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148-531: Veld ( / v ɛ l t / or / f ɛ l t / ), also spelled veldt , is a type of wide open rural landscape in Southern Africa . Particularly, it is a flat area covered in grass or low scrub , especially in the countries of South Africa , Lesotho , Eswatini , Zimbabwe and Botswana . A certain sub-tropical woodland ecoregion of Southern Africa has been officially defined as the Bushveld by

296-628: A parliamentary republic with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections , although the Botswana Democratic Party was the only ruling party from independence until 2024. As of 2024 , Botswana is the third-least corrupt country in Africa, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International . The economy is dominated by mining and tourism . Botswana has

444-414: A 'grey zone' between electoral democracy and electoral autocracy . Furthermore, they show that Botswana lost its status as a "liberal democracy" in 2021, with its liberal, participatory and deliberative components decreasing "at a statistically significant level", with the latter component being noted as becoming "significantly worse". The 2023 Transparency International Corruption Index ranks Botswana

592-755: A 180-million-year-old failed rift valley cuts into Southern Africa's central plateau and locally obliterates the Great Escarpment , is known as the Lowveld . The Limpopo and Save rivers run from the central African highlands via the Lowveld into the Indian Ocean to the east. The Limpopo Lowveld extends southwards, east of the Drakensberg escarpment through Mpumalanga Province and ultimately into eastern Eswatini . This southern limb of

740-459: A GDP per capita of about US$ 70 per year in the late 1960s —Botswana has transformed itself into an upper middle-income country. GDP per capita grew from $ 439 in 1950 to $ 15,842 in 2018. Although Botswana was resource-abundant, a good institutional framework allowed the country to reinvest resource-income to generate stable future income. By one estimate, it has the fourth-highest gross national income at purchasing power parity in Africa, giving it

888-624: A classic and much-imitated status within the Chinese tradition. Both the Roman and Chinese traditions typically show grand panoramas of imaginary landscapes, generally backed with a range of spectacular mountains – in China often with waterfalls and in Rome often including sea, lakes or rivers. These were frequently used to bridge the gap between a foreground scene with figures and a distant panoramic vista,

1036-628: A cultural and heritage site in Botswana initially occupied towards the end of the Great Zimbabwe period (1250–1450), with stone walls that have an average height of 1.8 metres. The site is a respected place for the people living in the region, and it is believed that the chief lived on the top of the hill with his helpers or assistants. These states, located outside of current Botswana's borders, appear to have kept massive herds of cattle—apparently at numbers approaching modern cattle density—in what

1184-649: A cultural group. Culture is the agent, the natural area is the medium, the cultural landscape is the result. A cultural landscape, as defined by the World Heritage Committee , is the "cultural properties [that] represent the combined works of nature and of man." The World Heritage Committee identifies three categories of cultural landscape, ranging from (i) those landscapes most deliberately 'shaped' by people, through (ii) full range of 'combined' works, to (iii) those least evidently 'shaped' by people (yet highly valued). The three categories extracted from

1332-604: A democratic self-government in Botswana. An independence conference was held in London in February 1966. The seat of government was moved in 1965 from Mahikeng in South Africa, to the newly established Gaborone , located near Botswana's border with South Africa. Based on the 1965 constitution, the country held its first general elections under universal suffrage and gained independence on 30 September 1966. Seretse Khama ,

1480-488: A few miles above Tintern Abbey is an obvious example. More recently, Matthew Arnold 's " The Scholar Gipsy " (1853) praises the Oxfordshire countryside, and W. H. Auden 's " In Praise of Limestone " (1948) uses a limestone landscape as an allegory. Subgenres of topographical poetry include the country house poem , written in 17th-century England to compliment a wealthy patron, and the prospect poem , describing

1628-415: A half years of current imports. The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and the government respects this in practice. The legal system is sufficient to conduct secure commercial dealings, although a growing backlog of cases prevents timely trials. Botswana is ranked second only to South Africa among sub-Saharan African countries in the 2014 International Property Rights Index. In Botswana,

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1776-592: A kilometre-wide scale; instead, he defines 'landscape'—regardless of scale—as "the template on which spatial patterns influence ecological processes". Some define 'landscape' as an area containing two or more ecosystems in close proximity. The discipline of landscape science has been described as "bring[ing] landscape ecology and urban ecology together with other disciplines and cross-disciplinary fields to identify patterns and understand social-ecological processes influencing landscape change". A 2000 paper entitled "Geography and landscape science" states that "The whole of

1924-644: A landscape helps define the self-image of the people who inhabit it and a sense of place that differentiates one region from other regions. It is the dynamic backdrop to people's lives. Landscape can be as varied as farmland, a landscape park or wilderness . The Earth has a vast range of landscapes including the icy landscapes of polar regions , mountainous landscapes, vast arid desert landscapes, islands , and coastal landscapes, densely forested or wooded landscapes including past boreal forests and tropical rainforests and agricultural landscapes of temperate and tropical regions. The activity of modifying

2072-529: A landscape is a heterogeneous land area composed of a cluster of interacting ecosystems that is repeated in similar form throughout, whereby they list woods, meadows, marshes and villages as examples of a landscape's ecosystems, and state that a landscape is an area at least a few kilometres wide. John A. Wiens opposes the traditional view expounded by Carl Troll , Isaak S. Zonneveld, Zev Naveh, Richard T. T. Forman/Michel Godron and others that landscapes are arenas in which humans interact with their environments on

2220-626: A landscape or place. John Denham 's 1642 poem "Cooper's Hill" established the genre, which peaked in popularity in 18th-century England. Examples of topographical verse date, however, to the Late Classical period, and can be found throughout the Medieval era and during the Renaissance . Though the earliest examples come mostly from continental Europe, the topographical poetry in the tradition originating with Denham concerns itself with

2368-497: A landscape or scenery, topographical poetry often, at least implicitly, addresses a political issue or the meaning of nationality in some way. The description of the landscape therefore becomes a poetic vehicle for a political message. For example, in John Denham's "Cooper's Hill", the speaker discusses the merits of the recently executed Charles I . The Vision on Mount Snowdon .................................and on

2516-458: A landscape that brings together multiple stakeholders, who collaborate to integrate policy and practice for their different land use objectives, with the purpose of achieving sustainable landscapes. It recognises that, for example, one river basin can supply water for towns and agriculture, timber and food crops for smallholders and industry, and habitat for biodiversity; the way in which each one of these sectors pursues its goals can have impacts on

2664-405: A landscape was Joseph Addison in 1712. The term landscape architecture was invented by Gilbert Laing Meason in 1828 and was first used as a professional title by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1863. During the latter 19th century, the term landscape architect became used by professional people who designed landscapes. Frederick Law Olmsted used the term 'landscape architecture' as a profession for

