Rhodesia (1964–1965)
Final form of British colony before Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (1964–1965) / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rhodesia (/roʊˈdiːʒə/, /roʊˈdiːʃə/),[1] was a self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa. Until 1964, the territory was known as Southern Rhodesia, and less than a year before the name change the colony formed a part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland and hosted its capital city, Salisbury. On 1 January 1964, the three parts of the Federation (Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, and Nyasaland) became separate colonies as they had been before the founding of the Federation on 1 August 1953. The demise of the short-lived union was seen as stemming overwhelmingly from black nationalist movements in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and both colonies were fast-tracked towards independence - Nyasaland first, as Malawi, on 6 July 1964 and Northern Rhodesia second, as Zambia, on 24 October. Southern Rhodesia, by contrast, stood firmly under white government, and its white population, which was far larger than the white populations elsewhere in the erstwhile Federation, was, in general, strongly opposed to the introduction of black majority rule. The Southern Rhodesian prime minister, Winston Field, whose government had won most of the federation's military and other assets for Southern Rhodesia, began to seek independence from the United Kingdom without introducing majority rule. However, he was unsuccessful and his own party, the Rhodesian Front, forced him to resign. Days prior to his resignation, on Field's request, Southern Rhodesia had changed its flag to a sky blue ensign defaced with the Rhodesian coat of arms, becoming the first British colony to use a sky blue ensign instead of a dark blue one (it was later joined by Fiji and Tuvalu).
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. (October 2022) |
Rhodesia | |||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1964–1965 | |||||||||
Anthem: "God Save the Queen" | |||||||||
Status | Self-governing British colony | ||||||||
Capital | Salisbury | ||||||||
Spoken languages | |||||||||
Government | Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy | ||||||||
Monarch | |||||||||
• 1964–1965 | Elizabeth II | ||||||||
Governor | |||||||||
• 1964–1965 | Sir Humphrey Gibbs | ||||||||
Prime Minister | |||||||||
• 1964–1965 | Ian Smith | ||||||||
Legislature | Legislative Assembly | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• Southern Rhodesia unofficially renamed 'Rhodesia' | 24 October 1964 | ||||||||
5 November 1964 | |||||||||
• 'Rhodesia' made official name[lower-alpha 1] | 9 December 1964 | ||||||||
7 May 1965 | |||||||||
11 November 1965 | |||||||||
Area | |||||||||
• Total | 390,580 km2 (150,800 sq mi) | ||||||||
Population | |||||||||
• 1965 | 4,422,000 | ||||||||
Currency | Rhodesian pound | ||||||||
Time zone | UTC+2 (CAT) | ||||||||
| |||||||||
Today part of | Zimbabwe | ||||||||
|