View source for Rhodesia

{{Short description|Unrecognised state in Southern Africa (1965–1979)}}
{{About|the unrecognised state of Rhodesia|the region|Rhodesia (region)|6=other uses|7=Rhodesia (disambiguation)}}
{{Use South African English|date=April 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2023}}
{{Infobox country
| conventional_long_name = {{ubl|Rhodesia<br />{{nobold|(1965–1970)}}|Republic of Rhodesia<br />{{nobold|(1970–1979)}}}}
| common_name            = Rhodesia
| status                 = [[List of historical unrecognised states and dependencies|Unrecognised state]]
<!-- The flags are in the correct order, with the second flag of the Republic of Rhodesia -- that existed for 80% of the existence of "Rhodesia" -- given prominence because the Republic of Rhodesia is really what this article is about, and it was the flag of the country when the country ceased to exist. The other flag, while the "first" flag, was almost unknown outside of Rhodesia (and the UK) and it makes no sense to give it prominence over the flag of the Republic of Rhodesia. To make an analogy, it would be like making the flag in the article on the United Kingdom the flag of Great Britain of 1606/1707 (without St. Patrick's Cross), or the flag of the United States article the old Betsy Ross flag with thirteen stars in a circle. If you disagree with this, please take it to the talk page where this can be discussed, and where there is already a section addressing it. -->| image_flag             = Flag of Rhodesia (1968–1979).svg
| flag_alt               = Flag of Rhodesia from 1968{{ndash}}1979
| flag_type              = [[Flag of Rhodesia|Flag<br />(1968{{ndash}}1979)]]
| image_coat             = Coat of arms of Southern Rhodesia (1924–1980).svg
| coa_size               = 80px
| symbol_type            = Coat of arms
| national_motto         = {{native phrase|la|Sit Nomine Digna}}
| englishmotto           = May she be worthy of the name
| national_anthem        = "[[God Save the Queen]]"<br />(1965{{ndash}}1970){{parabr}}{{center|[[File:God Save the King.ogg]]}}"[[Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia]]"<br />(1974{{ndash}}1979){{parabr}}{{center|[[File:Rise, O Voices of Rhodesia.ogg]]}}
| image_map              = Zimbabwe (orthographic projection).svg
| capital                = [[Harare|Salisbury]]
| largest_city           = capital
| official_languages     = English ([[de facto]])
| languages_type         = Other languages
| languages              = {{hlist|[[Shona language|Shona]]|[[Northern Ndebele language|Ndebele]]|[[Afrikaans]]|[[Gujarati language|Gujarati]]|[[Bengali language|Bangla]]}}
| ethnic_groups          = {{plainlist|
* 93.09% Black
* 6.49% [[White Zimbabweans|White]]
* 0.47% [[Coloureds|Coloured]]/Asian
}}
| ethnic_groups_year     = 1969
| demonym                = <nowiki>Rhodesian</nowiki>
| government_type        = {{ubl|[[Unitary state|Unitary]] [[Parliamentary system|parliamentary]] [[constitutional monarchy]] (1965–1970)|[[Unitary parliamentary republic]] (1970–1979)}}
| title_leader           = [[Queen of Rhodesia|Queen]]{{efn|name=mon}}
| leader1                = [[Elizabeth II]]
| year_leader1           = 1965{{ndash}}1970
| title_representative   = [[President of Rhodesia|President]]
| representative1        = [[Clifford Dupont]]
| year_representative1   = 1970{{ndash}}1975
| representative2        = [[Henry Everard]] ([[Acting president|acting]])
| year_representative2   = 1975{{ndash}}1976
| representative3        = [[John Wrathall]]
| year_representative3   = 1976{{ndash}}1978
| representative4        = [[Henry Everard]] (acting)
| year_representative4   = 1978
| representative5        = [[Jack Pithey]] (acting)
| year_representative5   = 1978{{ndash}}1979
| representative6        = [[Henry Everard]] (acting)
| year_representative6   = 1979
| title_deputy           = [[Prime Minister of Rhodesia|Prime Minister]]
| deputy1                = [[Ian Smith]]
| year_deputy1           = 1965{{ndash}}1979
| legislature            = [[Westminster system|Parliament]]
| house1                 = [[Senate of Rhodesia|Senate]]
| house2                 = [[House of Assembly of Rhodesia|House of Assembly]]
| sovereignty_type       =
| event_start            = [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|Declared]]
| year_start             = 1965
| date_start             = 11 November
| event1                 = [[1969 Rhodesian constitutional referendum|Republic]]
| date_event1            = 2 March 1970
| event2                 = [[Internal Settlement]]
| date_event2            = 3 March 1978
| event_end              = [[Zimbabwe Rhodesia]]
| year_end               = 1979
| date_end               = 1 June
| area_km2               = 390580
| area_rank              =
| area_sq_mi             = 150800
| population_census      = 6,930,000
| population_census_year = 1978
| GDP_PPP                =
| GDP_PPP_year           =
| HDI                    =
| HDI_year               =
| currency               = {{ubl|[[Rhodesian pound]] (1964{{ndash}}70)|[[Rhodesian dollar]] (1970{{ndash}}80)}}
| time_zone              = [[Central Africa Time|CAT]]
| utc_offset             = +2
| iso3166code            = RH
| p1                     = Rhodesia (1964{{ndash}}1965)
| flag_p1                = Flag of Rhodesia (1964–1968).svg
| s1                     = Zimbabwe Rhodesia
| flag_s1                = <!-- This is the correct flag, please do not change (the flag changed part way through the existence of Zimbabwe Rhodesia) - the 'green-and-white' was the flag of Zimbabwe Rhodesia until 2 September 1979-->Flag of Rhodesia (1968–1979).svg <!-- This is the correct flag, please do not change (the flag changed part way through the existence of Zimbabwe Rhodesia)-->
| today                  = [[Zimbabwe]]
| footnotes              = {{notelist|refs=
{{efn|name=mon|The government recognised Queen [[Elizabeth II]] as the official [[List of heads of state of Zimbabwe#Unrecognised monarchy (1965–1970)|Head of State]] from 1965 to 1970. The highest official of Rhodesia held the title "[[Administrator of the government#Rhodesia|Officer Administering the Government]]" (OAtG) as he acted in lieu of the official [[Governor of Southern Rhodesia|Governor]], who remained at his post but was ignored. After Rhodesia became a republic in March 1970, the President replaced the OAtG as the highest official and the Governor returned to London.}}
}}
| era                    = [[Cold War]] and [[decolonisation of Africa]]
}}
'''Rhodesia''' ({{IPAc-en|r|əʊ|ˈ|d|iː|ʒ|ə||audio=LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Rhodesia.wav}} {{respell|roh|DEE|zhə}}, {{IPAc-en|r|əʊ|ˈ|d|iː|ʃ|ə|}} {{respell|roh|DEE|shə}};<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pz2ORay2HWoC&pg=PA1416|title=The Chambers Dictionary|last=Chambers|first=Allied|date=1998|publisher=Allied Publishers|isbn=978-81-86062-25-8|page=1416}}</ref> {{langx|sn|Rodizha}}), officially from 1970 the '''Republic of Rhodesia''',<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=yX1CAQAAIAAJ&q=%22the+Republic+of+Rhodesia%22 ''Votes and Proceedings of the Senate''], Volume 12, Parliament of Rhodesia, 1970, page 2</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/sub-saharan-africa-region/rhodesia-zimbabwe-1964-present/|title=46. Rhodesia/Zimbabwe (1964-present)|website=uca.edu}}</ref> was an [[List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies|unrecognised state]] in [[Southern Africa]] from 1965 to 1979. During this fourteen-year period, Rhodesia served as the ''[[de facto]]'' [[Succession of states|successor state]] to the [[Crown colony|British colony]] of [[Southern Rhodesia]], and in 1980 it became modern day [[Zimbabwe]].