2812-459: A leader in the independence movement, was elected as the first president, and subsequently re-elected twice. Khama died in office in 1980. The presidency passed to the sitting vice-president, Quett Masire , who was elected in his own right in 1984 and re-elected in 1989 and 1994. Masire retired from office in 1998. He was succeeded by Festus Mogae , who was elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2004. The presidency passed in 2008 to Ian Khama (son of

2960-578: A leader named Kgabo II, made their way into the southern Kalahari by AD 1500, at the latest, and his people drove the Bakgalagadi inhabitants west into the desert. Over the years, several offshoots of the Bakwena moved into adjoining territories. The Bangwaketse occupied areas to the west, while the Bangwato moved northeast into former Kalanga areas. Not long afterwards, a Bangwato offshoot known as

3108-422: A mental construct but as an objectively given 'organic entity', a harmonic individuum of space . Ernst Neef defines landscapes as sections within the uninterrupted earth-wide interconnection of geofactors which are defined as such on the basis of their uniformity in terms of a specific land use, and are thus defined in an anthropocentric and relativistic way. According to Richard Forman and Michael Godron ,

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3256-418: A particular pattern of growth, rarely covering the whole terrain and thus leaving patches of sandy soil exposed on the surface. Some of the typical sandveld species are Acacia haematoxylon , A. luederitzii , Boscia albitrunca , Terminalia sericea , Lonchocarpus nelsii , Bauhinia petersiana and Baphia massaiensis . Hardveld is a term applied to certain rocky soil areas in Botswana, mostly in

3404-537: A per capita GDP ( purchasing power parity ) of about $ 20,158 as of 2024 . Botswana is the world's biggest diamond-producing country. Its relatively high gross national income per capita (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a relatively high standard of living and the second-highest Human Development Index of continental Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa). Despite this, Botswana continues to grapple with high unemployment rates. Botswana

3552-575: A persistent problem for landscape artists. A major contrast between landscape painting in the West and East Asia has been that while in the West until the 19th century it occupied a low position in the accepted hierarchy of genres , in East Asia the classic Chinese mountain-water ink painting was traditionally the most prestigious form of visual art. However, in the West, history painting came to require an extensive landscape background where appropriate, so

3700-491: A project to reintroduce indigenous vegetation into communities in Kgalagadi South, Kweneng North and Boteti. Reintroduction of indigenous vegetation will help reduce the degradation of the land. The United States Government has also entered into an agreement with Botswana, giving them US$ 7 million to reduce Botswana's debt by US$ 8.3 million. The US stipulated that Botswana will focus on more extensive conservation of

3848-514: A reaction against urbanism and industrialisation and a new emphasis on the beauty and value of nature and landscape. However, it was also a revolt against aristocratic social and political norms of the Age of Enlightenment , as well a reaction against the scientific rationalisation of nature. The poet William Wordsworth was a major contributor to the literature of landscape, as was his contemporary poet and novelist Walter Scott . Scott's influence

3996-437: A relatively high standard of living in Africa, around that of Mexico. As of 2022, the unemployment rate stood at 25.4%, while youth unemployment reached 45.41% in 2023. The latest available data from 2015/2016 estimate that 17.2% of Botswana’s population is multidimensionally poor , with an additional 19.7% at risk. The Ministry of Trade and Industry of Botswana is responsible for promoting business development throughout

4144-468: A series of carefully composed scenes, unrolling like a scroll of landscape paintings. The English landscape garden , also called English landscape park or simply the 'English garden', is a style of parkland garden intended to look as though it might be a natural landscape, although it may be very extensively re-arranged. It emerged in England in the early 18th century, and spread across Europe, replacing

4292-585: A strong sense of place, but the emphasis is on individual plant forms and human and animal figures rather than the overall landscape setting. For a coherent depiction of a whole landscape, some rough system of perspective, or scaling for distance, is needed, and this seems from literary evidence to have first been developed in Ancient Greece in the Hellenistic period, although no large-scale examples survive. More ancient Roman landscapes survive, from

4440-548: A term for all citizens of Botswana. It is estimated that hominids lived in Botswana during the Pleistocene . Stone tools and animal remains indicate that all areas of the country were inhabited at least 400,000 years ago. It was claimed to have been the birthplace of all modern humans from around 200,000 years ago. Evidence left by modern humans, such as cave paintings, is about 73,000 years old. The earliest known inhabitants of southern Africa are thought to have been

4588-514: A vital role in the longevity of Toutswemogala Hill's extended occupation, as many grain storage structures have also been found on the site. Many different stratified layers of housing floors further signal continuous occupation over hundreds of years. The arrival of the Tswana speakers' ancestors who came to control the region has yet to be dated precisely. Members of the Bakwena , a chieftaincy under

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4736-411: Is a legal penalty for murder in Botswana, and executions are carried out by hanging. Many of the indigenous San people have been forcibly relocated from their land to reservations. To make them relocate, they were denied access to water on their land and faced arrest if they hunted, which was their primary source of food. Their lands lie in the middle of the world's richest diamond field. Officially,

4884-789: Is a member of the Southern African Customs Union , the Southern African Development Community , the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations . The country's name means "Land of the Tswana ", referring to the dominant ethnic group in Botswana . The Constitution of Botswana recognizes a homogeneous Tswana state. The demonym Batswana was originally applied to the Tswana, and has also come to be used generally as

5032-399: Is a type of semi-arid savanna in which grassland with thorny acacia and certain species of thorny bushes predominate. The predominant plant species are usually different in the thornveld of the plains or in the hill thornveld, where, for example, species of genus Balanites are common. Some of the characteristic species in the thornveld include: Sandveld, in the general sense of the word,

5180-515: Is a type of veld characterised by dry, sandy soil, typical of certain areas of the Southern African region. It usually absorbs all water from the seasonal rains, although aquatic habitats, largely seasonal, may be also found in specific places in the sandveld. Only certain hardy plant species thrive in the sandveld environment. These consist especially of grasses forming clumps and certain kinds of trees and shrubs. The sandveld vegetation has

5328-482: Is causing a loss of cultural identity, as many modern buildings share similar palettes, diluting local characteristics. Researchers have proposed more unified cityscape approaches to address these color landscape issues and help cities preserve their distinctive identities and create vibrant, emotionally engaging urban environments. The word landscape ( landscipe or landscaef ) arrived in England —and therefore into

5476-622: Is found in Australian aboriginal myths (also known as Dreamtime or Dreaming stories, songlines , or Aboriginal oral literature ), the stories traditionally performed by Aboriginal peoples within each of the language groups across Australia. All such myths variously tell significant truths within each Aboriginal group's local landscape . They effectively layer the whole of the Australian continent's topography with cultural nuance and deeper meaning, and empower selected audiences with

