Official language after unifying the country in 221 BC. Classical Chinese would remain the standard written language for the next 2000 years. Standardization of the spoken language received less political attention, and Mandarin developed on an "ad hoc" basis from the dialects of the various imperial capitals until being officially standardized in the early twentieth century. According to an undated chart by the American pro-English-only organization known as U.S. English, 178 countries have an official language at the national level. Among those, English is the most common with 67 nations giving it official status. French is second with 29 countries, Arabic is
Indians in Zambia Indians in Zambia There is a small but recognisable community of Indians in Zambia. Unlike the better-known Indian communities of South East Africa, they were little-studied by historians until the 2000s. Indians from Gujarat arrived in what was then the British territory of North-Eastern Rhodesia (later part of Northern Rhodesia and then Zambia) in 1905 via Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) or the British Central Africa Protectorate (later Nyasaland, now Malawi). Unlike the population of Indians in South Africa, the proportion of indentured labourers among them was quite small; most instead were skilled artisans or businesspeople. Initial settlers were Muslims,