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* TRANSVAAL. 424 TRANSVAAL. The colony Was annexed to Great Britain September 1, 1900. Hostilities with the Boers definitively ceased in May, 1902. Certain privi- leges were allowed the Boer population, such as the use of Dutch in the courts and public schools where desired. Civil government was to replace the military regime as soon as practicable. The colony is administered by a Governor, Lieutenant- Governor, and an Executive Council. There are 20 districts. The capital is Pretoria (q.v.). Jo- hannesburg, the principal city, is, however, to some extent an administrative centre. For the fiscal year 1901-02 the civil revenues and expendi- tures each were upward of $7,000,000. For the following fiscal year the estimated revenue in- creased to nearly $20,000,000, derived from cus- toms chiefly. JMines and railways also con- tributed. For this last-named year the ex- penditures were put at $18,500,000, of which one-tliird was devoted to the South African constabulary, though most of this last-named amount would be recovered by the Transvaal from the Orange River Colony and the British Government. The total sum voted by the Im- perial Government for the Transvaal and Orange River colonies in 1901 and 1902 was $40,000,000, including $500,000 for the South African constabulary and $4,000,000 for rail- ways. The Boer public debt at the close of 1898 was $13,000,000, and against this was to be reckoned the value of the State lands, then not so valuable as now since gold has been found on them. The debt occasioned by the war is figured at $150,000,000. A total loan'was to be floated of $175,000,000, to be guaranteed by Great Britain and based on the assets of the Transvaal and Orange River colonies. Productive public works will be undertaken. The seven banks in the Transvaal have a combined capital of £7,000,000. The weights and measures are those of Cape Colony. English currency and coins minted at Pretoria circulate. As to the military control, the colony is divided into five districts. The British commander-in-cliief for all South Africa is stationed at Pretoria. There is a constabu- lary. A volunteer force is also to be formed for the colony. The population in 1896 was 1,094,156, of whom 245,397 were whites and 748,759 natives. The religious population is estimated as follows: in the Dutch churches, 63,000; in other Protestant churches, 53,000; Jews, 10,000; and Roman Catholics, 5000. History. The Transvaal was one of the two States founded by the Boers after the 'great trek,' or emigration, from Cape Colony. These Boers were descendants of the colonists who had come into South Africa under the Dutch control. They were a hardy, vigorous, bigoted race, hold- ing the natives in slavery and hence not getting along well with their savage neighbors. The dis- like of the English which naturally arose after the latter took possession of Cape Colony in 1806 culminated in 1833 when the emancipation law was passed. Some years later a considerable number of the Boers went north with their fami- lies, flocks, and household goods, and at first founded a colony in Natal. This was broken up by the British Government in 1843 (see Natal) and the Boers, going westward, founded the Orange Free State. (See Orange Rtver Colony.) In 1848 this also was taken under British control (remaining thus, however, only for a few years), and the more irreconcilable of the Boers 'trekked' once more, across the Vaal, and founded the South African Republic, commonly known as the Transvaal. By the Sand River Convention, concluded in 1852, Great Britain recognized the independence of "the emigrant Boers living north of the Vaal River" and boundaries were July established. The new State was for some years allowed to take its own course and the only interference with its increas- ing prosperity came from the struggles with the natives, between whom and the Boers there was bitter enmity. In 1877 some discontented burgh- ers suggested to the British Government that the Transvaal should be taken imder its protection. Mistaking the appeal of a faction for national sentiment, the ISritish commissioner. Sir The- ophilus Shepstone, declared the Republic British crora territory, and annexation was persisted in by the British Government, in spite of repeated appeals. In 1880 the people revolted against the British regime. On December 13th a mass meeting was lield at Heidelberg and the restora- tion of the independent Republic was declared. A brief campaign, in wliieh the Boers developed remarkable fighting powers, according to methods especially adapted to the country, followed this act. The Boer victories of Laing's Nek and Ingogo were followed by the battle of Majuba Hill (February 27, 188l"), which resulted in the worst defeat sustained by British arms in many years. On August 8, 1881, peace was concluded by the convention of Pretoria, in which self-govern- ment was restored to the Transvaal burghers, sub- ject to the suzerainty of the British Crown. This latter reservation gave Great Britain the right to maintain a British resident in the country and to march her armies across the territory in time of war and also the control of external relations. The convention of London, signed February 27, 1884, omitted the suzerainty clause and the Boers claimed that thereby Great Britain gave up all control over their afi'airs. The British Gov- ernment, on the contrary, maintained that the convention of London was supplementary to that of Pretoria, and that the latter was in force ex- cept where directly contravened by the former. In the years 1881-93 several events occurred which reacted upon the relations of Great Britain and the South African Republic. The first of these was the formation in Cape Colony of the Afrikander Bund, with a platform calling for a union of European races in South Africa on a basis of South African nationality and independ- ence. This niovenient increased the dislike of the British Government to the development of any strong, independent poWer in the neighbor- hood of the British South African possessions. The advance of the English into Mashonaland and Matabeleland, which the Boers had coveted and which hemmed them in, was to them an added irritation; and the climax was reached in the aggressive attitude of the British South Africa Company, which held rights of exploita- tion and administration in the new British ter- ritories. The discovery of gold in the Tran.svaal in 1884 opened a new and trouljled era. Hitherto the country had been agricultural and rural, with a homogeneous population. Now there was a sud- den influx of mining men, promoters, and adven-