5624-837: Is now the Central District. This massive cattle-raising complex prospered until around 1300 and seems to have regressed following the collapse of Mapungubwe. During this era, the first Tswana-speaking groups, the Bakgalagadi , moved into the southern areas of the Kalahari . These various peoples were connected to trade routes that ran via the Limpopo River to the Indian Ocean ; trade goods from Asia such as beads made their way to Botswana, most likely in exchange for ivory, gold and rhinoceros horn . The Toutswemogala Hill Iron Age settlement's radio-carbon dates range from

5772-580: Is predominantly flat, tending towards gently rolling tableland . Botswana is dominated by the Kalahari Desert , which covers up to 70% of its land surface. The Limpopo River Basin, the major landform of all of southern Africa, lies partly in Botswana, with the basins of its tributaries, the Notwane , Bonwapitse , Mahalapye , Lotsane , Motloutse and the Shashe , located in the eastern part of

5920-425: Is the science of studying and improving relationships between ecological processes in the environment and particular ecosystems. This is done within a variety of landscape scales, development spatial patterns, and organizational levels of research and policy. Landscape is a central concept in landscape ecology. It is, however, defined in quite different ways. For example: Carl Troll conceives of landscape not as

6068-664: Is the third-least corrupt country in Africa, just below Cabo Verde and the Seychelles . Botswana is also a member of the Commonwealth of Nations . At the time of independence, Botswana had no armed forces. It was only after the Rhodesian and South African armies attacked the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army and Umkhonto we Sizwe bases respectively that the Botswana Defence Force (BDF)

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6216-408: Is to draw from "indigenous knowledge and traditional land management systems". The leaders of this movement are supposed to be the people in the community to draw indigenous people in, which in turn increases their opportunities to earn an income, thus decreasing poverty. The UNDP also stated that the government has to effectively implement policies to allow people to manage their own local resources and

6364-527: Is unclear when Bantu -speaking peoples first moved into the country from the north, although AD 600 seems to be a consensus estimate. In that era, the ancestors of the modern-day Kalanga moved into what is now the north-eastern area of the country. These proto-Kalanga were closely connected to states in Zimbabwe as well as to the Mapungubwe state. One notable remanant of this period is Domboshaba ruins,

6512-575: The Battle of Dimawe and, after about eight years of intermittent tensions and hostilities, eventually came to a peace agreement in Potchefstroom in 1860. From that point on, the modern-day border between South Africa and Botswana was agreed on, and the Afrikaners and Batswana traded and worked together comparatively peacefully. In 1884, Batawana, a northern-based Tswana clan's cavalry under

6660-487: The Chobe District has the world's largest concentration of African elephants . The park covers about 11,000 km (4,247 sq mi) and supports about 350 species of birds. In Botswana forest cover is around 27% of the total land area, equivalent to 15,254,700 hectares (ha) of forest in 2020, down from 18,803,700 hectares (ha) in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered 15,254,700 hectares, of

6808-535: The English language —after the fifth century, following the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons ; these terms referred to a system of human-made spaces on the land. The term landscape emerged around the turn of the sixteenth century to denote a painting whose primary subject matter was natural scenery. Land (a word from Germanic origin) may be taken in its sense of something to which people belong (as in England being

6956-973: The German Empire and Britain coveted the territory of Botswana. During the Berlin Conference , Britain decided to annex Botswana to safeguard the Road to the North and thus connect the Cape Colony to its territories further north. It unilaterally annexed Tswana territories in January 1885 and then sent the Warren Expedition north to consolidate control over the area and convince the chiefs to accept British overrule. Despite their misgivings, they eventually acquiesced to this fait accompli . In 1890, areas north of 22 degrees were added to

7104-434: The Kalahari Desert . It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north and Zimbabwe to the northeast. With a population of slightly over 2.4 million people and a comparable land area to France , Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation-state of the Tswana people , who constitute nearly 80 per cent of

7252-488: The Kgabo Commission in 1991, factionalism and political rivalries have dominated Botswana politics. The Barata-Phathi faction was led by Peter Mmusi , Daniel Kwelagobe and Ponatshego Kedikilwe , while the A Team faction was led by Mompati Merafhe and Jacob Nkate. When Festus Mogae and Ian Khama became president and vice-president, respectively, they aligned with the A Team. Khama effectively expelled

7400-586: The Limpopo river . These higher, cooler areas (generally more than 1,500 metres or 4,900 feet above sea level) are characterised by flat or gently undulating terrain, vast grasslands and a modified tropical or subtropical climate . To the east, the Highveld's border is marked by the Great Escarpment , or the Mpumalanga Drakensberg . Still, the boundary is often arbitrary and not apparent in

7548-597: The Umbrella for Democratic Change has operated as a coalition of opposition parties. The most recent election was held in 2024 , with the Botswana Democratic Party losing its majority for the first time in history, ending its 58 year rule over the country. The election saw Duma Boko being elected as president. In Botswana's early years, its politics were managed by President Seretse Khama and vice-president (later president) Quett Masire . Since

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7696-562: The Urlandschaft (transl. original landscape) or landscape that existed before major human induced changes and the Kulturlandschaft (transl. 'cultural landscape') a landscape created by human culture. The major task of geography was to trace the changes in these two landscapes. It was Carl O. Sauer , a human geographer , who was probably the most influential in promoting and developing the idea of cultural landscapes. Sauer

7844-592: The World Wide Fund for Nature . Trees are not abundant—frost, fire and grazing animals allow grass to grow, but prevent the build-up of dense foliage. The word veld ( Afrikaans pronunciation: [fɛlt] ) comes from the Afrikaans word for "field". The etymological origin is older modern Dutch veldt , a spelling that the Dutch abandoned in favour of veld during the 19th century, decades before

7992-741: The fine arts , architecture , industrial design , geology and the earth sciences , environmental psychology , geography , and ecology . The activities of a landscape architect can range from the creation of public parks and parkways to site planning for campuses and corporate office parks, from the design of residential estates to the design of civil infrastructure and the management of large wilderness areas or reclamation of degraded landscapes such as mines or landfills . Landscape architects work on all types of structures and external space – large or small, urban , suburban and rural , and with "hard" (built) and "soft" (planted) materials, while paying attention to ecological sustainability . For

8140-627: The 16th through the 20th centuries—from Edmund Spenser to Sylvia Plath —correspondent to each type, from "Walks and Surveys", to "Mountains, Hills, and the View from Above", to "Violation of Nature and the Landscape", to "Spirits and Ghosts." Common aesthetic registers of which topographical poetry makes use include pastoral imagery, the sublime , and the picturesque , which include images of rivers, ruins, moonlight, birdsong, and clouds, peasants, mountains, caves, and waterscapes. Though describing

