1.
Witwatersrand Basin
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The Witwatersrand Basin is a largely underground geological formation which surfaces in the Witwatersrand, South Africa. It holds the worlds largest known gold reserves and has produced over 1.5 billion ounces, the entire series of rocks, known as the “Witwatersrand Supergroup’’ consists of quartzites, banded ironstones, mudstones, tillites, conglomerates and some marine lava deposits. Most of the basin is deeply buried under rocks, but outcrops occur in Gauteng. The outcrop in Gauteng forms the Witwatersrand ridge, from which the basin and it was on the southern portion of this ridge that gold was first discovered on the farm Langlaagte in 1886,5 km west of Johannesburg. Since this gold was embedded in a conglomerate, it was first assumed that this was alluvial gold in an old riverbed, the conglomerate was quickly traced east and westward for a total continuous distance of 50 km to define what became known as the “Central Rand Gold Field”. Gold occurs only along the northern and western margins of this basin, some of these gold bearing fan deltas are now at depths of 4 km below the surface. Although many of the mines, around Johannesburg, are now nearly exhausted. Silver, uranium, and iridium are recovered as gold-refining by-products, the Witwatersrand basin was created during the Archean Eon, and is therefore amongst the oldest geological structures on earth. It was laid down in two stages, over the course of 260 million years starting just short of 3000 million ago, the first phase, lasting 60 million years, consisted of sedimentary deposits in a shallow sea, conveniently named the “Witwatersrand Sea”. The resulting 2500–4500 m thick layer of sediments is termed the “West Rand Group” of Witwatersrand rocks, the resulting 2500 m thick layer of rock is termed the “Central Rand Group”. The “West Rand Group” and “Central Rand Group” of rocks form the “Witwatersrand Supergroup”. There were no continents during the stages of the Archean Eon. It was the coalescence of several of island arcs that led to the formation of the Kaapvaal Craton. Its size and position relative to Southern Africa today are indicated in the diagram on the left, about 3000 million years ago local cooling of the underlying asthenosphere caused subsidence of the south eastern portion of this microcontinent below sea level. The floor of newly formed “Witwatersrand sea” consisted of smoothly eroded granites. Sandy sediments brought in by rivers from the north started being deposited on the granite about 2970 million years ago and this sandy layer eventually became compressed to form the Orange Grove Quartzite, the lowermost layer of the Witwatersrand Supergroup. There was no oxygen in earth’s atmosphere till about 2000 million years ago. The result was alternating red and gray layers of mud which, as the sea deepened finer grained and muddy sediments accumulated
2.
Johannesburg
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Johannesburg is the largest city in South Africa and is one of the 50 largest urban areas in the world. It is the capital of Gauteng, which is the wealthiest province in South Africa. While Johannesburg is not one of South Africas three capital cities, it is the seat of the Constitutional Court, the city is located in the mineral-rich Witwatersrand range of hills and is the centre of large-scale gold and diamond trade. In 2011, the population of the city of Johannesburg was 4,434,827, in the same year, the population of Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area was 7,860,781. Some view the surrounding the city of Johannesburg yet more broadly than the metropolitan area, adding Ekurhuleni, West Rand and Lenasia. The land area of the city is large in comparison with those of other major cities, resulting in a moderate population density of 2. The city was established in 1886 following the discovery of gold on what had been a farm, the city is commonly interpreted as the modern day El Dorado due to the extremely large gold deposit found along the Witwatersrand. The name is attributed to one or all of three men involved in the establishment of the city, in ten years, the population was 100,000 inhabitants. A separate city from the late 1970s until the 1990s, Soweto is now part of Johannesburg, Soweto, although eventually incorporated into Johannesburg, had been separated as a residential area for blacks, who were not permitted to live in Johannesburg proper. Lenasia is predominantly populated by English-speaking South Africans of Indian descent, controversy surrounds the origin of the name. There were quite a number of people with the name Johannes who were involved in the history of the city. Among them are the principal clerk attached to the office of the surveyor-general Johannes Rissik, Christiaan Johannes Joubert, another was Stephanus Johannes Paulus Paul Kruger, president of the South African Republic 1883-1900. Johannes Meyer, the first government official in the area is another possibility, precise records for the choice of name were lost. Rissik and Joubert were members of a delegation sent to England to attain mining rights for the area. Joubert had a park in the city named after him and Rissik Street is today a street where the historically important and dilapidated Post Office, since burnt out. The region surrounding Johannesburg was originally inhabited by San people, the Sotho–Tswana practised farming and extensively mined and smelted metals that were available in the area. The most prominent site within Johannesburg is Melville Koppies, which contains an iron smelting furnace, the main Witwatersrand gold reef was discovered in June 1884 on the farm Vogelstruisfontein by Jan Gerritse Bantjes that triggered the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the start of Johannesburg in 1886. The discovery of gold rapidly attracted people to the area, making necessary a name, Johannes Meyer, the first government official in the area is another possibility
3.
South Africa
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South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa, is the southernmost country in Africa. South Africa is the 25th-largest country in the world by land area and it is the southernmost country on the mainland of the Old World or the Eastern Hemisphere. About 80 percent of South Africans are of Sub-Saharan African ancestry, divided among a variety of ethnic groups speaking different Bantu languages, the remaining population consists of Africas largest communities of European, Asian, and multiracial ancestry. South Africa is a multiethnic society encompassing a variety of cultures, languages. Its pluralistic makeup is reflected in the recognition of 11 official languages. The country is one of the few in Africa never to have had a coup détat, however, the vast majority of black South Africans were not enfranchised until 1994. During the 20th century, the black majority sought to recover its rights from the dominant white minority, with this struggle playing a role in the countrys recent history. The National Party imposed apartheid in 1948, institutionalising previous racial segregation, since 1994, all ethnic and linguistic groups have held political representation in the countrys democracy, which comprises a parliamentary republic and nine provinces. South Africa is often referred to as the Rainbow Nation to describe the multicultural diversity. The World Bank classifies South Africa as an economy. Its economy is the second-largest in Africa, and the 34th-largest in the world, in terms of purchasing power parity, South Africa has the seventh-highest per capita income in Africa. However, poverty and inequality remain widespread, with about a quarter of the population unemployed, nevertheless, South Africa has been identified as a middle power in international affairs, and maintains significant regional influence. The name South Africa is derived from the geographic location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named the Union of South Africa in English, since 1961 the long form name in English has been the Republic of South Africa. In Dutch the country was named Republiek van Zuid-Afrika, replaced in 1983 by the Afrikaans Republiek van Suid-Afrika, since 1994 the Republic has had an official name in each of its 11 official languages. Mzansi, derived from the Xhosa noun umzantsi meaning south, is a name for South Africa. South Africa contains some of the oldest archaeological and human fossil sites in the world, extensive fossil remains have been recovered from a series of caves in Gauteng Province. The area is a UNESCO World Heritage site and has termed the Cradle of Humankind
4.
Boer
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Boer is the Dutch and Afrikaans word for farmer. As used in South Africa, it was used to denote the descendants of the Dutch-speaking settlers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 18th century. For a long time the Dutch East India Company controlled this area, in addition the term was applied to those who left the Cape Colony during the 19th century to settle in the Orange Free State, Transvaal, and to a lesser extent Natal. They left the Cape primarily to escape British rule and get away from the constant border wars between the British imperial government and the tribes on the eastern frontier. The Dutch East India Company had been formed in the Dutch Republic in 1602, in 1648 one of their ships was stranded in Table Bay, and the shipwrecked crew had to forage for themselves on shore for several months. The result was that in 1652, a Dutch expedition led by surgeon Jan van Riebeek constructed a fort, landing at Table Bay, Van Riebeek took control over Cape Town, the settlement developed during the previous 10 years. In 1671 the Dutch first purchased land from the native Khoikhoi beyond the limits of the built by Van Riebeek. They formed a class of a class of vrijlieden, also known as vrijburgers, a large number of vrijburgers became independent farmers and applied for grants of land, as well as loans of seed and tools, from the Company administration. Political refugees from the wars in France, following the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, they were settled at Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Franschhoek. The influence of small body of immigrants on the character of the Dutch settlers was marked. The Company in 1701 directed that only Dutch should be taught in the schools and this resulted in the Huguenots assimilating by the middle of the 18th century, with a loss to the community in the use and knowledge of French. The little settlement gradually spread eastwards, and in 1754 the country as far as Algoa Bay was included in the colony, at this time the European colonists numbered eight to ten thousand. They possessed numerous slaves, grew wheat in sufficient quantity to make it a commodity crop for export, but their chief wealth was in cattle. Through the latter half of the 17th and the whole of the 18th century, the administration of the Dutch East India Company was extremely despotic. Its policies were not directed at development of the colony, the effect of this tyranny was inevitable, it drove men to desperation. They fled from oppression, and even before 1700 trekking began, in 1789, so strong had feeling amongst the burghers become that delegates were sent from the Cape to interview the authorities at Amsterdam. After this deputation, some reforms were granted. It was largely to escape oppression that the farmers trekked farther and farther from the seat of government, the company, to control the emigrants, established a magistracy at Swellendam in 1745 and another at Graaff Reinet in 1786
5.
Second Boer War
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The Second Boer War, usually known as the Boer War and also at the time as the South African War, started on 11 October 1899 and ended on 31 May 1902. Great Britain defeated two Boer states in South Africa, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State, Britain was aided by its Cape Colony, Colony of Natal and some native African allies. The British war effort was supported by volunteers from the British Empire, including Southern Africa, the Australian colonies, Canada, India. All other nations were neutral, but public opinion in them was largely hostile to Britain, inside Britain and its Empire there also was significant opposition to the Second Boer War. The British were overconfident and under-prepared, the Boers were very well armed and struck first, besieging Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking in early 1900, and winning important battles at Colenso, Magersfontein and Stormberg. Staggered, the British brought in numbers of soldiers and fought back. General Redvers Buller was replaced by Lord Roberts and Lord Kitchener and they relieved the three besieged cities, and invaded the two Boer republics in late 1900. The onward marches of the British Army were so overwhelming that the Boers did not fight staged battles in defense of their homeland, the British quickly seized control of all of the Orange Free State and Transvaal, as the civilian leadership went into hiding or exile. In conventional terms, the war was over, Britain officially annexed the two countries in 1900, and called a khaki election to give the government another six years of power in London. However, the Boers refused to surrender and they reverted to guerrilla warfare under new generals Louis Botha, Jan Smuts, Christiaan de Wet and Koos de la Rey. Two more years of attacks and quick escapes followed. As guerrillas without uniforms, the Boer fighters easily blended into the farmlands, which provided hiding places, supplies, the British solution was to set up complex nets of block houses, strong points, and barbed wire fences, partitioning off the entire conquered territory. The civilian farmers were relocated into concentration camps, where very large proportions died of disease, especially the children, then the British mounted infantry units systematically tracked down the highly mobile Boer guerrilla units. The battles at this stage were small operations with few combat casualties The war ended in surrender, the British successfully won over the Boer leaders, who now gave full support to the new political system. Both former republics were incorporated into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the conflict is commonly referred to as simply the Boer War, since the First Boer War is much less well known. Boer was the term for Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans descended from the Dutch East India Companys original settlers at the Cape of Good Hope. It is officially called the South African War and it is known as the Anglo-Boer War among some South Africans. In Afrikaans it may be called the Anglo-Boereoorlog, Tweede Boereoorlog, in South Africa it is officially called the South African War
6.
