History of Johannesburg

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Farm where gold was first discovered in 1886.

Johannesburg around 1890.

Johannesburg in 1931.

This article documents the history of Johannesburg, part of present day Gauteng Province, in South Africa. The area around Johannesburg has been inhabited for thousands of years by hunter-gatherer peoples. The establishment of modern-day Johannesburg began in 1886 with the discovery of gold and the Witwatersrand reef. After the discovery, the population of the city exploded and Johannesburg became the largest city in South Africa. Today, it is a centre for learning and entertainment for all of Africa.

[edit] Prehistoric Era

See Prehistoric Johannesburg article.

The Johannesburg area is settled by Bushmen or San, who were hunter-gatherers and Stone Age people. Over time, waves of migrants into the area established an Iron Age culture, until the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand in 1886.

[edit] The Gold Rush

See Witwatersrand Gold Rush article.

Gold was discovered in the Johannesburg region in 1886, setting off a mass migration of people to Johannesburg to try their luck at finding gold. The new settlement they created was named by two men: Johannes Meyer and Johannes Rissik, both men of the ZAR government involved in land surveying and mapping. It is widely held that the two, sharing a common first name, decided to name the settlement Johannesburg, in honour of themselves. The name "Johannesburg" is therefore derived from two Afrikaans words: "Johannes," a first name in Afrikaans meaning "John;" and "burg," an Afrikaans word derived from the Dutch and German for "village" or "hamlet," similar to the English word "burgh" as in Edinburgh, also meaning "town." Thus, Johannesburg's name actually means "John's Town."