8288-495: The 1920 establishment of two advisory councils to represent both Africans and Europeans. The African Council consisted of the eight heads of the Tswana tribes and some elected members. Proclamations in 1934 regulated tribal rule and powers. A European-African advisory council was formed in 1951, and the 1961 constitution established a consultative legislative council. In June 1964, the United Kingdom accepted proposals for

8436-464: The 1st century BCE onwards, especially frescos of landscapes decorating rooms that have been preserved at archaeological sites of Pompeii , Herculaneum and elsewhere, and mosaics . The Chinese ink painting tradition of shan shui ("mountain-water"), or "pure" landscape, in which the only sign of human life is usually a sage, or a glimpse of his hut, uses sophisticated landscape backgrounds to figure subjects, and landscape art of this period retains

8584-490: The 7th to late 19th century, indicating it was occupied for more than 1,000 years. The hill was part of the formation of early states in southern Africa, with cattle as a major source of economy. The Toutswe settlement includes house-floors, large heaps of vitrified cow dung, and burials while the outstanding structure is the stone wall. Around 1000 AD, the Toutswe people moved into Botswana. However, agriculture also played

8732-402: The A Team from the party in 2010 after he became president. A new rivalry formed in 2018 when Khama's chosen successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi, became president. He opposed Khama, and the two formed a political rivalry that continues to loom over Batswana politics in the 2020s. Botswana was ranked as a "flawed democracy" and 33rd out of 167 states in the 2023 Democracy Index (The Economist) , which

8880-467: The Anglo-Chinese garden, and the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778). The English garden usually included a lake, sweeps of gently rolling lawns set against groves of trees, and recreations of classical temples, Gothic ruins, bridges, and other picturesque architecture, designed to recreate an idyllic pastoral landscape. The work of Lancelot "Capability" Brown and Humphry Repton

9028-596: The Batawana migrated into the Okavango Delta , probably in the 1790s. The first written records relating to modern-day Botswana appear in 1824. These records show that the Bangwaketse had become the predominant power in the region. Under the rule of Makaba II, the Bangwaketse kept vast herds of cattle in well-protected desert areas, and used their military prowess to raid their neighbours. Other chiefdoms in

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9176-599: The Batswana—most of whom were driven into the desert or sanctuary areas such as hilltops and caves. Only after 1843, when the Amandebele moved into western Zimbabwe, did this threat subside. During the 1840s and 1850s, trade with Cape Colony -based merchants opened up and enabled the Batswana chiefdoms to rebuild. The Bakwena , Bangwaketse, Bangwato and Batawana cooperated to control the lucrative ivory trade and used

9324-550: The Committee's Operational Guidelines, are as follows: The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. It includes both the vast gardens of the Chinese emperors and members of the Imperial Family, built for pleasure and to impress, and the more intimate gardens created by scholars, poets, former government officials, soldiers and merchants, made for reflection and escape from

9472-609: The Earth's surface and the general being that which can be seen by an observer. An example of this second usage can be found as early as 1662 in the Book of Common Prayer : There are several words that are frequently associated with the word landscape: Geomorphology is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical or chemical processes operating at or near Earth's surface. Geomorphologists seek to understand why landscapes look

9620-427: The English landscape found in the works of John Constable , J. M. W. Turner and Samuel Palmer . However all these had difficulty establishing themselves in the contemporary art market, which still preferred history paintings and portraits. In Europe, as John Ruskin said, and Sir Kenneth Clark confirmed, landscape painting was the "chief artistic creation of the nineteenth century", and "the dominant art", with

9768-464: The Highveld. Temperature is closely related to elevation. In general, the mean July (winter) temperatures range between 7 °C (45 °F) in the Lesotho Highlands and 16 °C (61 °F) in the Lowveld. January (summer) temperatures range between 18 °C (64 °F) and 30 °C (86 °F). In Zimbabwe the precipitation averages around 750–900 millimetres (30–35 in) on the Highveld, dropping to less than 350 millimetres (14 in) in

9916-456: The Lowveld is bounded by South Africa 's border with Mozambique to the east and the northeastern part of Drakensberg to the west. This region is generally hotter and less intensely cultivated than the Highveld. Until the mid-20th century, the Lowveld was still infested by the tsetse fly which transmits the sleeping sickness called nagana among the Zulus . Thornveld (also thorn veld or thornveldt), often referred to as "acacia thornveld",

10064-415: The Okavango Delta) are major tourist destinations. Other reserves include the Central Kalahari Game Reserve located in the Kalahari Desert in Ghanzi District ; Makgadikgadi Pans National Park and Nxai Pan National Park are in the Central District in the Makgadikgadi Pan . Botswana faces two major environmental problems, drought and desertification , which are heavily linked. Three-quarters of

10212-410: The Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) was also an influential text, as was Longinus ' On the Sublime (early A.D., Greece), which was translated into English from the French in 1739. From the 18th century, a taste for the sublime in the natural landscape emerged alongside the idea of the sublime in language; that is elevated rhetoric or speech. A topographical poem that influenced

10360-402: The Romantics, was James Thomson 's The Seasons (1726–30). The changing landscape, brought about by the industrial and agricultural revolutions , with the expansion of the city and depopulation of the countryside, was another influences on the growth of the Romantic movement in Britain. The poor condition of workers, the new class conflicts, and the pollution of the environment all led to

10508-428: The United Kingdom's Westminster system and the Tswana people's tribal governments. Botswana has a centralised government in which national law supersedes local law. Local laws are developed by local councils and district councils. They are heavily influenced by tribal governments, which are led by the tribe's chief. The Parliament of Botswana consists of the President and the National Assembly , which serves as

10656-460: The accumulated wisdom and knowledge of Australian Aboriginal ancestors back to time immemorial . In the West pastoral poetry represent the earliest form of landscape literature, though this literary genre presents an idealized landscape peopled by shepherds and shepherdesses, and creates "an image of a peaceful uncorrupted existence; a kind of prelapsarian world". The pastoral has its origins in

10804-554: The area, by this time, had capitals of 10,000 or so and were fairly prosperous. This equilibrium came to end during the Mfecane period, 1823–1843, when a succession of invading peoples from South Africa entered the country. Although the Bangwaketse were able to defeat the invading Bakololo in 1826, over time, all the major chiefdoms in Botswana were attacked, weakened and impoverished. The Bakololo and AmaNdebele raided repeatedly and took large numbers of cattle, women and children from

