It covered 13,600 square kilometres (5,300 sq mi) and the capital was Vryheid or Vrijheid ("Freedom" in Afrikaans or Dutch, respectively), both being alternative names of the state.

This created a desire to impose order, as well as enticing its participants with the possibility of gaining new lands for the Boers, who were trying to extend their territories.

To this end, the Boers from the Utrecht and Wakkerstroom regions initially approached the recently defeated Cetshwayo and offered support in return of grants of land.

[2] However, this disapproval was most probably nominal, due to the involvement of so many local officials in the affair, as well as the possibility of obtaining a coastal area from this expedition, in the form of St Lucia, which the landlocked country of Transvaal was desperately trying to achieve.

The two forces met on 5 June 1884 at the Battle of Tshaneni, where 100 Boers and an Usuthu impi of 7 000 Zulu defeated Zibhebhu.

[7] Within a few months the British annexed a stretch of the coastline of the Nieuwe Republiek and the Zulu Kingdom north of the Thukela river (1887) in order to prevent the new Boer republic from having access to the sea, which they needed for a harbor.

[3] British annexation of the Zulu territory resulted in a revolt, led by Dinuzulu in June 1888, which was quickly suppressed.