South African Republic

South African Republic (SAR), Dutch: Zuid Afkikaansche Republiek (ZAR); also known as the Transvaal, 19th-century Boer state formed by Voortrekkers (Boer migrants from the British Cape Colony) in what is now northern South Africa.

Its internationally recognized existence began with the Sand River Convention in 1852, when the British withdrew from the Southern African interior and recognized the independence of the Boer Voortrekkers north of the Vaal River. Owing to political divisions among the Boers, it was not until 1860 that the name South African Republic was applied to the amalgamated Boer republics in the area bounded by the Vaal, Hartz, and Limpopo rivers.

The SAR was annexed by Britain in 1877 as the Crown Colony of the Transvaal in an abortive attempt to federate the white colonies of Southern Africa after the discovery of gold and diamonds in the region, but it resumed its independence in 1881 after a Boer rebellion led to the defeat of the British at the Battle of Majuba Hill (known as the First Boer War). In the aftermath of the discovery of large gold deposits on the Witwatersrand in 1886, the Boer republic again attracted the interest of the British, who, under a series of pretexts, attempted military conquest with the unsuccessful Jameson Raid (December 1895) and provoked the South African War (1899–1902; also known as the Second Boer War). After the British prevailed in 1900, the SAR was redesignated the Crown Colony of the Transvaal. In 1910 it was absorbed into the Union of South Africa as one of four white-dominated provinces.

The name South African Republic is sometimes used to also refer to a Boer settlement established in the Potchefstroom area of the Transvaal by Voortrekkers in 1838.