Botswana
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70% of its territory being a part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. With a population of slightly over 2.4 million people and a comparable land area to France, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. While it is not enshrined by statutory law, Botswana is de facto the nation state of the Tswana people, who constitute nearly 80% of the population while legally undistinguished Kalanga people, who account for another 11%, are the single largest ethnic minority.
The Tswana ethnic group are descended mainly from Bantu-speaking peoples who migrated into southern Africa, including modern Botswana, in several waves before AD 600. In 1885, the British colonised the area and declared a protectorate named Bechuanaland. As part of the decolonisation of Africa, Bechuanaland became an independent Commonwealth republic under its current name on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has been a parliamentary republic with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections, though dominated by the Botswana Democratic Party until 2024., Botswana is the least corrupt country in mainland Africa according to the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International.
Botswana's economy has generally experienced stable growth since independence. It is dominated by tourism and mining; Botswana produces more diamonds than any other country. Its gross national income per capita of about $20,158 as of 2024 gives the country a relatively high standard of living and the second-highest Human Development Index of continental Sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa. Despite this, Botswana continues to grapple with high unemployment and income inequality rates. Botswana is a member of the Southern African Customs Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations.
Etymology
The country's name means "Land of the Tswana", referring to the dominant ethnic group in Botswana. The Constitution of Botswana recognises a homogeneous Tswana state. The demonym Batswana was originally applied to the Tswana, and has also come to be used generally as a term for all citizens of Botswana. In Tswana, Batswana is grammatically plural; its singular form, which can refer to a single member of the Tswana or to a single citizen of Botswana, is Motswana.History
Pre-history
It is estimated that hominids lived in Botswana during the Pleistocene time period. Stone tools and animal remains indicate that all areas of the country were inhabited at least 400,000 years ago.From the 2020s the Botswana region has been proposed as the birthplace of all modern humans around 200,000 years ago. Evidence left by modern humans, such as cave paintings, is about 73,000 years old. The earliest known inhabitants of southern Africa are thought to have been the forebears of present-day San and Khoi peoples. Both groups speak click languages from the small Khoe-Kwadi, Kxʼa and Tuu language families whose members hunted, gathered and traded over long distances. When cattle were first introduced into southern Africa about 2,000 years ago, pastoralism became a major feature of the economy since the region had large grasslands free of tsetse flies.
It is unclear when Bantu-speaking peoples first moved into the country from the north, although AD 600 seems to be a consensus estimate. In that era, the ancestors of the modern-day Kalanga moved into what is now the north-eastern area of the country. These proto-Kalanga were closely connected to states in Zimbabwe as well as to the Mapungubwe state. One notable remnant of this period is Domboshaba ruins, a cultural and heritage site in Botswana initially occupied towards the end of the Great Zimbabwe period, with stone walls that have an average height of 1.8 metres. The site is a respected place for the people living in the region, and it is believed that the chief lived on the top of the hill with his helpers or assistants. These states, located outside of current Botswana's borders, appear to have kept massive herds of cattle—apparently at numbers approaching modern cattle density—in what is now the Central District. This massive cattle-raising complex prospered until around 1300 and seems to have regressed following the collapse of Mapungubwe. During this era, the first Tswana-speaking groups, the Bakgalagadi, moved into the southern areas of the Kalahari. These various peoples were connected to trade routes that ran via the Limpopo River to the Indian Ocean. Trade goods from Asia such as beads made their way to Botswana, most likely in exchange for ivory, gold and rhinoceros horn.
The Toutswemogala Hill Iron Age settlement's radio-carbon dates range from the 7th to the late 19th century, indicating it was occupied for more than 1,000 years. The hill was part of the formation of early states in southern Africa, with cattle as a major source of economy. The Toutswe settlement includes house-floors, large heaps of vitrified cow dung, and burials while the outstanding structure is the stone wall. Around 1000 AD, the Toutswe people moved into Botswana.
However, agriculture also played a vital role in the longevity of Toutswemogala Hill's extended occupation, as many grain storage structures have also been found on the site. Many different stratified layers of housing floors further signalled continuous occupation over hundreds of years. The arrival of the Tswana speakers' ancestors who came to control the region has yet to be dated precisely. Members of the Bakwena, a chieftaincy under a leader named Kgabo II, made their way into the southern Kalahari by AD 1500 at the latest, and his people drove the Bakgalagadi inhabitants west into the desert. Over the years, several offshoots of the Bakwena moved into adjoining territories. The Bangwaketse occupied areas to the west, while the Bangwato moved northeast into former Kalanga areas. Not long afterwards, a Bangwato offshoot known as the Batawana migrated into the Okavango Delta, probably in the 1790s.
