Establishment of the Kruger National Park

Colonization, and the weapons it brought with it, ended the balance that existed between man and nature in Africa. Europeans brought with them a demand for wildlife products like hides and ivory that set off a booming commercial hunting industry.

After the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand, these commercial hunters saw the opportunity to provide labor to the mines. For many years labor was illegally traded from the present-day Kruger National Park and sold to miners. On the Witwatersrand, these laborers lived in squalid conditions.

By the end of the 19th century, hunting had all but wiped out the huge herds that once roamed freely in the lowveld. To reverse this trend, President Paul Kruger proclaimed the Sabie Reserve in 1898. This reserve was bounded by the Crocodile River in the South and the Sabie River in the North.

After the British won the Anglo-Boer War in 1902 they forcibly removed between 2000 and 3000 people from the reserve in order to establish it as a protected area. In 1926 the Kruger National Park was proclaimed covering an area of 19,000 sq km; roughly the size of the Netherlands.

Today, African cultural concerns are being addressed as the Kruger National Park works more closely with communities. In 1996 a cultural heritage museum was opened in the Kruger National Park on the site of the stone ruins at Thulamela, which was inhabited in the mid 17th century.