Southern Rhodesia had been [[Self-governing colony|self-governing]] since achieving [[responsible government]] in 1923. A [[Landlocked country|landlocked]] nation, Rhodesia was bordered by [[Botswana]] ([[Bechuanaland Protectorate|Bechuanaland]]: British protectorate until 1966) to the southwest, [[People's Republic of Mozambique|Mozambique]] ([[Portuguese Mozambique|Portuguese province]] until 1975) to the east, [[South Africa]] to the south, and [[Zambia]] to the northwest. From 1965 to 1979, Rhodesia was one of two independent states on the African continent governed by a [[White Zimbabweans|white minority of European descent and culture]], the other being [[South Africa]].
In the late 19th century, the territory north of the [[South African Republic|Transvaal]] was [[Royal charter|chartered]] to the [[British South Africa Company]], led by [[Cecil Rhodes]]. Rhodes and his [[Pioneer Column]] marched north in 1890, acquiring a huge block of territory that [[Company rule in Rhodesia|the company ruled]] until the early 1920s. In 1923, the company's charter was revoked, and Southern Rhodesia attained self-government and established a [[Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly|legislature]]. Between 1953 and 1963, Southern Rhodesia was joined with [[Northern Rhodesia]] and [[Nyasaland]] in the [[Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland]].
The rapid [[decolonisation of Africa]] in the late 1950s and early 1960s alarmed a significant proportion of Southern Rhodesia's white population. In an effort to delay the transition to [[No independence before majority rule|black majority rule]], the predominantly white Southern Rhodesian government issued its own [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|Unilateral Declaration of Independence]] (UDI) from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965. The new nation, identified simply as Rhodesia, initially sought [[Diplomatic recognition|recognition]] as an autonomous [[Commonwealth realm|realm]] within the [[Commonwealth of Nations]], but reconstituted itself as a republic in 1970.
Following the declaration of independence in 1965,<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=History |first=Elizabeth Schmidt / Made by |date=2023-10-30 |title=A Lesson From the History of Rhodesia |url=https://time.com/6324696/rhodesia-minority-rule/ |access-date=2024-09-03 |magazine=TIME |language=en}}</ref> the [[United Nations Security Council]] passed a resolution that called upon all states not to grant recognition to Rhodesia. Two [[African nationalism|African nationalist]] parties, the [[Zimbabwe African People's Union]] (ZAPU) and [[Zimbabwe African National Union]] (ZANU), launched an armed insurgency against the government upon UDI, sparking the [[Rhodesian Bush War]]. Growing war weariness, diplomatic pressure, and an extensive trade embargo imposed by the [[United Nations]] prompted Rhodesian prime minister [[Ian Smith]] to [[Internal Settlement|concede to majority rule]] in 1978. However, [[1979 Rhodesian general election|elections]] and a multiracial [[Zimbabwe Rhodesia|provisional government]], with Smith succeeded by moderate [[Abel Muzorewa]], failed to appease international critics or halt the war. By December 1979 Muzorewa had secured an [[Lancaster House Agreement|agreement]] with ZAPU and ZANU, allowing Rhodesia to briefly revert to colonial status pending [[1980 Southern Rhodesian general election|new elections]] under British supervision. ZANU secured an electoral victory in 1980, and the country achieved internationally recognised independence in April 1980 as [[Zimbabwe]].
Rhodesia's largest cities were [[Harare|Salisbury]] (its capital city, now known as Harare) and [[Bulawayo]]. Prior to 1970, the unicameral [[Legislative Assembly of Rhodesia|Legislative Assembly]] was predominantly white, with a small number of seats reserved for black representatives. Following the declaration of a republic in 1970, this was replaced by a bicameral [[Parliament of Rhodesia|Parliament]], with a [[House of Assembly (Zimbabwe)|House of Assembly]] and a [[Senate of Zimbabwe|Senate]]. The bicameral system was retained in Zimbabwe after 1980. Aside from its [[Politics of Rhodesia#1961 constitution|racial franchise]], Rhodesia observed a [[Westminster system]] inherited from the United Kingdom, with a [[President of Rhodesia|President]] acting as ceremonial head of state, while a [[Prime Minister of Rhodesia|Prime Minister]] headed the [[Cabinet of Rhodesia|Cabinet]] as head of government.
== Etymology ==
{{further|Rhodesia (name)}}
The official name of the country, according to the constitution adopted concurrently with the UDI in November 1965, was Rhodesia. This was not the case under [[United Kingdom law|British law]], however, which considered the territory's legal name to be [[Southern Rhodesia]], the name given to the country in 1898 during the [[British South Africa Company]]'s [[Company rule in Rhodesia|administration]] of [[Rhodesia (region)|the Rhodesias]], and retained by the [[self-governing colony]] of Southern Rhodesia after the end of company rule in 1923.<ref name=rowland251 />
This naming dispute dated back to October 1964, when [[Northern Rhodesia]] became independent from the UK and concurrently changed its name to [[Zambia]]. The Southern Rhodesian colonial government in [[Harare|Salisbury]] felt that in the absence of a "Northern" Rhodesia, the continued use of "Southern" was superfluous. It passed legislation to become simply Rhodesia, but the British government refused to approve this on the grounds that the country's name was defined by British legislation, so could not be altered by the colonial government. [[Harare|Salisbury]] went on using the shortened name in an official manner nevertheless,<ref name="palley742743">{{cite book |title=The Constitutional History and Law of Southern Rhodesia 1888–1965, with Special Reference to Imperial Control |last=Palley |first=Claire |year=1966 |edition=First |location=Oxford |publisher=[[Oxford University Press|Clarendon Press]] |oclc=406157 |pages=742–743}}</ref> while the British government continued referring to the country as Southern Rhodesia. This situation continued throughout the UDI period.<ref name=rowland251>{{cite book |chapter=Appendix: Constitutional History of Rhodesia: An outline |last1=Rowland |first1=J. Reid |title=The Quiet Man: A Biography of the Hon. Ian Douglas Smith |last2=Berlyn |first2=Phillippa |location=Salisbury |publisher=M. O. Collins |date=April 1978 |oclc=4282978 |pages=240–256 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bHUNAQAAIAAJ}}</ref> The shortened name was used by many people including the British government in the House of Commons.
