The Orange Free State, also known as Oranje, was an independent Boer republic in South Africa which existed from 1852 to 1902, with Bloemfontein as its capital. Located between the Orange and Vaal rivers, Oranje was established as a republic under British suzerainty after the partition of the region between the British colony of Natal and a Boer state. Oranje warred both with its African neighbors and with the neighboring South African Republic of Transvaal (during the 1850s), and the discovery of diamonds from 1870 to 1871 led to an influx of immigrants. Oranje enjoyed peaceful relations with its neighbors from 1870 to 1899, but the Orange Free State allied itself with Transvaal in 1889, dragging it into the Second Boer War against Britain from 1899 to 1902. The war resulted in the British Empire's conquest of both Oranje and Transvaal, and the Orange River Colony merged into the Union of South Africa in 1910.
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