of Natal, which had previously been a Boer republic called Natalia. This annexation happened because the MacMahon award gave the Delagoa bay to the Portuguese, who were friendly to the Boers. The Transvaal government immediately took steps to acquire a loan to build a railway there, and even led discussions to purchase the bay outright. This railway and purchase caused the loss of the only control that the British had, since previously the British could at the very least restrict the supply of arms and ammunition that was exported and fell into the hands of the Boers and natives and thereby rein in what the British saw as the anarchy in the Transvaal. Additionally, the sea outlet that the Boers acquired which was outside the control of the British made persuading the Boers to enter a South African confederation far more difficult, as the Boers as a result achieved greater independence.
Moreover, the Foreign Office was concerned that the opening of Delagoa Bay could signal the involvement of other nations in the Transvaal, which could threaten the Cape Colony. This concern was intensified by the fact that some German merchants had already approached Bismark with the proposition that he annex the Transvaal, which proposition, although rejected, raised the possibility of the Boers requesting German protection, which in turn raised the possibility of the appearance of a foreign and unfriendly power in the Cape which could threaten Britain's position there. These fears were further stoked by the trip that Thomas Burgers, the president of Transvaal took to Europe, during which he tried to negotiate a loan for a railway, as well as possible European alliances.
The second issue that prompted the annexation was native policy and Boer relations with local African kingdoms. The British considered these relations a problem ever since the founding of the ZAR. Only one year after the Sand Rivers Convention, the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal, Benjamin Pine, reported that the Boers had interpreted the treaty as having placed Zululand under their exclusive control. Pine stated that such a union of the Zulus and the Boers, who had wanted to create a settlement in the North-West corner of Zululand, would imperil the safety of Natal. This combination meant that control of the land around the areas of Utrecht would be in dispute between the Boers and the Zulus, raising tension in the region. The Boers had also been acting provocatively towards the Bantu peoples living in Bechuanaland: for instance, in 1852, Boer commandos raided the town of Kwena, taking many prisoners, and in 1857 a Boer commandos led another raid on Batlhaping, after claiming that the tribesmen stole their cattle. For the British, these conflicts had a high chance for escalating and presented big problems no matter how they turned out: if the Boers won in their war against the Zulus, there would be a substantial increase of Zulu refugees into the already crowded area of Natal, and the displacement of peoples had been shown to create an atmosphere conducive to war, as shown by the Xhosa wars). If the Zulus won, other independent tribes such as the Bantu, the Pondo, Swazi, Bapedi, and others, would gain confidence that they might obtain their independence from the British or at least offer the British resistance, endangering the Cape Colony. Annexation was therefore the only way of preventing either of these outcomes.