==History==
{{main|History of Rhodesia}}
{{History of Zimbabwe}}
===Background===
Until after the [[Second World War]], the landlocked British possession of [[Southern Rhodesia]] was not developed as an indigenous African territory, but rather as a unique state that reflected its [[Multiracialism|multiracial]] character.<ref name="duignan1986">{{citation | last = Duignan | first = Peter | title = Politics and Government in African States 1960–1985 | publisher = Croom Helm Ltd | year = 1986 | isbn = 0-7099-1475-X}}</ref> This situation certainly made it very different from other lands that existed under colonial rule, as many Europeans had arrived to make permanent homes, populating the towns as traders or settling to farm the most productive soils.<ref name="areahandbook">{{citation | last = Nelson | first = Harold | title = Zimbabwe: a country study | publisher = The American University (Washington, D.C.) | year = 1983 | isbn = 0160015987}}</ref><ref name="taylor2006">{{citation | last = Taylor | first = Scott | title = Culture and Customs of Zambia | publisher = Greenwood | year = 2006 | isbn = 0313332460 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/culturecustomsof00tayl }}</ref> In 1922, faced with the decision to join the [[Union of South Africa]] as a fifth province or accept nearly full internal autonomy, the electorate cast its vote against South African integration.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rhodesia.nl/mztosm.html |title=Rhodesia – Mzilikaze to Smith |publisher=Rhodesia.nl |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120826192258/http://www.rhodesia.nl/mztosm.html |archive-date=26 August 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/rhodesia-central-african-federation.htm |title=The Cabinet Papers &#124; Rhodesia and the Central African Federation |publisher=Nationalarchives.gov.uk |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121009031609/https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/cabinetpapers/themes/rhodesia-central-african-federation.htm |archive-date=9 October 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=ad28 |title=History of Zimbabwe |publisher=Historyworld.net |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120624112253/http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad28 |archive-date=24 June 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>
In view of the outcome of the referendum, the territory was annexed by the United Kingdom on 12 September 1923.<ref>Southern Rhodesia (Annexation) Order in Council, 30 July 1923 that 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."</ref><ref>Stella Madzibamuto v Desmond William Larder – Burke, Fredrick Phillip George (1969) A.C 645 – Authority for date of annexation having been 12 September 1923</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">''Collective Responses to Illegal Acts in International Law: United Nations Action in the Question of Southern Rhodesia'' by Vera Gowlland-Debbas</ref><ref>Stella Madzibamuto v Desmond William Larder – Burke, Fredrick Phillip George (1969) A.C 645</ref> Shortly after annexation, on 1 October 1923, the first constitution for the new Colony of Southern Rhodesia came into force.<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>Southern Rhodesia Constitution Letters Patent 1923</ref> Under this constitution, Southern Rhodesia was given the right to elect its own thirty-member [[Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly|legislature]], [[Prime Minister of Rhodesia|premier]], and cabinet—although the [[the Crown|British Crown]] retained a formal veto over measures affecting natives and dominated foreign policy.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rhodesia.me.uk/Parliament.htm |title=Parliament |publisher=Rhodesia.me.uk |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120115081548/http://www.rhodesia.me.uk/Parliament.htm |archive-date=15 January 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/stream/SouthernRhodesia1890-1950ARecordOfSixtyYearsProgress/SR9050_djvu.txt |title=Full text of "Southern Rhodesia 1890–1950; A Record of Sixty Years Progress" |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120706125942/https://archive.org/stream/SouthernRhodesia1890-1950ARecordOfSixtyYearsProgress/SR9050_djvu.txt |archive-date=6 July 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sapst.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33&Itemid=110 |title=Zimbambwe |publisher=Sapst.org |date=22 December 1987 |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510104741/http://www.sapst.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=33&Itemid=110 |archive-date=10 May 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Over the course of the next three decades, Southern Rhodesia experienced a degree of economic expansion and industrialisation almost unrivaled in sub-Saharan Africa.<ref name=Barber>{{cite book|last=Barber|first=William|title=The Economy of British Central Africa|date=1961|pages=ix–xi, 18–29, 108|publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press|location=Philadelphia|isbn=978-0812216202}}</ref> Its natural abundance of mineral wealth—including large deposits of chromium and manganese—contributed to the high rate of conventional economic growth.<ref name=Barber/> However, most colonies in Africa, even those rich in natural resources, experienced difficulty in achieving similar rates of development due to a shortage of technical and managerial skills.<ref name=Barber/> Small, rotating cadres of colonial civil servants who possessed little incentive to invest their skills in the local economy were insufficient to compensate for this disadvantage.<ref name=Barber/> Southern Rhodesia had negated the issue by importing a skilled workforce directly from abroad in the form of its disproportionately large European immigrant and expatriate population.<ref name=Barber/> For example, in 1951 over 90% of white Southern Rhodesians were engaged in what the British government classified as "skilled occupations", or professional and technical trades.<ref name=Barber/> This made it possible to establish a diversified economy with a strong manufacturing sector and iron and steel industries, and circumvent the normal British protectionist policy of supporting domestic industry in the metropole while discouraging industry in the colonies abroad.<ref name="duignan1986"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.countriesquest.com/africa/zimbabwe/history/settler_colony.htm |title=Settler Colony – History – Zimbabwe – Africa |publisher=Countriesquest.com |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130512205433/http://www.countriesquest.com/africa/zimbabwe/history/settler_colony.htm |archive-date=12 May 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> As the white population increased, so did capital imports, especially in the wake of the Second World War.<ref name=Barber/> This trend, too, stood in sharp contrast to most other colonial territories, which suffered a major capital deficit due to revenues simply being repatriated to the metropole, leaving little capital to be invested locally.<ref name="World">{{cite book | title = A World of Difference: Encountering and Contesting Development | last1 = Sheppard | first1 = Eric | last2 = Porter | first2 = Philip | last3 = Faust | first3 = David | last4 = Nagar | first4 = Richa | date = 8 August 2009 | location = New York | publisher = The Guilford Press | isbn = 978-1-60623-262-0 | pages = 356, 365–369}}</ref> The considerable investment made by white Rhodesians in the economy financed the development of Southern Rhodesia's export industries as well as the infrastructure necessary to integrate it further with international markets.<ref name=Barber/>
In August 1953, Southern Rhodesia merged with [[Northern Rhodesia]] and [[Nyasaland]], the two other British Central African territories, to form the [[Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland]] – a loose association that placed defence and economic direction under a central government but left many domestic affairs under the control of its constituent territories.<ref name="weitzer1990">{{cite book|last=Weitzer|first=Ronald|title=Transforming Settler States: Communal Conflict and Internal Security in Northern Ireland and Zimbabwe|pages=1–206}}</ref> As it began to appear that decolonisation was inevitable and indigenous black populations were pressing heavily for change,<ref name="duignan1986"/> the federation was dissolved at the end of December 1963.<ref>{{cite web |author=afrikantraveler |url=http://theafricanfile.com/politicshistory/rhodesia-a-failed-attempt-to-maintain-racism-into-the-21st-century/ |title=Rhodesia: A Failed Attempt to Maintain Racism into the 21st Century |publisher=The African File |date=16 May 2012 |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716010434/http://theafricanfile.com/politicshistory/rhodesia-a-failed-attempt-to-maintain-racism-into-the-21st-century/ |archive-date=16 July 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Novak |first=Andrew |url=https://independent.academia.edu/AndrewNovak/Papers/1265638/Sport_and_Racial_Discrimination_in_Colonial_Zimbabwe_A_Reanalysis |title=Academia.edu &#124; Sport and Racial Discrimination in Colonial Zimbabwe: A Reanalysis &#124; Andrew Novak |journal=The International Journal of the History of Sport |volume=29 |issue=6 |pages=850–867 |publisher=Independent.academia.edu |doi=10.1080/09523367.2011.642550 |s2cid=143672916 |access-date=9 October 2012}}</ref>
===Unilateral Declaration of Independence (1965)===<!-- This section is linked from [[Victoria Falls]] -->
{{Main|Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence}}
