Eastern Africa · UGA
Uganda
The story · 11 chapters
How it was drawn
Lake kingdoms led by Buganda and Bunyoro, conquered as a British protectorate in the 1890s, independent in 1962, then scarred by Amin, the bush war and the LRA.
Play the story Take the first lessonThrough the ages
Rivals in history
The kingdoms, empires and states Uganda fought or stood against, from the first to today.
- Khedivate of Egypt1872 to 1889
Egypt's khedive sent Samuel Baker to annex Bunyoro, but Kabalega's warriors drove him back at Masindi in 1872. Egyptian Equatoria held the far north until the Mahdist revolt cut it off in the 1880s.
- British Empire1893 to 1899
British officers with Ganda allies invaded Bunyoro from 1893. Kabalega fought a six year guerrilla war, joined in 1897 by Kabaka Mwanga, until both were captured in 1899 and exiled to the Seychelles.
- Tanzania1978 to 1979
Idi Amin invaded Tanzania's Kagera salient in October 1978. Tanzania's army and Ugandan exiles counterattacked, defeated Amin's troops and their Libyan allies, and took Kampala in April 1979, ending his rule.
- Lord's Resistance Army1987 to 2006
Joseph Kony's rebels fought the government in northern Uganda for two decades, abducting tens of thousands of children and driving most of the Acholi people into camps. Peace talks began in Juba in 2006, and the LRA moved on to Congo and beyond.
- Allied Democratic ForcesSince 1996Still open
The ADF began attacking western Uganda in 1996, then retreated into eastern Congo and later pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. After bombings in Kampala in November 2021, Ugandan troops crossed into Congo to fight them.
- DR Congo1998 to 2003
Uganda sent troops into Congo in the Second Congo War and occupied much of the north east, including Ituri. In 2005 the International Court of Justice ruled the occupation illegal, and in 2022 it ordered Uganda to pay 325 million dollars.
- Rwanda1999 to 2000
Allies against Kabila in Congo, the Ugandan and Rwandan armies turned on each other and fought three times for the city of Kisangani in 1999 and 2000, killing hundreds of civilians.
Kenya and Uganda both claim Migingo, a tiny rocky island in Lake Victoria crowded with fishermen. The quarrel flared in 2008 and 2009, and the island's status has never been formally settled.
Today
Uganda now
An ancient crossroads for various migrations, Uganda has as many as 65 ethnic groups that speak languages from three of Africa’s four major linguistic families. As early as 1200, fertile soils and regular rainfall in the south fostered the formation of several large, centralized kingdoms, including Buganda, from which the country derives its name. Muslim traders from Egypt reached northern Uganda in the 1820s, and Swahili merchants from the Indian Ocean coast arrived in the south by the 1840s.
- Capital
- Kampala
- Government
- presidential republic
- Head of government
- Nabbanja Robinah
- Head of state
- Yoweri Museveni
- Languages
- English, Swahili
- Area
- 241,551 km²
Through time
Then and now
- Population48.7 million2023 · 5.8 million in 1950
- Life expectancy68.3 years2023 · 39.7 years in 1950
- GDP per person$2,1222022 · $1,095 in 1950
- Living in cities32%2025 · 3% in 1950
- Literacy77%2024 · 28% in 1950
- Political regimeElectoral autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
- Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
- Military spending2.0% of GDP2025
- War deathsNone2025
Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.
Relations
Close partners and tensions
Close partners
- United States
- United Kingdom
- France
- China
- Saudi Arabia
Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 24 October 2026.