History of South Africa
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The history of South Africa starts more than 100,000 years ago, when the first humans inhabited the region. The discoveries also led to new conflicts culminating in open warfare between the Boer settlers and imperial Britain, fought essentially for control over the nascent South African mining industry. The country became a nation state within the British Empire in 1934 following enactment of the Status of the Union Act. The dominion came to an end on 31 May 1961 in consequence of a 1960 referendum, from 1948 to 1994, South African politics were dominated by Afrikaner nationalism. It was an extension of segregationist legislation enacted in 1960, since then the ANC has dominated the politics of the country in an uneasy alliance with the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. It was inhabited by Australopithecines since at least 2.5 million years ago, Modern human settlement occurred around 125,000 years ago in the Middle Stone Age, as shown by archaeological discoveries at Klasies River Caves. The first human habitation is associated with a DNA group originating in a area of southern Africa. At the Blombos cave Professor Raymond Dart discovered the skull of a 2.51 million year old Taung Child in 1924, in further research at the Blombos cave in 2002, stones were discovered engraved with grid or cross-hatch patterns, dated to some 70,000 years ago. This has been interpreted as the earliest example ever discovered of abstract art or symbolic art created by Homo sapiens, many more species of early hominid have come to light in recent decades. The oldest is Little Foot, a collection of footbones of an unknown hominid between 2.2 and 3.3 million years old, discovered at Sterkfontein by Ronald J. Clarke. An important recent find was that of 1.9 million year old Australopithecus sediba, in 2015, the discovery near Johannesburg of a previously unknown species of Homo was announced, named Homo naledi. It has been described as one of the most important paleontological discoveries in modern times, the descendants of the Middle Paleolithic populations are thought to be the aboriginal San and Khoikhoi tribes. The San and Khoikhoi are grouped under the term Khoisan, and are distinguished only by their respective occupations. Whereas the San were hunter-gathers, the Khoikhoi were pastoral herders, archaeological discoveries of livestock bones on the Cape Peninsula indicate that the Khoikhoi began to settle there by about 2000 years ago. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries, Portuguese mariners, later, English and Dutch seafarers in the late 16th and 17th centuries exchanged metals for cattle and sheep with the Khoikhoi. The initial origin of the Khoikhoi remains uncertain, the establishment of the staging post by the Dutch East India Company at the Cape in 1652 soon brought the Khoikhoi into conflict with Dutch settlers over land ownership. Cattle rustling and livestock theft ensued, with the Khoikhoi being ultimately expelled from the peninsula by force, the first Khoikhoi-Dutch War broke out in 1659, the second in 1673, and the third 1674–1677. The disease had brought to the Cape by Dutch sailors
7.
Early history of South Africa
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The early history of South Africa covers the history of South Africa from earliest times to the beginnings of European colonization in the 17th century. A major anthropological find in 1998 at Sterkfontein near Johannesburg revealed that hominids roamed across the Highveld at least three years ago. About a million years ago, Homo erectus had emerged and ranged well beyond Africa, leaving traces in Europe, somewhere around 100,000 years ago, modern man replaced the Homo erectus. Homo neandertalensis appeared before Homo sapiens and had a brain capacity. Homo neandertalensis was extirpated by unknown forces, and the only remaining in the area was Homo sapiens. The Bushmen probably became the first modern people to migrate to the tip of the African continent. Other than a series of striking rock paintings, the Bushmen left few traces of their early culture, small numbers of Bushmen still live in South Africa today, making their culture one of the oldest continuously existing in the world, along with that of the Indigenous Australians. Beginning around 2000 years ago, some Bushman groups acquired livestock from further north, gradually, hunting and gathering gave way to herding as the dominant economic activity as the Bushmen tended to small herds of cattle and oxen. The arrival of livestock is thought to have introduced concepts of personal wealth, community structures solidified, stratified and expanded, resulting in the development of chieftaincies. The pastoralist Bushmen, known as Khoikhoi began to further south. Along the way they intermarried with the hunter-gatherer Bushmen, whom they referred to as San, over time the Khoikhoi established themselves along the coast, while small groups of Bushmen continued to inhabit the interior. In the 1st millennium AD, the Bantu expansion reached Southern Africa from the Niger River Delta, the Bantu-speakers not only had domestic animals, but also practiced agriculture, farming wheat and other crops. They also displayed skill in working iron, and lived in settled villages, the Bantu arrived in South Africa in small waves rather than in one cohesive migration. Some groups, the ancestors of todays Nguni peoples, preferred to live near the coast, others, now known as the Sotho–Tswana peoples, settled in the Highveld, while todays Venda, Lemba, and Shangaan-Tsonga peoples made their homes in the northeastern areas of South Africa. Bantu-speakers and Khoisan mixed, as evidenced by rock paintings showing the two different groups interacting, the type of contact remains unknown, although linguistic proof of integration survives, as several Bantu languages incorporated the click consonant characteristic of earlier Khoisan languages. Archaeologists have found numerous Khoisan artifacts at the sites of Bantu settlements
8.
Apartheid
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Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation and discrimination in South Africa between 1948 and 1991, when it was abolished. The countrys first multiracial elections under a universal franchise were held three years later in 1994, Apartheid as a policy was embraced by the South African government shortly after the ascension of the National Party during the countrys 1948 general elections. Apartheid was also enforced in South West Africa until it gained independence as Namibia in 1990, with the rapid growth and industrialisation of the British Cape Colony in the nineteenth century, racial policies and laws became increasingly rigid. Cape legislation that discriminated specifically against black Africans began appearing shortly before 1900, the policies of the Boer republics were also racially exclusive, for instance, the Transvaal constitution barred nonwhite participation in church and state. Places of residence were determined by racial classification, from 1960 to 1983,3.5 million nonwhite South Africans were removed from their homes, and forced into segregated neighbourhoods, in one of the largest mass removals in modern history. Most of these targeted removals were intended to restrict the population to ten designated tribal homelands, also known as bantustans. The government announced that relocated persons would lose their South African citizenship as they were absorbed into the bantustans, Apartheid sparked significant international and domestic opposition, resulting in some of the most influential global social movements of the twentieth century. It was the target of frequent condemnation in the United Nations, some reforms of the apartheid system were undertaken, including allowing for Indian and coloured political representation in parliament, but these measures failed in appeasing most activist groups. In 1990, prominent ANC leaders such as Nelson Mandela were released from detention, Apartheid legislation was abolished in mid-1991, pending multiracial elections set for April 1994. Apartheid is an Afrikaans word meaning separateness, or the state of being apart and its first recorded use was in 1929. The governors and assemblies that governed the process in the various colonies of South Africa were launched on a different and independent legislative path from the rest of the British Empire. In the days of slavery, slaves required passes to travel away from their masters, in 1797 the Landdrost and Heemraden of Swellendam and Graaff-Reinet extended pass laws beyond slaves and ordained that all Khoikhoi moving about the country for any purpose should carry passes. Ordinance No.49 of 1828 decreed that prospective black immigrants were to be granted passes for the purpose of seeking work. These passes were to be issued for Coloureds and Khoikhoi, but not for other Africans, the United Kingdoms Slavery Abolition Act 1833 abolished slavery throughout the British Empire and overrode the Cape Articles of Capitulation. To comply with the act the South African legislation was expanded to include Ordinance 1 in 1835 and this was followed by Ordinance 3 in 1848, which introduced an indenture system for Xhosa that was little different from slavery. The Glen Grey Act of 1894, instigated by the government of Prime Minister Cecil John Rhodes limited the amount of land Africans could hold, in 1905 the General Pass Regulations Act denied blacks the vote, limited them to fixed areas and inaugurated the infamous Pass System. The Asiatic Registration Act required all Indians to register and carry passes, one of the first pieces of segregating legislation enacted by Jan Smuts United Party government was the Asiatic Land Tenure Bill, which banned land sales to Indians. The United Party government began to move away from the enforcement of segregationist laws during World War II
9.
Military history of South Africa
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The military history of South Africa chronicles a vast time period and complex events from the dawn of history until the present time. It covers civil wars and wars of aggression and of both within South Africa and against it. It includes the history of battles fought in the territories of modern South Africa in neighboring territories, while the Dutch traded with the Khoikhoi, nevertheless serious disputes broke out over land ownership and livestock. This resulted in attacks and counter-attacks by both sides which were known as the Khoikhoi-Dutch Wars, the First Khoikhoi-Dutch War took place in 1659, the second in 1673 and the third in 1674–1677. 925806°S18. 427758°E / -33.925806,18.427758. On 26 April 1679, the five bastions were built, the Castle of Good Hope is a fortification which was built on the original coastline of Table Bay and now, because of land reclamation, seems nearer the centre of Cape Town, South Africa. Built by the VOC between 1666 and 1679, the Castle is the oldest building in South Africa, the Castle acted as local headquarters for the South African Army in the Western Cape, but today houses the Castle Military Museum and ceremonial facilities for the traditional Cape Regiments. Their commander suggested to the Dutch governor that he place the Cape Colony under the protection of the British monarch – in effect, that he hand the colony over to Britain – which was refused. Simons Town was occupied on 14 June by a force of 350 Royal Marines and 450 men of the 78th Highlanders, a British advance on Cape Town, with the new reinforcements, began on the 14th, on the 16th, the colony capitulated. The British assumed control of the Cape of Good Hope for the seven years. The Cape was returned to the restored Dutch government in 1804, in 1806 the British returned and after again defeating the Dutch at the Battle of Blaauwberg, stayed in control for more than 100 years. The Xhosa Wars were a series of nine wars between parts of the Xhosa people, and European settlers with their Xhosa allies, from 1779 and 1879 in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa. The wars were responsible for the Xhosa peoples loss of most of their land, the Ndwandwe-Zulu War of 1817–1819 was a war fought between the expanding Zulu kingdom and the Ndwandwe tribe in South Africa. Shaka revolutionized traditional ways of fighting by introducing the assegai, a spear with a shaft and broad blade. He also organized warriors into disciplined units known as Impis that fought in formation behind large cowhide shields. In the Battle of Gqokli Hill in 1819, his troops and tactics prevailed over the numbers of the Ndwandwe people. The Ndwandwe and the Zulus met again in combat at the Battle of Mhlatuze River in 1820, the Zulu tactics again prevailed, pressing their attack when the Ndwandwe army was divided during the crossing of the Mhlatuze River. Zulu warriors arrived at the Ndwande King Zwides headquarters near present-day Nongoma before news of the defeat, zwide fled with some of his offspring including Madzanga. Most of the Ndwandwe abandoned their lands and migrated north and eastward, shaka was the ultimate victor, and his descendants still live today throughout Zululand, with customs and a way of life that can be easily traced to Shakas day
10.
Religion in South Africa
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South Africa is a secular state. Its constitution guarantees freedom of religion, many religions are represented in the ethnic and regional diversity of the population, with Christianity overall being dominant. The African Traditional Religion of the Khoisan and Bantu speakers during apartheid were succeeded in predominance by Christianity introduced by the Dutch, during apartheid there was sustained persecution of African Traditional Religion and forced conversions during that era. In 1930 the majority of Afrikaners were Calvinists and they assisted Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama who first sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and 1497 respectively. However, Jewish settlers only began to arrive in numbers from the 1820s, the Baháí Faith was introduced in 1911. The Baháí community decided to limit membership in its national assembly to black adherents when an assembly was prohibited under Apartheid. The Census 2001 provided the most recent national statistics for religious denominations, the Census 2011 form did not include any questions about religion due to low priority. A2015 study estimated some 6,500 believers in Christ from a Muslim background residing in the country, Christianity is the dominant religion in South Africa, with almost 80% of the population in 2001 professing to be Christian. No single denomination predominates, with mainstream Protestant churches, Pentecostal churches, African initiated churches, importantly, there is significant and sustained syncretism with African Traditional Religion among most of the self-professed Christians in South Africa. Of the total population of 44.8 million,35.8 million or 79. 8% identified as members of a Christian denomination. The history of Protestantism in South Africa dates back to the initial European settlement on the Cape of Good Hope in 1652, since then, Protestantism has been the predominant religion of the European settlers and today, of South Africa as a whole. The largest Protestant denomination in the country is Pentecostalism, followed by Methodism, Dutch Reformed, the Zion Christian Church is the largest African initiated church in Southern Africa. The churchs headquarters are at Zion City Moria in Limpopo Province, according to the 1996 South African Census, the church numbered 3.87 million members. By the 2001 South African Census, its membership had increased to 4.97 million members and it is made up of 26 dioceses and archdioceses plus an apostolic vicariate. In 1996, there were approximately 3.3 million Catholics in South Africa making up 6% of the total South African population, currently, there are 3.8 million Catholics. 2.7 million are of various black African ethnic groups, such as Zulu, Xhosa, coloured and white South Africans each account for roughly 300,000. Most white Catholics are English speaking, and the majority are descended from Irish immigrants, many others are Portuguese settlers who left Angola and Mozambique after they became independent in the 1970s, or their children. The proportion of Catholics among the predominantly Calvinist white Afrikaans speakers, islam in South Africa is a minority religion, practiced by less than 1. 5% of the total population, according to estimates
11.