10952-455: The classics, and many of the various types of topographical verse, such as river, ruin, or hilltop poems were established by the early 17th century. Alexander Pope 's "Windsor Forest" (1713) and John Dyer 's " Grongar Hill ' (1762) are two other familiar examples. George Crabbe , the Suffolk regional poet, also wrote topographical poems, as did William Wordsworth , of which Lines written

11100-653: The command of Kgosi Moremi, fought and defeated the Ndebele's invasion of northern Botswana at the Battle of Khutiyabasadi . This is the start of the collapse of the Ndebele Kingdom in Zimbabwe and it helped the Tswana speaking authority. Due to newly peaceful conditions, trade thrived between 1860 and 1880. Christian missionaries were able to take advantage of this. The Lutherans and the London Missionary Society both became established in

11248-464: The country by 1856. By 1880, every major village had a resident missionary, and their influence slowly grew. Khama III (reigned 1875–1923) was the first of the Tswana chiefs to make Christianity a state religion, and a great deal of Tswana customary law changed as a result. Christianity became the de facto official religion in all the chiefdoms by World War I . During the Scramble for Africa , both

11396-403: The country's human and animal populations depend on groundwater due to drought. Groundwater use through deep borehole drilling has somewhat eased the effects of drought. Surface water is scarce in Botswana, and less than 5% of the agriculture in the country is sustainable by rainfall. In the remaining 95% of the country, raising livestock is the primary source of rural income. Approximately 71% of

11544-416: The country's land is used for communal grazing, which has been a major cause of the desertification and the accelerating soil erosion in the country. Since raising livestock has been profitable for the people of Botswana, they continue to exploit the land with dramatically increasing numbers of animals. From 1966 to 1991, the livestock population grew from 1.7   million to 5.5   million. Similarly,

11692-550: The country. The Notwane provides water to the capital through the Gaborone Dam . The Chobe River meets with the Zambezi River at a place called Kazungula . Botswana has diverse areas of wildlife habitat. In addition to the delta and desert areas, there are grasslands and savannas . Northern Botswana has one of the few remaining large populations of the endangered African wild dog . Chobe National Park in

11840-602: The country. According to the International Monetary Fund , economic growth averaged over 9% per year from 1966 to 1999. Botswana has a high level of economic freedom compared to other African countries. The government has maintained a sound fiscal policy , despite consecutive budget deficits in 2002 and 2003, and a negligible level of foreign debt . It earned the highest sovereign credit rating in Africa and has stockpiled foreign exchange reserves (over $ 7 billion in 2005/2006) amounting to almost two and

11988-620: The development of extremely subtle realist techniques for depicting light and weather. The popularity of landscapes in the Netherlands was in part a reflection of the virtual disappearance of religious painting in a Calvinist society, and the decline of religious painting in the 18th and 19th centuries all over Europe combined with Romanticism to give landscapes a much greater and more prestigious place in 19th-century art than they had assumed before. In England, landscapes had initially been mostly backgrounds to portraits, typically suggesting

12136-620: The disciplines involved in landscape research will be referred to as landscape science, although this term was used first in 1885 by the geographers Oppel and Troll". A 2013 guest editorial defines landscape science as "research that seeks to understand the relationship between people and their environment, with a focus on land use change and data pertaining to land resources at the landscape scale". The Great Soviet Encyclopedia of 1979 defines landscape science as "the branch of physical geography that deals with natural territorial complexes (or geographic complexes, geosystems) as structural parts of

12284-434: The earth's geographic mantle" and states that "The basis of landscape science is the theory that the geographic landscape is the primary element in the physicogeo-graphical differentiation of the earth. Landscape science deals with the origin, structure, and dynamics of landscapes, the laws of the development and arrangement of landscapes, and the transformation of landscapes by the economic activity of man.", and asserts that it

12432-477: The eastern part of the country. The landscape is an undulating plain with scattered rocky hill ranges. There are areas of hardveld also in South Africa in the mountainous central Kamiesberg of the Northern Cape with hilly escarpments and deep river valleys. The soil of the hardveld is characterised by rocky outcrops, as well as an abundance of stones and pebbles of different shapes and sizes. The flora of

12580-414: The field. The surface of Earth is modified by a combination of surface processes that sculpt landscapes, and geologic processes that cause tectonic uplift and subsidence , and shape the coastal geography . Surface processes comprise the action of water , wind , ice , fire , and living things on the surface of the Earth, along with chemical reactions that form soils and alter material properties,

12728-580: The first Afrikaans dictionary. A cognate to the English field , it was spelt velt in Middle Dutch and felt in Old Dutch . The climate of the veld is highly variable, but its general pattern is mild winters from May to September and hot or very hot summers from November to March, with moderate or considerable variations in daily temperatures and abundant sunshine. Precipitation mostly occurs in

12876-700: The first great poet associated with the Fields and Gardens poetry genre. Many landscape photographs show little or no human activity and are created in the pursuit of a pure, unsullied depiction of nature devoid of human influence, instead featuring subjects such as strongly defined landforms, weather, and ambient light. As with most forms of art, the definition of a landscape photograph is broad, and may include urban settings, industrial areas, and nature photography . Notable landscape photographers include Ansel Adams , Galen Rowell , Edward Weston , Ben Heine , Mark Gray and Fred Judge . The earliest forms of art around

13024-437: The first president), who had been serving as Mogae's vice-president since resigning his position as Commander of the Botswana Defence Force in 1998 to take up this civilian role. On 1 April 2018, Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi was sworn in as the fifth president of Botswana, succeeding Ian Khama. He represents the Botswana Democratic Party , which has also won a majority in every parliamentary election since independence. All

13172-495: The first time when designing Central Park , New York City , US. Here the combination of traditional landscape gardening and the emerging field of city planning gave landscape architecture its unique focus. This use of the term landscape architect became established after Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. and others founded the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) in 1899. Possibly the earliest landscape literature

13320-593: The focus of the Sustainable Development Goals . Integrated landscape management is increasingly taken up at the national, local and international level, for example the UN Environment Programme states that "UNEP champions the landscape approach de facto as it embodies the main elements of integrated ecosystem management ". Landscape archaeology or landscape history is the study of the way in which humanity has changed

13468-425: The forebears of present-day San ("Bushmen") and Khoi peoples. Both groups speak click languages from the small Khoe-Kwadi , Kx’a and Tuu language families whose members hunted, gathered and traded over long distances. When cattle were first introduced into southern Africa about 2,000 years ago, pastoralism became a major feature of the economy since the region had large grasslands free of tsetse flies . It