Although prepared to grant formal independence to Southern Rhodesia (now Rhodesia), the [[British government]] had adopted a policy of ''[[no independence before majority rule]]'' (NIBMR), dictating that colonies with a significant, politically active population of European settlers would not receive independence except under conditions of [[majority rule]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=173&regionSelect=2-Southern_Africa |title=Database – Uppsala Conflict Data Program |publisher=UCDP |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130603091825/http://www.ucdp.uu.se/gpdatabase/gpcountry.php?id=173&regionSelect=2-Southern_Africa |archive-date=3 June 2013 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rhodesia.nl/tiger.htm |title=On Board the Tiger |publisher=Rhodesia.nl |date=9 October 1968 |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121012003742/http://www.rhodesia.nl/tiger.htm |archive-date=12 October 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.psywarrior.com/RhodesiaPSYOP.html |title=RHODESIA PSYOP 1965 |publisher=Psywarrior.com |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121002024639/http://www.psywarrior.com/RhodesiaPSYOP.html |archive-date=2 October 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> White Rhodesians balked at the premise of NIBMR; many felt they had a right to absolute political control, at least for the time being, despite their relatively small numbers.<ref name="weitzer1990"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.zimembassy.se/history.html |title=A brief history of Zimbabwe |publisher=Zimembassy.se |date=18 April 1980 |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120823010147/http://www.zimembassy.se/history.html |archive-date=23 August 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref> They were also disturbed by the chaos of the post-colonial political transitions occurring in other African nations at the time, such as the [[Democratic Republic of the Congo]].<ref name="SmithGB">{{cite book|author= Smith, Ian|title=The Great Betrayal|pages=74–256|publisher= Blake Publishing Ltd.|location=London|year=1997|isbn= 1-85782-176-9}}</ref><ref name="Spikes">{{cite book|title=Angola and the Politics of Intervention: From Local Bush War to Chronic Crisis in Southern Africa|last=Spikes|first=Daniel|year=1993|location=Jefferson|publisher=McFarland & Company|isbn=978-0899508887|pages=52–53}}</ref> A vocal segment of the white populace was open to the concept of gradually incorporating black Rhodesians into civil society and a more integrated political structure in theory, although not without qualification and equivocation.<ref name=West>{{cite book|last=West|first=Michael|title=The Rise of an African Middle Class: Colonial Zimbabwe, 1898-1965|date=August 2002|pages=192–193|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|isbn=0-253-34085-3}}</ref> A greater degree of social and political equality, they argued, was acceptable once more black citizens had obtained higher educational and vocational standards.<ref name=West/> The second faction in the white community was wholly unwilling to concede the principle, much less the practice, of equality to the black population.<ref name=West/> Both groups remained opposed to majority rule in the near future.<ref name=West/> However, once Rhodesia had been introduced as a topic for discussion in international bodies, extension of the status quo became a matter of concern to the British government, which perceived the scrutiny as a serious embarrassment to the United Kingdom.<ref name="areahandbook"/>
After the federation was dissolved in December 1963, the then British Prime Minister, [[Sir Alec Douglas-Home]], insisted that preconditions on independence talks hinge on what he termed the "five principles" – unimpeded progress to majority rule, assurance against any future legislation decidedly detrimental to black interests, "improvement in the political status" of local Africans, an end to official [[racial discrimination]], and a political settlement that could be "acceptable to the whole population".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www2.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/programmes/africaProgramme/pdfs/rhodesiaUDIChronology.pdf |title=Chronology: Rhodesia UDI: Road to Settlement |publisher=Lse.ac.uk |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120912011633/http://www2.lse.ac.uk/IDEAS/programmes/africaProgramme/pdfs/rhodesiaUDIChronology.pdf |archive-date=12 September 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{hansard |url=1970/dec/16/rhodesia-definition-of-the-five |house=written |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121226115618/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/written_answers/1970/dec/16/rhodesia-definition-of-the-five |archive-date=26 December 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,CHRON,ZWE,,469f38f8c,0.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416055626/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,CHRON,ZWE,,469f38f8c,0.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 April 2013 |title=Refworld &#124; Chronology for Europeans in Zimbabwe |publisher=UNHCR |access-date=9 October 2012 }}</ref> [[Harold Wilson]] and his incoming [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] government took an even harder line on demanding that these points be legitimately addressed before a timetable for independence could be set.<ref name="areahandbook"/>
In 1964, growing white dissatisfaction with the ongoing negotiations played a major role in the ousting of [[Winston Field]] as [[Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia]]. Field was succeeded by [[Ian Smith]], chairman of the conservative [[Rhodesian Front Party]] and an outspoken critic of any immediate transition to majority rule.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://africanhistory.about.com/od/zimbabwe/p/ZimbabweHist1.htm |title=A Brief History of Zimbabwe – Part 1: Early Kingdoms to UDI |publisher=Africanhistory.about.com |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121123074246/http://africanhistory.about.com/od/zimbabwe/p/ZimbabweHist1.htm |archive-date=23 November 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/world/africa/21smith.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|title=Ian Smith, Defiant Symbol of White Rule in Africa, Is Dead at 88|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|access-date=9 October 2012|first=Alan|last=Cowell|date=21 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510174029/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/21/world/africa/21smith.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0|archive-date=10 May 2013|url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0019893.html |title=Zimbabwe (country) |publisher=Talktalk.co.uk |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130613054037/http://www.talktalk.co.uk/reference/encyclopaedia/hutchinson/m0019893.html |archive-date=13 June 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> Smith, the colony's first Rhodesian-born leader, soon came to personify resistance to liberals in British government and those agitating for change at home.<ref name="areahandbook"/> In September 1964, Smith visited [[Lisbon]], where Portuguese prime minister [[António de Oliveira Salazar]] promised him "maximum support" if he should declare independence.<ref name="Onslow" /> Aside from a common interest in maintaining security ties in southern Africa, Salazar expressed a great deal of anger at Britain's refusal to support Portugal during the [[Annexation of Goa|Indian annexation of Goa]] in 1961, admonishing Smith not to trust the British government.<ref name="Onslow">[https://books.google.com/books?id=qYohAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA220 Resistance to the "Winds of Change": The Emergence of an "unholy alliance" between Southern Rhodesia, Portugal, and South Africa, 1964–65], Sue Onslow, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qYohAQAAQBAJ The Wind of Change: Harold Macmillan and British Decolonization]'', edited by L. Butler and Sarah Stockwell, London: Macmillan, 2013 pages 220–221</ref> A Rhodesian Trade Office was opened in Lisbon in order to co-ordinate breaking the anticipated sanctions in the event of a unilateral declaration of independence later that year, which encouraged Smith not to compromise.<ref name="Onslow" /> In its turn, the Rhodesian Trade Office in Lisbon functioned as a ''de facto'' embassy and caused tension with London, which objected to Rhodesia conducting its own foreign policy.<ref name="Onslow" /> As land-locked Rhodesia bordered the [[Portuguese Mozambique|Portuguese colony of Mozambique]], Salazar's promise of "maximum support" from Portugal in breaking the anticipated sanctions gave Smith more grounds for self-confidence in his talks with London.<ref name="Onslow" /> Smith ruled out acceptance for all five of the British principles as they stood,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://archive.tribunemagazine.co.uk/article/23rd-september-1966/12/policy-for-rhodesia |title=Policy For Rhodesia from theTribune Magazine Archive |publisher=Archive.tribunemagazine.co.uk |date=23 September 1966 |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180809121358/http://archive.tribunemagazine.co.uk/article/23rd-september-1966/12/policy-for-rhodesia |archive-date=9 August 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> implying instead that Rhodesia was already legally entitled to independence—a claim that was overwhelmingly endorsed by the predominantly white electorate in a [[Southern Rhodesian independence referendum, 1964|referendum]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/white-referendum-southern-rhodesia-overwhelmingly-support-ian-smiths-proposal-independen |title=White referendum in Southern Rhodesia is overwhelmingly in support of Ian Smith's proposal for independence. &#124; South African History Online |publisher=Sahistory.org.za |date=6 November 1964 |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140813074554/http://www.sahistory.org.za/dated-event/white-referendum-southern-rhodesia-overwhelmingly-support-ian-smiths-proposal-independen |archive-date=13 August 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/sub-saharan-africa-region/british-south-rhodesia-1964-1980/ |title=British South Rhodesia (1964–1980) |publisher=Uca.edu |access-date=9 October 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518172058/http://uca.edu/politicalscience/dadm-project/sub-saharan-africa-region/british-south-rhodesia-1964-1980/ |archive-date=18 May 2013 }}</ref>
Emboldened by the results of this referendum and the subsequent general election, the Rhodesian government threatened to declare independence without British consent. Harold Wilson countered by warning that such an irregular procedure would be considered [[treason]]ous, although he specifically rejected using armed force to quell a rebellion by English "kith and kin", or white Rhodesians of predominantly British descent and origin, many of whom still possessed sympathies and family ties to the United Kingdom.<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901904,00.html |title=Rhodesia: The Last Thread |magazine=TIME |date=30 December 1966 |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017185948/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,901904,00.html |archive-date=17 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{cite news |author=Chris McGreal |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/13/zimbabwe |title=There are many villains to blame for Zimbabwe's decade of horror &#124; World news &#124; The Observer |newspaper=Guardian |access-date=9 October 2012 |location=London |date=13 April 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160309212420/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/13/zimbabwe |archive-date=9 March 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> Wilson's refusal to consider a military option further encouraged Smith to proceed with his plans. Talks quickly broke down, and final efforts in October to achieve a settlement floundered; the Smith government remained unwilling to accept the five principles of independence, and the British government argued it would settle for nothing less.<ref name="areahandbook"/>