Slavery in South Africa
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Slavery in South Africa existed until the abolition of slavery in 1834. In 1652, Jan van Riebeeck set up refreshment station in what is now Cape Town, the first slave, Abraham van Batavia arrived in 1653, and shortly after a slaving voyage was undertaken from the Cape to Mauritius and Madagascar. In April 1657 there were ten slaves in the settlement, from a population of 144 and this increased greatly the next year when the Dutch captured a Portuguese slaver with 500 Angolan slaves,250 of which were taken to the Cape. Two months later, a further 228 slaves arrived from Guinea, in 1795 Britain took over the Cape, and in 1807 passed the Slave Trade Act. It was enforced from 1808, ending the slave trade. The first large wave of British settlers, the 1820 Settlers were not permitted to own slaves, in 1833, the Slavery Abolition Act received Royal Assent, this paved the way for the abolition of slavery within the British Empire and its colonies. Some explanations of the Boers Great Trek emphasize Voortrekker discontent with British attitudes to slave-owning and race relations
12.
Gold rush
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A gold rush is a new discovery of gold that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, the wealth that resulted was distributed widely because of reduced migration costs and low barriers to entry. While gold mining itself was unprofitable for most diggers and mine owners, some people made fortunes. The resulting increase in the gold supply stimulated global trade. Historians have written extensively about the migration, trade, colonization, Gold rushes helped spur a huge immigration that often led to permanent settlement of new regions. Activities propelled by gold rushes define significant aspects of the culture of the Australian, at a time when the worlds money supply was based on gold, the newly mined gold provided economic stimulus far beyond the gold fields. Gold rushes extend back as far as gold mining, to the Roman Empire, whose gold mining was described by Diodorus Siculus and Pliny the Elder, within each mining rush there is typically a transition through progressively higher capital expenditures, larger organizations, and more specialized knowledge. They may also progress from high-unit value to lower unit value minerals, a rush typically begins with the discovery of placer gold made by an individual. At first the gold may be washed from the sand and gravel by individual miners with little training, using a pan or similar simple instrument. Winning the gold in this manner requires almost no capital investment, only a pan or equipment that may be built on the spot. The low investment, the value per unit weight of gold. After the sluice-box stage, placer mining may become increasingly large scale, requiring larger organisations, small claims owned and mined by individuals may need to be merged into larger tracts. Difficult-to-reach placer deposits may be mined by tunnels, water may be diverted by dams and canals to placer mine active river beds or to deliver water needed to wash dry placers. The more advanced techniques of ground sluicing, hydraulic mining and dredging may be used, typically the heyday of a placer gold rush would last only a few years. Hard rock mining, like mining, may evolve from low capital investment and simple technology to progressively higher capital. The surface outcrop of a gold-bearing vein may be oxidized, so that the gold occurs as native gold, the first miners may at first build a simple arrastra to crush their ore, later, they may build stamp mills to crush ore more quickly. As the miners dig down, they may find that the part of vein contains gold locked in sulfide or telluride minerals. If the ore is still rich, it may be worth shipping to a distant smelter
13.
Mineral Revolution
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The Mineral Revolution is a term used by historians to refer to the rapid industrialisation and economic changes which occurred in South Africa from the 1870s onwards. In political terms, the Mineral Revolution had a significant impact on diplomacy, by the mid-nineteenth century, South Africa was not a unified state, but was divided between provinces of the British Empire, states formed by Afrikaner settlers, and various native African states. To the north, the two Afrikaner states of Orange Free State and Transvaal were less densely populated and in a state of constant economic rivalry with the wealthier British provinces, surrounding the British and Afrikaner states were a number of native African polities such as Zululand. These states were independent of control and their populations were largely involved in animal husbandry. Some, such as Pediland, acted as buffer states between the Afrikaner and British polities, urban areas were small in number and size, and provided only a small contribution to the Afrikaner and British economies, mainly via the production of consumer goods and wine. The Mineral Revolution began with the discovery of diamonds at the town of Kimberley in 1867, the discovery of diamonds led to a rush of prospectors descending on the town, whose population skyrocketed as increasing numbers of prospectors arrived to seek their fortune. As more diggers arrived in Kimberley, diamond-mining increased in scale, as surface deposits of diamonds were excavated, deeper pits had to be dug, propelling the Mineral Revolution into a new phase. To excavate deep deposits of diamonds, diggers needed machinery, credit, and these were unavailable to ordinary diggers, and the diamond mines were quickly taken over by the mining capitalists – large corporations with access to credit, machinery, and labour. The discovery of gold at the Witwatersrand orefields in 1886 triggered a rush which greatly escalated this continuing trend. The emergence of industrial-scale mining forced major demographic shifts in South Africas population, during the early stages of mining, labour had been primarily provided by young men from the African states, primarily Pedi men. The young men would travel to the mines during the summer to provide labour and earn enough wages to buy status symbols, such as cattle or guns. This system, though, was too unreliable to provide a permanent labour force and was not acceptable to the mining corporations. Young men arriving at the mines were exhausted from their journey and had to be given two weeks rest, at company expense, before they were fit to work in the mines. The need to create a fixed, permanent labour force at Kimberley and on the Rand became the objective of the mining corporations. The increasing scale of mining operations prompted the corporations to offer low wages. Extracting diamonds from rocks, and processing the low-quality gold ore at the Rand, was very labour-intensive and required armies of workers. The need to create a fixed labour force resulted in the government. Corporate agents travelled to African states, offering fixed contracts and prearranged wages to attract young African men to the mines, at the mine sites, corporations introduced various schemes to keep workers on-site
14.
El Dorado
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The legends surrounding El Dorado changed over time, as it went from being a man, to a city, to a kingdom, and then finally an empire. A second location for El Dorado was inferred from rumors, which inspired several unsuccessful expeditions in the late 1500s in search of a city called Manõa on the shores of Lake Parime, two of the most famous of these expeditions were led by Sir Walter Raleigh. In pursuit of the legend, Spanish conquistadors and numerous others searched Colombia, Venezuela, in the course of these explorations, much of northern South America, including the Amazon River, was mapped. By the beginning of the 19th century most people dismissed the existence of the city as a myth. The Muisca occupied the highlands of Cundinamarca and Boyacá departments of Colombia in two migrations from outlying areas, one starting ~1270 BCE, and a second between 800 BCE and 500 BCE. At those times, other ancient civilizations also flourished in the highlands. The Muisca Confederation was as advanced as the Aztec, Maya, in the mythology of the Muisca, Mnya the Gold or golden color, represents the energy contained in the trinity of Chiminigagua, which constitutes the creative power of everything that exists. Chiminigagua is related to Bachué, Cuza, Chibchacum, Bochica, the original narrative can be found in the rambling chronicle El Carnero of Juan Rodriguez Freyle. People gathered here to perform rituals and sacrifices mostly with gold, important lakes were Lake Guatavita, Lake Iguaque, Lake Fúquene, Lake Tota, the Siecha Lakes, Lake Teusacá and Lake Ubaque. El Dorado is applied to a story in which precious stones were found in fabulous abundance along with gold coins. The concept of El Dorado underwent several transformations, and eventually accounts of the myth were also combined with those of a legendary lost city. The resulting El Dorado myth enticed European explorers for two centuries, among the earliest stories was the one told on his deathbed by Juan Martinez, a captain of munitions for Spanish adventurer Diego de Ordaz, who claimed to have visited the city of Manoa. Martinez had allowed a store of gunpowder to fire and was condemned to death. The emperor, after he had him, knew him to be a Christian, and caused him to be lodged in his palace. He was brought all the way blindfold, led by the Indians, until he came to the entrance of Manoa itself. But Martinez, not desirous to stay, obtained the favour of Inga to depart, during the 16th and 17th centuries, Europeans, still fascinated by the New World, believed that a hidden city of immense wealth existed. Numerous expeditions were mounted to search for treasure, all which ended in failure. The illustration of El Dorados location on maps only made matters worse, the mythical city of El Dorado on Lake Parime was marked on numerous maps until its existence was disproved by Alexander von Humboldt during his Latin America expedition
15.
Folklore
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Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. These include oral traditions such as tales, proverbs and jokes and they include material culture, ranging from traditional building styles to handmade toys common to the group. Folklore also includes customary lore, the forms and rituals of celebrations like Christmas and weddings, folk dances, each one of these, either singly or in combination, is considered a folklore artifact. Just as essential as the form, folklore also encompasses the transmission of these artifacts from one region to another or from one generation to the next, for folklore is not taught in a formal school curriculum or studied in the fine arts. Instead these traditions are passed along informally from one individual to another either through verbal instruction or demonstration, the academic study of folklore is called folkloristics. To fully understand folklore, it is helpful to clarify its component parts and it is well-documented that the term was coined in 1846 by the Englishman William Thoms. He fabricated it to replace the contemporary terminology of popular antiquities or popular literature, the second half of the compound word, lore, proves easier to define as its meaning has stayed relatively stable over the last two centuries. Coming from Old English lār instruction, and with German and Dutch cognates, it is the knowledge and traditions of a particular group, the concept of folk proves somewhat more elusive. When Thoms first created this term, folk applied only to rural, frequently poor, a more modern definition of folk is a social group which includes two or more persons with common traits, who express their shared identity through distinctive traditions. Folk is a concept which can refer to a nation as in American folklore or to a single family. This expanded social definition of folk supports a view of the material, i. e. the lore. These now include all things people make with words, things they make with their hands, Folklore is no longer circumscribed as being chronologically old or obsolete. The folklorist studies the traditional artifacts of a group and how they are transmitted. Transmission is a part of the folklore process. Without communicating these beliefs and customs within the group over space and time, for folklore is also a verb. These folk artifacts continue to be passed along informally, as a rule anonymously, the folk group is not individualistic, it is community-based and nurtures its lore in community. As new groups emerge, new folklore is created… surfers, motorcyclists, in direct contrast to high culture, where any single work of a named artist is protected by copyright law, folklore is a function of shared identity within the social group. Having identified folk artifacts, the professional folklorist strives to understand the significance of these beliefs, customs, for these cultural units would not be passed along unless they had some continued relevance within the group
16.
Highveld
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The highest part of the Highveld, around 2100 m, is its northeastern and only well-defined boundary, where the plateau escarpment separates it from the Mpumalanga Lowveld. The continuation of the Great Escarpment to the south separates the Highveld from KwaZulu-Natal, the south-eastern portion of the Great Escarpment rises to over 3000 m and forms the boundary between KwaZulu-Natal and Lesotho. The latter mountainous region is, however, not generally referred to as Highveld, whose boundary at this point runs just inside the Lesotho-Free State border, the Highveld covers an area of almost 400,000 km2, or roughly 30% of South Africas land area. The Vaal River and its tributaries form the water drainage system of the Highveld. Tributaries of the Orange River drain the most southerly regions of the Highveld, the Highveld rainy season occurs in summer, with substantial afternoon thunderstorms being typical occurrences in November, December, and January. Cities located on the Highveld include Johannesburg, Pretoria, Bloemfontein, Vereeniging, Welkom, Carletonville, the diamond-mining city of Kimberley lies on the border of the Highveld and the southeastern Kalahari. About half of the gold produced in the world has been mined on the Highveld since 1880. The largest deposits are located in the Witwatersrand, which centres on Johannesburg, with deposits in the northern Free State near Welkom. The Highveld is also rich in diamonds, coal, vanadium. The peat base of the acts as a natural filter. The major grass species are Hyparrhenia hirta and Sporobolus pyramidalis and among these are other grasses, trees and shrubs never thrived due to the frequent fires that occurred in the dry season and the heavy grazing. The only endemic species is Bothas lark and the two endemic mammals - the Free State pygmy mouse and the rough-haired golden mole. As well as the python, other include the Nile crocodile, Nile monitor, rock monitor. Like so many areas of all over the world, the Highveld is excellent agricultural land. Witwatersrand basin Vredefort crater Transvaal Basin
17.
