Bechuanaland in the context of "Resident Commissioner"

Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South Zambesia until Britain annexed it at the behest of the British South Africa Company. The colony was then renamed for that company’s founder, Cecil Rhodes. The bounding territories were Bechuanaland (Botswana), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Portuguese Mozambique (Mozambique) and the Transvaal Republic (for two brief periods known as the British Transvaal Colony; from 1910, the Union of South Africa and, from 1961, the Republic of South Africa). Since 1980, the colony's territory is the independent nation of Zimbabwe.

This southern region, known for its extensive gold reserves, was first purchased by the BSAC's Pioneer Column on the strength of a mineral concession extracted from its Matabele king, Lobengula, and various majority Mashona vassal chiefs in 1890. Though parts of the territory were laid-claim-to by the Bechuana and Portugal, its first people, the "Bushmen" (or Sān or Khoisan), had possessed it for countless centuries beforehand and had continued to inhabit the region. Following the colony's unilateral dissolution in 1970 by the Republic of Rhodesia government, the Colony of Southern Rhodesia was re-established in 1979 as the successor state to the Republic of Zimbabwe Rhodesia which, in-turn, was the predecessor state of the Republic of Zimbabwe. Its only true geographical borders were the rivers Zambezi and Limpopo, its other boundaries being (more or less) arbitrary, and merging imperceptibly with the peoples and domains of earlier chiefdoms of pre-colonial times.

In numismatics, token coins or trade tokens are coin-like objects used instead of coins. The field of token coins is part of exonumia and token coins are token money. Their denomination is shown or implied by size, color or shape. They are often made of cheaper metals like copper, pewter, aluminium, brass and tin, or non-metals like bakelite, leather and porcelain.

A legal tender coin is issued by a governmental authority and is freely exchangeable for goods. A token coin has a narrower utility and is issued by a private entity. In many instances, token coins have become obsolete due to the use of cash, payment cards, stored value cards or other electronic transactions.

The Botswana Democratic Party (abbr. BDP, colloquially known as Domkrag) is a centre-right political party in Botswana. From the country's inaugural election in 1965 until the 2024 general election the party governed the country without interruption for 58 years. At the time of its defeat, the BDP was the longest continuous ruling party in the democratic world.

The party was founded in February 1962 as the Bechuanaland Democratic Party while the country was a British protectorate. It adopted its current name following Botswana's independence in 1966. In its beginnings, it was led by Seretse Khama, the country's first president and his successor Quett Masire. Subsequent presidents of Botswana, Festus Mogae, Ian Khama and Mokgweetsi Masisi, have chaired the party. The party won an overwhelming majority in the first elections under universal suffrage in 1965, leading Khama to become the first president of the new state, a position he held until his death in 1980. The BDP enjoyed virtually unquestioned hegemony for the next three decades, benefiting from the relative success of its economic policy and its pragmatic management of the relations between the different tribal groups of the country. Beginning in the late 1980s, the country's increasing urbanization and the emergence of a middle class less influenced by tribal relations weakened the BDP's support base and strengthened its opponents, while a growing economic slowdown in the 1990s caused the party to suffer harsh electoral setbacks, leading it to implement numerous reforms in an attempt to avoid exacerbating political polarization in the country. In subsequent elections, the BDP retained power with less support, largely benefiting from the first-past-the-post voting and facing an opposition plagued by constant divisions.