TERRITORY: ENVIRONMENT
The intense exploitation of the fertile volcanic soils (made necessary by the high density of the population) has stripped much of the territory of the original forest cover, today mostly degraded to savannah, especially herbaceous. Dense rainforests are still found on the slopes of the Virunga Mountains and in the areas around Lake Kivu, while papyrus formations occur in the lower eastern areas, where rivers tend to stagnate. The most common plants are eucalyptus, acacias and oil palms. On the slopes of the volcanoes, near the Bulera and Luhondo lakes, a dense arboreal vegetation grows with lianas and ferns, above which bamboo and hypericum woods thrive, refuge of the rare mountain gorilla. Above 3000 m there is a green prairie rich in moss and rosaceae, which, above 4000 m, thins out until it disappears completely.
According to findjobdescriptions, the devastation of natural habitats has caused a sharp decrease in the fauna present on the territory, elephants, hippos, buffaloes, cheetahs, lions, zebras, leopards, monkeys and rare specimens of gorilla survive. Deforestation, the increase in population and the intensive exploitation of land, both agricultural and grazing, are the main causes of the desertification process affecting the whole country. 7.6% of the territory of Rwanda is protected; there are three national parks. On the border with Tanzania lies the Kagera National Park, of important wildlife interest.
HISTORY: FROM ITS ORIGINS TO COLONIAL DOMINATION
During the first millennium AD groups of Bantu farmers imposed themselves on the original population, made up of twa or batwa (black pygmoids, gatherers and hunters), who later took the name of Hutu or bahutu. On the one and the other it imposed itself in the sec. XIII-XIV a group of Hamites from Ethiopia, who took the name of Tutsi (batutsi, watutsi). Having become an aristocratic and dominant caste, the Tutsis created various small states, including that of Bugesera, from which that of central Rwanda later derived. The nyighinya clan of mythical origins ascended the throne of the latter (the ancestors would have fallen from the sky in a place now located in the Kagera National Park). The first king of Rwanda to have certainly existed is Ruganza Bwimba (1458-82), under which the kingdom of Rwanda began to emerge. His successors until 1959 would have been twenty-one (according to some they would have belonged not to one but to three dynasties). The east and west expansion of central Rwanda, carried out by kings Mukobonya (1506-28) and Mutabaazi (1528-52), came to a halt due to invasions by the neighboring kingdoms of Nyoro and Rundi. The conquests resumed with Rujugira (1744-68), who repelled new external attacks and fixed the southern borders (ie those with Burundi) on the Akanyaru river. The expansionist policy was continued by the successors until King Rwaabugiri (1860-95), to whose court came the first European, Count von Goetzen, who later became governor of the implemented by kings Mukobonya (1506-28) and Mutabaazi (1528-52), it was arrested due to invasions by the neighboring kingdoms of Nyoro and Rundi. The conquests resumed with Rujugira (1744-68), who repelled new external attacks and fixed the southern borders (ie those with Burundi) on the Akanyaru river. The expansionist policy was continued by the successors until King Rwaabugiri (1860-95), to whose court came the first European, Count von Goetzen, who later became governor of the implemented by kings Mukobonya (1506-28) and Mutabaazi (1528-52), it was arrested due to invasions by the neighboring kingdoms of Nyoro and Rundi. The conquests resumed with Rujugira (1744-68), who repelled new external attacks and fixed the southern borders (ie those with Burundi) on the Akanyaru river. The expansionist policy was continued by the successors until King Rwaabugiri (1860-95), to whose court came the first European, Count von Goetzen, who later became governor of the German East Africa. Unlike those of Burundi, the Tutsis of Rwanda, concentrated mainly in the central and eastern areas and remained in the minority in the northern and western ones where they were surrounded by Hutus, lived on good terms with the latter, allowing mixed marriages and assuming as them language that of the dominated. Having become part of the colony of German East Africa, Rwanda, after the First World War, was entrusted by the League of Nations to Belgium as a type “B” mandate and then, after World War II, by the United Nations again to Belgium as territory in trust (1946). The events of the Congo in 1959-60 they had their repercussions in Rwanda, where the Hutus turned against the dominant Tutsi caste. Newly elected King Kigeri V (1959) was forced to leave the country as thousands of Tutsis fled to the neighboring kingdom of Burundi.
