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Some call only Lake Victoria, Lake Albert, and Lake Edward the Great Lakes as they are the only three that empty into the White Nile. Lake Tanganyika and Lake Kivu both empty into the Congo River system.
Great Lakes also refers to the region around these lakes. These include the entirety of the nations of Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda as well as portions of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, and KenyaKenya (pronounced KEN-ya; the pronunciation KEEN-ya is archaic) is a country of eastern Africa, bordering Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and the Indian Ocean. Nairobi is its capital and largest city. Republic of Kenya ( In Detail) (Full size).
It is one of the most densely populated areas of the world with an estimated 107 million people living in the Great Lakes region. Because of past volcanic activity this part of Africa contains some of the world's best farmland. Its altitude also gives it a rather temperateIn geography, temperate latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The north temperate zone extends from the Tropic of Cancer at about 23. 5 degrees north latitude to the Arctic Circle at about 66. 5 degrees north latitude. climate despite being right on the equatorIn geography, the equator is an imaginary line drawn around a planet, halfway between the poles, where the surface of the roughly spherical planet is parallel to the axis of rotation. The equator divides the surface into the Northern Hemisphere and the So. This has left it out of the disease zone allowing widespread use of livestockSheep are commonly bred as livestock. Livestock refers to domesticated animals, that may be kept or raised in pens, houses, pastures, or on farms as part of an agricultural or farming operation, whether for commerce or private use. In many countries the l, especially cattleCattle are domesticated ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat (called beef and veal), dairy products ( milk), leather and as draught animals (pulling carts, plows and the like). In some c and goatA goat is any of several species of medium-sized grazing animal. All goats (and sheep) belong to the subfamily Caprinae of the family Bovidae. In common use, however, goat is usually understood to mean the Domestic Goat Capra aegagrus hircus a subspeciess.
Because of the density of population and the agricultural surplus in the region the area became highly organized into a number of small states. The most powerful of these monarchies were Rwanda, Burundi, BugandaBuganda is the kingdom of the Baganda people, the largest of the four traditional kingdoms in present-day Uganda. Organised and ruled by a king called the Kabaka, the Baganda formed the political kernel of the future country, Uganda. It is now a constitut, and BunyoroBunyoro is a region of Uganda, and from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century one of the most powerful kingdoms of East Africa. Bunyoro-Kitara The ancient kingdom is often referred to as Bunyoro-Kitara. At its height it controlled almost the entire regi. Unique to Sub-Saharan Africa, the traditional borders were largely maintained by the colonial powers.
Being the long sought after source of the Nile, the region had long been of interest to Europeans. The first Europeans to arrive in the region in any numbers were missionaries who had limited success in converting the locals, but did open the region to later colonization. The increased contact with the rest of the world led to a series of devastating epidemics affecting both humans and livestock. These decreased the region's population dramatically, by up to 60% in some areas. The region did not return to its pre-colonial population until the 1950s.
While seen as a region with great potential after independence, the region has in recent years been marred by civil war and immense violence, leaving the region in great poverty from which only Kenya and Tanzania are largely exempt.