[[File:Udi2-rho.jpg|thumb|[[Ian Smith]] signing the Unilateral Declaration of Independence]]
On 11 November 1965 the Cabinet of Rhodesia issued a [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|unilateral declaration of independence]] (UDI).<ref name="duignan1986"/><ref name="raft">{{cite book|last=Raftopolous|first=Brian|title=Becoming Zimbabwe: A History from the pre-colonial period to 2008|pages=1–298}}</ref><ref name="blackfire">{{cite book|last=Raeburn|first=Michael|title=We are everywhere: Narratives from Rhodesian guerillas|pages=1–209}}</ref> The UDI was immediately denounced as an "act of rebellion against the Crown" in the United Kingdom, and Wilson promised that the illegal action would be short-lived.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.genocidepreventionnow.org/Home/GPNISSUES/Issue6Spring2011/tabid/109/ctl/DisplayArticle/mid/696/aid/223/Default.aspx?skinsrc=G/Skins/GPN/printskin |title=Issue 6, Spring 2011 |publisher=Genocidepreventionnow.org |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130520070306/http://www.genocidepreventionnow.org/Home/GPNISSUES/Issue6Spring2011/tabid/109/ctl/DisplayArticle/mid/696/aid/223/Default.aspx?skinsrc=G%2FSkins%2FGPN%2Fprintskin |archive-date=20 May 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{hansard |url=1969/jan/21/rhodesia |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121225135820/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1969/jan/21/rhodesia |archive-date=25 December 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> However, given its self-governing status Rhodesia had no longer been within the United Kingdom's direct sphere of influence for some time, and the facade of continued British rule was rendered a constitutional fiction by UDI.<ref name="weitzer1990"/> In light of these circumstances, Wilson quickly realised his ability to assert direct leverage over the incumbent Rhodesian government was limited.<ref name="weitzer1990"/>
On 12 October 1965, the [[United Nations General Assembly]] had noted the repeated threats of the Rhodesian authorities "to declare unilaterally the independence of Southern Rhodesia, in order to perpetuate minority rule", and called upon Wilson to use all means at his disposal (including military force) to prevent the Rhodesian Front from asserting independence.<ref>{{cite web|title=Question of Southern Rhodesia|url=https://undocs.org/A/RES/2012(XX)|id=A/RES/2012(XX)|date=12 October 1965|website=undocs.org|publisher=United Nations|access-date=17 March 2017|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170318090144/http://undocs.org/A/RES/2012(XX)|archive-date=18 March 2017|url-status=live }}</ref> After UDI was proclaimed, UN officials branded the Rhodesian government as an "illegal racist minority regime"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.southerntimesafrica.com/news_article.php?id=7348&title=Learning%20From%20Rhodesia&type=83 |title=Southern Times-Learning From Rhodesia |publisher=Southerntimesafrica.com |date=12 November 1965 |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509030234/http://www.southerntimesafrica.com/news_article.php?id=7348&title=Learning%20From%20Rhodesia&type=83 |archive-date=9 May 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> and called on member states to voluntarily sever economic ties with Rhodesia, recommending [[International sanctions|sanctions]] on petroleum products and military hardware.<ref name="areahandbook"/> In December 1966, the UN further iterated that these sanctions were mandatory, and member states were explicitly barred from purchasing Rhodesian export goods, namely tobacco, chromium, copper, asbestos, sugar, and beef.<ref name="areahandbook"/>
The British government, having already adopted extensive sanctions of its own, [[Beira Patrol|dispatched]] a [[Royal Navy]] squadron to monitor oil deliveries in the port of [[Beira, Mozambique|Beira]] in Mozambique, from which a strategic pipeline ran to [[Mutare|Umtali]] in Rhodesia. The warships were to deter "by force, if necessary, vessels reasonably believed to be carrying oil destined for (Southern) Rhodesia".<ref>{{cite web |author=United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees |url=http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,RESOLUTION,ZWE,,3b00f205c,0.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130416010217/http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/country,,,RESOLUTION,ZWE,,3b00f205c,0.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=16 April 2013 |title=Refworld &#124; Resolution 221 (1966) of 9 April 1966 |publisher=UNHCR |access-date=9 October 2012 }}</ref><ref name="gowlland-debbas1990">{{citation | last = Gowlland-Debbas | first = Vera | title = Collective Responses to Illegal Acts in International Law: United Nations Action in the Question of Southern Rhodesia | publisher = Martinus Nijhoff Publishers | year = 1990 | isbn = 0-7923-0811-5}}</ref>
Some Western nations, such as Switzerland, and [[West Germany]], which were not UN member states, continued to conduct business openly with Rhodesia – the latter remained the Smith government's largest trading partner in Western Europe until 1973, when it was admitted to the UN.<ref name="areahandbook"/> [[Japan]] remained the chief recipient of Rhodesian exports outside the African continent, and [[Pahlavi Iran|Iran]] also supplied oil to Rhodesia in violation of the embargo.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB391/docs/1977.02.14%20Vance%20Memo%20for%20Carter.pdf |title=The Secretary of State, Washington |publisher=Gwu.edu |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110195205/http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB391/docs/1977.02.14%20Vance%20Memo%20for%20Carter.pdf |archive-date=10 November 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> Portugal served as a conduit for Rhodesian goods, which it exported through Mozambique with false [[Certificate of origin|certificates of origin]].<ref name="okoth2006">{{citation | last = Okoth | first = Assa | title = A History of Africa: Volume 2: 1915–1995 | publisher = East African Educational Publishers Ltd | year = 2006 | isbn = 9966-25-358-0}}</ref> South Africa, too, refused to observe the UN sanctions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.africafocus.org/editor/aa1988.php |title=When Sanctions Worked: The Case of Rhodesia Reexamined |publisher=Africafocus.org |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130318020152/http://www.africafocus.org/editor/aa1988.php |archive-date=18 March 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://commonwealth.sas.ac.uk/libraries/rhodesia/Sanctions.htm |title=Rhodesia Unilateral Declaration of Independence 1965 – Online exhibition |publisher=Commonwealth.sas.ac.uk |access-date=9 October 2012 }}{{dead link|date=November 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref> In 1971, the [[Byrd Amendment (1971)|Byrd Amendment]] was passed in the United States, permitting American firms to go on importing Rhodesian chromium and nickel products as normal.<ref name="meredith">{{cite book|last=Meredith|first=Martin|title=The Past is Another Country|page=218}}</ref>
Despite the poor showing of sanctions, Rhodesia found it nearly impossible to obtain diplomatic recognition abroad. In 1970, the United States declared it would not recognise UDI "under [any] circumstances".<ref name="a">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/2/newsid_2514000/2514683.stm|title=1970:Ian Smith declares Rhodesia a republic|work=BBC News|access-date=10 November 2007|date=2 March 1970|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307133422/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/2/newsid_2514000/2514683.stm|archive-date=7 March 2008|url-status=live }}</ref> South Africa and Portugal, Rhodesia's largest trading partners, also refused to extend diplomatic recognition, and did not open embassies in the Rhodesian capital, [[Harare|Salisbury]], preferring to conduct diplomatic activities through "accredited representatives".<ref name="google13">[https://books.google.com/books?id=3ptWAAAAYAAJ ''Foreign Affairs for New States: Some Questions of Credentials''], Peter John Boyce,
University of Queensland Press, January 1977, page 13</ref> This allowed the South African and Portuguese governments to maintain they were continuing to respect British sovereignty while also accepting the practical authority of the Smith administration.<ref name="google257">{{cite book|author1=Kenneth W. Grundy|author2=Kenneth William Grundy|title=Confrontation and Accommodation in Southern Africa: The Limits of Independence|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mb7dE6K6gJoC&pg=PA257|year=1973|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02271-3|page=257}}</ref>
Initially, the Rhodesian state retained its pledged loyalty to [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II]], recognising her as Queen of Rhodesia.<ref name="areahandbook"/> When Smith and Deputy Prime Minister [[Clifford Dupont]] visited [[Humphrey Gibbs|Sir Humphrey Gibbs]], the [[Governor of Southern Rhodesia]], to formally notify him of the UDI, Gibbs condemned it as an act of treason. After Smith formally announced the UDI on the radio, Governor Gibbs used his [[reserve power]] to dismiss Smith and his entire cabinet from office, on orders from the [[Colonial Office]] in [[Whitehall]]. However, Gibbs was unable to take any concrete actions to bring about a return to lawful colonial government. Rhodesian ministers simply ignored his notices, contending that UDI had made his office obsolete. Even so, Gibbs continued to occupy his [[official residence]], Government House, in Salisbury until 1970, when he finally left Rhodesia, following the declaration of a republic.<ref name="Age">[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=IhdVAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cpMDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1090%2C4932581 Queen's man resigns], ''[[The Age]]'', 26 June 1969</ref> He had effectively been superseded before then; the Smith government stated that if the Queen did not appoint a Governor-General, it would name Dupont as "[[Officer Administering the Government]]".<ref name="strips">[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=vzNIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qgANAAAAIBAJ&pg=782%2C2383897 Ian Smith Strips Gibbs Of All Official Privilege], Associated Press, ''[[The Morning Record]]'', 18 November 1965</ref> Smith had intended to have Dupont named Governor-General, but Queen Elizabeth II would not even consider this advice. With few exceptions, the international community backed Whitehall's assertion that Gibbs was the Queen's only legitimate representative, and hence the only lawful authority in Rhodesia.
