Wikipedia

Southern Rhodesia

Southern Rhodesia was a self governing land-locked British colony in what is today the country of Zimbabwe.[2] The colony's territory was initially conquered and administered by the British South Africa Company (BSAC), which was founded for the purpose of occupying and settling the region by Cecil Rhodes in 1888.[3] Following years of growing white immigration into the region, the settler minority voted to reject entering into a union with South Africa in favour of establishing a settler-run legislative assembly under the framework of responsible government.[4] The colony's economy declined significantly during the Great Depression and it experienced a high degree of white settler emigration and turnover.[5] In the Second World War, Southern Rhodesian colonial forces actively participated and the war caused an economic boom.[6] Following the war, the colony experienced a large population boom as many whites began to immigrate to the colony.[7] Southern Rhodesian politics were racially dominated by the white minority who restricted the right to vote based on a person's income or ownership of property.[8] The settler-controlled government also passed racially discriminatory land-ownership restrictions, banned Africans from having higher levels in the civil service for most of its history,[9] and implemented an extensive racial pass system that limited Africans' ability to live and work in most of the colony.[10]

Southern Rhodesia
1923–1965
1979–1980
Anthem: "God Save the King/Queen"
  •   Southern Rhodesia
  •   British colonial empire in Africa prior to World War I
StatusSelf-governing British colony (1923–1965)
Crown colony (de facto; 1965–1980)
CapitalSalisbury
Common languagesEnglish (official)
Shona and Sindebele widely spoken, some Afrikaans
GovernmentConstitutional monarchy
Monarch 
• 1923–1936
George V
• 1936
Edward VIII
• 1936–1952
George VI
• 1952–1964
Elizabeth II
• 1979–1980
Elizabeth II
Governor 
• 1923–1928 (first)
Sir John Chancellor
• 1959[a]–1965[b]
Sir Humphrey Gibbs
• 1979–1980 (last)
Lord Soames
Prime Minister 
• 1923–1927 (first)
Sir Charles Coghlan
• 1964[c] (last)
Ian Smith
LegislatureLegislative Assembly
History 
27 October 1922
12 September 1923 (1923)
1 October 1923
1953–1963
• UDI
11 November 1965
11–12 December 1979
21 December 1979
18 April 1980
Area
1904[1]372,518 km2 (143,830 sq mi)
Population
• 1904[1]
605,764
Currency
Preceded by		Succeeded by
1923:
Company rule
in Rhodesia
1963:
Federation of
Rhodesia and
Nyasaland
1979:
Zimbabwe Rhodesia
1953:
Federation of
Rhodesia and
Nyasaland
1964:
Rhodesia
1980:
Zimbabwe
Today part ofZimbabwe
  1. ↑ Gibbs' governorship of Southern Rhodesia began during the Federation period. For a brief time, Gibbs was also the Acting Governor-General of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
  2. ↑ Gibbs' de facto governorship ended with the internationally unrecognised declaration of independence on 11 November 1965, as the attached 1965 Constitution abolished the post and created the positions of Governor-General and Officer Administering the Government (for when a Governor-General was not appointed by the Queen of Rhodesia). On 17 November 1965, his responsibilities were bestowed by the unrecognised government upon Clifford Dupont as Acting Officer Administering the Government. Gibbs remained the de jure legal Governor until 24 June 1969.
  3. ↑ Smith continued to lead the unrecognised government as Prime Minister of Rhodesia until 1 June 1979.

In 1953, Southern Rhodesia entered into a union with the protectorates of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and until it dissolved in 1963 due to internal tension. In 1962, the right-wing Rhodesian Front party won the Southern Rhodesian general election. In 1965, the South Rhodesian government under Prime Minister Ian Smith issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence and oversaw the escalating Rhodesian Bush War between the white-minority controlled government and African nationalist forces. Following the collapse of white-minority rule and the signing of the Lancaster House Agreement the colony was briefly reinstated under British supervision until was granted full independence as the Republic of Zimbabwe in 1980.

