colony · Central and Southern Africa
Transvaal Colony
Origins
British forces occupied Pretoria in June 1900 and Britain proclaimed the annexation of the South African Republic in September 1900. The Treaty of Vereeniging in May 1902 ended Boer resistance and confirmed the Transvaal Colony.
Rule and society
High Commissioner Lord Milner's administration rebuilt railways and farms and restarted the gold mines, recruiting young British administrators known as Milner's Kindergarten. To solve a labour shortage, more than 60,000 Chinese indentured labourers were brought to the mines between 1904 and 1907, a scandal in Britain. Self-government came in 1907, and the Het Volk party of Louis Botha and Jan Smuts won the election.
Decline and legacy
Botha and Smuts led the negotiations for union, and in 1910 the Transvaal joined the Union of South Africa as the Transvaal Province, with Pretoria as the administrative capital of the new state.
Lineage
On the connections map
Open the full map →Connections (2)
- Transvaal Colony was a colony of British Empire1902 CE – 1910 CE
- Swaziland Protectorate was part of Transvaal Colony1903 CE – 1906 CE
More states of Central and Southern Africa →
Cite this page
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Transvaal Colony. In The Epoch Institute States Register. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/transvaal-colony
- MLA
- “Transvaal Colony.” The Epoch Institute States Register, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/transvaal-colony. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Transvaal Colony.” The Epoch Institute States Register. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/transvaal-colony.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Transvaal Colony’, The Epoch Institute States Register. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/state/transvaal-colony (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random state ↻