In September 1968, the [[Appellate court|Appellate Division]] of the [[High Court of Rhodesia]] ruled that Ian Smith's administration had become the ''de jure'' government of the country, not merely the ''de facto'' one.<ref name="Beadle">''Rhodesia Herald'', Salisbury, 13 to 20 September 1968</ref> To support his decision, Chief Justice [[Hugh Beadle|Sir Hugh Beadle]] used several statements made by [[Hugo Grotius]], who maintained that there was no way that a nation could rightly claim to be governing a particular territory – if it was waging a war against that territory. Beadle argued that due to Britain's economic war against Rhodesia, she could not (at the same point) be described as ''governing'' Rhodesia.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://jurisafrica.org/docs/constitutions/Constitutional%20Legality.Southern%20Rhodesia%20UDI.pdf |title=Stella Madzimbamuto (Appellant) v Desmond William Lardner Burke and Frederick Phillip George (Respondents) |publisher=Jurisafrica.org |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150420060321/http://www.jurisafrica.org/docs/constitutions/Constitutional%20Legality.Southern%20Rhodesia%20UDI.pdf |archive-date=20 April 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://uniset.ca/microstates/james.html |title=In re James (an insolvent) |publisher=Uniset.ca |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121017090007/http://uniset.ca/microstates/james.html |archive-date=17 October 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> The ruling set the precedent that despite the UDI, the incumbent Smith government "could lawfully do anything its predecessors could lawfully have done".<ref name="legalitylaw">{{cite book|last=Lauterpacht|first=Elihu|title=International Law Reports (Volume 39)|pages=1–78}}</ref>
A Salisbury commission chaired by prominent lawyer W.R. Waley was appointed to study constitutional options open to the Rhodesian authorities as of April 1968, including on the topic of majority rule, but reopening negotiations with the British on a settlement was ruled out early on.<ref name="weitzer1990"/><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Journal%20of%20the%20University%20of%20Zimbabwe/vol3n1/juz003001001.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=30 September 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605054858/http://archive.lib.msu.edu/DMC/African%20Journals/pdfs/Journal%20of%20the%20University%20of%20Zimbabwe/vol3n1/juz003001001.pdf |archive-date=5 June 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref> The Waley Commission found that in practical as well as legal terms, "Europeans must surrender any belief in permanent European domination", pointing out that minority rule was not permanently sustainable.<ref name="areahandbook"/> However, Waley also testified that majority rule was not desirable immediately.<ref name="areahandbook"/>
Talks aimed at easing the differences between Rhodesia and the United Kingdom were carried out aboard Royal Navy vessels once in December 1966 and again in October 1968.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.barrylockyer.com/hms_tiger.htm |title=HMS Tiger |publisher=Barrylockyer.com |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527204410/http://www.barrylockyer.com/hms_tiger.htm |archive-date=27 May 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last=Smock |first=David R. |url=http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/24074/david-r-smock/the-forgotten-rhodesians |title=The Forgotten Rhodesians |magazine=Foreign Affairs |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120405100904/http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/24074/david-r-smock/the-forgotten-rhodesians |archive-date=5 April 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Cockram |first=B. |url=http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/30730/1/Rhodesia%20Rides%20A%20Tiger.pdf?1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120417115410/http://dspace.cigilibrary.org/jspui/bitstream/123456789/30730/1/Rhodesia%20Rides%20A%20Tiger.pdf?1 |url-status=dead |archive-date=17 April 2012 |title=Rhodesia Rides A Tiger |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |access-date=9 October 2012 }}</ref> Both efforts failed to achieve agreement, although Harold Wilson added a sixth principle to the five he had previously enunciated: "it would be necessary to ensure that, regardless of race, there was no oppression of the majority by the minority or of [any] minority by the majority." Rhodesian resolve stiffened following a failure to reach a new settlement, with more radical elements of the Rhodesian Front calling for a republican constitution.<ref name="areahandbook"/>
During a [[Rhodesian constitutional referendum, 1969|two-proposition referendum]] held in 1969, the proposal for severing all remaining ties to the British Crown passed by a majority of 61,130 votes to 14,327.<ref name="areahandbook"/> Rhodesia declared itself a republic on 2 March 1970. Under the new constitution, a president served as ceremonial head of state, with the prime minister nominally reporting to him.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://africanhistory.about.com/b/2012/03/02/2-march-1970-rhodesia-declared-a-republic.htm |title=2 March 1970 – Rhodesia Declared a Republic |publisher=Africanhistory.about.com |access-date=9 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121118175653/http://africanhistory.about.com/b/2012/03/02/2-march-1970-rhodesia-declared-a-republic.htm |archive-date=18 November 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> Some in Rhodesian government had hoped in vain that the declaration of a republic would finally prompt other nations to grant recognition.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/2/newsid_2514000/2514683.stm|title=BBC ON THIS DAY – 2 – 1970: Ian Smith declares Rhodesia a republic|work=bbc.co.uk|access-date=16 February 2006|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307133422/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/march/2/newsid_2514000/2514683.stm|archive-date=7 March 2008|url-status=live }}</ref>
====Impact of UDI====
The years following Rhodesia's UDI saw an unfolding series of economic, military, and political pressures placed on the country that eventually brought about majority rule, a totality of these factors rather than any one the reason for introducing change.<ref name="frontiersmen">{{cite book|last=Clayton|first=Anthony|title=Frontiersmen: Warfare in Africa since 1950|pages=42, 59–69}}</ref> In 2005, a conference at the [[London School of Economics]] that discussed Rhodesia's independence concluded that UDI was sparked by an existing racial conflict complicated by [[Cold War]] intrigues.<ref name="b">{{cite web|author=Dr. Sue Onslow|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CWSC/events/rhodesian_UDI_40_jan_06.htm|title=UDI: 40 Years On|publisher=LSE|access-date=10 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013165015/http://lse.ac.uk/collections/CWSC/events/rhodesian_UDI_40_jan_06.htm|archive-date=13 October 2007|url-status=live }}</ref>
Critics of UDI maintained that Ian Smith intended to safeguard the privileges of an entrenched colonial ruling class at the expense of the impoverished black population.<ref name="c">{{cite web|author=Michael Hartnack|year=2005|url=http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/2005/10/25/cols/hcols.htm|title=40 years in wilderness after UDI declaration|publisher=The Herald|access-date=10 November 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060320101625/http://www.theherald.co.za/herald/2005/10/25/cols/hcols.htm|archive-date=20 March 2006|url-status=dead }}</ref> Smith defended his actions by claiming that the black Rhodesian majority was too inexperienced at the time to participate in the complex administrative process of what was, by contemporary African standards, a reasonably industrialised state.<ref name="SmithGB"/>
At large, UDI further hardened the white population's attitudes towards majority rule and relations with the UK.<ref name="raft"/> A significant majority of white Rhodesian residents were either British immigrants or of British ancestry, and many held a special affection for the British Empire.<ref name="raft"/> However, the UK's refusal to grant them independence on their terms further confirmed their opposition to a political settlement on British terms, and fed their negative attitudes towards British interference in Rhodesian politics at large.<ref name="raft"/> In the years prior to UDI, white Rhodesians increasingly saw themselves as beleaguered and threatened, perpetually insecure and undermined by the metropole, unable to rely on anybody but themselves.<ref name="SmithGB"/> The policy of "No independence before majority rule" transformed the white community's relationship with the UK and increased its suspicions of the British government's untrustworthiness and duplicity in colonial affairs, especially since the latter had adopted NIBMR as a formal policy - the very circumstance UDI was carried out to avoid, and which white Rhodesians had struggled to resist since the onset of decolonisation.<ref name="SmithGB"/>