History

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British South Africa Company Period (1889-1923)

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In late 1889, the United Kingdom granted the British South Africa Company a Royal Charter authorizing the company to acquire, administer, and develop territory "north of British Bechuanaland and to the north and west of the South African Republic and to the west of the Portuguese Dominions."[11] At the time, the region was recognized by the British to be under the nominally authority of King Lobengula, the leader of the Ndebele kingdom which controlled Matabeleland and the British forbid the company from taking any actions in his domain without his prior authorization and consent.[12] Following the acquisition of the Rudd Concession from Lobengula in 1888, Rhodes quickly set to work on establishing a presence in the region. In 1890, the first company-backed expedition was launched when the Pioneer Column set out from South Africa and established Fort Salisbury (now Harare) in Mashonaland and began to develop it as the central hub for the administration of company-held territory.[13]

In 1893, relations between the company and the Ndebele broke down following an Ndebele raid and the beginning of the First Matabele War.[14] The war decisive defeat of the Ndebele, the death of the Lobengula, and the conquest and expansion of Company operations into Matabeleland.[15] In 1895, the company unsuccessfully attempted to stage a coup in the neighbouring Transvaal Republic with the hope of seizing the territory on behalf of Britain.[16] Company forces, led by the chief administrator Starr Jameson, planned to link up with British workers to overthrow the Transvaal government and request aid, at which point Company forces would link up and intervene to assist the rebels.[16] However, the raid was a complete failure. The Transvaal government reacted quickly to the news of a hostile force entering their territory and managed to surround and captured Jameson's force.[17] The raid serious diplomatic embarrassment for Britain and caused long-lasting damages to their relations with the Afrikaners and nearly resulted in the company charter being revoked.[18]

The capture of nearly the entire British South Africa Police force left the British South Africa Company with almost no men in the region to defend itself. The Ndebele, sensing the vulnerability of the company and a chance to drive out the newly established white presence in the region, and rose up in revolt against the company and began launching attacks against undefended white properties and killing the colonists beginning the Second Matabele War. Taken by surprise and completely unprepared, many white settlers were killed in the initial fighting and it was only with the arrival of reinforcements from South Africa that the war turned in favour of the settlers, though it would still take another year of fighting to pacify the territory. The British blamed the British South Africa Company for its recklessness during the Jameson raid and their treatment of the Africans as the principal causes of the uprising and began to take steps to curtail some of the company's authority to prevent them from happening again.

The reforms that followed began the slow transition away from Company rule towards settler control of government. In 1898, the name "Southern Rhodesia" became the official name for the colony following the promulgation of the Southern Rhodesia Order In Council on the 20th of October 1898.[19] That same year a legislative council was created to manage civil affairs and to pass legislation. At first the Company held a fixed majority of the seats on the council with the minority of the seats being elected by the settlers,[20] but over time the number of elected seats would expand and elected seats would outnumber unelected seats and expand with the growing population.[21] Qualifications to vote for council members were nominally race-neutral, requiring that would-be voters either own greater than £75 in property or a registered mining claim in an electoral district, or have a salary over at least £50 per annum.[22][23] In practice the restrictions excluded virtually all Africans from being able to vote, with the number of Africans registered to vote only reaching roughly fifty individuals by 1904.[23] Opinion in the United Kingdom and South Africa favoured incorporation of Southern Rhodesia into the Union of South Africa but when given the choice, the Southern Rhodesian electorate voted in favour of greater autonomy in the form of a responsible government in a 1922 referendum.

Southern Rhodesia Until The Federation (1923-1953)

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In view of the outcome of the referendum, the territory was annexed by the United Kingdom on 12 September 1923.[24][25][26][27] Shortly after annexation, on 1 October 1923, the first constitution for the colony came into force.[28][26] Under this constitution Sir Charles Coghlan became the first Premier of First Cabinet of Southern Rhodesia and upon his death in 1927 he was succeeded by Howard Unwin Moffat.

During World War II, Southern Rhodesian military units participated on the side of the United Kingdom. Southern Rhodesian support for the Allied war effort was based on a mixture shared kinship and identity with Britain and support for democracy.[29] Southern Rhodesian forces were involved in East African, North African, Italy, and Burma campaigns and participated in the Battle of Madagascar. Southern Rhodesian suffered the highest loss ratio in the British Empire forces during World War II.[citation needed] Additionally, the Rhodesian pilots earned the highest number of decorations and ace appellations of any group within the empire.[citation needed] This resulted in the royal family paying an unusual state visit to the colony at the end of the war to thank the Rhodesian people.[citation needed]

Economically, Southern Rhodesia developed an economy that was narrowly based on production of a few primary products, notably chrome and tobacco. It was therefore vulnerable to the economic cycle.[further explanation needed] The deep recession of the 1930s gave way to a post-war boom. This boom prompted the immigration of about 200,000 white settlers between 1945 and 1970, taking the white population up to 307,000. A large number of these immigrants were of British working-class origin.

