POPULATION: 1.9 million (2010); nationality: betchuana; composition: Tswana 95%, lizards, Basu and Galaga 4%, European 1%. Languages: English (official), Setswana (national). Religion: Christianity 59.9% (30.7% independent, no affiliation 13.6%, Protestant 11%, other 4.7%), traditional beliefs 38.8%, no religion 0.1%, other 1.1%.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS: Organizations: World Bank, the Commonwealth, IMF, WTO, UN, SADC, AU. Embassy: 1531-3, New Hampshire Avenue NW, Washington DC 20036, USA.
GOVERNMENT: Presidential republic. Div administration: 11 districts. Political parties: Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Botswana National Front (BNF). Legislative branch: unicameral - National Assembly with 57 members. Constitution: 1966.
Without access to the sea, Botswana is in a semiarid region in southern Africa. About 85% of the territory is located in the Kalahari Desert, subject to droughts that can last for years. This issue marks both the country that the name of the national currency pula means rain in Setswana. The abundance of wildlife and good infrastructure of national parks boost tourism. The nation's great diamond producer in the world and has deposits of nickel and copper. In the health sector faces a "catastrophe" according to the United Nations (UN) in ten adults, almost four carry the AIDS virus, the highest infection rate in the world.
HISTORYMarked by the desert conditions, the area is occupied by the Tswana people since at least the eighteenth century. In the first decades of the nineteenth century, received a British mission (1813) and welcomes the Boers and Zulus, who, because of conflicts with the British, leaving the region on South Africa British Protectorate since 1885 under the name Bechuanaland, in 1966 the region gained independence and is now called Botswana. Held regular elections since then and is considered an example of political stability in continente.Até the late 1980s as one of the countries that opposed apartheid in South Africa was subject to incursions by the South African Army, under the charge of harboring guerrillas of the African National Congress. With the end of apartheid, the bilateral relations improve. In the 1980s, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew more than 10% per year, due to the production of diamonds. The drought and global recession in the early 1990s led the country into economic depression and reveal its dependence on mining. In 1998, after four terms, the President, Ketumile Masire of Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), withdrew from politics and is replaced by Vice President Festus Mogae. The BDP won the 1999 parliamentary elections, and Mogae was elected president by the National Assembly.
Since 2001, increases the resistance of the nomadic "bushmen" the government's attempt to expel them from the hunting grounds where they live for millennia to search for diamond deposits. In 2003, the government chose a privatization program with the World Bank that includes the partial sale of Air Botswana, as well as state-owned telecommunications, housing and water.
