Johannesburg, the chief town and mining centre of the Transvaal goldfields, is situated about 6000 feet above sea-level, 298 miles NE. of Kimberley, and 350 miles N. of Ladysmith. Railway connection, completed in 1892, brought Johannesburg within 60 hours' journey of Capetown; and it is now connected also with Port Elizabeth (714 miles), Durban (437 miles), and Lourenço Marquez on Delagoa Bay (396 miles). In 1886 the Transvaal government proclaimed certain farms on the famous Reef of Witwatersrandt as public goldfields; and the ground on which Johannesburg now stands was selected as the site of the new station or town. From the time of the foundation (1887) the town and the mining industry grew rapidly. In 1895-96 it became the scene of the struggles of the Uitlanders to extort political and other rights from the Boer government (interrupted by the Jameson (q.v.) raid of January 1896), which eventually resulted in the war of 1899-1900, and the annexation of the Transvaal and Orange Free State as British colonies. A dreadful dynamite explosion wrecked part of the town in 1896. As yet in 1890 (with pop. of 60,000) the streets were not lighted, and only the concession for paving the principal street had been granted. The government buildings consist of the post and telegraph offices, and the mining-commissioner's and the landrost's (magistrate's) offices, &c. Fine banks, churches, hotels, club-houses, with shops and private houses, and a magnificent stock exchange have been erected. The climate is, or would be very healthy, were not the sanitary conditions so unsatisfactory, and were it not for the frequent terrible dust-storms, in consequence of which fevers and pneumonia are often prevalent. The neighbourhood of Johannesburg is delightful, and villas and fine suburban houses are springing up. The population at the census of July 1896 was 102,714, of whom 51,225 were whites.
See TRANSVAAL; Thomas, Johannesburg in Arms (1896); Mann, The Truth from Johannesburg (1897).