Southern Rhodesia

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Southern Rhodesia was the name of the British colony situated immediately to the north of South Africa, known today as Zimbabwe. The "Southern" was dropped from normal usage in 1964 and Rhodesia became the name of the country until the creation of Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979.

Named after Cecil Rhodes, the British empire-builder who was one of the most important figures in British expansion into southern Africa, the original Rhodesia was created in 1888 after Rhodes obtained mineral rights from the most powerful local traditional leaders through treaties such as the Rudd Concession and the Moffat Treaty signed by King Lobengula of the Ndebele. Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) separated from Southern Rhodesia in 1910.

In 1965, Rhodesia unilaterally declared itself independent under a White-dominated government. After a long civil war between the white government and two African guerrilla organisations (ZIPRA and ZANLA), Britain resumed control for a brief time and then granted independence to the country in 1980, whereupon it became Zimbabwe.

[edit] Naming

When Northern Rhodesia achieved independence as Zambia, the Southern Rhodesian government decided to alter the name of the colony to Rhodesia. Rather than petition the United Kingdom government for a formal name change, the Legislative Assembly simply passed an Interpretation Bill to declare that the colony could be referred to as Rhodesia. Once the bill had received its third reading on December 9, 1964, the new name came into use.

However, no legislative assent was granted to the Bill by the Governor-General by the time the colony declared independence and so Southern Rhodesia remained the colony's formal name as far as the United Kingdom government was concerned: for example, the Act passed by the United Kingdom Parliament declaring the independence a legal nullity was entitled the Southern Rhodesia Act, 1965. When the rebellion was formally declared at an end by the passing of the Constitution of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia (Amendment) (No. 4) Act 1979, the United Kingdom resumed the governance of the colony under the direct control of the Governor-General under the name of Southern Rhodesia.