Gold prospectors, following the discovery of gold…

Gold prospectors, following the discovery of gold at Langlaagte, Johannesburg in 1886, soon discover that there are even richer gold reefs in the Witwatersrand (literally "white water ridge"—a watershed) near Johannesburg.

Johannesburg is a dusty settlement some fifty-five kilometers from the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (ZAR) capital, Pretoria, but as word spreads, people flock to the area from all other regions of the country, as well as many foreigners (uitlanders) from North America, the United Kingdom and Europe.

The economy of the Transvaal soon booms, the massive deposits of gold-bearing ore skewing the economic balance between Boers, tribal peoples and British capitalists even more dramatically.

The Dutch speaking Voortrekkers had arrived in Johannesburg in the early nineteenth century, driving away the Matebele with the help of Sotho–Tswana allies, establishing settlements around Rustenburg and Pretoria in the early 1830s, and claiming sovereignty over what would become Johannesburg as part of the Transvaal Republic.

Gold was initially discovered some four hundred kilometers to the east of present-day Johannesburg, in Barberton.