Orange River Colony

The Orange River Colony was the British colony created after the British occupied and then annexed the Orange Free State during the Second Boer War. British forces took Bloemfontein in March 1900 and proclaimed annexation in October, although Boer forces fought on until the Treaty of Vereeniging in May 1902. The colony was governed by a governor and an appointed administration, with Bloemfontein as its capital. After the war, British policy sought to rebuild the region's economy and to reconcile the Afrikaner population, and self-government was granted in 1907. The colony's economy rested on agriculture and on the gold mines that drew labour to the Witwatersrand. The colony existed until 1910, when it joined the Cape Colony, Natal and the Transvaal to form the Union of South Africa, becoming the Orange Free State Province. Its borders and administrative centre were inherited by the new province, and Bloemfontein later became the judicial capital of South Africa.