Botswana: A History of Independence

The British sought to maintain their influence over the Tswana tribes due to their strategic location connecting southern and central Africa. Facing potential encroachment from German South West Africa and Afrikaners, the Tswana chiefs saw British protection as a preferable alternative to German settler colonialism. In 1885, Bechuanaland became a British protectorate under the Bechuanaland Protectorate Order in Council, formally established in 1904 with a guarantee against incorporation into the Union of South Africa.