Until about 2000 years ago, Rwanda was the domain of hunter-gatherers, gradually displaced by agricultural and pastoral societies, which migrated to central Africa from elsewhere in the continent.
A centralized state emerged in the fifteenth century with the formation of a feudal monarchy, which shared similar roots, and customs with the Buganda and Bunyoro Empires of neighbouring Uganda.
Rwanda was colonized by Germany in 1890, and together with neighbouring Burundi it was mandated to Belgium following the defeat of Germany in the First World War. Rwanda was granted independence in 1962, under Prime Minister Grégoire Kayibanda.
Ten years later, Kayibanda was ousted by Major General Juvénal Habyarimana, whose death in a mysterious plane crash in 1994 is widely regarded as having been the spark that ignited an already planned genocide in which up to one million Rwandans died and twice as many fled into exile.
Although outside perceptions are understandably dominated by events surrounding the genocide, Rwanda has in fact enjoyed a high level of political stability since 1995, during which time most of the exiles have returned, several of the main instigators of the genocide have been tried at the Arusha tribunal, and the country as a whole has been peaceful.