13616-551: The formation of deep sedimentary basins where the surface of Earth drops and is filled with material eroded from other parts of the landscape. The Earth surface and its topography therefore are an intersection of climatic, hydrologic , and biologic action with geologic processes. Desert , Plain , Taiga , Tundra , Wetland , Mountain , Mountain range , Cliff , Coast , Littoral zone , Glacier , Polar regions of Earth , Shrubland , Forest , Rainforest , Woodland , Jungle , Moors , Steppe , Valley . Landscape ecology

13764-743: The genre of landscape painting . When people deliberately improve the aesthetic appearance of a piece of land—by changing contours and vegetation, etc.—it is said to have been landscaped , though the result may not constitute a landscape according to some definitions. Color landscapes blend artificial elements like buildings, roads, and pavements with natural features such as mountains, forests, plants, sky, and rivers. These compositions of distant and near views can significantly impact people's emotions. As urbanization rapidly advances, urban color landscape design has become essential for cities to differentiate and symbolize their unique character and atmosphere. However, this transformation has created challenges. First,

13912-575: The government denies that there is any link to mining, claiming the relocation is to preserve the wildlife and ecosystem, even though the San people have lived sustainably on the land for millennia. On the reservations, they struggle to find employment, and alcoholism is rampant. On 24 August 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minorities , Fernand de Varennes, issued a statement calling on Botswana "to step up efforts to recognise and protect

14060-457: The hardveld is typical of rocky savanna , with denser vegetation and thus less denuded patches than in the sandveld, as well as taller trees. There is also a higher diversity of species in the hardveld compared with the sandveld. Peltophorum africanum , Acacia nigrescens , A. tortilis , Combretum apiculatum and Colophospermum mopane are some of the representative species of the northern hardveld. Landscape The character of

14208-550: The human population has increased from 574,000 in 1971 to 1.5   million in 1995, a 161% increase in 24   years. Environmentalists report that the Okavango Delta is drying up due to increased livestock grazing. The Okavango Delta is one of the major semi-forested wetlands in Botswana and one of the largest inland deltas in the world; the ecosystem is crucial to the survival of many animals. The Department of Forestry and Range Resources has already begun to implement

14356-454: The land of the English). The suffix -scape is equivalent to the more common English suffix -ship. The roots of -ship are etymologically akin to Old English sceppan or scyppan , meaning to shape . The suffix -schaft is related to the verb schaffen , so that -ship and shape are also etymologically linked. The modern form of the word, with its connotations of scenery, appeared in

14504-420: The land. The country had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 9.13/10, ranking it 8th globally out of 172 countries. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) claims that poverty is a major problem behind the overexploitation of resources, including land, in Botswana. The UNDP joined in with a project started in the southern community of Struizendam in Botswana. The project's purpose

14652-564: The largest single foreign contributor to the development of the BDF , and a large segment of its officer corps have received U.S. training. The Botswana government gave the United States permission to explore the possibility of establishing an Africa Command ( AFRICOM ) base in the country. Botswana is the 50th most peaceful country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Peace Index . The Botswana Centre for Human Rights , Ditshwanelo,

14800-408: The late sixteenth century when the term landschap was introduced by Dutch painters who used it to refer to paintings of inland natural or rural scenery. The word landscape , first recorded in 1598, was borrowed from a Dutch painters' term. The popular conception of the landscape that is reflected in dictionaries conveys both a particular and a general meaning, the particular referring to an area of

14948-662: The legislature has little power to check the president once appointed. The judiciary includes the High Court of Botswana , the Court of Appeal and Magistrates' Courts. Cases are often settled by customary courts with tribal chiefs presiding. Elections in Botswana are held every five years and overseen by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Botswana operates a multi-party system in which many political parties compete in elections. It

15096-432: The lowest areas of the Lowveld. Temperatures are slightly higher than in South Africa. Over the entire veld, seasonal and annual average rainfall variations of up to 40 percent are common. Damaging drought affects at least half the area about once every three or four years; it reduces plant and animal biomass to sustainable levels again. Everywhere the average number of hours of annual sunshine varies from 60 to 80 percent of

15244-561: The more formal, symmetrical jardin à la française of the 17th century as the principal style for large parks and gardens in Europe. The English garden (and later French landscape garden ) presented an idealized view of nature. It drew inspiration from paintings of landscapes by Claude Lorraine and Nicolas Poussin , and from the classic Chinese gardens of the East, which had recently been described by European travellers and were realized in

15392-567: The nation's formal and sole legislature, while the Ntlo ya Dikgosi serves an advisory body made up of tribal chiefs and other appointed members. Botswana's executive branch is led by the President of Botswana , who serves as both the head of state and head of government . The members of parliament choose the president, and the president then appoints the vice-president and cabinet members. The president has significant power in Botswana, and

15540-403: The naturally regenerating forest 0% was reported to be primary forest (consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity) and around 11% of the forest area was found within protected areas. For the year 2015, 24% of the forest area was reported to be under public ownership and 76% private ownership . The Chobe National Park and Moremi Game Reserve (in

15688-666: The new Bechuanaland Protectorate. During the 1890s, the new territory was divided into eight different reserves, with fairly small amounts of land being left as freehold for white settlers . During the early 1890s, the British government decided to hand over the Bechuanaland Protectorate to the British South Africa Company . This plan, which was well on its way to fruition despite the entreaties of Tswana leaders who toured England in protest,

15836-461: The other directions. The blesbok and quagga were among the large animals that once roamed on the highveld in great numbers. Nowadays, there still is a sizeable population of springbok in some areas,. However, much of the area is devoted to Balls farming and South Africa's largest conurbation ( Gauteng Province ). The lowlands, below about 500 m (1,640 ft) altitude, along South Africa's northern border with Botswana and Zimbabwe , where

15984-423: The others. The intention is to minimise conflict between these different land use objectives and ecosystem services . This approach draws on landscape ecology, as well as many related fields that also seek to integrate different land uses and users, such as watershed management . Proponents of integrated landscape management argue that it is well-suited to address complex global challenges, such as those that are

16132-429: The outside world. They create an idealized miniature landscape, which is meant to express the harmony that should exist between man and nature. A typical Chinese garden is enclosed by walls and includes one or more ponds, scholar's rocks , trees and flowers, and an assortment of halls and pavilions within the garden, connected by winding paths and zig-zag galleries. By moving from structure to structure, visitors can view

16280-464: The parks or estates of a landowner, though mostly painted in London by an artist who had never visited the site. the English tradition was founded by Anthony van Dyck and other, mostly Flemish , artists working in England. By the beginning of the 19th century the English artists with the highest modern reputations were mostly dedicated landscapists, showing the wide range of Romantic interpretations of

16428-463: The people in their paintings to figures subsumed within broader, regionally specific landscapes. The geographer Otto Schlüter is credited with having first formally used "cultural landscape" as an academic term in the early 20th century. In 1908, Schlüter argued that by defining geography as a Landschaftskunde (landscape science) this would give geography a logical subject matter shared by no other discipline. He defined two forms of landscape:

