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Bechuanaland Protectorate

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Bechuanaland Protectorate

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Also known as Bechuana-land

British protectorate in southern Africa, became Botswana in 1966

Weather now

cached 24h ago
18°scattered clouds
34% 3.5 m/s OpenWeatherMap

7-day forecast

via Open-Meteo

Place details

Locality
Gaborone
Country
Botswana

via OpenStreetMap · GeoNames

Air quality

22US AQIGood
PM2.5
5.7 µg/m³
PM10
6.0 µg/m³
As of 2026-08-11 02:00 · Open-Meteo

Key facts

1924
712,000 km (275,000 sq mi)
1936
Edward VIII
Status
Protectorate of the United Kingdom
Capital
Mafikeng (1885–1965) Gaborone (1965–1966)
Official languages
English
Common languages
Setswana , IKalanga , widely spoken
Religion
Congregationalism (Christian mission churches of the London Missionary Society/LMS); Anglicanism , Methodism , Badimo
1885 1901
Victoria
1901 1910
Edward VII
1910 1936
George V
1936 1952
George VI
1952 1966
Elizabeth II
1884 1885
John Mackenzie
1965 1966
Hugh Norman-Walker
Legislature
Legislative Council
Historical era
New Imperialism
Protectorate established
31 March 1885
General election
1 March 1965

via Wikipedia infobox

~13 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Today part ofBotswana South Africa

An 1887 map showing the Crown colony of Bechuanaland (shaded pink) and the Bechuanaland Protectorate (pink border). This was prior to the extension northward to include Ngamiland in 1890.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Bechuanaland Protectorate” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (12)

On the map