Editing History of South Africa (section)

===Discovery of gold===
{{Main|Witwatersrand Gold Rush}}
[[File:Johannesburg, South Africa (1896).jpg|thumb|300px|right|Johannesburg before gold mining transformed it into a bustling modern city]]Although many tales abound, there is no conclusive evidence as to who first discovered gold or the manner in which it was originally discovered in the late 19th century on the Witwatersrand (meaning White Waters Ridge) of the Transvaal.<ref>P Holz, [http://www.heritageportal.co.za/article/greatest-discovery-them-all ''The Greatest Discovery of them all''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150527205302/http://www.heritageportal.co.za/article/greatest-discovery-them-all |date=27 May 2015 }}, (originally published in Guide Book, Geological Society of South Africa). Accessed 27 May 2015.</ref> The discovery of gold in February 1886 at a farm called Langlaagte on the Witwatersrand in particular precipitated a gold rush by prospectors and fortune seekers from all over the world. Except in rare outcrops, however, the main gold deposits had over many years become covered gradually by thousands of feet of hard rock. Finding and extracting the deposits far below the ground called for the capital and engineering skills that would soon result in the deep-level mines of the Witwatersrand producing a quarter of the world's gold, with the "instant city" of Johannesburg arising astride the main Witwatersrand gold reef.<ref>Extract from ''New History of South Africa'', by Hermann Giliomee and Bernard Mbenga (eds.) [http://newhistory.co.za/Part-3-Chapter-8-The-story-of-gold-Johannesburg-an-instant-city/ Chapter 8, "The story of gold"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131101083245/http://newhistory.co.za/Part-3-Chapter-8-The-story-of-gold-Johannesburg-an-instant-city/ |date=1 November 2013 }}. Accessed 27 May 2015</ref>

Within two years of gold being discovered on the Witwatersrand, four mining finance houses had been established. The first was formed by Hermann Eckstein in 1887, eventually becoming Rand Mines. Cecil Rhodes and Charles Rudd followed, with their Gold Fields of South Africa company. Rhodes and Rudd had earlier made fortunes from diamond mining at Kimberley.<ref>Goldavenue.com [http://info.goldavenue.com/Info_site/in_arts/in_civ/in_rush_safrica.html ''South African Gold Rush: 1885''] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110421002356/http://info.goldavenue.com/Info_site/in_arts/in_civ/in_rush_safrica.html |date=21 April 2011 }} Accessed 30 May 2015.</ref> In 1895 there was an investment boom in Witwatersrand gold-mining shares. The precious metal that underpinned international trade would dominate South African exports for decades to come.<ref>PJ Cain and AG Hopkins, ''British Imperialism, Innovation and Expansion, 1688–1914'', London: Longman 1993, pp.276–314 {{ISBN|0582491762}}</ref>

Of the leading 25 foreign industrialists who were instrumental in opening up deep level mining operations at the Witwatersrand gold fields, 15 were Jewish, 11 of the total were from Germany or Austria, and nine of that latter category were also Jewish.<ref>JDF Jones,''Through Fortress and Rock'', Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball 1995, p.5 {{ISBN|1 86842 029 9}}</ref> The commercial opportunities opened by the discovery of gold attracted many other people of European Jewish origin. The Jewish population of South Africa in 1880 numbered approximately 4,000; by 1914 it had grown to more than 40,000, mostly migrants from Lithuania.<ref>Aubrey Newman, Nicholas J Evans, J Graham Smith & Saul W Issroff, ''Jewish Migration to South Africa: The Records of the Poor Jews' Temporary Shelter, 1885–1914'' Cape Town: Jewish Publications-South Africa, 2006. {{ISBN|978-0-7992-2315-6}}</ref>

The working environment of the mines, meanwhile, as one historian has described it, was "dangerous, brutal and onerous", and therefore unpopular among local black Africans.<ref>Alan H Jeeves, ''Migrant Labour in South Africa's Mining Economy 1890–1920'', cited in Jones (1995), p.53</ref> Recruitment of black labour began to prove difficult, even with an offer of improved wages. In mid-1903 there remained barely half of the 90,000 black labourers who had been employed in the industry in mid-1899.<ref>Jones (1995), p.47</ref> The decision was made to start importing Chinese indentured labourers who were prepared to work for far less wages than local African labourers. The first 1,000 indentured Chinese labourers arrived in June 1904. By January 1907, 53,000 Chinese labourers were working in the gold mines.<ref>Jones (1995), p.53</ref>