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Early history[edit]
Though historically a !Orana and Barolong settlement, and then a Boer settlement, Bloemfontein was officially founded in 1846 as a fort by British Army major Henry Douglas Warden as a British outpost in the Transoranje region, at that stage occupied by various groups of peoples including !Orana (so-called "Korana" of the ǀHõaǁʼaes, ǀHũdiǁʼaes, Einiǁʼaes, and others), Cape Colony Trekboers, Griqua (at that time known as "Baasters") and Barolong.
Warden initially chose the site primarily because of its proximity to the main route to Winburg, the spacious open country, and the absence of horse sickness. Bloemfontein was the original farm of Johannes Nicolaas Brits, born on 21 February 1790, owner and first inhabitant of Bloemfontein. Johann – as he was known – sold the farm to Major Warden. He later bought what would later become the town of Brits, North West.
With colonial policy shifts, the region changed into the Orange River Sovereignty (1848–1854) and eventually the Orange Free State Republic (1854–1902). From 1902 to 1910, it served as the capital of the Orange River Colony and since that time as the provincial capital of the Free State. In 1910, it became the Judicial capital of the Union of South Africa. A possible etymology for the city's name is that it is called Bloemfontein lit. "Bloem's fountain", after Jan Bloem II, a Griqua leader.
Orange Free State (1854–1902)[edit]
Early 20th century photo of a statue of the 19th century President Johannes Brand of the Orange Free State
The Orange Free State was an independent Boer Republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Extending between the Orange and Vaal rivers, its borders were determined by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1848 when the region was proclaimed as the Orange River Sovereignty, with a seat of a British Resident in Bloemfontein.
As the capital of the Orange Free State Republic, the growth and maturing of the republic resulted in the development of Bloemfontein. The city constructed numerous public buildings that remain in use today, facilitated by the republic's governance and compensation from the British for the loss of the diamond-rich Griqua Land area. The old Orange Free State's presidential residence, the Old Presidency, is currently a museum and cultural space in the city.
A railway line was built in 1890 connecting Bloemfontein to Cape Town. The railway line provided a centrally located railway station and proved critical to the British in occupying the city later.
The writer J. R. R. Tolkien was born in the city on 3 January 1892. However, his family left Orange Free State (now Free State province, South Africa) following the death of his father, Arthur Tolkien, when Tolkien was three (1895). He recorded that his earliest memories were of "a hot country".
In 1899, the city was the site of the Bloemfontein Conference, which failed to prevent the outbreak of the Second Boer War. The conference was a final attempt to avert a war between Britain and the South African Republic, and its failure set the stage for war, which broke out on 11 October 1899.
On 13 March 1900, following the Battle of Paardeberg, the British captured the city and built a concentration camp nearby to house Boer women and children. In 1913, the National Women's Monument was constructed on the outskirts of the city to commemorate all Boer civilians who died in concentration camps during the war.
The hill in town was named Naval Hill after the naval guns brought in by the British to fortify the position against attack.
Unionisation of South Africa (1910s)[edit]
On 31 May 1910, exactly eight years after the Boers signed the Peace Treaty of Vereeniging that ended the Anglo-Boer War between the British Empire and two Boer states, the South African Republic (Republic of Transvaal) and the Orange Free State, South Africa became a Union.
Due to disagreements over where the Union's capital should be, a compromise was reached that allowed Bloemfontein to host Appellate Division and become the Union's judicial capital. Bloemfontein was also given financial compensation.
On 8 January 1912, the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) was founded in Bloemfontein. The Union of South Africa had not granted rights to black South Africans, causing the organisation's creation. Its primary aim was to fight for the rights of black South Africans. During the implementation of pass laws, the city saw major demonstrations that forced South African authorities to exempt women from them for nearly four decades.
From 1 to 9 January 1914, James Barry Munnik Hertzog and his supporters met in Bloemfontein to form the National Party of the Orange Free State, and to lay down its principles, following Hertzog's exit from the South African Party in 1913. The National Party grew to govern South Africa in 1948 and implement the policy of racial segregation known as apartheid.
Apartheid era (1948–1994)[edit]
Waaihoek Wesleyan Church, World Heritage Site (2025)
When the National Party won the 1948 South African national government elections, they began implementing the policy known as apartheid. The policy was built on separate development of ethnic groups, and racial segregation was enforced. In Bloemfontein, residential segregation had begun in the 19th century with the passing of Ordinance 1 of 1860, which determined that no non-white, without written permission from the landlord (British government), had the right to occupy urban land in towns where local municipalities did not yet exist. On 3 June 1861, the council demarcated three locations in the following areas; the black population was to move to the area that lay to the right of a neighbourhood that was known as Kaffirfontein, Coloureds were to move to the Waaihoek Black residential area on the eastern outskirts of the town. The inhabitants of these settlements had to pay the so-called hut tax and grazing rights tax. This laid the foundation for the implementation of residential urban segregation as envisaged by the architects of apartheid.
When the South African apartheid government passed the Group Areas Act of 1950, the Bloemfontein municipality put into effect changes in the racial set-up of the city. The municipality demolished the Cape Stands residential area, which was occupied by the city's coloured population, and moved the residents to Heidedal. However, due to Coloureds living in such proximity to black people, intermarriages across racial lines occurred, resulting in a partially mixed population in Heidedal and Mangaung. In 1952, the Bloemfontein municipality began building new residential areas for the city's black population. New residential areas to separate ethnic groups such as Sotho, Xhosa and Tswana were formed. The residential areas were jointly known as Mangaung. Phahameng, a Sotho township, was the first formal housing projects to be approved by the municipality in 1956. Physical buffers such as the railway line and roads were put into place to separate black ethnic groups, the white and coloured population. Eleven thousand housing structures, of which approximately 6,000 were government-built rental accommodations, were erected in Mangaung between 1952 and 1968.
In 1968, Mangaung faced severe housing shortages when as many as 3,000 to 6,000 housing units were needed. To counter this problem, a 55 km eastward expansion called Botshabelo was added in 1979. The Bloemfontein municipality channelled off all black urbanisation to Thaba 'Nchu and Botshabelo, which were developed as a source of cheap labour for the city of Bloemfontein. A subsidised bus service was established, and Botshabelo was declared a decentralisation point, meaning it was designated to become an industrial development point to reduce the distance between the place of employment and the place of residence.
In 1988, approximately 14,500 people were commuting daily between Botshabelo and Bloemfontein. This meant that 55% of Botshabelo's workforce was employed outside the city. In 1994, after the disestablishment of the apartheid government, Bloemfontein, Botshabelo, and Thaba Nchu became part of Motheo District Municipality. The Motheo District Municipality was disestablished on 18 May 2011, and Mangaung was upgraded to become an autonomous metropolitan municipality with Bloemfontein as the main seat.
Since 1994[edit]
Until 1994, the city was South Africa's sole judicial capital. It remains the seat for the Supreme Court of Appeal (formerly the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court). The city is also an administrative centre with many private hospitals and educational institutions.