Gold
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Gold is a chemical element with symbol Au and atomic number 79. In its purest form, it is a bright, slightly yellow, dense, soft, malleable. Chemically, gold is a metal and a group 11 element. It is one of the least reactive chemical elements and is solid under standard conditions, Gold often occurs in free elemental form, as nuggets or grains, in rocks, in veins, and in alluvial deposits. It occurs in a solid solution series with the element silver and also naturally alloyed with copper. Less commonly, it occurs in minerals as gold compounds, often with tellurium, golds atomic number of 79 makes it one of the higher numbered, naturally occurring elements. It is thought to have produced in supernova nucleosynthesis, from the collision of neutron stars. Because the Earth was molten when it was formed, almost all of the present in the early Earth probably sank into the planetary core. Gold is resistant to most acids, though it does dissolve in aqua regia, a mixture of acid and hydrochloric acid. Gold also dissolves in solutions of cyanide, which are used in mining and electroplating. Gold dissolves in mercury, forming amalgam alloys, but this is not a chemical reaction, as a precious metal, gold has been used for coinage, jewelry, and other arts throughout recorded history. A total of 186,700 tonnes of gold is in existence above ground, the world consumption of new gold produced is about 50% in jewelry, 40% in investments, and 10% in industry. Gold is also used in infrared shielding, colored-glass production, gold leafing, certain gold salts are still used as anti-inflammatories in medicine. As of 2014, the worlds largest gold producer by far was China with 450 tonnes, Gold is cognate with similar words in many Germanic languages, deriving via Proto-Germanic *gulþą from Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰelh₃-. The symbol Au is from the Latin, aurum, the Latin word for gold, the Proto-Indo-European ancestor of aurum was *h₂é-h₂us-o-, meaning glow. This word is derived from the root as *h₂éu̯sōs, the ancestor of the Latin word Aurora. This etymological relationship is presumably behind the frequent claim in scientific publications that aurum meant shining dawn, Gold is the most malleable of all metals, a single gram can be beaten into a sheet of 1 square meter, and an avoirdupois ounce into 300 square feet. Gold leaf can be thin enough to become semi-transparent
18.
Alluvium
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Alluvium is loose, unconsolidated soil or sediments, which has been eroded, reshaped by water in some form, and redeposited in a non-marine setting. Alluvium is typically made up of a variety of materials, including fine particles of silt and clay and larger particles of sand, when this loose alluvial material is deposited or cemented into a lithological unit, or lithified, it is called an alluvial deposit. The term alluvium is not typically used in situations where the formation of the sediment can clearly be attributed to another process that is well described. This includes, lake sediments, river sediments, or glacially-derived sediments, sediments that are formed or deposited in a perennial stream or river are typically not referred to as alluvial. Most alluvium is very young, and is often referred to as cover because these sediments obscure the underlying bedrock. Most sedimentary material that fills a basin that is not lithified is typically lumped together as alluvial, alluvium of Pliocene age occurs, for example, in parts of Idaho. Alluvium of late Miocene age occurs, for example, in the valley of the San Joaquin River, alluvium can contain valuable ores such as gold and platinum and a wide variety of gemstones. Such a concentration of ores is termed a placer deposit
19.
Mining
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Mining is extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth usually from an orebody, lode, vein, seam, reef or placer deposits. These deposits form a mineralized package that is of economic interest to the miner, ores recovered by mining include metals, coal, oil shale, gemstones, limestone, chalk, dimension stone, rock salt, potash, gravel, and clay. Mining is required to obtain any material that cannot be grown through agricultural processes, Mining in a wider sense includes extraction of any non-renewable resource such as petroleum, natural gas, or even water. Mining of stones and metal has been a human activity since pre-historic times, Mining operations usually create a negative environmental impact, both during the mining activity and after the mine has closed. Hence, most of the nations have passed regulations to decrease the impact. Work safety has long been a concern as well, and modern practices have significantly improved safety in mines, levels of metals recycling are generally low. Unless future end-of-life recycling rates are stepped up, some rare metals may become unavailable for use in a variety of consumer products, due to the low recycling rates, some landfills now contain higher concentrations of metal than mines themselves. Since the beginning of civilization, people have used stone, ceramics and, later and these were used to make early tools and weapons, for example, high quality flint found in northern France, southern England and Poland was used to create flint tools. Flint mines have been found in areas where seams of the stone were followed underground by shafts. The mines at Grimes Graves and Krzemionki are especially famous, other hard rocks mined or collected for axes included the greenstone of the Langdale axe industry based in the English Lake District. The oldest-known mine on archaeological record is the Lion Cave in Swaziland, at this site Paleolithic humans mined hematite to make the red pigment ochre. Mines of an age in Hungary are believed to be sites where Neanderthals may have mined flint for weapons. Ancient Egyptians mined malachite at Maadi, at first, Egyptians used the bright green malachite stones for ornamentations and pottery. Later, between 2613 and 2494 BC, large building projects required expeditions abroad to the area of Wadi Maghareh in order to secure minerals and other resources not available in Egypt itself. Quarries for turquoise and copper were found at Wadi Hammamat, Tura, Aswan and various other Nubian sites on the Sinai Peninsula. Mining in Egypt occurred in the earliest dynasties, the gold mines of Nubia were among the largest and most extensive of any in Ancient Egypt. These mines are described by the Greek author Diodorus Siculus, who mentions fire-setting as one used to break down the hard rock holding the gold. One of the complexes is shown in one of the earliest known maps, the miners crushed the ore and ground it to a fine powder before washing the powder for the gold dust
20.
Barberton, Mpumalanga
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Barberton is a town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa, which has its origin in the 1880s gold rush in the region. It is situated in the De Kaap Valley and is fringed by the Makhonjwa Mountains and it is 43 kilometres south of Nelspruit and 360 kilometres east of Johannesburg. The mountains around Barberton are amongst the oldest in the world, dating back 3.5 billion years, and these volcanic rocks, which scientists call the Barberton Greenstone Belt, have given direct evidence of the conditions of life on the surface of the very early earth. In the satellite image, the rocks of mountain peaks appear as a pale gray-green, accentuated by the sharp relief of sunlit slopes. Deeper shades of green vegetation, including some vegetation on the lower slopes. In the mountain valleys, bright green areas suggest well-watered grassy areas, deeper green areas are probably forests. The series of green circles north of the town of Barberton result from centre-pivot irrigation systems. The area north and west of Barberton appears slightly pale and fuzzy compared to the rest of this image, the first form of life on earth, a bacterial micro fossil Archaeosphaeroides barbertonensis was discovered here in 1967 and has been identified as being 3.1 billion years old. In 1881 gold in the Barberton area was discovered by Tom McLachlan who found gold at Jamestown. However, due to the location no-one wanted to go there until Auguste Roberts discovered gold in Concession Creek on 20 June 1883 and this discovery resulted in a gold rush to the area. The State Secretary then asked the Magistrate in Lydenburg to investigate the matter and for David Wilson, Wilson investigated on 24 July 1884 and declared the township of Barberton. The town was named after Graham Hoare Barber who discovered a rich gold-bearing reef there in 1884, Barberton became a municipality in 1904. At first it was just a simple mining camp but grew when Edwin Bray, large amounts of money flowed into Barberton and the first Stock Exchange to operate in the then Transvaal opened its doors. More buildings were erected, billiard saloons and music halls established, the Criterion and Royal Standard hotels were opened. In 1896, Barberton was connected by rail to the Netherlands-South African Railway Company s Oosterlijn through a specifically constructed side line running from Kaapmuiden to Barberton. Barberton flourished for only a period and soon the inhabitants began to move away to the newly discovered gold fields on the Reef. Among the owners of mines in the Barberton area are Pan African Resources, on 5 February 2016,87 miners were rescued after a cave-in at the main entrance of Makonjwaan Gold Mine, operated by Australian-based Vantage Goldfields. This reserve is situated in the Barberton Mountain lands and is the Mpumalanga Parks Boards largest reserve, the British built a concentration camp here during the Boer War to house Boer women and children
21.
Pilgrim's Rest, Mpumalanga
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Pilgrim’s Rest is a small town in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa which is protected as a provincial heritage site. It was the second of the Transvaal gold fields, attracting a rush of prospectors in 1873, alluvial panning eventually gave way to deeper ore mining. In the 1970s the town, not greatly changed, became a tourist destination, the alluvial gold was discovered by prospector Alec Patterson. He panned Pilgrims Creek, as it known, when the nearby MacMac diggings became too crowded. He kept his find a secret, but a gold rush resulted when fellow prospector William Trafford registered his claim with the Gold Commissioner at MacMac. After it was declared a gold field in September 1873. In the 1880s the alluvial gold dwindled and prospectors were attracted to Barbertons newly discovered gold deposits, towards the end of the 19th century claims were bought up and underground mining started by the company known as TGME. The better-funded mining companies started mining the deeper gold-bearing ore, by 1895 several small mining companies amalgamated to form the Transvaal Gold Mining Estates. In 1911 the 2,000 kW Belvedere power station was completed on the Blyde River and it supplied hydro-electric power to Pilgrims Rest and adjacent communities up to 1992. Pilgrims Rest was southern Africas second town with electricity, the first being Kimberley. Pilgrim’s Rest was the location of a mint during the Second Boer War. This mint struck the famous and extremely rare Veld Pond, the most detailed account attributes the grave to a fortune hunter, one Walter Scott, who committed suicide. Scott would have shot his friend Roy Spencer, son of a well to do English banker, after they returned drunk form a party, Scott suspected Spencer of stealing his purse of gold. Scott pursued Spencer and shot him near the church, the site of the present grave yard, the sobered up Scott found his purse in his tent, and committed suicide when he realised what he had done. Scott was then buried in a grave next to that of his friend. Mining was closed down in 1971 and the village was sold to the government as a national museum, Transvaal Gold Minings Estates, currently part of the listed Simmers and Jack, started gold mining again in 1998. The towns original architecture remains largely unchanged since then, because the town was declared a National Monument and it became a provincial heritage site in 1986. On May 15,2004, the site was added to the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List in the Cultural category,2016 World Heritage the town has since spiraled down hill with many of the shops closed down and many shops sit with very little or no work
22.
Mpumalanga
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Mpumalanga /əmˌpuːməˈlɑːŋɡə/, is a province of South Africa. The name means east, or literally the place where the sun rises in the Swazi, Xhosa, Ndebele, Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Swaziland and Mozambique. It constitutes 6. 5% of South Africas land area and it shares borders with the South African provinces of Limpopo to the north, Gauteng to the west, the Free State to the southwest, and KwaZulu-Natal to the south. Before 1994, Mpumalanga was part of Transvaal Province, the southern half of the Kruger National Park is in the latter region. The Drakensberg exceeds heights of 2000 m in most places, with this region of Mpumalanga being very mountainous. These regions have alpine grasslands and small pockets of Afromontane forest, the Lowveld is relatively flat with interspersed rocky outcrops. The Lebombo Mountains form a low range in the far east, some of the oldest rocks on earth have been found in the Barberton area, these ancient greenstones and metamorphosed granites form the Crocodile River Mountains in the southeast of the province. The Lowveld is underlaid by African Cratonic Basement rocks of ages in excess of 2 billion years, the Highveld is mostly Karoo Sequence sedimentary rock of a younger, Carboniferous to Permian age. Mpumalanga is the only South African province to border two provinces of Mozambique, as well as all four districts of Swaziland, the Lowveld is subtropical, due to its latitude and proximity to the warm Indian Ocean. The Highveld is comparatively cooler, due to its altitude of 2300 m to 1700 m above sea level. The Drakensberg Escarpment receives the most precipitation, with all other areas being moderately well-watered by mostly summer thunderstorms, the Highveld often experiences severe frost, while the Lowveld is mostly frost-free. Winter rainfall is rare, except for drizzle on the escarpment. The differences in climate are demonstrated below by the capital, Nelspruit, which is in the Lowveld and this international game park brings together some of the best and most established wildlife areas in southern Africa. The park is managed as an integrated unit across an unprecedented three international boundaries which includes the Kruger National Park, Limpopo National Park and Gonarezhou National Park, lists of and the original texts of this legislation are available through South African governmental websites. Amended and updated versions of the legislation is available through commercial vendors on subscription, see External links for more information. More than 68% of Mpumalanga is used by agriculture, crops include maize, wheat, sorghum, barley, sunflower seed, soybeans, macadamias, groundnuts, sugar cane, vegetables, coffee, tea, cotton, tobacco, citrus, subtropical and deciduous fruit. Forestry is extensive around Sabie in the far north east of the province, located near the forests, Ngodwana is the site of one of South Africas largest paper mills. Natural grazing covers approximately 14% of Mpumalanga, the main products are beef, mutton, wool, poultry and dairy
23.
