The Kingdom of Lesotho is a small enclave of mountainous territory of 30,355 square kilometers (11,720 square miles) surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. Most of its population, estimated at approximately 2.2 million in 2002, dwells in the southwestern and southeastern lowlands and in the capital, Maseru.

Preindependence History

Lesotho was known during colonial times as Basutoland. The country's founder, Moshoeshoe I (1786?–1870), succeeded by the mid-1830s in establishing his authority as king over the Basuto people, whose area of settlement extended to the north and west of the Caledon River, as well as to the southwest of Lesotho's modern boundaries. Other tribes migrating into the Basuto-dominated area were brought into a vassal relationship. However, from the late 1830s, the Basuto were affected by the migration of Boer farmers from the south, who were seeking to remove themselves from British rule over the Cape Colony. The Cape responded by signing a...