Rhodesia (region)

Rhodesia (in English: Rhodesia), initially known as Zambezia or Zambesia, is a historical region in southern Africa comprising the territories of the present-day countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe, and whose formal boundaries evolved between the 1890s and 1980s. It was demarcated and named by the British South Africa Company (BSAC), which ruled it until the 1920s, after which it was administered by various British colonial authorities. It was divided by a natural border, the Zambezi River, which ran almost longitudinally through it. The territory north of the Zambezi was officially named Northern Rhodesia by the company in 1911, and from 1964 it was renamed Zambia when it achieved independence; the south, which the company named Southern Rhodesia in 1911, became Zimbabwe upon its independence in 1980. Northern and Southern Rhodesia together were sometimes informally referred to as "the Rhodesias".

The term "Rhodesia" was first used in the 1890s by white settlers from present-day South Africa, to refer informally to the region that comprised the BSAC territories administered by Cecil Rhodes, the founder and CEO of the company. It was used in newspapers from 1891 and the company made it official in 1895.

Toponymy

At the end of the 19th century white settlers, mainly from the Cape Colony, settled in what was became Southern Rhodesia in 1890, and when the British South Africa Company (BSAC) was authorized to administer North-West Rhodesia and North-East Rhodesia, it was not under those names, but under the names of their constituent parts (Mashonaland, Matabeleland, Barotseland, etc.). Initially, the territories were collectively referred to as Zambesia (Cecil Rhodes's preferred name), Charterland (Leander Starr Jameson's proposal) or BSAC territories. Rhodesia was the term used informally by white settlers from the beginning of their settlement in the area, and was in common enough usage that newspapers began using it in their articles as early as 1891. In 1892 it was used for the name of the first newspaper in Salisbury, The Rhodesia Herald. The BSAC officially adopted the name "Rhodesia" in May 1895, and the British government followed in 1898.

The first official use of "Rhodesia" was actually for a boma on Lake Moero, established in 1892 near the mouth of the Kalungwishi River under the authority of Alfred Sharpe, the British Commissioner of the British Central Africa Protectorate (later Nyasaland). After "Rhodesia" became the official name of the territories in 1895, the name of the boma was changed to Kalungwishi; it was closed some years later.

Although Northern Rhodesia was not an official name until 1911, when Barotseland-Northwestern Rhodesia and Northeastern Rhodesia were combined, the name was used informally from 1895 onwards to refer to those two territories collectively.

Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing colony of the United Kingdom in 1923, referred to itself simply as "Rhodesia" from 1964 to 1979, and in 1965 unilaterally declared independence under that name. Thereafter, it was briefly renamed "Zimbabwe Rhodesia" in 1979.

The use of the term Rhodesia to refer to the historic region lost importance after Northern Rhodesia became Zambia in 1964. From then until 1980, the name Rhodesia commonly referred only to Southern Rhodesia. Since the 1980s, the term has not been in general use, except in a historical context.

History

Rio Limpopo.

The two Rhodesias and Nyasaland were conquered by Cecil John Rhodes on behalf of Great Britain in the late 19th century, starting from South Africa. The demographic situation and the wealth discovered have quickly differentiated the three territories: Southern Rhodesia was intensively colonized by the British who developed a rich and productive agriculture for export; Northern Rhodesia formed around the Copperbelt (Copper Belt, mining area of Zambia) an industrial zone in which European skilled workers and African labor coexisted with difficulty, and Nyasaland, more densely populated and little suitable for farms, which served as a labor reserve for the other two territories and South Africa. Colonization brought to Southern Rhodesia in the mid-1970s almost 275,000 whites (5% of the population).

Independence

Rodesia's presidential flag.

From the interwar period, a system inspired by the policies followed at the same time in South Africa that restricted the trade union and economic rights of blacks was introduced in Southern Rhodesia. Their political expression is limited by the census and by educational criteria. In 1953, the British, trying to prepare the emancipation of their territories, grouped their Central African possessions into the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, intended to preserve the complementarity of the three entities. Conceived by London to guarantee a progressive distribution of power, the federation is nevertheless maintained by the mining companies of Northern Rhodesia and by the settlers of Southern Rhodesia, who see in it a way to perpetuate their privileges. They oppose African nationalists, who have become increasingly violent after the end of World War II and want a speedy arrival at independence. Faced with the disturbances that developed in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland between 1958 and 1961, London agreed to dissolve the federation and granted independence to each of these territories in 1964, in which the African nationalists won the elections. They took the name, respectively, from Zambia and Zimbabwe.