16576-479: The period before 1800, the history of landscape gardening (later called landscape architecture) is largely that of master planning and garden design for manor houses , palaces and royal properties, religious complexes, and centers of government. An example is the extensive work by André Le Nôtre at Vaux-le-Vicomte and at the Palace of Versailles for King Louis XIV of France . The first person to write of making

16724-515: The physical appearance of the environment - both present and past. Landscape generally refers to both natural environments and environments constructed by human beings. Natural landscapes are considered to be environments that have not been altered by humans in any shape or form. Cultural landscapes , on the other hand, are environments that have been altered in some manner by people (including temporary structures and places, such as campsites, that are created by human beings). Among archaeologists,

16872-507: The population. The Tswana ethnic group are descended mainly from Bantu-speaking peoples who migrated into southern Africa , including modern Botswana, in several waves before AD 600. In 1885, the British colonised the area and declared a protectorate named Bechuanaland . As part of the decolonisation of Africa , Bechuanaland became an independent Commonwealth republic under its current name on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has been

17020-555: The previous presidents have also represented the same party. A long-running dispute over the northern border with Namibia 's Caprivi Strip was the subject of a ruling by the International Court of Justice in December 1999. It ruled that Kasikili Island belongs to Botswana. Following the independence in 1966, the president always represented the same political party until the 2024 Botswana general election , which

17168-709: The proceeds to import horses and guns, which in turn enabled them to establish control over what is now Botswana. This process was largely complete by 1880, and the Batswana subjugated thus the Bushmen, Kalanga, Bakgalagadi and other current minorities. Following the Great Trek , Afrikaners from the Cape Colony established themselves on the borders of Botswana in the Transvaal . In 1852, a coalition of Tswana chiefdoms led by Sechele I defeated Afrikaner incursions at

17316-530: The programme is giving the government information to help with policy development. Botswana is a parliamentary republic governed by the Constitution of Botswana . It is the longest uninterrupted democracy in Africa. Its seat of government is in Gaborone . Botswana's governing institutions were established after it became an independent nation in 1966. Botswana's governmental structure is based on both

17464-466: The result that in the following period people were "apt to assume that the appreciation of natural beauty and the painting of landscape is a normal and enduring part of our spiritual activity" Botswana Botswana , officially the Republic of Botswana , is a landlocked country in Southern Africa . Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 per cent of its territory part of

17612-592: The rights of minorities in relation to public services, land and resource use, and the use of minority languages in education and other critical areas." Botswana is divided into 10 administrative districts , 2 city districts, 4 towns, 11 sub-districts and, in total, 16 administrative divisions. They are: These are administered by 16 local authorities (district councils, city councils or town councils). In 1977, Botswana's administrative divisions were Ngamiland, Chobe, Francistown, Ngwato, Tuli, Ghanzi, Kgalagadi, Ngwaketse, Kweneng, Gaborone and Lobatse. In 2006, Chobe

17760-630: The scroll itself. Many painters also wrote poetry, especially in the scholar-official or literati tradition. Landscape images were present in the early Shijing and the Chuci , but in later poetry the emphasis changed, as in painting to the Shan shui ( Chinese : 山水 lit. "mountain-water") style featuring wild mountains, rivers and lakes, rather than landscape as a setting for a human presence. Shanshui poetry traditional Chinese : 山水詩 ; simplified Chinese : 山水诗 developed in China during

17908-615: The shore I found myself of a huge sea of mist, Which meek and silent rested at my feet. A hundred hills their dusky backs upheaved All over this still ocean, and beyond, Far, far beyond, the vapours shot themselves In headlands, tongues, and promontory shapes, Into the sea, the real sea, that seemed To dwindle and give up its majesty, Usurped upon as far as sight could reach. from The Prelude (1805), Book 13, lines 41-51. by William Wordsworth One important aspect of British Romanticism  – evident in painting and literature as well as in politics and philosophy –

18056-407: The stability and rate of change of topography under the force of gravity , and other factors, such as (in the very recent past) human alteration of the landscape. Many of these factors are strongly mediated by climate . Geologic processes include the uplift of mountain ranges , the growth of volcanoes , isostatic changes in land surface elevation (sometimes in response to surface processes), and

18204-643: The summer months in the form of high-energy thunderstorms . Over most of the South African Highveld, the average annual rainfall is between 500–900 millimetres (20–35 in) a year, decreasing to about 250 millimetres (9.8 in) near the western border and increasing to nearly 1,000 millimetres (39 in) in some parts of the Lesotho Highlands ; the South African Lowveld generally receives more precipitation than

18352-550: The term landscape can refer to the meanings and alterations people mark onto their surroundings. As such, landscape archaeology is often employed to study the human use of land over extensive periods of time. Landscape archaeology can be summed up by Nicole Branton's statement: The concept of cultural landscapes can be found in the European tradition of landscape painting . From the 16th century onwards, many European artists painted landscapes in favor of people, diminishing

18500-551: The territories transferred to their jurisdiction, the UK kept delaying; consequently, it never occurred. The election of the Nationalist government in 1948, which instituted apartheid , and South Africa's withdrawal from the Commonwealth in 1961, ended any prospect of the UK or these territories agreeing to incorporation into South Africa. An expansion of British central authority and the evolution of native government resulted in

18648-404: The theory did not entirely work against the development of landscape painting – for several centuries landscapes were regularly promoted to the status of history painting by the addition of small figures to make a narrative scene, typically religious or mythological. Dutch Golden Age painting of the 17th century saw the dramatic growth of landscape painting, in which many artists specialized, and

18796-496: The third and fourth centuries AD and left most of the varied landscapes of China largely unrepresented. Shan shui painting and poetry shows imaginary landscapes, though with features typical of some parts of South China; they remain popular to the present day. Fields and Gardens poetry ( simplified Chinese : 田园诗 ; traditional Chinese : 田園詩 ; pinyin : tiányuán shī ; Wade–Giles : t'ien-yuan-shih ; lit. 'fields and gardens poetry'), in poetry )

18944-462: The total amount possible. Much of the interior of Southern Africa consists of a high plateau, the higher portions 1,500–2,100 m (4,900–6,900 ft) of which are known as the Highveld , starting at the Drakensberg escarpment, 220 km (140 miles) to the east of Johannesburg and sloping gradually downwards to the west and southwest, as well as to the north, through the Bushveld towards

19092-409: The traditional color landscapes in some cities have been heavily influenced by natural geography, climate, local materials, ethnic culture, religion, and socioeconomic factors. Second, the growing problem of "color pollution" - through bright, solid-colored buildings, billboards, and lighting clusters - adversely affects people physically and psychologically. Third, homogenization of colors between cities

