Malawi

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Malawi is a landlocked republic in Africa, located along the shores of Lake Malawi, and bounded north by Tanzania, south by Mozambique, and west by Zambia. Earliest human habitation dates to 60,000 years ago. Amaravi people renown for their iron-working, settled near Lake Malawi and established the Maravi Empire, which encompassed much of south-east Africa by the fifteenth century. Portuguese traders made contact with the Maravi Empire in the sixteenth century and introduced maize to the region. British explorer David Livingstone visited the shores of Lake Malawi in 1859, and traders followed creating the African Lakes Company in 1878. The British government established the British Central Africa Protectorate in 1889, to rebuff Portuguese territorial claims in the area, and following a series of treaties with Portugal and Germany, the present day borders of Malawi were agreed upon in 1891. The protectorate was renamed Nyasaland in 1907, and proceeding a constitutional conference declared itself a self-governing country in 1963. Nyasaland became an independent member of the Commonwealth of Nations in 1964, and adopted the name Malawi, becoming a republic in 1966. The capital and largest city is Lilongwe. The estimated population of Malawi in 2013 was 16,407,000.