Talk:Orange Free State

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Contents 1 On the "Postage stamps" section 2 On the origin of "Orange" 3 Racist Capitalist? 4 "bushmen,hottentots,bechuana" 5 President in exile 6 Major rewrite needed 7 Consistency in names of countries 8 State presidents of the Orange Free State

[edit] On the "Postage stamps" section

What is the whole section about the stamps doing here? It seems very out of place. tpahl 00:36, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

Where else would one put it? The Free State was its own country, as much as Ethiopia or Afghanistan, and had its own stamps that are collected by lots of people today. At some point I expect to scan in a couple that are in my collection as illustrations. Stan 03:27, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

I agree that having a third of the article be about stamps is strange, as if the OFS's most important feature was its publishing of stamps. But this should be solved by lengthening the rest of the article - about the history, geography, cities and so on - not by removing the stamps section. See, for example, the Transvaal article that I've been working on. Nyh 08:24, 20 May 2004 (UTC)

Look at the article in the Afrikaans Wikipedia, which is the origin of the English-language version. I agree. Eventually this section needs to be taken out, possibly made into a separate article.Michel Doortmont (talk) 17:02, 14 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] On the origin of "Orange"

The "orange" of its title may come from the partially Dutch, Protestant origins of its Boer founders.

Can anyone confirm this? 213.202.166.238 18:33, 13 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Yes, confirmed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 155.239.102.75 (talk) 17:32, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Orange comes from the river, Orange Free State is accross the Orange river.

lodellpdx —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lodellpdx (talk • contribs) 10:16, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Racist Capitalist?

"The white settlers built their racist society with military raids against African villages to capture African women and children to work as slave labor and cattle to establish extensive capitalist farming."

I am not disputing the facts here, yes they did raid for slaves and cattle, and they did establish large farms. However the tone sounds like a line from Mugabe. Do we have a better way of putting this together?

"The white settlers built their society with military raids against African villages to capture African women and children to work as slave labor and cattle to establish extensive commercial farms."

The racist part was already established earlier. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Lodellpdx (talk • contribs) 10:19, 17 August 2006 (UTC)

Agree it could do with a rewrite! Greenman 23:08, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

IIRC the Orange Free State as a Republic was established in 1852 after it moved from British control (exercised by the Governor of the Cape Colony [Bloemfontein being built as a strange sort of outpost and all], at that point slavery had already been abolished in the Cape Colony and that the Republic subsequently inherited British laws on slavery. Whilst segregation clearly existed it is a gross misrepresentation to claim slavery. Secondly the Republic was based on pastoral farming of little commercial value, it may be accurate to claim that the . However to argue that there was some sort of capitalist drive is obscene. The only real commercial happenings appear to have occured in the English dominated capital Bloemfontein. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.36.9.146 (talk • contribs) 07:55, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] "bushmen,hottentots,bechuana"

aren't there better terms?? --Severino 08:08, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] President in exile

The infobox mentions that the president was in exile after 28 May 1900. This is factually incorrect. On that date the government left Bloemfontein, but reorganised itself as best as it could in the field. Most of the time President Steyn and the better part of the government remained on Free State soil until the end of the South African War. Factually nor technically was the president in exile. I therefore removed this line from the infobox. Information on the exact state of affairs can be / is included in the main body of the text. Michel Doortmont (talk) 19:51, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Major rewrite needed

Going over this article in detail, it has become clear to me that it needs a major rewrite, not just references and sources added. For the time being the article can stay, awaiting further edits. I will do my best to address all the problems, but help is definitely required here. Michel Doortmont (talk) 21:56, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

Have not come around to this yet, but did add a POV banner, as some of the texts on the Boer War are very much biased. I believe this is not any editors' mistake, but is because this text is very much a copy from the 1911 Encyclopaedia Brittannica. Michel Doortmont (talk) 08:13, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Consistency in names of countries

I feel that in this article about a former state, it is necessary to adhere to the proper historical name of that state throughout the article, i.e. not Free State, but Orange Free State, as the abbreviated form of Republic of the Orange Free State.

Likewise, it seems advisable to consistently use South African Republic (as English form of the official Dutch name: Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek) when refering to the state, rather than the generic Transvaal. Michel Doortmont (talk) 21:56, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] State presidents of the Orange Free State

Added section on state presidents in conformity with other articles. Work on dates and sources is necessary! Michel Doortmont (talk) 16:58, 14 March 2008 (UTC)