Under new apartheid legislation in the late 1950s, these communities were systematically demolished...
The discovery of a gold-bearing reef in the Witwatersrand in March 1886 started one of the greatest gold rushes the world has ever known. Johannesburg was founded the same year and by 1887 was a mining camp of 10,000 fortune hunters, half of them immigrant whites (mainly from Britain). By 1889 Johannesburg was the largest town in southern Africa, and it soon became more settled, acquiring horse-drawn streetcars in 1889 and electric lights in 1890. The population reached 100,000 in 1895. By the mid-1890s 200 mining companies had headquarters in Johannesburg and 75,000 people worked in the mines. Johannesburg was almost deserted during the Boer War (1899-1902), as trainloads of refugees fled the city. However, the mines emerged relatively unscathed, and the city continued to grow rapidly after the war, although not without conflict. Labor unrest reached a high point in the 1922 Rand Revolt, in which white mineworkers, fearful of being replaced by lower-paid blacks, staged a bloody strike that ended only when government troops intervened. In 1928 Johannesburg was chartered as a city. During and after World War II (1939-1945), economic growth brought a rapid influx of blacks, giving rise to extensive shantytowns such as Sophiatown. Under new apartheid legislation in the late 1950s, these communities were systematically demolished and inhabitants were relocated to what is now Soweto. Meanwhile, white suburbs continued to expand, especially north and west of the city, many of them beyond the city boundary. The administration of Soweto and Alexandra was removed from the city council in 1973 in the vain hope that the townships could become financially self-sufficient. It was only in 1995 that the whole metropolitan region was integrated under a single local government authority.Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
http://encarta.msn.com © 1997-2001 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Johannesburg Information info
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