Zimbabwe is a landlocked country, known for its open wilderness and roaming herds of elephants. It is bordered by Zambia to the north, Mozambique to the east, South Africa to the south and Botswana to the west.
Most of its 12.5 million people are descendants of Bantu-speaking tribes that migrated from northern Africa. Seventy six per cent are Shona, a tribe that populated the region from the 11th century.
The Ndebele make up 18 per cent. Only two per cent is European, but English is an official language, together with Shona and Ndebele.
Since its independence in 1980, Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, has been under the control of the Zanu-PF party, the Zimbabwean African National Union Patriotic Front.
Robert Mugabe won a landslide victory as prime minister and president Cannan Banana headed the government, although his leadership was largely ceremonial.
In 1987 Mr Mugabe became Zimbabwe's first executive president. His political beliefs are deeply entrenched in the African nationalist ideals of the 1960s, campaigning for majority rule and land reform.
Mr Mugabe started out as a promising leader, investing heavily in education. But the imbalance in land ownership remained after independence and was never resolved in an orderly fashion.
He has held a tight grip on power, donating land to allies and falling prey to financial demands from war veteran supporters. He has done little to control the downward spiral of Zimbabwe's economy and the food crisis.
In the past, agricultural exports were a leading source of income.
So good were its maize supplies during the 1990s that the World Food Programme set up an office in the capital, Harare.
Other exports include tobacco, gold and minerals. But the eviction of white farmers has contributed greatly to instability in the country. Drought in the region and a mismanaged government are other major factors.
Although the governing body is a parliamentary democracy, the fifth-term victory of Mr Mugabe's Zanu-PF party in March 2002 was controversial and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) contested the result.
European election monitors reported that Zanu-PF had organised a regime of violence and intimidation of opposition supporters during the campaign.
White explorers came to the region in the 1830s when the Shona and Ndebele people populated the land between the Limpopo and Zambezi rivers.
The most famous of them was Cecil Rhodes. In 1889 he set up the British South Africa Company to search for gold and diamonds north of the Limpopo having already made a fortune mining in the Cape.
He swapped arms, cash and a riverboat for mining rights with the Ndebele leader King Lobengula. Land ownership was never part of the deal but Rhodes promised the first 200 settlers a 3,000-acre farm in return for carving a path through Mashonaland.
The Shona and Ndebele people were too fragmented to fight them and the name Rhodesia was adopted in 1895. In 1923 it became the British colony of Southern Rhodesia, the British settlers eventually deposing King Lobengula.
Again, each volunteer was awarded land; within a year 10,000 square miles around Lobengula's capital Bulawayo had been taken over by white colonists.
The far-right politician Ian Smith became Rhodesia's prime minister in 1964 and fought for independence from British rule, aspiring to turn Rhodesia into a white supremacist state.
Britain imposed its own conditions, many of which were rejected by the white population. As a result Smith made a unilateral declaration of independence in 1965, a move that Britain branded illegal and which led to UN sanctions.
Smith hit back by heavily subsidising white farming, making it even harder for African farmers to compete.
Two liberation organisations emerged from the turmoil: Zanu-PF under Rober Mugabe and Zapu under Joshua Nkomo. Guerrilla war followed, largely as a result of the land question.
This escalated in the 1970s and culminated in the 1979 Lancaster House Agreement that paved the way for independence in April 1980, with Mugabe victorious.
Many white settlers opted for Zimbabwean nationality. Power may have transferred to the blacks but land still belonged to the whites.
Under the agreement, the Zimbabwean Government could only buy land from willing sellers. This expired after 10 years, empowering the government to make compulsory purchases.
In 1997 Mugabe compiled a hit list of 1,500 farms for acquisition and by summer 2002 he had evicted 95 per cent of the white farming community.
More than 300,000 acres of land seized from white farmers was given to senior military officers or government officials. Most of the remaining land had been laid to waste.
Human rights organisations have criticised Mugabe's land-grab policy, saying that landless black Zimbabweans are not benefiting from the programme.
The application process is unregulated and highly politicised because war veterans have a key role in distributing and allocating land.
They are the same militias that villagers, opposition activists, and farm workers claim are responsible for violence and intimidation.
Even so, Zimbabwe still attracts thousands of visitors a year. It is home to Victoria Falls, the world's largest sheet of falling water.
The Zambezi River rushes over the brink of a basalt lip 1,700 meters wide, dropping into a churning gorge 100 metres below.
Zimbabwean society regards arts and culture very highly. Basketry, jewellery, textiles, carving and pottery are practised widely. The music of Zimbabwe is renowned for its mesmerising rhythms.
Most Zimbabweans are Christians, but their beliefs are not dogmatic. They are more likely to follow a hybrid of Christianity and traditional African beliefs. The most dominant non-Christian religion is the Mwari cult - a monotheistic animist belief system.