Witwatersrand
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The Witwatersrand aka The Reef, is a 56-kilometre-long north-facing scarp in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. This east–west-running scarp can be traced with only one short gap from Bedfordview in the east, through Johannesburg and Roodepoort, the scarp forms the northern edge of a 7- to 10-kilometre-wide plateau which rises about 200 m above the surrounding plains of the Highveld. The entire plateau-like structure is often called the “Witwatersrand”. The plateau’s elevation above sea-level is between 1700–1800 m, the Witwatersrand lies within the province of Gauteng, formerly called the “PWV”, an abbreviation for Pretoria, Witwatersrand and Vereeniging. When used in this context, the term Witwatersrand refers to the entire Greater Johannesburg Metropolitan Area. This conurbation is oblong in shape and runs from Springs in the east to Randfontein and Carletonville in the west and this area is also often colloquially referred to as “the Rand” or “Wits”. Because of the quantities of gold that have been extracted from the Witwatersrand rocks. The Witwatersrand plateau consists of a 5000- to 7000-metre-thick layer of sedimentary rocks laid down over a period of about 260 million years. The oldest rocks form the northern scarp of the Witwatersrand plateau, Gold is found in the conglomerate strata of the younger members of the Supergroup. The abundance of gold is without equal anywhere else in the world. Over 50000 tons have been mined from these rocks since this precious metal was first discovered here in 1886 and this accounts for approximately 50% of all the gold ever mined on earth. The gold-bearing conglomerates occur chiefly in the upper, younger layers of the Witwatersrand Supergroup of rocks, the Witwatersrand Supergroup strata which reach the surface in Johannesburg dip downwards to the south at an angle of about 30°. From there on they are almost everywhere, with few exceptions. Gold mining in these buried portions of the Witwatersrand Supergroup is sometimes carried out at depths of 4 kilometres below the surface, the Kaapvaal Craton, one of the first microcontinents to form on Earth through plate tectonics, was assembled about 3900 million years ago. Its size and position relative to Southern Africa today is indicated in the diagram on the left, about 3000 million years ago local cooling of the underlying asthenosphere caused subsidence of the south-eastern portion of this microcontinent below sea level. The floor of newly formed “Witwatersrand sea” consisted of smoothly eroded granites. Sandy sediments brought in by rivers from the north started being deposited on the granite about 2970 million years ago and this sandy layer eventually became compressed to form the Orange Grove Quartzite, the lowermost layer of the Witwatersrand Supergroup. This quartzite formation forms the scarp from which the Witwatersrand derives its name, as the sea deepened finer grained and muddy sediments accumulated
24.
Welkom
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Welkom is the second-largest city in the Free State province of South Africa, located about 140 kilometres northeast of Bloemfontein, the provincial capital. Welkom is also known as Circle City, City Within A Garden, Mvela, a settlement was laid out on a farm named Welkom after gold was discovered in the region, and it was officially proclaimed a town in 1948. The town became a municipality in 1961 and it now falls in the Matjhabeng Municipality, part of the Lejweleputswa District. Welkom was officially declared a city on 14 February 1968, much of the history of Welkom is centred around the discovery of gold in the northwestern Free State. It was proclaimed a town in 1948, nines years after a gold discovery was made in Odendaalsrus. The first prospecting in the area was done by the Englishmen Mr Donaldson and they returned to England to test the samples they had extracted, but died before reaching their destination when their ship sank in the Bay of Biscay. Prospector Arthur Megson heard of their venture and decided to investigate near the town of Odendaalsrus in 1904 and he gathered samples of exposed strata near an outcrop, which by then was part of Hendrik Petrus Kloppers farm Aandenk. He too did not succeed in obtaining any interest from companies until October 1932, the area needed to be tested by drilling, and the first borehole was started on 5 May 1933. Jacobs managed to interest two men, Fritz Marx and Peter Woolf, in the venture and the Wit Extensions Company was formed later that year, prospecting intensified and the first high values of gold were discovered in 1939. By 1940, sufficient work had been done to prove the existence of gold in the area and thirteen mining areas were later demarcated around what would become the town of Welkom. Welkom officially came into being on 15 April 1947, six years after the first mining lease in the area was awarded to the St Helena Gold Mining Company, and was proclaimed a town on 23 July 1948. On 14 February 1968, after 21 years of existence, Welkom received city status, the construction of this building commenced in 1964. During Apartheid in the years of segregation, the townships of Thabong and Bronville were established for black and Coloured people, on 8 December 1976, Welkom experienced an earthquake measuring 5.2 on the Richter magnitude scale. The most significant damage caused was the collapse of a six-storey block of flats about 75 minutes after the event. Widespread damage to other buildings was experienced throughout the city. Despite extensive damage to surface and underground mining structures, only four deaths occurred, during the decline of the Apartheid era, race relations were particularly problematic as many White South Africans felt threatened by the eventuality of a regime change. This was the cause of the events that transpired on the 13 May 1989, when the mayor. The National Party mayor ran foul of his White constituency when he proposed the opening of a rank in the business district of Welkom
25.
Silt
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Silt is granular material of a size between sand and clay, whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as sediment mixed in suspension with water in a body of such as a river. It may also exist as soil deposited at the bottom of a water body, Silt has a moderate specific area with a typically non-sticky, plastic feel. Silt usually has a floury feel when dry, and a slippery feel when wet, Silt can be visually observed with a hand lens. Silt is created by a variety of physical processes capable of splitting the generally sand-sized quartz crystals of primary rocks by exploiting deficiencies in their lattice and these involve chemical weathering of rock and regolith, and a number of physical weathering processes such as frost shattering and haloclasty. The main process is abrasion through transport, including fluvial comminution, aeolian attrition and it is in semi-arid environments that substantial quantities of silt are produced. Silt is sometimes known as rock flour or stone dust, especially produced by glacial action. Mineralogically, silt is composed mainly of quartz and feldspar, sedimentary rock composed mainly of silt is known as siltstone. Liquefaction created by an earthquake is silt suspended in water that is hydrodynamically forced up from below ground level. In the Udden–Wentworth scale, silt particles range between 0.0039 and 0.0625 mm, larger than clay but smaller than sand particles, ISO14688 grades silts between 0.002 mm and 0.063 mm. In actuality, silt is chemically distinct from clay, and unlike clay, grains of silt are approximately the size in all dimensions, furthermore. Clays are formed from thin plate-shaped particles held together by electrostatic forces, according to the U. S. Department of Agriculture Soil Texture Classification system, the sand-silt distinction is made at the 0.05 mm particle size. The USDA system has been adopted by the Food and Agriculture Organization, in the Unified Soil Classification System and the AASHTO Soil Classification system, the sand-silt distinction is made at the 0.075 mm particle size. Silts and clays are distinguished mechanically by their plasticity, Silt is easily transported in water or other liquid and is fine enough to be carried long distances by air in the form of dust. Thick deposits of silty material resulting from deposition by aeolian processes are called loess. Silt and clay contribute to turbidity in water, Silt is transported by streams or by water currents in the ocean. When silt appears as a pollutant in water the phenomenon is known as siltation, Silt, deposited by annual floods along the Nile River, created the rich, fertile soil that sustained the Ancient Egyptian civilization. In south east Bangladesh, in the Noakhali district, cross dams were built in the 1960s whereby silt gradually started forming new land called chars, the district of Noakhali has gained more than 28 square miles of land in the past 50 years
26.
Cecil Rhodes
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Cecil John Rhodes PC was a British businessman, mining magnate and politician in South Africa, who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his British South Africa Company founded the southern African territory of Rhodesia, South Africas Rhodes University is also named after him. Rhodes set up the provisions of the Rhodes Scholarship, which is funded by his estate, the son of a vicar, Rhodes grew up in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, and was a sickly child. He was sent to South Africa by his family when he was 17 years old in the hope that the climate might improve his health. He entered the trade at Kimberley in 1871, when he was 18. His De Beers diamond company, formed in 1888, retains its prominence into the 21st century, Rhodes entered the Cape Parliament in 1880, and a decade later became Prime Minister. After Rhodess death in 1902, at the age of 48, at the time of his death he was already a very controversial figure. One of Rhodess primary motivators in politics and business was his belief that the Anglo-Saxon race was, to quote his will. Most histories of South Africa covering the last decades of the century are contributions to the historiography of Cecil Rhodes. According to McFarlane, the aforementioned historiography may be divided into two categories, chauvinistic approval or utter vilification. Rhodes was born in 1853 in Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire, England and he was the fifth son of the Reverend Francis William Rhodes and his wife Louisa Peacock Rhodes. His father was a Church of England clergyman who was proud of never having preached a sermon longer than 10 minutes and his siblings included Francis William Rhodes, who became an army officer. His father therefore determined to send him abroad to try the effect of a sea voyage, Herbert had already set up as a planter in Natal, South Africa, so Cecil was despatched on a sailing vessel to join Herbert in Natal. The voyage to Durban took him seventy days, and on 1 September 1870 he first set foot on African soil and his familys hope was that the climate would improve his health. They expected he would help his older brother Herbert who operated a cotton farm, when he first came to Africa, Rhodes lived on money lent by his aunt Sophia. After a brief stay with the Surveyor-General of Natal, Dr. P. C, sutherland, in Pietermaritzburg, Rhodes took an interest in agriculture. He joined his brother Herbert on his farm in the Umkomazi valley in Natal. The land was unsuitable for cotton, and the venture failed, in October 1871, 18-year-old Rhodes and his brother Herbert left the colony for the diamond fields of Kimberley
27.
Kimberley, Northern Cape
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Kimberley is the largest and capital city of the Northern Cape Province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal, the city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Boer War. Notable personalities such as Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes here, Kimberley was the first city in the Southern Hemisphere and the second in the world after Philadelphia to integrate electric street lights into its infrastructure on Sept.2,1882. The first Stock Exchange in Africa was also built in Kimberley, in 1866, Erasmus Jacobs found a small brilliant pebble on the banks of the Orange River, on the farm De Kalk leased from local Griquas, near Hopetown, which was his fathers farm. He showed the pebble to his father who sold it, the pebble was purchased from Jacobs by Schalk van Niekerk, who later sold it. It proved to be a 21. 25-carat diamond, and became known as the Eureka, three years later, in 1869, an 83. 5-carat diamond, which became known as the Star of South Africa, was found nearby. This diamond was sold by van Niekerk for £11,200, Henry Richard Giddy recounted how Esau Damoense, the cook for prospector Fleetwood Rawstones Red Cap Party, found diamonds in 1871 on Colesberg Kopje after he was sent there to dig as punishment. Rawstorne took the news to the diggings of the De Beer brothers — his arrival there sparking off the famous New Rush which. Within a month 800 claims were cut into the hillock which were worked frenetically by two to three thousand men, as the land was lowered so the hillock became a mine – in time, the world-renowned Kimberley Mine. The Cape Colony, Transvaal, Orange Free State and the Griqua leader Nikolaas Waterboer all laid claim to the diamond fields, the Free State Boers in particular wanted the area as it lay inside the natural borders created by Orange and Vaal Rivers. Following the mediation that was overseen by the governor of Natal, the Keate Award went in favour of Waterboer, consequently, the territory known as Griqualand West was proclaimed on 27 October 1871. Colonial Commissioners arrived in New Rush on 17 November 1871 to exercise authority over the territory on behalf of the Cape Governor. Digger objections and minor riots led to Governor Barklys visit to New Rush in September the following year, Richard Southey would arrive as Lieutenant-Governor of the intended Crown Colony in January 1873. Months passed however without any sign of the proclamation or of the new constitution and provision for representative government. The delay was in London where Secretary of State for the Colonies, Lord Kimberley, insisted that before electoral divisions could be defined, the places had to receive decent and intelligible names. His Lordship declined to be in any way connected with such a vulgarism as New Rush and as for the Dutch name, the matter was passed to Southey who gave it to his Colonial Secretary J. B. Currey. Roberts writes that when it came to renaming New Rush, proved himself a worthy diplomat and he made quite sure that Lord Kimberley would be able both to spell and pronounce the name of the main electoral division by, as he says, calling it after His Lordship. New Rush became Kimberley, by Proclamation dated 5 July 1873, digger sentiment was expressed in an editorial in the Diamond Field newspaper when it stated we went to sleep in New Rush and waked up in Kimberley, and so our dream was gone
28.
