Colony Essay Botswana

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Colony Essay: Botswana Botswana went through many things during its journey to post-colonialism, like revolutions, conflicts, and interactions with the environment. Botswana has a long history that greatly involves the British. Its journey to post-colonialism was filled with ups and downs as it became modern state. Botswana had a major conflict with an illegal diamond market. Yet its economy and trade remained at large. Botswana has recently changed the way it interacts with the environment. Now Botswana has become a successful nation-state. Botswana has been helped and greatly influenced by the British throughout its history. Before European contact, the Batswana people lived as farmers and herders under tribal rule. The land that is now Botswana was originally settled by the San and the Khoi in 300 A.D. After British explorers arrived the Batswana immediately recognized their superiority due to their iron-working practices and their major technological advances from the Batswana people’s simple Stone Age tools. A tribe leader named Khama or as some called him Khama the great, united Botswana and converted it to Christianity. In 1885 Botswana was attacked by the Boers and Ndebele and asked the British for protection. The British and the Batswana made a Protectorate on March 31, 1885 and named the land Bechuanaland. The southern part of Bechuanaland was supposed to be incorporated into the Union of South Africa in a plan to bring together the main British colonies, but the beneficiary of this incorporation, Cecil John Rhodes, ended up attacking the settlers of that area so the British decided to continue the Protectorate for the next 70 years. In 1964 Botswana made a further proposal to become an independent state and the British obliged. They started to form a democratic self-government, changed their name to Botswana, and finally became an independent state
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