In the 1940s, the founding of a university to serve central African countries was proposed. Such a university was eventually established in Salisbury with funding provided by both the British and Southern Rhodesian governments and private sources.[citation needed] One condition of British funding was that student admission should be based on "academic achievement and good character" with no racial distinction. University College of Rhodesia (UCR) received its first intake of students in 1952. Until 1971 it awarded degrees of the Universities of London and Birmingham. In 1971 UCR became the University of Rhodesia and began awarding its own degrees. In 1980 it was renamed the University of Zimbabwe.[30][relevant? – discuss]

Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (1953-1963)

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In 1953, the United Kingdom united the colony of Southern Rhodesia and the protectorates of Northern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Nyasaland (Malawi) into the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The intention behind the creation of the federation was to replicate the model that the British had implemented in Dominion of Canada, Australia, and South Africa to turn several independently unviable colonies into a single viable state and to create a bloc that could manage the differing aspirations of the growing African nationalists movements in each territory, and hopefully temper the influence of South African apartheid that was growing in Southern Rhodesia. Northern Rhodesia was the wealthiest of the three member states (due to its vast copper mines) and had contributed more to the overall building of infrastructure than the other two members did.[citation needed] Southern Rhodesia, recognising an inevitable dissolution of the Federation, was quick to use federal funds in building its infrastructure ahead of the others. A key component of this was the building of the Kariba Dam and its hydroelectric facility (shafts, control centre, etc.), which was situated on the Southern Rhodesian side of the Zambezi Gorge.

Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902), Founding chairman of the board of directors of De Beers Mining Company, funded by Nathaniel, 1st Lord Rothschild[31][32]

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland dissolved on 1 January 1964. In the break up, the majority of the Federation's military and financial assets were transferred to the Southern Rhodesian government leaving it with the second largest military in Southern Africa behind only South Africa. The reason that it was transferred to the Southern Rhodesian government was that Southern Rhodesia had borne the brunt of the expenses of the federation and the British did not want to see it fall into the hands of the African nationalists.[citation needed]

Southern Rhodesia Until The Unilateral Declaration of Independence (1963-1965)

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On 7 October 1964, the Southern Rhodesian government announced that when Northern Rhodesia achieved independence as Zambia, the Southern Rhodesian government would officially become known as the Rhodesian Government and the colony would become known as Rhodesia.[33] While the new name was widely used Southern Rhodesia remained the official name of the colony and the United Kingdom continued to refer to it under that name in legislation including Southern Rhodesia Act 1965 which declared Southern Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence illegal and without legal effect.[34]

In 1965, Rhodesia unilaterally declared itself independent under a white-minority controlled government headed by Ian Smith. Beginning a long civil war between the white-minority controlled government and two African nationalist organizations the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZAPU) and Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANU) who received support from neighbouring African countries as well as the Soviet Union and People's Republic of China. The Salisbury government, realising the situation was untenable, and facing strong international pressure, concluded the Internal Settlement with black nationalist leaders in March 1978. A general election a year later resulted in the creation of a unity government, which in December 1979 concluded the Lancaster House Agreement, whereby Britain resumed control of the colony for a brief period before granting independence to the renamed Zimbabwe on 18 April 1980

Judiciary

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List of chief justices of Southern Rhodesia
Incumbent Tenure Notes
Took office Left office
Sir Murray Bisset 1927 1931 Previously Test cricketer for South Africa
Sir Fraser Russell 1931 ?1943
Sir Robert James Hudson 1943 15 May 1950
Vernon Lewis[35] 1950 1950 Died in service, 1950
Sir Robert Tredgold 1950 1955 Chief Justice of Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, 1953?–1961
Sir John Murray 1 August 1955 1961
Sir Hugh Beadle 1961 1977
Hector Macdonald 1977 1980