Roodepoort
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Roodepoort is a city in the Greater Johannesburg area, Gauteng, South Africa. Johannesburgs most famous garden, Witwatersrand National Botanical Gardens, is located in Roodepoort. Formerly an independent municipality, Roodepoort became part of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in the late 1990s, along with Randburg and Sandton. In 1884, brothers Fred and Harry Struben, having discovered gold on the farm Wilgespruit at the end of the Witwatersrand, were granted concessions to mine the area. When George Harrisons find at Langlaagte came to light and gold fever took hold, though the Confidence Reef bore little gold and their mine was unprofitable, the ramshackle town that grew around it became the Roodepoort Municipality in 1903. Incorporating the towns of Hamburg, Florida and Maraisburg, Roodepoort became a city in 1977, residential areas in the new developing parts of Roodepoort are expanding at a faster pace than anywhere else in South Africa. This growth is said to be fueled by various factors such as the fast-growing Black middle class, Roodepoort is home to several private and state schools, including Trinity House and Charter College. Roodepoort has seen population growth due to Johannesburg urban sprawl. Areas of interest for entertainment include the Featherbrooke Village shopping centre which is one of the student hotspots, Roodepoort has a wide variety of restaurants and shopping centres
29.
Paul Kruger
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Stephanus Johannes Paulus Paul Kruger was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic from 1883 to 1900. Born near the edge of the Cape Colony, Kruger took part in the Great Trek as a child during the late 1830s. He had almost no education apart from the Bible and, through his interpretations of scripture, in 1863 he was elected Commandant-General, a post he held for a decade before he resigned soon after the election of President Thomas François Burgers. Kruger was appointed Vice-President in 1877, shortly before the South African Republic was annexed by Britain as the Transvaal, Kruger served until 1883 as a member of an executive triumvirate, then was elected President. In 1884 he headed a deputation that brokered the London Convention. Kruger left for Europe as the war turned against the Boers in 1900 and spent the rest of his life in exile, refusing to return home following the British victory. After he died in Switzerland at the age of 78 in 1904, his body was returned to South Africa for a state funeral, the family was of Dutch-speaking Afrikaner or Boer background, of German, French Huguenot and Dutch stock. His paternal ancestors had been in South Africa since 1713, when Jacob Krüger, from Berlin and his mothers family, the Steyns, had lived in South Africa since 1668 and were relatively affluent and cultured by Cape standards. Krugers great-great-uncle Hermanus Steyn had been President of the self-declared Republic of Swellendam that revolted against Company rule in 1795, Bulhoek, Krugers birthplace, was the Steyn family farm and had been Elsies home since early childhood, her father Douw Gerbrand Steyn had settled there in 1809. The Krugers and Steyns were acquainted and Casper occasionally visited Bulhoek as a young man and he and Elsie married in Cradock in 1820, when he was 18 and she was 14. A girl, Sophia, and a boy, Douw Gerbrand, were born before Pauls arrival in 1825 and his mother died when he was eight, Casper soon remarried and had more children with his second wife, Heiletje. Beyond reading and writing, which he learned from relatives, Krugers only education was three months under a tutor, Tielman Roos, and Calvinist religious instruction from his father. In adulthood Kruger would claim to have never read any book apart from the Bible, in 1835 Casper Kruger, his father and his brothers Gert and Theuns moved their families east and set up farms near the Caledon River, on the Cape Colonys far north-eastern frontier. The Cape had been under British sovereignty since 1814, when the Netherlands ceded it to Britain with the Convention of London and they had given little thought to the idea of leaving the Cape. A group of emigrants under Hendrik Potgieter passed through the Krugers Caledon encampments in early 1836, Potgieter envisioned a Boer republic with himself in a prominent role, he sufficiently impressed the Krugers that they joined his party of Voortrekkers. Krugers father continued to give the religious education in the Boer fashion during the trek, having them recite or write down biblical passages from memory each day after lunch. At stops along the journey classrooms were improvised from reeds and grass, the Voortrekkers faced competition for the area they were entering from Mzilikazi and his Ndebele people, a recent offshoot from the Zulu Kingdom to the south-east. Kruger and the small children assisted in tasks such as bullet-casting while the women and larger boys helped the fighting men
30.
South African Republic
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The territory of the ZAR became known after this war as the Transvaal Colony. Constitutionally the name of the country was Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, many people also called the ZAR Transvaal, in reference to the area over the Vaal River including the British press and the press in Europe. In fact the name Transvaal was later so often used later the British objected to the use of the real name. The British pointed out that the Convention of Pretoria of 3 August 1881 referred to the Transvaal Territory and that the Transvaal and the South African Republic did not have the same boundaries. However, in the London Convention dated 27 February 1884, a subsequent treaty between Britain and the ZAR, Britain acquiesced and reverted to the use of the true name and this proclamation was issued during the Second Boer War and whilst the ZAR was still an independent country. On 20 May 1903 an Inter Colonial Council was established, to manage the colonies of the British Government, the name Transvaal was finally changed in 1994, when the ANC government broke up the Transvaal area and renamed the core to Gauteng. In paleolithic times, between 2.2 and 3.3 million years ago, hominids lived within the area of the ZAR. The earliest hominid bones, between 2.2 and 3.3 million years old, were discovered at Sterkfontein in 1994, in 1938 Paranthropus robustus bones were found at Kromdraai, and during 1947 several more examples of Australopithecus africanus were uncovered in Sterkfontein. The capital was established at Potchefstroom and later moved to Pretoria, the parliament was called the Volksraad and had 24 members. The South African Republic became fully independent on the 27 February 1884 when the London Convention was signed, the country independently also entered into various agreements with other foreign countries after that date. On 3 November 1884 the country signed a Postal convention with the government of the Cape Colony, on the November 1859 the independent Republic of Lijdenburg merged with the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek. On 9 May 1887, burghers from the territories of Stellaland, on 25 July 1895 the burghers that took part in the battle at Zoutpansberg, were granted citizenship of the ZAR. The constitution of the Zuid Afrikaansche Republiek has been referred to as interesting for its time. It contained provisions for the division between the leadership and office bearers in government administration. The legal system consisted of higher and lower courts and had adopted a jury system, the laws were enforced by the South African Republic Police which were divided into Mounted Police and Foot Police. Also established was a Municipal Government, Witwatersrand District court and the High Court of Transvaal, initially the State and Church were not separated in the constitution of the ZAR, citizens of the ZAR had to be members of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1858 these clauses were altered in the constitution to allow for the Volksraad to approve other Dutch Christian churches. The Reformed Church was approved by the Volksraad in 1858, which had the effect of allowing Paul Kruger, the Bible itself was also often used to interpret the intention of legal documents
31.
Great Trek
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The Great Trek resulted from the culmination of tensions between rural descendants of the Capes original European settlers, known collectively as Boers, and the British Empire. The Great Trek led directly to the founding of several autonomous Boer republics, namely the South African Republic, the Orange Free State, and the Natalia Republic. It was also responsible for the displacement of the Northern Ndebele people, vrijburgers were granted tax exempt status for twelve years and loaned all the necessary seeds and farming implements they requested. They were married Dutch citizens, considered of good character by the Company, as a result, by 1691 over a quarter of the colonys European population was not ethnically Dutch. Nevertheless, there was a degree of assimilation due to intermarriage. Following the Flanders Campaign and the Batavian Revolution in Amsterdam, France assisted in the establishment of a client state. This opened the Cape to French warships, to protect her own prosperous maritime shipping routes, Great Britain occupied the fledgling colony by force until 1803. From 1806 to 1814 the Cape was again governed as a British military dependency, the British formally assumed permanent administrative control around 1815, as a result of the Treaty of Paris. Just over a quarter were of German ancestry and about one-sixth were descended from French Huguenots, there were also 30,000 African and Asian slaves owned by the settlers, and about 17,000 indigenous Khoisan. Relations between the settlers—especially the Boers—and the new administration quickly soured, the British authorities were adamantly opposed to the Boers ownership of slaves, and what was perceived as their unduly harsh treatment of the indigenous peoples. The British government insisted that the Cape finance its own affairs through self taxation, in 1815, the controversial arrest of a white farmer for allegedly assaulting one of his servants resulted in the abortive Slachters Nek Rebellion. The British retaliated by hanging at least five Boers for insurrection, in 1828 the Cape governor declared that all native inhabitants but slaves were to have the rights of citizens, in respect of security and property ownership, on parity with the settlers. This had the effect of alienating the colonys white population. Boer resentment of successive British administrators continued to grow throughout the late 1820s and early 1830s and this replaced Dutch with English as the language used in the Capes judicial system, putting the Boers at a disadvantage, as most spoke little or no English at all. Great Britains alienation of the Boers was particularly amplified by the decision to abolish slavery in all its colonies in 1834. All 35,745 slaves registered with the Cape governor were to be freed and given rights on par with other citizens, although in most cases their masters could retain them as apprentices until 1838. Compensation was indeed offered by the British government, but payment had to be made in London and they resolved to trek beyond the colonys borders on their own. Droughts Perceived antagonism from British missionaries, the official recognition of the equality between settlers and native inhabitants
32.
Ferreirasdorp
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Ferreirasdorp is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa located in Region F. First known as Ferreiras Camp and later Ferreiras Township, it is the oldest part of Johannesburg, sometimes referred to as the cradle of Johannesburg, it is where the first gold diggings started, and where the first diggers initially settled. The city grew around the camp in the Ferreirasdorp area. The suburb is named after Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, leader of the group of diggers who settled in this area in 1886. The suburbs origins lie in the Turffontein farm set up by Colonel Ignatius Ferreira, Ferreira had acquired a dozen claims in the vicinity and opened the reef in a cutting. The ore from both sides had a gold content. The first tent on the site was erected in 1886, two months before gold digging started in earnest, following reports of new gold finds in the Witwatersrand, Rhodes and Rudd set off for Ferreiras camp. Within a fortnight of Rhodes arrival in July 1886, Ferreiras camp was crowded with tents, the tent town eventually became known as Ferreira’s Camp. In July, the Diamond Fields Advertiser was already reporting that the population of Ferreiras Town was 300 persons, gold was discovered in September 1886. On September 8,1886, Landrost Carl von Brandis read President Paul Kruger’s proclamation, the first building to go up in Johannesburg, the Central Hotel, was located in Ferreira’s Camp. The first barber shop in Johannesburg, the first bar, the first pub, so were the first circus, Filliss Circus, the first café, Café Francais, and the first school. It was also the location of the first bank branch on the Witwatersrand gold fields, as the city expanded, Ferreirasdorp quickly degenerated into a slum. By the 1890s, the side of Commissioner street, where the Johannesburg Central Police Station is now located, had developed a reputation for its brothels. The name Ferreirasdorp itself ultimately became synonymous with everything that is vile. By the turn of the century, many contemporary sources referred to the part of Ferreirasdorp as the Cantonese quarter. The area became home to a large coloured community, and in 1898 a site was set aside for a church to service the coloured Anglican community. In 1925, the Communist Party of South Africa opened a school offering classes to blacks. In the 1960s, under the Group Areas Act, the community was forcibly moved
33.
Central business district
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A central business district is the commercial and business centre of a city. In larger cities, it is synonymous with the citys financial district. Both the CBD and the city centre or downtown may also coincide with the central activities district, a citys CBD is usually typified by a concentration of retail and office buildings. The CBD usually has a density higher than the surrounding districts of the city. The CBD is often also the city centre or downtown, Mexico City also has a historic city centre, the colonial-era Centro Histórico, along with two CBDs, the mid-late 20th century Paseo de la Reforma - Polanco, and the new Santa Fe. The shape and type of a CBD almost always reflect the citys history. Cities with maximum building height restrictions often have a historic section quite apart from the financial. It has been said that downtowns are therefore distinct from both CBDs and city centres. CBDs usually have very small resident populations, for example, the population of the City of London declined from over 200,000 in the year 1700 to less than 10,000 today. In some instances, however, CBD populations are increasing as younger professional, the Buenos Aires Central Business District, is the main commercial centre of Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina. The actual area was the point of first European settlement and its north-south axis runs from Monserrat in the south to Retiro railway station in the north. Its east-west axis runs from Buenos Aires Ecological Reserve and Puerto Madero, the district is the financial, commercial, and cultural hub of Argentina. Its port is one of the busiest in South America, navigable rivers by way of the Río de la Plata connect the port to northeast Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. As a result, it serves as the hub for a vast area of the southeastern region of the South American continent. Tax collection related to the port has caused political problems in the past. The Buenos Aires Human Development Index is likewise high by international standards, the term is used to refer to the business and financial area of a state capital city such as the Sydney CBD, Melbourne CBD, Brisbane CBD, Perth CBD and Adelaide CBD. The city centres of some cities, such as Townsville, Bendigo. More recently, in cities the city centre, which may or may not be distinct from the CBD, is increasingly separately identified
34.
