London Convention (1884)

London Convention (1884)

A Convention Between Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the South African Republic
Signed	27 February 1884
Location	London, United Kingdom
Effective	27 February 1884
Expiration	11 October 1899
Signatories	H. Robinson (UK), S.J.P. Kruger (SAR), S.J. du Toit (SAR), N.J. Smit (SAR)
Language	English
London Convention at Wikisource

The London Convention was a treaty made in 1884 between the United Kingdom, as the paramount power in South Africa, and the South African Republic (otherwise known as the Transvaal). The London Convention superseded the 1881 Pretoria Convention.

Historical background

The treaty governed the relations between the SAR and the United Kingdom, following the retrocession of the Transvaal in the aftermath of the First Anglo-Boer War. It incorporated the bulk of the earlier Pretoria Convention, but omitted certain provisions, namely:

• Britain's assertions of suzerainty in the preamble,
• Britain's right to intervene to protect the rights of the Native population.

The London Convention remained the foundation of UK-SAR relations until 1899, until the outbreak of the Second Anglo-Boer War. At the end of this war, in 1902, the SAR ceased to exist as an independent state, becoming instead the British Crown Colony of the Transvaal. In 1907 the Transvaal was granted self government under the Crown, and in 1910 it joined with the Cape Colony, Orange River Colony, and Natal to form the Union of South Africa.