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 "Census of the British empire. 1901". Openlibrary.org. 1906. p. 177. Archived from the original on 15 March 2016. Retrieved 26 December 2013.
  2. ↑ Palley, Claire (1966). The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1888-1965: With Special Reference to Imperial Control. Clarendon P. ISBN 978-0-19-821631-5.
  3. ↑ Blake, Robert (1977). A History of Rhodesia. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-040-29721-6.
  4. ↑ Cussans, Charlton Francis (12 January 2024). "Whiteness is not enough: South Africa and the 1922 responsible government referendum in Southern Rhodesia". Historical Research. 97 (275): 147–166. doi:10.1093/hisres/htad026. ISSN 0950-3471.
  5. ↑ Phimister, Ian R. (1988). An Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 1890-1948: Capital Accumulation and Class Struggle. Longman. pp. 171–180. ISBN 978-0-582-64423-6.
  6. ↑ Phimister. An Economic and Social History of Zimbabwe, 1890-1948: Capital Accumulation and Class Struggle. p. 252.
  7. ↑ Raftopoulos, Brian; Mlambo, Alois (15 September 2009). Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from the Pre-colonial Period to 2008. African Books Collective. p. 76. ISBN 978-1-77922-121-6.
  8. ↑ Palley. The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1888-1965: With Special Reference to Imperial Control. p. 102.
  9. ↑ Blake. A History of Rhodesia. p. 338.
  10. ↑ Seymour, Lindsay F. (1961). "Legislation Affecting Africans in Urban Areas in Southern Rhodesia". The Rhodesia and Nyasaland Law Journal: 103–117.
  11. ↑ White, Arthur Silva (1890). The Development of Africa. G. Philip & Son. p. 298.
  12. ↑ Palley, Claire (1966). The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1888-1965: With Special Reference to Imperial Control. Clarendon P. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-19-821631-5.
  13. ↑ Blake, Robert (6 December 2024). A History of Rhodesia. Taylor & Francis. p. 74. ISBN 978-1-040-29721-6.
  14. ↑ Blake. A History of Rhodesia. pp. 102–107.
  15. ↑ Blake. A History of Rhodesia. pp. 108–112.
  16. 1 2 Blake. A History of Rhodesia. pp. 123–124.
  17. ↑ Blake (6 December 2024). A History of Rhodesia. p. 124.
  18. ↑ Palley (1966). The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1888-1965: With Special Reference to Imperial Control. pp. 128–129.
  19. ↑ "Southern Rhodesia Order in Council" (PDF). rhodesia.me.uk. 1898. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2013.
  20. ↑ Palley (1966). The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1888-1965: With Special Reference to Imperial Control. p. 133.
  21. ↑ Palley, Claire (1966). The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1888-1965: With Special Reference to Imperial Control. Clarendon P. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-19-821631-5.
  22. ↑ Passmore, Gloria C.; Mitchell, Margaret T. (1963). Source Book of Parliamentary Elections and Referenda in Southern Rhodesia, 1898-1962. Department of Government, University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. p. 9.
  23. 1 2 Palley (1966). The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia, 1888-1965: With Special Reference to Imperial Control. p. 136.
  24. ↑ Southern Rhodesia (Annexation) Order in Council, 30 July 1923 which provided by section 3 thereof: "From and after the coming into operation of this Order the said territories shall be annexed to and form part of His Majesty's Dominions, and shall be known as the Colony of Southern Rhodesia".
  25. ↑ Stella Madzibamuto v Desmond William Larder – Burke, Fredrick Phillip George (1969) A.C 645 – Authority for date of annexation having been 12 September 1923, being the date the Rhodesia (Annexation) Order in Council came into effect
  26. 1 2 Collective Responses to Illegal Acts in International Law: United Nations Action in the Question of Southern Rhodesia by Vera Gowlland-Debbas
  27. ↑ Stella Madzibamuto v Desmond William Larder – Burke, Fredrick Phillip George (1969) A.C 645
  28. ↑ Southern Rhodesia Constitution Letters Patent 1923
  29. ↑ Bishi, George. "'Filthiest Gangs of Thugs': Anti-Fascism and Anti-Nazism Perceptions in Southern Rhodesia, 1930s to 1940s". South African Historical Journal 74, no. 1 (2022): 100–19.
  30. ↑ "History of the University of Zimbabwe" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 June 2007.
  31. ↑ "Our History". Archived from the original on 1 March 2019. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  32. ↑ "The Business ‹ Private clients :: The Rothschild Archive". Archived from the original on 27 October 2018. Retrieved 7 February 2019.
  33. ↑ Southern Rhodesia Information Service Press Statement 980/64 A.G.C.
  34. ↑ International Enclopedia of Comparative Law Archived 21 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine, J C B Möhr, 1976, p. xx
  35. ↑ "Heroes: the underground railroad in Rhodesia". Vukutu. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 26 February 2016.

Bibliography

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  • Blake, Robert (1978). A History of Rhodesia. New York: Knopf. ISBN 0-394-48068-6.
  • Shutt, Allison K. (2015). Manners Make a Nation: Racial Etiquette in Southern Rhodesia, 1910–1963. Rochester: University of Rochester Press.
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