Stellaland and Goshen unite to form the…

Stellaland and Goshen unite to form the United States of Stellaland on August 6, 1883.

The area east of the Vaal River and north of the Hart River is under the control of competing Griqua and Tswana groups, while the United Kingdom lays claim to it as part of the emerging protectorate of British Bechuanaland.

Two of the indigenous groups are under the leadership of chiefs Mankoroane and Montsioa, whom the British regard as "friendly," and another two under the leadership of chiefs Moshette and Massouw.

When a feud had started between Mankoroane and another chief, each side resorted to recruiting volunteers, promising them land in return for their assistance.

After a settlement was negotiated with mediation from the Transvaal Republic, large portions of Mankoroane's land with four hundred and sixteen farms of three thousand morgen (two thousand five hundred and sixty-three hectares) each had been given to Boer mercenaries who had fought on his adversary's side, and the new inhabitants decides to declare independence.

The Republic of Stellaland had been formally created on July 26, 1882, under the leadership of its elected president Gerrit Jacobus van Niekerk, a farmer from Transvaal, and is given the name Stellaland (Star Land) in reference to a comet that is visible in the skies at the time.

The town of Vryburg had been founded and declared its capital.

At its founding, the new country covered an area of fifteen thousand five hundred square kilometers (five thousand nine hundred and eight-five square mile square miles) and was home to an estimated population of twenty five-thousand individuals, three thousand of whom are of European ancestry.

The State of Goshen, named after the biblical Land of Goshen, had been founded by Nicolaas Claudius Gey van Pittius in October 1882 in the neighboring area called Rooigrond with the approval of chief Moshette.

Goshen has an estimated population of seventeen thousand, of whom approximately two thousand are of European origin, and covers an area of ten thousand four hundred square kilometers (four thousand and fifteen square miles).