The area of 30,344 square kilometers, although not as good as any province in China, is enough to exceed the area of many European countries, and if this data is mentioned alone, it does not make any sense. In fact, this data is the peak of the global "national China" ranks. This "pinnacle" country is Lesotho, which, from the map, exists as tenaciously as a "nail" within the national territory of South Africa.
Logically, whether it is South Africa or other countries, it is theoretically impossible to allow a country to exist in its own hinterland, otherwise it will pose an unimaginable threat to its own security. Besides, with a little solution, one country will not let another country completely encircle it. So why is Lesotho so special that it can be a "thorn in the flesh" of South Africa?
This also begins with the country's recent history, the first people living in this territory are Basuto people, although the Basuto people are also constantly at war, but they have always been able to control their territory, and even once established a unified kingdom of Basuto (that is, the kingdom of Lesotho).
However, this situation was completely broken around 1840. Because of the defeat in the colonial war, a large number of Boers had to carry out the Great Migration, and the Kingdom of Lesotho was one of the targets of the Boers at that time. The Basuto, with a population of only a million, were not at all rivals of the Boers with a large number of guns, and were once driven to the relatively remote eastern part of the kingdom of Lesotho.
There was no way, the Basuto people could only ask the British Empire at that time, hoping to "drive away the wolves and tigers". The British, who were at war with the Boers, did not disappoint the Basuto and signed a "mutual aid agreement" directly with the Basuto. The British recognized the land as belonging to the Basuto people living there, referring to the Boers as "invaders."
What the Basuto people did not expect was that after reaching an exchange of interests with the Boers, the British directly sold the Basuto people and explicitly supported the Boers to invade Lesotho. Seeing that the British could not count on it, the desperate Basuto could only take the guys and do it themselves, and the first to bear the brunt of it was the betraying British, who, after two wars, were completely driven out of Lesotho's territory.
After the defeat, the British did not clash head-on with the Basuto, but supported the Boers to continue to invade Lesotho, and in the face of the fierce Boers, the Basuto were no match at all. After more than 10 years of fighting, the Basuto, who had fallen completely behind, could only find Britain again.
And this time, the Basuto people paid a terrible price and had to become britain's "protectorate", in fact, a colony in a different name. The British, who had received practical benefits, immediately turned against the Boers and redrawn the borders of Lesotho, with all the territory of the eastern part of the country belonging to South Africa, which was actually ruled by the Boers.
In this way, with the support of the British, Lesotho completed the "Great Reversal", although it lost a large amount of territory, but successfully avoided its own annexation, becoming the "nail" buried by the British in South Africa.
In fact, South Africa was aware of Lesotho's role and had always wanted to occupy Lesotho in practice rather than nominally under its own jurisdiction. South Africa then tried its best to promote the "disarmament movement" on the ground. However, the Basuto people also understood that without armedness, there was no right to speak, and directly launched a large-scale "gun protection war". Eventually, using the national independence movement in Africa, he successfully broke away from British control and restored his national sovereignty.