Encircled entirely by South Africa, Lesotho emerged from nearly a century of British protection as a constitutional monarchy under King Moshoeshoe II, with Leabua Jonathan as prime minister. The tiny nation's complete geographic dependence on its apartheid-era neighbor would shape its economy and politics for decades, forcing a delicate balancing act between sovereignty and survival.
Lesotho's independence ceremony took place against a peculiar geographic reality: the new nation was, and remains, the only country in the world entirely surrounded by a single other state, in this case apartheid South Africa. British administrators had protected the mountain kingdom since 1868, when the Basotho people under King Moshoeshoe I sought protection from Boer expansion.
At independence, Moshoeshoe II ascended as a constitutional monarch with limited powers, while Leabua Jonathan, leader of the Basotho National Party, took the real reins of government as prime minister. The arrangement quickly proved unstable, foreshadowing decades of coups, exiles, and tension between crown and government that would define Lesotho's turbulent post-colonial politics.
Economically the new nation had almost no choice but to remain tethered to South Africa, sending tens of thousands of men annually into South African gold mines as migrant labor, a dependency that gave apartheid Pretoria enormous leverage over its tiny, mountainous neighbor. Water later became Lesotho's greatest bargaining chip, as its highland dams eventually supplied much of Johannesburg's water through a multi-billion-dollar treaty project.
Key people: Moshoeshoe II, Leabua Jonathan