Home to Bantu-speaking peoples, it was first settled by Boers circa 1840 after the Great Trek, becoming the core of the Boer republic in 1857. Resistance to Britain’s annexation of Transvaal in 1877 led to the Boer Wars, after which the Transvaal became a Crown Colony. It became a founding province of the Union of South Africa in 1910. In 1994 it was divided into the provinces of Northern Province (now called Limpopo), Mpumalanga, Gauteng, and the eastern part of North West