Transvaal

A region of northeast South Africa. Inhabited by Bantu-speaking Black Africans, the area was settled by Boer farmers who formed an independent state, called the South African Republic, in the 1850s. Great Britain annexed the territory in 1877, but the discovery of gold in 1886 led to an influx of settlers, further tensions between the British and the Boers, and the eventual formation of the Transvaal as a crown colony (1900) after the Boer War. Transvaal became a part of South Africa in 1910.