A historic British colonial city, Livingstone was named after David Livingstone, the Scottish explorer and missionary who was the first European to explore the area.
Until 1935, Livingstone served as the capital city Northern Rhodesia. The city is a tourism attraction centre for the Victoria Falls and a border town with road and rail connections to Zimbabwe on the other side of the Victoria Falls.
A large infusion of cash from the British government to Zambia at independence was partially used in Livingstone. In the 1970s, Livingstone suffered economic decline due in part to re-nationalisation of industries and in part to closure of the border with Rhodesia, first by the Zambian government and later by the Rhodesian authorities.