iPritoria

In 1899, Pretoria was centre stage for the scene of a first major twentieth century war with huge amounts of civilian, i.e. non-combattand victims. Just seven decades before, the whole area was under control of the kingdom of Mzilikazi Khumalo, who understood himself as Zulu, but was later addressed as Ndebele. Obviously, the area had been imperialised in the meantime.

Pretoria was founded in August 1853 by the merger of two farms, and declared a town on 16 November 1855. Already in 1860, it became capital of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek (ZAR) – commonly known as the Transvaal. It has always been an important place of South African history ever since.