History of Johannesburg

Early History

Long before the discovery of gold triggered a massive influx of foreign speculators in 1886, the medical tourism center of Johannesburg had been inhabited by various tribes, farmers, and hunters for thousands of years. 

Gold Rush

Gold was discovered in the Witwatersrand area by George Harrison, and the region surrounding the area began to grow rapidly.  The city was named after Johannes Meyer and Johannes Rissik, the two officials who played an important role in mapping the city after the discovery.  Blacks from all over the country began to move to the new settlement, and immigrants from North America and Europe began to pour in.  Within three years, the settlement had become the largest in the country.

Johannesburg was initially controlled by the Transvaal Republic, whose capital was Pretoria.  The big mining companies initially controlled the region, but soon, tensions sparked between the owners of the mines, the immigrants, and the Transvaal government.  The resulting conflict resulted in the Anglo Boer war which broke out in 1899.  By the time the conflict ended in 1901, the British occupied both the Orange State as well as the Transvaal.  Much of the population of Transvaal became impoverished, and this led to foreigners controlling mining rights in Johannesburg.

In 1910, the British began a process of alienation of the blacks, forcing them to move to territories that were earmarked for them as places where they could live and work.  It was the beginning of the notorious practice of apartheid.  Conditions in these areas were substandard, and soon, riots began.

Anti-Apartheid Struggle

When the National Party came to power in 1948, it bolstered segregationist and oppressive practices, forcing hundreds of thousands of blacks out of Johannesburg to the township of Soweto, which would later be the scene of much of the anti-apartheid struggle.  In 1976, a student protest in Soweto was the target of police firing, and this marked a turning point of the anti-apartheid movement.  Over the next couple of decades, the struggle grew in intensity.  The rise of black militancy together with international pressure on the South African government led to the fall of apartheid in 1994, when the country’s first free and fair elections were held.

Modern Johannesburg has largely managed to make peace with its troubled past, and the city now includes integrated black townships.  Johannesburg is South Africa’s largest city, and one of the richest in Sub Saharan Africa.  With a population of 8 million people, this medical tourism center is considered to be the only cosmopolitan city on the continent.  Advances in healthcare have led to the establishment of the largest hospital in the world, the 3200-bed Chris Hani Bharagwanath hospital in Soweto, located just outside Johannesburg.  Other facilities have developed as world class centers of healing, helping the city position itself as a medical tourism hub in the region.

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