The Orange Free State was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Empire at the end of the Second Boer War in 1902. It is one of the three historical precursors to the present-day Free State province.
Jacobus Johannes Venter (1814–1889) was a South African (Boer) statesman. He was a member of the Volksraad of the Orange Free State, chairman of the Joint Commission for Administering the Government in 1855 and served as Acting State President in 1859 – 1860 and again in 1863 – 1864.
The Volksraad of the South African Republic was the parliament of the former South African Republic (ZAR), it existed from 1840 to 1877, and from 1881 to 1902 in part of what is now South Africa. The body ceased to exist after the British Empire's victory in the Second Anglo-Boer War. The Volksraad sat in session in Ou Raadsaal in Church Square, Pretoria.
The following lists events that happened during 1860 in South Africa.
The following lists events that happened during 1864 in South Africa.
The following lists events that happened during 1866 in South Africa.
Francis William Reitz Jr. was a South African lawyer, politician, statesman, publicist, and poet who was a member of parliament of the Cape Colony, Chief Justice and fifth State President of the Orange Free State, State Secretary of the South African Republic at the time of the Second Boer War, and the first president of the Senate of the Union of South Africa.
Josias Philip Hoffman was a South African Boer statesman, and was the chairman of the Provisional Government and later the first State President of the Orange Free State, in office from 1854 to 1855.
Jacobus Nicolaas Boshof was a South African (Boer) statesman, a late-arriving member of the Voortrekker movement, and the second state president of the Orange Free State, in office from 1855 to 1859.
Willem Cornelis Janse van Rensburg was the second President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic, from 18 April 1862 until 10 May 1864.
The state president of the South African Republic had the executive authority in the South African Republic. According to the constitution of 1871, executive power was vested in the president, who was responsible to the Volksraad. The president was elected for a term of five years and was eligible for re-election. The president had to be Burgher and also qualified to vote for the First Volksraad elections, over 30 years old, a member of a Protestant church, and never convicted of a dishonourable offence.
Schalk Willem Burger was a South African military leader, lawyer, politician, and statesman who was acting president of the South African Republic from 1900 to 1902, whilst Paul Kruger was in exile. At the age of 21, Burger worked as a clerk in the office of the field coronet. He married his wife, Alida Claudina de Villiers, during this time.
Jacobus Groenendaal was a South African statesman of Dutch origin, member of the Volksraad of the Orange Free State and the republic's first Treasurer General and Government Secretary in office from 1854 to 1855 and 1856 respectively.
Esaias Reynier Snijman (1822-1884) was a South African (Boer) politician and statesman. He was a member and chairman (1858) of the Volksraad of the Orange Free State, member of the Joint Commission for Administering the Government of the Orange Free State in 1855 and served as Acting State President in 1859.
Jan Willem Spruyt, also known as Jan Willem Spruijt and Jan Willem Landskroon Spruijt (birthname), was a South African civil servant, lawyer and statesman of Dutch descent. Spruyt was government secretary (1856–1862) and several times acting state president of the Orange Free State, and state secretary of the South African Republic (1866–1869).
The Transvaal Civil War was a series of skirmishes during the early 1860s in the South African Republic, or Transvaal, in the area now comprising the Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, and North West provinces of South Africa. It began after the British government had recognised trekkers living in the Transvaal as independent in 1854. The Boers divided into numerous political factions. The war ended in 1864, when an armistice treaty was signed under a karee tree south of the site of the later town of Brits.
The coat of arms of the Orange Free State was the official heraldic symbol of the Orange Free State as a republic from 1857 to 1902, and later, from 1937 to 1994, as a province of South Africa. It is now obsolete.
The Old Presidency or Ou Presidensie (Afrikaans) is a museum, art gallery and theatre in the city of Bloemfontein, South Africa, located on President Brand Street in the heart of the city. The former residence of the President of the Republic of the Orange Free State from 1886 until 1899 when the city fell to the British Empire during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Johannes Hermanus Grobler was a Boer politician who served as the acting President of the Executive Council of the South African Republic from 15 September until 6 December 1860.
