Free State History - Conference Venues South Africa

The first Europeans visited the area north of the Orange river towards the close of the 18th century, when the population there was sparse. Most of the inhabitants appear to have been Tswana people. Griquas established themselves north of the Orange early in the 19th century. Between 1817 and 1831, the country was devastated by the chief Mzilikazi’s Matabele; thus the area was largely depopulated.

The Orange Free State was an independent Boer republic in during the second half of the 19th century, and then a British colony. Extending between the Vaal and Orange rivers, its borders were determined by the United Kingdom in 1848 when the area was proclaimed as the Orange River Sovereignty.

The British recognized the independence of the Orange River Sovereignty on 17 February 1854 following the granting of independence to the Transvaal Republic and officially became independent as the Orange Free State on in 1854.

Although the Orange Free State developed into an economically and politically successful republic, it experienced severe conflict with the British until it was annexed as the Orange River Colony in 1900. In 1902 at the conclusion of the Second Anglo-Boer War, it ceased to exist as an independent Boer republic with the signing of the Treaty of Vereeniging. It joined the Union of South Africa in 1910 as a province along with Transvaal, Natal, and the Cape Province.

The current borders of the Free State province date from 1994 when the Bantustans were abolished and included into the provinces of South Africa. It is the only former province of South Africa not to undergo boundary changes, excluding the incorporation of Bantustans.