A country of east-central Africa. Inhabited since Paleolithic times, the region was settled by migrating Bantu people around AD 1100 and by Nilotic peoples from the north in the 1600s. The Bantu kingdom of Buganda was established in the 1700s and grew into a regional power before becoming a British protectorate in 1894. The protectorate was later extended to the entire region, which became independent as Uganda in 1962. Kampala is the capital and the largest city.