Cassie's+Geography+page

media type="youtube" key="zi7YSWP-blo" height="344" width="425"Swaziland The **Kingdom of Swaziland** is a [|landlocked] country in Southern Africa, bordered to the north, south, and west by [|South Africa], and to the east by [|Mozambique]. The nation, as well as its people, are named after the 19th century king [|Mswati II]. Swaziland has been continuously inhabited since prehistory. Today, the population is primarily [|Bantu]-speaking ethnic [|Swazis]. A [|British] [|protectorate] following the end of the [|Second Boer War], it gained independence in 1968. Swaziland is a member of the [|Southern African Development Community], the [|African Union], and the [|Commonwealth of Nations]. Swaziland's economy is dominated by agriculture and subsistence farming. Growth has been hampered by the effects of [|HIV] and [|AIDS], the prevalence of which is the highest in the world. [|[][|2][|]] Struggles between pro-[|democracy] activists and supporters of the [|monarchy] have also resulted in the suppression of opposition political groups and dissidents

Artifacts indicating human activity dating back to the early Stone Age 200,000 years ago have been found in the kingdom of Swaziland. Prehistoric rock art paintings date from ca. 25,000 B.C. and continue up to the 19th century. The earliest inhabitants of the area were [|Khoisan] [|hunter-gatherers]. They were largely replaced by the Bantu tribes during [|Bantu migrations]. Evidence of [|agriculture] and [|iron] use dates from about the 4th century, and people speaking languages ancestral to current [|Sotho] and [|Nguni] languages began settling no later than the 11th century. The ruling Dlamini lineage had chiefships in the region in the 18th century. An enlarged Swazi (occasionally also written as Suozi [//[|citation needed]//] ) kingdom was established by [|King Sobhuza I] in the early 19th century. Soon thereafter the first whites started to settle in the area. In the 1890s the [|South African Republic] in the [|Transvaal] claimed sovereignty over Swaziland but never fully established power. After the [|Second Boer War] of 1899–1902, Swaziland became a [|British] [|protectorate]. The country was granted independence within the [|Commonwealth of Nations] on 6 September 1968. Since then, Swaziland has seen a struggle between pro-democracy activists and the monarchy. Swaziland has been under a State of Emergency since 1973.[|[][|3][|]][|[][|4][|]]