19240-410: The view from a distance or a temporal view into the future, with the sense of opportunity or expectation. When understood broadly as landscape poetry and when assessed from its establishment to the present, topographical poetry can take on many formal situations and types of places. Kenneth Baker, in his "Introduction to The Faber Book of Landscape Poetry , identifies 37 varieties and compiles poems from

19388-404: The visible features of an area of land is referred to as landscaping . There are several definitions of what constitutes a landscape, depending on context. In common usage however, a landscape refers either to all the visible features of an area of land (usually rural), often considered in terms of aesthetic appeal, or to a pictorial representation of an area of countryside, specifically within

19536-408: The way they do, to understand landform history and dynamics and to predict changes through a combination of field observations, physical experiments and numerical modeling . Geomorphology is practiced within physical geography , geology , geodesy , engineering geology , archaeology and geotechnical engineering . This broad base of interests contributes to many research styles and interests within

19684-458: The works of the Greek poet Theocritus (c. 316 - c. 260 BC). The Romantic period poet William Wordsworth created a modern, more realistic form of pastoral with Michael, A Pastoral Poem (1800). An early form of landscape poetry, Shanshui poetry , developed in China during the third and fourth centuries A.D. Topographical poetry is a genre of poetry that describes, and often praises,

19832-464: The world depict little that could really be called landscape , although ground-lines and sometimes indications of mountains, trees or other natural features are included. The earliest "pure landscapes" with no human figures are frescos from Minoan Greece of around 1500 BCE. Hunting scenes, especially those set in the enclosed vista of the reed beds of the Nile Delta from Ancient Egypt, can give

19980-434: Was a dominant-party state in which the Botswana Democratic Party had ruled with a majority government from independence in 1966 to 2024. The nation's elections are recognized as free and fair , but the ruling party has institutional advantages that other parties do not. Factionalism is common within Botswana's political parties, and several groups have formed new parties by splitting from established ones. Since 2019,

20128-457: Was a change in the way people perceived and valued the landscape. In particular, after William Gilpin 's Observations on the River Wye was published in 1770, the idea of the picturesque began to influence artists and viewers. Gilpin advocated approaching the landscape "by the rules of picturesque beauty," which emphasized contrast and variety. Edmund Burke 's A Philosophical Enquiry into

20276-433: Was a contrasting poetic movement which lasted for centuries, with a focused on the nature found in gardens, in backyards, and in the cultivated countryside. Fields and Gardens poetry is one of many Classical Chinese poetry genres . One of the main practitioners of the Fields and Gardens poetry genre was Tao Yuanming (also known as Tao Qian (365–427), among other names or versions of names). Tao Yuanming has been regarded as

20424-407: Was determined to stress the agency of culture as a force in shaping the visible features of the Earth's surface in delimited areas. Within his definition, the physical environment retains a central significance, as the medium with and through which human cultures act. His classic definition of a 'cultural landscape' reads as follows: The cultural landscape is fashioned from a natural landscape by

20572-485: Was established in 1993. Until June 2019, homosexual acts were illegal in Botswana. A Botswana High Court decision of 11 June of that year struck down provisions in the Criminal Code that punished "carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature" and "acts of gross indecency", making Botswana one of 22 African countries that have either decriminalised or legalised homosexual acts. Capital punishment

20720-723: Was eventually foiled by the failure of the Jameson Raid in January 1896. When the Union of South Africa was formed from the main British colonies in the region in 1910, the High Commission Territories—the Bechuanaland Protectorate, Basutoland (now Lesotho ) and Swaziland (now Eswatini )—were not included, but provision was made for their later incorporation. However, the UK began to consult with their inhabitants as to their wishes. Although successive South African governments sought to have

20868-584: Was felt throughout Europe, as well as on major Victorian novelists in Britain, such as Emily Brontë , Mrs Gaskell , George Eliot , and Thomas Hardy , as well as John Cowper Powys in the 20th-century. Margaret Drabble in A Writer's Britain suggests that Thomas Hardy "is perhaps the greatest writer of rural life and landscape" in English. Among European writers influenced by Scott were Frenchmen Honoré de Balzac and Alexandre Dumas and Italian Alessandro Manzoni . Manzoni's famous novel The Betrothed

21016-574: Was formed in 1977. The president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces and appoints a defence council. In 2019, Botswana signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons . Following political changes in South Africa and the region, the BDF's missions have increasingly focused on preventing poaching , preparing for disasters , and supporting foreign peacekeeping . The United States has been

21164-513: Was founded in Russia in the early 20th century by L. S. Berg and others, and outside Russia by the German S. Passarge. The conception of landscape as the relationship between various components of natural environments and geochemisty was devoted by soviet scientist Viktor Sochava, based on the ideas of american geographer George Van Dyne Integrated landscape management is a way of managing

21312-470: Was historic in that the opposition party won. Duma Boko became the first president who did not represent the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). On 1 November 2024, Duma Boko, leader of opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC), was sworn in as president of Botswana. At 581,730 km (224,607 sq mi), Botswana is the world's 48th-largest country. It also has a mean altitude of roughly 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above sea level. Botswana

21460-567: Was inspired by Walter Scott 's Ivanhoe . Also influenced by Romanticism's approach to landscape was the American novelist Fenimore Cooper , who was admired by Victor Hugo and Balzac and characterized as the "American Scott ." Landscape in Chinese poetry has often been closely tied to Chinese landscape painting, which developed much earlier than in the West. Many poems evoke specific paintings, and some are written in more empty areas of

21608-577: Was particularly influential. By the end of the 18th century the English garden was being imitated by the French landscape garden, and as far away as St. Petersburg, Russia, in Pavlovsk , the gardens of the future Emperor Paul . It also had a major influence on the form of the public parks and gardens which appeared around the world in the 19th century. Landscape architecture is a multi-disciplinary field, incorporating aspects of botany , horticulture ,

21756-433: Was removed from being an administrative division, and Ngamiland's name was changed to North West district. Chobe was readded on 31 March 2014. That same day, the administrative divisions Francistown, Gaborone, Jwaneng, Lobatse, Selibe Phikwe, and Sowa Town were also added. Since independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest growth rates in per capita income in the world. Formerly one of the world's poorest countries—with

21904-415: Was the second-highest rating in Africa, and the highest ranking in continental Africa (only the offshore island nation of Mauritius bested its ranking). However, according to the 2024 V-Dem Democracy Indices , Botswana has been experiencing an episode of democratic backsliding over the past 10 years, recording its lowest ever score on the indices. The indices classify Botswana as an electoral democracy in

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