Orange Free State is a historic region in South Africa. Before Europeans conquered the area in the 1830’s, most of its inhabitants were people of the Sotho group of black Africans. About 1836, Boers (people of mainly Dutch ancestry) from Cape Colony settled the region. The Boers named the area the Orange Free State in 1854.
In 1899, disagreements between the Boers and the British led to the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902. The Boers were defeated. In 1910, the Orange Free State became one of the four provinces of the Union of South Africa (now the Republic of South Africa). In 1994, South Africa increased the number of its provinces to nine. The Orange Free State remained a province, but the province’s name was changed to the Free State in 1995.
The Free State covers 49,866 square miles (129,152 square kilometers). Black Africans make up a large majority of the province’s population, but white people of European descent own nearly all the land. Most of the black Africans work for white farmers or in gold and uranium mines in the northern part of the province. Bloemfontein is the capital of the Free State and the judicial capital of South Africa.
See also Afrikaners ; Anglo-Boer Wars ; Bloemfontein .