As soon as independence was achieved, a racist and segregationist regime modeled on that of neighboring South Africa was established. It was the South Africa of Apartheid Bis. The white minority (5% of the population) had the black majority (the rest) subjected. One of the reasons why white settlers decided to both declare independence unilaterally and establish a regime that disenfranchised blacks, was fear of two things:

1. What a consensual independence with the black majority triggered a social revolution favourable to the aspirations of Black people or a Civil War of an uncertain outcome, which could lead to the defeat and expulsion of the white minority, as had happened in Kenya after independence, and
2. The coming to power of the Labour Party and the probable fact that this party granted rights to Black people, ending the situation of hegemony and privilege of white people.

During the 15 years that the Republic of Rhodesia existed, it became a headache for successive British Labor governments. Although London had used force to repress National Liberation Movements in other of its colonies such as Kenya or Malaysia, in Rhodesia it refused to intervene because it considered the Rhodesian leaders as compatriots, being of British origin. In addition, the racist and far-right regime headed by Ian Smith in Rhodesia, unlike the other colonies, does have an organized Administration and Army capable of resisting. It was a risk that British diplomacy seemed unwilling to take.

Rhodesia, supported by South Africa and Portugal, which still retained its African colonial empire, suffered few sanctions despite the exclusionary nature of its regime, and even enjoyed acceptable economic growth. While the Rhodesian regime refused to make any concessions to the black majority (not even the gradual and moderate type that London proposed to them), in the east of the country an armed liberation movement arose from 1972. The two guerrillas (ZAPU) and ZANU, supported by the USSR and China, and having bases in Mozambique since 1975 (this country had achieved independence shortly before), merged into the Patriotic Front in 1976.

In 1979, the representatives of the regime accepted by referendum the principle of a multiracial regime, and the elections were won by the moderate Abel Muzorewa, reinforcing the confidence of the whites who held key positions in the Public Administration. However, this government was not recognized by the UN, which considered the Patriotic Front as the only legitimate representative of the country. New elections were organized for 1980, supervised by Great Britain as a former colonial power. These elections were won by Robert Mugabe, leader of the Patriotic Front and ZANU, and this led to definitive independence (now yes, no longer questioned by Great Britain) and the change of the country's name, which was renamed Zimbabwe.

British retreat

In the 1960s and 1970s 20th century, decolonization in British Central Africa has stabilized relations between the government of London and the former colonies united in the Commonwealth of Nations. The self-proclaimed independence in Rhodesia by the white minority structures the discourse of "Africa for the Africans." The finally peaceful shift of power from whites to blacks was cited as an example of a possible development in South Africa.

Evolution of the term

Map of the Federation of Rodesia and Nyasaland showing the two Rodesias and Nyasalandia (present-day Malaui) in 1960.

Railroad map across the Rodesias in 1909.

Modern Zambia

• Northwest Rodesia: Administration of the South African British Company —BSAC — (1890);
• Northwest and Northwest Rodesia: British protectorates (1893);
• Northeast Rodesia: administered by BSAC (1897);
• Barotseland-Northwest and Northeast Rodesia: united but administered separately (1899-1911);
• North Rodesia: Protected under BSAC (1911-1924);
• North Rodesia: British protectorate (1924-1953);
• Federation of Rodesia and Nyasaland: territory of North Rodesia (1953-1964);
• Zambia: Granting of Independence (1964).

Current Zimbabwe

• Mashonaland and Matabeleland: BSAC protectorates (1888-1894);
• South Zambezia: combination of Mashonaland and Matabeleland (1894-1895);
• Rodesia: protectorate combined with North Zambezia (1895-1901);
• Rodesia del Sur —Zambezia del Sur—: Separate from North Rodesia (1901-1923);
• Rodesia del Sur: terminates the status of BSAC; British colony, with self-government (1923-1953);
• Federation of Rodesia and Nyasaland: territory of South Rodesia, retaining self-government (1953-1964);
• South Rodesia: dissolved federation; British colony, retaining self-government (1964-1965);
• Republic of Rodesia: unilateral declaration of independence, unrecognized state: (1965-1979, self-declared republic since 1970);
• Zimbabwe Rodesia: Government of internal settlement, also not recognized (1979);
• South Rodesia: Lancaster House Agreement, British Temporary Colonial Government (1979-1980);
• Zimbabwe: recognized independence (1980 onwards).