Location: Africa
Status: UN Country
Capital City: Gaborone
Main Cities: Francistown, Lobatse, Selebi-Phikwe
Population: 1,392,000
Area: 581,730 km2
Currency: 1 pula = 100 thebe
Languages: English, Setswana
Religions: Indigenous beliefs, Christian
More about Botswana: a republic in southern Africa: established as the British protectorate of Bechuanaland in 1885 as a defence against the Boers; became an independent state within the Commonwealth in 1966; consists mostly of a plateau averaging 1000 m (3300 ft.), with the extensive Okavango swamps in the northwest and the Kalahari Desert in the southwest. Languages: English and Tswana. Religion: animist majority. Currency: pula. Capital: Gaborone. Pop.: 1 795 000 (2004 est.). Area: about 570 000 sq. km (220 000 sq. miles)