Black nationalist parties reacted with outrage at UDI, with one ZANU official stating, "...for all those who cherish freedom and a meaningful life, UDI has set a collision course that cannot be altered. 11 November 1965 [has] marked the turning point of the struggle for freedom in that land from a constitutional and political one to primarily a military struggle."<ref name="blackfire"/> It would, however, be several years before the nationalists adopted armed struggle as their primary strategy for obtaining political power.<ref name="blackfire"/> Violent tactics at this time were intended to create opportunities for [[Interventionism (politics)|external intervention]], either by the international community or the British government, rather than seriously undermine the Rhodesian security forces.<ref name="blackfire"/>
Because Rhodesian exports were generally competitive and had previously been entitled to preferential treatment on the British market, the former colony did not recognise the need for escalating the pace of [[Diversification (marketing strategy)|diversification]] before independence. Following the UDI, however, Rhodesia began to demonstrate that it had the potential to develop a greater degree of economic [[self-sufficiency]].<ref name="SmithGB"/><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa064.html |title=What's Wrong With Trade Sanctions |publisher=Cato Institute |date=23 December 1985 |access-date=13 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120716043831/http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa064.html |archive-date=16 July 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> After the Rhodesian Front began introducing incentives accorded to domestic production, industrial output expanded dramatically. A rigid system of countermeasures enacted to combat sanctions succeeded in blunting their impact for at least a decade.<ref name="areahandbook"/> Over the next nine years Rhodesian companies, spiting the [[International asset recovery|freezing of their assets and blocking of overseas accounts]], also perfected cunning techniques of sanctions evasion through both local and foreign subsidiaries, which operated on a clandestine trade network.<ref name="areahandbook"/>
From 1968 until 1970, there was virtually no further dialogue between Rhodesia and the UK. In a [[Rhodesian constitutional referendum, 1969|referendum]] in 1969, white voters approved a new constitution and the establishment of a republic, thereby severing Rhodesia's last links with the British Crown, duly declared in March 1970. This changed immediately after the election of [[Edward Heath]], who reopened negotiations.<ref name="racewar">{{cite book|last=Brownell|first=Josiah|title=Collapse of Rhodesia: Population Demographics and the Politics of Race|pages=1–255}}</ref> Smith remained optimistic that Heath would do his utmost to remedy Anglo-Rhodesian relations, although disappointed that he continued to adhere publicly to the original "five principles" proposed by Alec Douglas-Home, now [[Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs|foreign secretary]]. In November 1971, Douglas-Home renewed contacts with Salisbury and announced a proposed agreement that would be satisfactory to both sides – it recognised Rhodesia's 1969 constitution as the legal frame of government, while agreeing that gradual legislative representation was an acceptable formula for unhindered advance to majority rule.<ref name="areahandbook"/> Nevertheless, the new settlement, if approved, would also implement an immediate improvement in black political status, offer a means to terminate racial discrimination, and provide a solid guarantee against retrogressive constitutional amendments.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/50/304/32-130-BDE-84-al.sff.document.acoa000370.pdf |title=Zimbabwe Rejects Sellout! |publisher=American Committee on Africa |date=1 February 1972 |access-date=13 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130605054701/http://kora.matrix.msu.edu/files/50/304/32-130-BDE-84-al.sff.document.acoa000370.pdf |archive-date=5 June 2013 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Implementation of the proposed settlement hinged on popular acceptance, but the Rhodesian government consistently refused to submit it to a universal referendum.<ref name="areahandbook"/> A twenty four-member commission headed by an eminent jurist, [[Edward Pearce, Baron Pearce|Lord Pearce]], was therefore tasked with ascertaining [[public opinion]] on the subject.<ref name="historyps">{{cite book|last=Zvobgo|first=Chengetai|title=A History of Zimbabwe, 1890–2000 and Postscript, Zimbabwe, 2001–2008|pages=1–410}}</ref> In 1972, the commission began interviewing interest groups and sampling opinions – although concern was expressed over the widespread [[Political apathy|apathy]] encountered.<ref name="SmithGB"/> According to the commission, whites were in favour of the settlement, and Rhodesians of [[Coloured]] or Asian ancestry generally pleased, while the black response to the settlement's terms was resoundingly negative.<ref name="racewar"/><ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/18/newsid_2530000/2530291.stm |title=1972: Rhodesia's former leader arrested |publisher=BBC |date=18 January 1972 |access-date=13 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121215143739/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/january/18/newsid_2530000/2530291.stm |archive-date=15 December 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> As many as thirty black Rhodesian chiefs and politicians voiced their opposition, prompting Britain to withdraw from the proposals on the grounds of the commission's report.<ref name="historyps"/>
===The Bush War===
{{main|Rhodesian Bush War}}
====Early militant activity====
As early as 1960, [[minority rule]] in Southern Rhodesia was already being challenged by a rising tide of [[political violence]] led by black African nationalists such as [[Joshua Nkomo]] and [[Ndabaningi Sithole]]. A sustained period of civil unrest between 1960 and 1965 further polarised relations between the government and the increasingly militant black nationalists.<ref name="blackfire"/> After their public campaigns were initially suppressed, many black nationalists believed that negotiation was completely incapable of meeting their aspirations. Petrol bombings by politicised radicals became increasingly common, with the ''Zimbabwe Review'' observing in 1961, "for the first time home-made petrol bombs were used by freedom fighters in Salisbury against settler establishments."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rhodesia.nl/wilkinson.html |title=Insurgency in Rhodesia, 1957–1973: An Account and Assessment |publisher=International Institute for Strategic Studies |year=1973 |access-date=13 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525121502/http://www.rhodesia.nl/wilkinson.html |archive-date=25 May 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> Between January and September 1962, nationalists detonated 33 bombs and were implicated in 28 acts of arson, and 27 acts of sabotage against communications infrastructure.<ref name="blackfire"/> The nationalists also murdered a number of black Rhodesians who were accused of collaboration with the security forces.<ref name="blackfire"/> Nkomo's party, the [[Zimbabwe African People's Union]] (ZAPU) announced that year that it had formed a military wing, the [[Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army]] (ZIPRA) and "the decision to start bringing in arms and ammunition and to send young men away for sabotage training" had already been implemented.<ref name="blackfire"/> As early as 1960, ZAPU's predecessor, the National Democratic Party (NDP), had established informal contacts with the [[Soviet Union]] and [[Czechoslovak Socialist Republic|Czechoslovakia]], and discussed the possibility of obtaining military training in Eastern Europe for its members.<ref name=Hot>{{cite book|last=Shubin|first=Vladimir Gennadyevich|title=The Hot "Cold War": The USSR in Southern Africa|date=2008|pages=92–93, 151–159, 249|publisher=Pluto Press|location=London|isbn=978-0-7453-2472-2}}</ref> In July 1962, Nkomo visited Moscow and discussed plans for a ZAPU-led armed uprising in Rhodesia.<ref name=Hot/> He made formal requests for Soviet funding and arms for ZIPRA, explaining that "for these purposes ZAPU needs arms, explosives, revolvers...the party also needs money to bribe persons who guard important installations, to carry out sabotage".<ref name=Hot/> The Soviets agreed to supply ZAPU with limited funds beginning in 1963, and increased its level of financial support after UDI.<ref name=Hot/> In 1963, ZIPRA also made its first formal request to the Soviet Union for military training.<ref name=Hot/> The Soviets began training ZIPRA militants in guerrilla warfare in early 1964.<ref name=Hot/>
