South African revolutionary politician born in Cradock district of Cape Colony, hero of the Republic of Transvaal who, together with the Free State of Orange, would give rise to South Africa. Son of Boer emigrants, settlers of Dutch origin who emigrated (1830-1835) in large numbers to the Cape Colony, in the extreme south of the African continent. Raised in the rigid Calvinist religion, still very young, he witnessed the recognition of independence he Boer in the Transvaal, located north of the Vaal River, and was part of the commission that drafted the constitution of the parents. When British troops annexed the region (1877), he became a supporter of the Boer cause. He defeated the British and forced them to grant limited independence to the Transvaal (1881). Two years later he was elected president of the republic.
The outlanders, English immigrants who had also settled in the country, represented a new threat of annexation of the territory by the Kingdom. United and the problem was aggravated when gold deposits were discovered in the region of Witwatersrand (1886), where later emerged the city of Johannesburg. Like the British Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, Cecil Rhodes, he also wanted to own the deposits and wanted a British South Africa, the United Kingdom began to pressure the Boers in favor of its settlers in the Transvaal. Then a war broke out (1899), and British troops occupied the Transvaal. He then traveled to Europe as a representative of the Boers to rally support for his cause, but he died in Clarens, Switzerland (1904) without getting the support he needed to reverse the situation.
Figure copied from the UNIV website. TEXAS / PORTRAIT GALERY:
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/photodraw/portraits/
Source: http://www.dec.ufcg.edu.br/biografias/
Order S - Biography - Brazil School
Source: Brazil School - https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/biografia/stephanus-johannes.htm
