Rwanda was originally inhabited by the pygmies who were predominantly hunters and food gatherers; ancestral to present day Batwa people who comprise of only 0.25% of the national population presently.
The next inhabitants were the agricultural and pastoral immigrants from the west. It is alleged that before the 15th century a ruler called Gihanga forged a centralized Rwanda state with similar roots to the Bunyoro and Buganda empires in the neighboring country of Uganda.
The precursors of the modern-day Tutsi and Hutu were a cattle owning nobility and agriculturalists respectively. The well established and powerful state was able to protest earlier attempts at the advent of European imperialism.
However, after the 1885, Berlin conference, Rwanda became a German colony.
Rwanda was later mandated to Belgium in the 1918 resulting into the implementation of indirect rule that actually triggered off to the acute divisions between the Tutsi and Hutu; a practice that has persisted up to date.