Pretoria History Facts and Timeline

(Pretoria, Gauteng, South Africa)

South Africa's administrative capital, Pretoria, lies between the Highveld plateau and the lower lying Bushveld, being around 56 km / 35 miles north of Johannesburg. The history of the city is said to have begun in the early 1600s, when the Ndebele tribe entered the river valley that hugs the modern-day site of Pretoria.

Today, the city stands in the middle of the Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. It is often called Tshwane after a Ndebele leader who lived in the area prior to the arrival of Europeans in the early 19th century. The city was originally named Pretoria Philadelphia, or 'Pretoria of brotherly love.'

Earliest Residents

The Sotho people were the earliest known inhabitants, but their centuries-old dominance came to an end when the Ndebele settled along the Apies River during the 17th century. The 1820 arrival of the Matabele led to conflicts between the more established Ndebele and Sotho communities and the newcomers. The Dutch Voortrekkers, the first European settlers in the history of Pretoria, defeated the Matabele and ended these conflicts in the year of 1837.

The Founding Years

Although Boer farmers began settling around present-day Pretoria in 1840, the city itself was not established until 1855. The city's namesake was the Voortrekker leader Andries Pretorius, who defeated the Zulus in a major battle. Pretorius negotiated the 1852 Sand River Convention, where the UK accepted Transvaal independence. Pretoria, a settlement of roughly 300 people at the time of its official founding, became the capital of the South Africa Republic (an Afrikaner settler enclave independent of the Cape Colony) in the year of 1860.

City of Roses and Jacarandas

Pretoria was soon called the 'City of Roses' after its mild climate provided a perfect environment for rambler roses to grow almost anywhere. The now famous Jacaranda trees that keen horticulturalist JD Cilliers brought from Brazil in the latter part of the 19th century also flourished in the climate and prompted yet another byname - The Jacaranda City. Approximately 50,000 Jacarandas grow throughout the city today, providing a purple haze when flowering each October.

Boer Wars

The city received a constant stream of migrants and immigrants, mainly disgruntled Boers who were part of the legendary Great Trek which saw them migrate inland to avoid British rule. When gold was discovered nearby (in present-day Johannesburg), the British tried to annex the territory, laying siege to the city and sparking the First Boer War (1880).

A treaty was signed, but by 1899 the two were at war again, with the vastly superior British army finding the Boers surprisingly resilient. They were eventually defeated in 1902, and by 1910 Pretoria had become the administrative capital of the new Union of South Africa. Curiously one of the most famous incidents of the war was the daring escape from detention of a young news reporter by the name of Winston Churchill.

Treason Trial

A dark period in the history of Pretoria was the infamous Treason Trial, when Nelson Mandela was one of the 156 people who were arrested and accused of treason in 1956. The Treason Trial lasted until 1961, South Africa's first year as a republic. For several years afterwards, Pretoria experienced a negative reputation as 'South Africa's apartheid capital'. It was here that many of the terrible Apartheid laws were hatched and to this day the city has the largest density of Afrikaners of any major South African city.

The Present and the Future

After the early 1990s abolishment of apartheid, the city started to shed its negative reputation, particularly when Nelson Mandela was inaugurated as South Africa's very first democratically elected black president in 1994.

A name change may be the next major event in the history of Pretoria, whose name has long held negative associations in its black community, many of whom want to see the city renamed to Tshwane. The city's Afrikaner community, on the other hand, remains proud of the city's original namesake. Tshwane may be the name that the native Africans prefer, but Pretoria seems etched in its history, notorious or otherwise.