The Orange River Agreement (referred to as the ORA) is a trilateral agreement between the Cape Colony, the Free States and the United Kingdom. The Agreement was drawn up in the days after the British Empire granted three of its former colonies - the Cape Colony, the Transvaal Colony and the Orange River Colony, substantive autonomy. The UK and many political figures in all three colonies called for a unified country named "South Africa" to be established, including the Natal Colony (which would only receive full independence in 1931). However, the Cape government essentially vetoed this process when it refused outright to join with the "racist, oppressive and regressively-minded Afrikaners to the north", fearing that such a union would violate the Cape's liberal tradition and qualified rac