ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a background to the study by analyzing different aspects of the development of Lesotho's dependence on South Africa until the political independence of the country in 1966. Lesotho's extreme dependence on South Africa has arisen historically, through the social, economic and political heritage of the Basotho nation, and geographically, from its unusually disadvantageous physical location. Economic integration has several dimensions, which in turn create different forms and varying degrees of interdependence between economic units. The crucial event that eventually led to the foundation and the delineation of the Kingdom of Lesotho was the migration of Boers into the interior of South Africa in the nineteenth century. The emergence of 'supreme chiefs' and kingdoms was related to the development of trade through which the chief controlled imports of weapons and horses into the area, pressure on the land and opposition to a common enemy.
