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History
The San peoples may have inhabited what is now Namibia more than 2,000 years ago. The Bantu-speaking Herero migrated there in the 1600s. The Ovambo, the largest ethnic group today, migrated there in the 1800s.
In the late 15th century, the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias became the first European to visit Namibia. Formerly called South-West Africa, the territory became a German colony in 1884. In 1908, German troops massacred the majority of the Herero population. The land was taken by South African forces in 1915, becoming a South African mandate by the terms of the Treaty of Versailles in 1920.
South Africa's application for incorporation of the territory was rejected by the UN General Assembly in 1946, and South Africa was invited to prepare a trusteeship agreement instead. By a law passed in 1949, however, the territory was brought into much closer association with South Africaincluding representation in its Parliament.
In 1968, the UN called for South Africa's withdrawal from the territory, which was given the name Namibia...