Transvaal is an area near the
Vaal[?] river in
South Africa. Originally, the
Sotha[?] and
Venda[?] peoples settled there in what is believed to be the eighth century. In the 1830s,
Boers departed on the "Great Trek" to escape british rule in the
Cape Colony and settled in the Transvaal area. The natives in the area were very hospitable and had no sense of private property, so they allowed the Boers to have free run of the land. The Boers took advantage of this and put fences up around all of the land they claimed, thus preventing any of the natives from passing through.