Mfecane and Batswana-Boer Wars
The first written records relating to modern-day Botswana appear in 1824. These records show that the Bangwaketse had become the predominant power in the region. Under the rule of Makaba II, the Bangwaketse kept vast herds of cattle in well-protected desert areas, and used their military prowess to raid their neighbours. By this time, other chiefdoms in the area had capitals of 10,000 or so and were fairly prosperous. This equilibrium came to end during the Mfecane period when a succession of invading peoples from South Africa entered the country. Although the Bangwaketse were able to defeat the invading Bakololo in 1826, over time all the major chiefdoms in Botswana were attacked, weakened and impoverished. The Bakololo and AmaNdebele raided repeatedly and took large numbers of cattle, women and children from the Batswana – most of whom were driven into the desert or sanctuary areas such as hilltops and caves. Only after 1843, when the Amandebele moved into western Zimbabwe, did this threat subside.File:Sechele Gustav Fritsch 1865.jpg|thumb|upright|Sechele I, who led a Batswana Merafe Coalition against Boers in 1852
During the 1840s and 1850s, trade with Cape Colony-based merchants opened up and enabled the Batswana chiefdoms to rebuild. The Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bangwato and Batawana cooperated to control the lucrative ivory trade and used the proceeds to import horses and guns, which in turn enabled them to establish control over what is now Botswana. This process was largely complete by 1880, and the Batswana thus subjugated the Bushmen, Kalanga, Bakgalagadi and other current minorities.
Following the Great Trek, Afrikaners from the Cape Colony established themselves on the borders of Botswana in the Transvaal. In 1852, a coalition of Tswana chiefdoms led by Sechele I defeated Afrikaner incursions at the Battle of Dimawe and, after about eight years of intermittent tensions and hostilities, eventually came to a peace agreement in Potchefstroom in 1860. From that point on, the modern-day border between South Africa and Botswana was agreed on, and the Afrikaners and Batswana traded and worked together comparatively peacefully.
In 1884, Batawana, a northern-based Tswana clan's cavalry under the command of Kgosi Moremi, fought and defeated the Ndebele's invasion of northern Botswana at the Battle of Khutiyabasadi. This was the start of the collapse of the Ndebele Kingdom in Zimbabwe, and it helped the Tswana speaking authority.
Due to newly peaceful conditions, trade thrived between 1860 and 1880. Christian missionaries were able to take advantage of this. The Lutherans and the London Missionary Society both became established in the country by 1856. By 1880, every major village had a resident missionary, and their influence slowly grew. Khama III, who reigned from 1875 to 1923, was the first of the Tswana chiefs to make Christianity a state religion, and a great deal of Tswana customary law changed as a result. Christianity became the de facto official religion in all the chiefdoms by World War I.
Colonialism
During the Scramble for Africa, both the German Empire and Britain coveted the territory of Botswana. During the Berlin Conference, Britain decided to annexe Botswana to safeguard the Road to the North and thus connect the Cape Colony to its territories further north. It unilaterally annexed Tswana territories in January 1885 and then sent the Warren Expedition north to consolidate control over the area and convince the chiefs to accept British overrule. Despite their misgivings, they eventually acquiesced to this fait accompli.In 1890, areas north of 22 degrees were added to the new Bechuanaland Protectorate. During the 1890s, the new territory was divided into eight different reserves, with fairly small amounts of land being left as freehold for white settlers. During the early 1890s, the British government decided to hand over the Bechuanaland Protectorate to the British South Africa Company. This plan, which was well on its way to fruition despite the entreaties of Tswana leaders who toured England in protest, was eventually foiled by the failure of the Jameson Raid in January 1896.
When the Union of South Africa was formed from the main British colonies in the region in 1910, the High Commission Territories—the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Basutoland and Swaziland —were not included, but provision was made for their later incorporation. However, the UK began to consult with their inhabitants as to their wishes. Although successive South African governments sought to have the territories transferred to their jurisdiction, the UK kept delaying; consequently, it never occurred. The election of the Nationalist government in 1948, which instituted apartheid, and South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961, ended any prospect of the UK or these territories agreeing to incorporation into South Africa.
An expansion of British central authority and the evolution of native government resulted in the 1920 establishment of two advisory councils to represent both Africans and Europeans. The African Council consisted of the eight heads of the Tswana tribes and some elected members. Proclamations in 1934 regulated tribal rule and powers. A European-African advisory council was formed in 1951, and the 1961 constitution established a consultative legislative council.File:Botswana Independence Talks, 1965 - 2.png|thumb|Seretse Khama ' and Quett Masire ' at independence talks in London, 1965