The San people (Bushmen) are believed to have inhabited Botswana for at least 30,000 years. They were followed by the pastoral KhoiKhoi (Hottentots) and later by Bantu groups, who migrated from the north-western and eastern regions of Africa sometime during the 1st or 2nd century AD and settled along the Chobe River. Different Bantu groups, including the Tswana, lived relatively amicably in small groupings across the Kalahari until the 18th century. Disputes were solved through fragmentation: the dissatisfied party simply gathered together and tramped off to establish another domain elsewhere.

By 1800, all suitable grazing lands around the fringes of the Kalahari had been settled by pastoralists, and peaceful fragmentation was no longer a feasible solution to disputes. Furthermore, Europeans had arrived in the Cape and were expanding northward, and aggression after the 1818 amalgamation of the Zulu tribes in South Africa made the scattered Tswana villages highly vulnerable. In response, the Tswana regrouped and their society became highly structured. Each Tswana nation was ruled by a hereditary monarch, and the king's subjects lived in centralised towns and satellite villages.

The orderliness and structure of the town-based Batswana society impressed the Christian missionaries, who began to arrive in the early 1800s. None managed to convert great numbers of Batswana, though they did manage to advise the locals, sometimes wrongly, in their dealings with the Europeans who followed. Meanwhile, the Boers began their Great Trek over the Vaal, crossing into Batswana and Zulu territory and attempting to impose white rule on the inhabitants. Many Batswana went into service on Boer farms, but the association was rarely happy and often marred by rebellion and violence. By 1877, animosity had escalated to such a level that the British finally stepped in to annex the Transvaal, thereby launching the first Boer War. The Boers dawdled after the Pretoria Convention of 1881 but moved back into Batswana lands in 1882, prompting the Batswana to again ask for British protection.

The British stepped in but didn't dance to the Batswana tune. Lands south of the Molopo River became the British Crown Colony of Bechuanaland, while the area north became the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland (which is now Botswana). Apart from a few years when it seemed Britain was going to cede control of Bechuanaland to Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company, Britain maintained control of Bechuanaland until 1966. Nationalism built during the 1950s and '60s, and as early as 1955 it had become apparent that Britain was preparing to release its grip. Following the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, the Bechuanaland People's Party was formed with independence as its aim. General elections were held in 1965, and Seretse Khama was elected president. On 30 September 1966 the Republic of Botswana gained independence.

Botswana was economically transformed by the discovery of diamonds near Orapa in 1967. While most of the population remained in the low income bracket, this mineral wealth provided the country with enormous foreign currency reserves, pushing the pula to its position as Africa's strongest currency. Then in 1999 the international diamond market slumped, which led to Botswana's first budget deficit in 16 years. However, compared to the rest of the African continent, it still has tremendous wealth and stability. Botswana's government is regarded as pragmatic and pro-western, although there are concerns about the country's increasing military expenditures. Currently, Botswana's biggest problems are unemployment, AIDS, urban drift and a rocketing birthrate, which has begun to slow in recent years due to the spread of HIV and AIDS through the child-bearing age groups.

Botswana's early tribal religions were primarily cults in which ancestors directed family matters from their underworld domain and were contactable only through the heads of family groups. Religious rites included male and female initiation ceremonies and rain-making rituals. Polygamy was practised, and a man's estate was inherited by the children of his head wife. San folklore is rich with supernatural explanations of natural events, orchestrated by N!odima, the good guy, and Gcawama, the mischievous trickster. Missionaries dislodged nearly all the traditional practices, and Christianity is currently the prevailing belief system in Botswana. English is the official language of Botswana, but the most common language is Setswana, a Bantu language understood by over 90% of the population.

The original Botswana artists were everyday craftspeople who injected individual aesthetics into utilitarian implements such as pottery, fabrics and tools. Botswana's baskets are exquisite, employing designs with such evocative names as Tears of the Giraffe, Urine Trail of the Bull and Forehead of the Zebra. Because indigenous languages have only been written since the coming of the Christian missionaries, Botswana doesn't have much of a literary tradition. All that survives of the ancient myths and praise poetry of the native peoples has been handed down orally and only recently transcribed. Botswana's most famous modern literary figure was South African-born Bessie Head, who settled in Serowe and wrote of the harshness and beauty of village life.

Historically, men were responsible for tending the herds and subsisted primarily on meat and milk, while women were left to gather and eat wild fruits and vegetables. Nowadays, millet and sorghum porridge form the centre of most Botswana meals, but these are rapidly being replaced by imported maize mealies. People in remote areas supplement their diets with morama, an immense underground tuber, and an edible fungus known as the Kalahari truffle. You may also encounter dishes including the mopane worm, a caterpillar-like grub that can be cooked in hot ash, boiled in salt water or dried and deep-fried. Traditional drinks include palm wine, a less than legal, extremely potent swill, and kgadi, made from distilled brown sugar or fungus. Legal home brews include bojalwa, an inexpensive sprouted sorghum beer.