Cape Town
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Cape Town is a coastal city in South Africa. It is the second-most populous urban area in South Africa after Johannesburg and it is also the capital and primate city of the Western Cape province. As the seat of the Parliament of South Africa, it is also the capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality, the city is famous for its harbour, for its natural setting in the Cape Floristic Region, and for such well-known landmarks as Table Mountain and Cape Point. As of 2014, it is the 10th most populous city in Africa and it is one of the most multicultural cities in the world, reflecting its role as a major destination for immigrants and expatriates to South Africa. The city was named the World Design Capital for 2014 by the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design, in 2014, Cape Town was named the best place in the world to visit by both the American New York Times and the British Daily Telegraph. Located on the shore of Table Bay, Cape Town was first developed by the Dutch East India Company as a station for Dutch ships sailing to East Africa, India. Jan van Riebeecks arrival on 6 April 1652 established the first permanent European settlement in South Africa, Cape Town quickly outgrew its original purpose as the first European outpost at the Castle of Good Hope, becoming the economic and cultural hub of the Cape Colony. Until the Witwatersrand Gold Rush and the development of Johannesburg, Cape Town was the largest city in South Africa, the earliest known remnants in the region were found at Peers Cave in Fish Hoek and date to between 15,000 and 12,000 years ago. It was later renamed by John II of Portugal as Cape of Good Hope because of the optimism engendered by the opening of a sea route to India. Vasco da Gama recorded a sighting of the Cape of Good Hope in 1497, in the late 16th century, Portuguese, French, Danish, Dutch and English but mainly Portuguese ships regularly stopped over in Table Bay en route to the Indies. They traded tobacco, copper and iron with the Khoikhoi in exchange for fresh meat, the settlement grew slowly during this period, as it was hard to find adequate labour. This labour shortage prompted the authorities to import slaves from Indonesia, many of these became ancestors of the first Cape Coloured communities. Some of these, including grapes, cereals, ground nuts, potatoes, apples and citrus, had an important, the Dutch Republic being transformed in Revolutionary Frances vassal Batavian Republic, Great Britain moved to take control of its colonies. Britain captured Cape Town in 1795, but the Cape was returned to the Dutch by treaty in 1803, British forces occupied the Cape again in 1806 following the Battle of Blaauwberg. In the Anglo-Dutch Treaty of 1814, Cape Town was permanently ceded to Britain and it became the capital of the newly formed Cape Colony, whose territory expanded very substantially through the 1800s. With expansion came calls for independence from Britain, with the Cape attaining its own parliament. Suffrage was established according to the non-racial, but sexist Cape Qualified Franchise, the discovery of diamonds in Griqualand West in 1867, and the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in 1886, prompted a flood of immigrants to South Africa
35.
Netherlands-South African Railway Company
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The Netherlands-South African Railway Company or NZASM was a railway company established in 1887. The company was based in Amsterdam and Pretoria, and operated in the South African Republic during the late 19th century, at the request of ZAR president Paul Kruger, the NZASM constructed a railway line between Pretoria and Lourenço Marques in Portuguese East Africa. The British conquered the Cape Colony in 1806, the new administration was not universally accepted by the Dutch colonists and after the 1830s thousands of Dutch-speaking colonists migrated to the interior of Southern Africa. This migration, known as the Great Trek, resulted in the establishment of 14 independent republics, by the mid 19th century these republics had merged into the two larger republics, The Republic of the Orange Free State and the South African Republic. The British Empire eventually recognized the independence of these republics in 1852, the relationship between the British and the Boers remained strained throughout the 19th century, especially as a result of the First Boer War. Both republics were located in the interior of what is now South Africa, Paul Kruger, president of the ZAR, decided that an alternative trade route to the ocean was a priority for the ZAR. In 1874 the Volksraad of the ZAR decided that a railway would be connecting the ZAR with Lourenço Marques on Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa. A commission was established in 1874 to create a plan for the construction of this railway, after initial success in raising capital and acquiring a railway concession from the Portuguese government, the project was stalled by the outbreak of the First Boer War. After the end of the war in 1881 the project was resumed, the Pretoria - Delagoa Bay line, with a length of 562 kilometres, was opened on 6 November 1894 and is still in use today. The railway company employed about 3000 people, of these, about 1500 were employed in the construction of the Pretoria - Delagoa Bay Line. It adopted the 3 ft 6 in of the neighbouring Cape Government Railways, on 19 February 1896, a train loaded with dynamite was struck by a shunter while being unloaded. The resulting Braamfontein Explosion was one of the largest artificial non-nuclear explosions in history, in 1897, a new station was constructed in Johannesburg. The building was constructed in 1895 in Rotterdam and was used in the Amsterdam Exhibition before being dismantled and shipped to Johannesburg, where it was rebuilt in 1897. Although Johannesburg Park Station has twice been reconstructed, the 1897 building was preserved and moved to a distance to Newtown where it still stands, unused. By 1899, the NZASM had constructed 1147 kilometres of railway, the line was opened on 17 March 1890, with the first train being hauled by a 14 Tonner locomotive. It became known as the Randtram, even though it was actually a railway in every aspect and this was the first working railway line in the Transvaal. The concession was extended the following year to continue the eastward to Springs, where coal was known to exist. The entire 49-mile line was opened to traffic on 10 February 1891, in 1889 and 1890, the NZASM obtained three tramway steam locomotives with an 0-4-0T wheel arrangement for use on the Randtram line
36.
Boksburg
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Boksburg is a city on the East Rand of Gauteng province of South Africa. Gold was discovered in Boksburg in 1887 and it was named after the State Secretary of the South African Republic, W. Eduard Bok. The Main Reef Road linked Boksburg to all the major mining towns on the Witwatersrand. Boksburg is part of the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, that forms the government of most of the East Rand. The Mining Commissioner Montague White built a dam which, empty for years, was dubbed Whites Folly until a flashflood in 1889 silenced detractors. The 150,000 square metre dam is now the Boksburg Lake, and is surrounded by lawns, trees, prior to 1860, the present municipal area of Boksburg and its immediate environs comprised mainly the highveld farms called Leeuwpoort, Klippoortje, Klipfontein and Driefontein. Carl Ziervogel bought the farm Leeuwpoort in 1875 and for 300 morgen of barren, in September 1886 Pieter Killian, a young Afrikaans prospector, discovered quartz reefs on Leeuwpoort. He also discovered quartz reefs on the farm Vogelfontein, named after Adolf Vogel, samples of the quartz were sent to Pretoria for assaying, which confirmed the presence of gold. Bok, Secretary of State for the Transvaal Republic, of the results of the assay, the result was the proclamation, on 10 March 1887, of the two farms as public diggings. Carl Ziervogel, who had been trying to sell Leeuwpoort, now opened the first gold mine on the East Rand, cornish miners were brought out to work the diggings. Unfortunately, it transpired that heavy expenditure was necessary for development, and as the Directors were unable to finance this. Mr Abe Bailey of the Barnato Group, which owned the Johannesburg Consolidated Investment Company, the mynpacht was controlled by JCI, who established E. R. P. M. Ltd, which is carrying on mining operations after 120 years. JCI also developed many residential suburbs over the years, Gold was also found at Elsburg,8 km to the southwest. Elsburg was a stopping point for coaches and wagon traffic. The first Government offices were at Elsburg and what was to become Boksburg was, with the real centre of mining being centred on Boksburg, however, soon President Paul Kruger ordered that a new town be laid out to accommodate the miners. Land for the new town was released by having the boundaries of the farms Leeuwpoort, the newly created farm was called Vogelfontein, on which 1000 stands of 50x50 feet each were created. The new town of Boksburg was named after Dr Bok, in1887 the first auction sale of stands took place, at which prices of £5 to £25 were realized
37.
NZASM 14 Tonner 0-4-0T
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The NZASM14 Tonner 0-4-0T of 1889 was a South African steam locomotive from the pre-Union era in Transvaal. In 1889, the Nederlandsche-Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg-Maatschappij acquired its first locomotives for use on the new railway which was being constructed from Johannesburg to Boksburg, since the railway classified its locomotives according to their weight, these well-and-side-tank locomotives were known as the 14 Tonners. The line, which was opened on 17 March 1890, became known as the Randtram line, even though it was a railway in every aspect and this was the first working railway in Transvaal. The concession was extended the following year to continue the line eastwards to Springs, where coal was known to exist, the entire 49-mile long line was opened to traffic on 10 February 1891. Since the NZASM classified its locomotives according to their weight, these engines were known as 14 Tonners and they were erected at Elandslaagte near Johannesburg, now the city of Germiston. The engines were numbered in the range from 1 to 5 and their cylinders were arranged outside the plate frames. The Murdochs D slide valves, mounted above the cylinders, were arranged at an incline and were actuated by Allan straight link motion, apart from the side-tanks, the locomotive also had a well-tank between the frames under the boiler barrel. The dome was on the front section of the boiler and the valve was arranged in the smokebox. The first locomotive, no.1 named Transvaal, entered service on 18 July 1889. It hauled the first train on the Randtram line when it was opened on 17 March 1890 and was retired in December 1903, by which time it had covered a distance of 113,309 miles. All railway operations in the two Boer Republics, the ZAR and the Orange Free State, were taken over by the Imperial Military Railways during the Second Boer War. The IMR renumbering register made provision for all five 14 Tonners in the range from 601 to 605. The uncertainty arises from the fact that the register lists CSAR no. D as both NZASM14 Tonner no.5 and one of the NZASM18 Tonner locomotives. NZASM numbers 2,3 and 5 were presumably allocated IMR numbers 602,603 and 605 respectively, B, it is not known whether they were renumbered. All three of them were converted into stationary boilers at some stage, the gap in the CSAR renumbering suggests that only one of NZASM numbers 2 and 3 survived into CSAR stock, presumably becoming CSAR no. Even though none of them were in any longer when the South African Railways renumbering was carried out in 1912. 1, the engine Transvaal, was preserved and was declared a monument by Government Notice no.529 on 6 April 1936
38.
Jameson Raid
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Paul Kruger was president of the republic at the time. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers in the Transvaal, the workers were called the Johannesburg conspirators. They were expected to recruit an army and prepare for an insurrection, the raid was ineffective and no uprising took place, but it was an inciting factor in the Second Boer War and the Second Matabele War. What later became South Africa was not a single, united nation during the nineteenth century. The Cape, more specifically the area around present day Cape Town, was the first part of South Africa to be settled by Europeans. These settlers were transported by, and remained under the control of, gradual consolidation and eastward expansion took place over the next 150 years, however, by the beginning of the nineteenth century, Dutch power had substantially waned. In 1806 Great Britain took over the Cape to prevent the falling into Napoleons hands. Antipathy towards British control and the introduction of new systems and institutions grew amongst a substantial portion of the Boer community, one of the primary causes of friction was the attitude of the British authorities to slavery in South Africa. In 1828 the British authorities passed legislation guaranteeing equal treatment under the law for all, in 1830 the government passed a new ordinance imposing heavy penalties for harsh treatment of slaves. The measure was controversial among some of the population, and in 1834, the Boers opposed the changes, as they believed they needed enslaved labor to make their farms work. They believed the slaveholders were compensated too little upon emancipation and they were also suspicious of how the government paid for compensation. This resentment culminated in the migration of substantial numbers of the Boers into the hitherto unexplored frontier. The migration became known as the Great Trek and this anti-British feeling was by no means universal, in the Western Cape, few Boers felt compelled to move. The Trekboers, frontier farmers in the East who had been at the front of the eastward expansion, were the ones who elected to trek further afield. These emigrants, or Voortrekkers as they became known, first moved east into the later known as Natal. In 1839, they founded the Natalia Republic as a new homeland for the Boers, other Voortrekker parties moved northwards, settling beyond the Orange and Vaal rivers. Reluctant to have British subjects moving beyond its control, Britain annexed the Natalia Republic in 1843, after 1843 British government policy turned strongly against further expansion in South Africa. After the First Anglo-Boer War, Gladstones government restored the Transvaals independence in 1884 by signing the London Convention, no one knew there would be the discovery of the colossal gold deposits of the Witwatersrand two years later
39.
Uitlander
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Uitlander, Afrikaans for foreigner, was the name given to foreign migrant workers during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in the independent Transvaal Republic following the discovery of gold in 1886. The limited rights granted this group in the independent Boer Republics was one of the factors behind the Second Boer War. These workers were concentrated around the Johannesburg area. The Transvaal government, under President Paul Kruger, were concerned as to the effect this large influx could have on the independence of the Transvaal, the uitlanders were almost entirely British. As a result, the Transvaal government passed legislation in 1890 refusing voting rights or citizenship to any uitlander who had not been resident for fourteen years and this successfully disenfranchised the uitlanders from any meaningful political role. This policy, together with high taxation, gave rise to considerable discontent and their treatment served as the pretext for the Jameson Raid in 1895, Cecil Rhodes planned an invasion of the Transvaal to coincide with an uprising of the uitlanders in Johannesburg. Dr Jamesons force invaded, but the uprising never took place. They encouraged uitlander agitation and pressed uitlander claims, with veiled threat of war, in the end, British insistence and Krugers intransigence led to the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899. Upon its defeat in 1902, the Transvaal became a British colony, all residents of the Transvaal thereafter became British subjects and so the term uitlander fell into disuse. Boerehaat Marais, JS - The Fall of Krugers Republic, Imperialism in the dock - the Boer War The Uitlander Franchise
40.
International Standard Book Number
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The International Standard Book Number is a unique numeric commercial book identifier. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an e-book, a paperback and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, the method of assigning an ISBN is nation-based and varies from country to country, often depending on how large the publishing industry is within a country. The initial ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 based upon the 9-digit Standard Book Numbering created in 1966, the 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108. Occasionally, a book may appear without a printed ISBN if it is printed privately or the author does not follow the usual ISBN procedure, however, this can be rectified later. Another identifier, the International Standard Serial Number, identifies periodical publications such as magazines, the ISBN configuration of recognition was generated in 1967 in the United Kingdom by David Whitaker and in 1968 in the US by Emery Koltay. The 10-digit ISBN format was developed by the International Organization for Standardization and was published in 1970 as international standard ISO2108, the United Kingdom continued to use the 9-digit SBN code until 1974. The ISO on-line facility only refers back to 1978, an SBN may be converted to an ISBN by prefixing the digit 0. For example, the edition of Mr. J. G. Reeder Returns, published by Hodder in 1965, has SBN340013818 -340 indicating the publisher,01381 their serial number. This can be converted to ISBN 0-340-01381-8, the check digit does not need to be re-calculated, since 1 January 2007, ISBNs have contained 13 digits, a format that is compatible with Bookland European Article Number EAN-13s. An ISBN is assigned to each edition and variation of a book, for example, an ebook, a paperback, and a hardcover edition of the same book would each have a different ISBN. The ISBN is 13 digits long if assigned on or after 1 January 2007, a 13-digit ISBN can be separated into its parts, and when this is done it is customary to separate the parts with hyphens or spaces. Separating the parts of a 10-digit ISBN is also done with either hyphens or spaces, figuring out how to correctly separate a given ISBN number is complicated, because most of the parts do not use a fixed number of digits. ISBN issuance is country-specific, in that ISBNs are issued by the ISBN registration agency that is responsible for country or territory regardless of the publication language. Some ISBN registration agencies are based in national libraries or within ministries of culture, in other cases, the ISBN registration service is provided by organisations such as bibliographic data providers that are not government funded. In Canada, ISBNs are issued at no cost with the purpose of encouraging Canadian culture. In the United Kingdom, United States, and some countries, where the service is provided by non-government-funded organisations. Australia, ISBNs are issued by the library services agency Thorpe-Bowker
41.
Carolina Gold Rush
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The Carolina Gold Rush, the first gold rush in the United States, followed the discovery of a large gold nugget in North Carolina in 1799, by a 12-year-old boy named Conrad Reed. He spotted the nugget while playing in Meadow Creek on his familys farm in Cabarrus County, Conrad took the 17 lb gold nugget home to show his father, however gold was not commonly seen in their community and the value of the nugget was not understood. The nugget was used as a stop in the familys home for several years. In 1802, Conrads father, John Reed, showed the rock to a jeweler, Reed, still unaware of the real value of his doorstop, sold it to the jeweler for $3.50. After learning of the value of the resource on his land John Reed entered into a partnership with Federick Kisor, James Love, in the year 1803 the men found a nugget weighing 28 pounds. News of the discovery was quickly spread by regional newspapers and land owners across the area began to search for gold on their property. Nearly all of the land was owned and the beginning of the Carolina Gold Rush was largely conducted by farmers at the end of the growing season each year. These farmers were capable of conducting shallow surface mining of the known as placer mining. With this progression of mining technique, the profession of mining became a necessity as underground tunnels, the region of Cornwall England had bred miners for decades, who skillfully extracted the copper from their deep mines until, by the early 19th century, those deposits became exhausted. Learning of new opportunity in North Carolina many of these miners immigrated in pursuit of work, some of the ore mills built in the Carolinas can be seen to resemble the design of the old mines in Cornwall. The expertise that these minors taught to the Carolina men spread throughout the region as men sought gold across the Carolina Slate Belt, the Reed Gold Mine, was designated a National Historic Landmark. Visitors can explore reconstructed underground mining tunnels, over 2,500 ounces of gold was deposited in the Philadelphia Mint by 1824. In 1835, Andrew Jackson signed into a law bill to open three branch mints, in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Dahlonega, Georgia, for minting gold coinage, the ones in Charlotte and Dahlonega were to mint the newly discovered gold. Georgia Gold Belt Georgia Gold Rush Charlotte Mint Dahlonega Mint
42.
Georgia Gold Rush
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The Georgia Gold Rush was the second significant gold rush in the United States and the first in Georgia, and overshadowed the previous rush in North Carolina. It started in 1829 in present-day Lumpkin County near the county seat, Dahlonega, by the early 1840s, gold became difficult to find. Many Georgia miners moved west when gold was found in the Sierra Nevada in 1848, while the discovery in Georgia in 1828 was the event that led to what is called the Georgia Gold Rush, there were reports of gold in the North Georgia Mountains much earlier. Since the 16th century, American Indians in Georgia told European explorers that the amounts of gold which they possessed came from mountains of the interior. Some poorly documented accounts exist of Spanish or French mining gold in North Georgia between 1560 and 1690, but they are based on supposition and on rumors passed on by Indians. In summing up known sources, Yeates observed, “Many of these accounts and traditions seem to be quite plausible. Nevertheless, it is probable that the Spaniards would have abandoned mines which were afterwards found to be quite profitable, as those in North Georgia. ”Hernando de Soto led an expedition in 1540, and came across a young native who showed the Spaniards how gold was mined, melted. Ozley Bird Saunook, a former Cherokee chief, claimed his people knew of gold in the area as early as the century when de Soto passed through the region. In 1799, gold was discovered in Cabarrus County, North Carolina, Conrad had the stone identified in Fayetteville, North Carolina, three years later. By 1804, this Carolina Gold Rush resulted in placer mining, the gold belt was extended north into Virginia, and south into South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. No one knows which version of the find is accurate, Some anecdotes have either Frank Logan or his slave making the find in White County, Georgia. Another version of the White County find has John Witheroods finding a three-ounce nugget along Dukes Creek, still another version was that the North Carolina prospector Jesse Hogan found gold near Dahlonega, Georgia, at Wards Creek. Thomas Bowen supposedly found gold in the roots of a tree along Dukes Creek. Benjamin Parks found gold on his birthday in 1828 while walking along a deer path, however, these stories have no contemporary documents to support their validity. No matter who made the discovery in 1828, the gold rush started in 1829 in Lumpkin County. One of the first public accounts was on August 1,1829, so it appears that what we long anticipated has come to pass at last, namely, that the gold region of North and South Carolina, would be found to extend into Georgia. Gold was discovered in Carroll County, Georgia, in 1830, in the early stages of the gold rush, the majority of the mining was placer mining. The Philadelphia Mint received $212,000 in gold from Georgia in 1830, other estimates were that in 1831 there were 6,000 to 10,000 miners between the Chestatee River and the Etowah River
43.
California Gold Rush
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The California Gold Rush began on January 24,1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutters Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States, the Gold Rush initiated the California Genocide, with 100,000 Native Californians dying between 1848 and 1868. By the time it ended, California had gone from a thinly populated ex-Mexican territory to the state of the first nominee for the Republican Party. The effects of the Gold Rush were substantial, whole indigenous societies were attacked and pushed off their lands by the gold-seekers, called forty-niners. The first to hear confirmed information of the rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands, and Latin America. While most of the newly arrived were Americans, the Gold Rush attracted tens of thousands from Latin America, Europe, Australia, agriculture and ranching expanded throughout the state to meet the needs of the settlers. San Francisco grew from a settlement of about 200 residents in 1846 to a boomtown of about 36,000 by 1852. Roads, churches, schools and other towns were built throughout California, in 1849 a state constitution was written. The new constitution was adopted by vote, and the future states interim first governor. In September,1850, California became a state, at the beginning of the Gold Rush, there was no law regarding property rights in the goldfields and a system of staking claims was developed. Prospectors retrieved the gold from streams and riverbeds using simple techniques, although the mining caused environmental harm, more sophisticated methods of gold recovery were developed and later adopted around the world. New methods of transportation developed as steamships came into regular service, by 1869 railroads were built across the country from California to the eastern United States. At its peak, technological advances reached a point where significant financing was required, Gold worth tens of billions of todays dollars was recovered, which led to great wealth for a few. However, many returned home with more than they had started with. The Mexican–American War ended on February 3,1848, although California was firmly in American hands before that, the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for, among other things, the formal transfer of Upper California to the United States. The California Gold Rush began at Sutters Mill, near Coloma, on January 24,1848, James W. Marshall, a foreman working for Sacramento pioneer John Sutter, found shiny metal in the tailrace of a lumber mill Marshall was building for Sutter on the American River. Marshall brought what he found to John Sutter, and the two tested the metal. However, rumors started to spread and were confirmed in March 1848 by San Francisco newspaper publisher
44.
Pike's Peak Gold Rush
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An estimated 100,000 gold seekers took part in one of the greatest gold rushes in North American history. The participants in the rush were known as Fifty-Niners after 1859. But in fact the location of the Pikes Peak Gold Rush was 85 miles north of Pikes Peak and it was only named Pikes Peak Gold Rush because of how well known and important Pikes Peak was. The rush was exemplified by the slogan Pikes Peak or Bust, a reference to the prominent mountain at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains that guided many early prospectors to the region westward over the Great Plains. The prospectors provided the first major European-American population in the region, the rush created a few mining camps such as Denver City and Boulder City that would develop into cities. Many smaller camps such as Auraria and Saint Charles City were absorbed by larger camps, scores of other mining camps have faded into ghost towns, but quite a few camps such as Central City, Black Hawk, Georgetown, and Idaho Springs survive. For many years people had suspected the mountains had numerous rich gold deposits, in 1835, a French trapper by the name of Eustace Carriere had ended up losing his party and wandered through the mountains for many weeks. During these weeks he found many gold specimens which he took back to New Mexico for examination. Upon examination, they turned out to be pure gold, but when he tried to lead an expedition back to the location of where he found the gold, they came up short because he could not quite remember the location. The Rocky Mountain gold failed to impress or delay men with visions of unlimited wealth in California, as the hysteria of the California Gold Rush faded, many discouraged gold seekers returned home. Rumors of gold in the Rocky Mountains persisted and several small parties explored the region, in the summer of 1857, a party of Spanish-speaking gold seekers from New Mexico worked a placer deposit along the South Platte River about 5 miles above Cherry Creek in what is today Denver. William Greeneberry Green Russell was a Georgian who worked in the California gold fields in the 1850s, Russell was married to a Cherokee woman, and through his connections to the tribe, he heard about an 1849 discovery of gold along the South Platte River. Green Russell organized a party to prospect along the South Platte River and they rendezvoused with Cherokee tribe members along the Arkansas River in present-day Oklahoma and continued westward along the Santa Fe Trail. Others joined the party along the way until their number reached 107, upon reaching Bents Fort, they turned to the northwest, reaching the confluence of Cherry Creek and the South Platte on May 23. The site of their initial explorations is in present-day Confluence Park in Denver and they began prospecting in the river beds, exploring Cherry Creek and nearby Ralston Creek but without success. The site of the discovery is in the present-day Denver suburb of Englewood, just north of the junction of U. S. Highway 285, by 1860, Denver City, Golden City, and Boulder City were substantial towns serving the mines. Rapid population growth led to the creation of the Colorado Territory in 1861, the Pikes Peak Gold Rush sent many into a frenzy, prompting them to pack up their belongings and head to Colorado. They gathered their supplies, wagons, mules, mining equipment, as early as the spring of 1859, people raced to the Pikes Peak country
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