Nkomo's public endorsement of a violent strategy confirmed white politicians' opposition to ZAPU and fed their negative attitudes towards black nationalists at large.<ref name="blackfire"/> In response to the formation of ZIPRA, the Rhodesian government [[Ban (law)|banned]] ZAPU, driving that party's supporters underground.<ref name="crisis">{{cite book|last=Shamuyarira|first=Nathan|title=Crisis in Rhodesia|pages=202–203}}</ref> It also passed draconian security legislation restricting the right to assembly and granting the security forces broad powers to crack down on suspected political subversives.<ref name="blackfire"/> For the first time, the [[capital punishment|death sentence]] was also introduced for any act of politically inspired terrorism which involved arson or the use of explosives.<ref name="areahandbook"/>
The emergence of guerrilla warfare and acts of urban insurrection by the black nationalist parties in Rhodesia allowed racial politics to be elevated into an issue of law and order in white Rhodesian public discourse. To Smith and his government, black nationalists were stateless dissidents whose primary motives were not political, but crime and perpetuating lawlessness; for example, Smith preferred to describe the insurgents as "gangsters" in his commentary.<ref name="SmithGB"/> The use of weapons and explosives sourced from communist states by the black nationalists also disguised the racial dynamics of the conflict, allowing white Rhodesians to claim that they were targets of Soviet-directed communist agitators rather than a domestic political movement.<ref name="frontiersmen"/> Smith and his supporters perceived themselves as collective defenders of the traditional values of the British Empire against the twin threats of international communism, manifested through the Soviet Union's support for black nationalist militants, and the social and political decadence of the West.<ref name="raft"/> Often repeated appeals to the Christian heritage of their pioneer ancestors in "defending the [[free world]]" and sustaining "Western civilisation" reflected these beliefs.<ref name="raft"/> This was hardly an unusual opinion among white minorities in Southern Africa at the time; a dossier compiled by United States intelligence officials on the topic found that:
{{blockquote|many [southern African] whites....believe that the current social and political ferment throughout the continent is communist inspired and managed; that it would be no problem without communist instigation. They point to materiel and training provided by communist countries to insurgency groups operating against white minority governments in southern Africa. They see foreign-based black liberation groups operating against the Portuguese, Rhodesians, and South Africans as the spearhead of a communist thrust into southern Africa.<ref name=Volk>{{cite book|last=Miller|first=Jamie|title=An African Volk: The Apartheid Regime and Its Search for Survival|year=2016|pages=100–117|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|isbn=978-0190274832}}</ref>}}
ZAPU's attempts to implement its armed struggle were hamstrung by a factional split within the party between 1962 and 1963. A number of ZAPU dissidents rejected Nkomo's authority and formed their own organisation, the [[Zimbabwe African National Union]] (ZANU), with Ndabangingi Sithole as its president and [[Robert Mugabe]] as its general secretary.<ref name=Hot/> By August 1964, ZANU was banned by the Rhodesian government as well, which cited widespread acts of violent intimidation attributed to its members.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rhodesia.nl/wilkinson.html |title=The Rhodesian Agreement: Aspects and Prospects |publisher=South African Institute of International Affairs |year=1978 |access-date=13 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525121502/http://www.rhodesia.nl/wilkinson.html |archive-date=25 May 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref> ZANU's agenda was left-wing and [[Pan-Africanism|pan-Africanist]]; it demanded a one-party state with majority rule and the abolition of private property.<ref name="areahandbook"/> Ethnic tensions also exacerbated the split: ZANU recruited almost solely from the [[Shona people|Shona-speaking peoples]] of Rhodesia.<ref name=Hot/> Its chief support base was the rural peasantry in the [[Mashonaland]] countryside.<ref name="areahandbook"/> ZAPU did retain Shona members, even among its senior leadership following the split.<ref name=Hot/> However, thereafter it recruited predominantly from the [[Northern Ndebele people|Ndebele]] ethnic group.<ref name="frontiersmen"/> Due to ZAPU's close relationship with the Soviet Union, ZANU found itself ostracised by the Soviet bloc but soon found a new ally in the [[People's Republic of China]].<ref name=Hot/> Its political ideology was somewhat more influenced by the principles of [[Maoism]] than ZAPU, and a sympathetic Chinese government soon agreed to furnish weapons and training for ZANU's own war effort.<ref name=MWM>{{cite book|last1=Moorcraft|first1=Paul|last2=Chitiyo|first2=Knox|title=Mugabe's War Machine: Saving or Savaging Zimbabwe?|date=2011|pages=46–59|publisher=Pen & Sword Books Ltd|location=South Yorkshire|isbn=978-1848844100}}</ref>
After UDI, ZANU formed its own military wing, the [[Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army]] (ZANLA).<ref name="frontiersmen"/> While ZANLA and ZIPRA both planned for an armed struggle against the Rhodesian government, their respective leadership disagreed on the means of conducting the insurgency. ZIPRA favoured Soviet thinking, placing an emphasis on acquiring sophisticated weaponry in the hopes of winning a conventional battle like the [[Viet Minh]] at [[Battle of Dien Bien Phu|Dien Bien Phu]].<ref name="frontiersmen"/> ZANLA placed greater emphasis on the politicisation of the local populace in the areas it operated, and favoured a more irregular style of warfare.<ref name="frontiersmen"/>
[[File:Scoutwithgun.jpg|thumb|Rhodesian soldier interrogating villagers in late 1977 at gunpoint. This photograph would become one of the most enduring images of the [[Rhodesian Bush War|Bush War]].]]
In August 1967, a large and better-equipped column of almost seventy ZIPRA insurgents infiltrated Rhodesia from Zambia, bolstered by recruits from an allied South African militant organisation, [[uMkhonto we Sizwe]] (MK).<ref name=MWM/> The insurgents failed to cultivate prior contacts with the local populace, which immediately informed on their presence to Rhodesian officials. Within the month, the Rhodesian police and army had launched a counteroffensive codenamed [[Operation Nickel]], killing forty-seven insurgents, capturing another twenty, and driving the survivors across the border into Botswana. An even larger ZIPRA column of over a hundred insurgents was intercepted in early 1968 and annihilated by the security forces.<ref name="frontiersmen"/> A third ZIPRA incursion attempt in July 1969 met with similarly catastrophic results.<ref name="frontiersmen"/> Thereafter, ZIPRA abandoned the notion of attempting to infiltrate the country with large groups of insurgents equipped only with small arms; it limited itself to more irregular forms of warfare until it could stockpile enough heavy weaponry to mount a major conventional invasion.<ref name=MWM/> For its part, the ZANLA leadership criticised ZIPRA's continued fixation with winning a major conventional engagement, arguing that the failed incursions demonstrated the futility of engaging the Rhodesian military in the type of pitched battles in which it held an indisputable advantage.<ref name=MWM/> ZIPRA's failure to obtain support from the locals was also noted, and ZANLA began implementing a long-term covert politicisation programme to cultivate civilian support throughout its future area of operations.<ref name=MWM/>
===Military and political escalation (1972–1976)===
By December 1972, ZANLA had cached arms and established a vast underground network of informants and supporters in northeastern Rhodesia.<ref name=MWM/>  As a result of the erosion of Portuguese authority in Mozambique's border provinces due to the [[Mozambican War of Independence]], ZANLA was also able to establish external sanctuaries there.<ref name=MWM/> It was also in the process of cultivating a military alliance with the leading black nationalist movement in Mozambique, the [[Front for the Liberation of Mozambique]] (FRELIMO).<ref name=MWM/> On December 21, a group of ZANLA insurgents under [[Rex Nhongo]] crossed into Rhodesia from Mozambique and [[Attack on Altena Farm|raided an isolated commercial farm]].<ref name="frontiersmen"/> In the successive months, this attack was followed by a succession of raids on white farmers throughout the northeastern districts of the country and resulted in several casualties among the security forces.<ref name="frontiersmen"/> The propaganda value of these raids, coupled with the success of ZANLA's politicisation campaign, denied intelligence to the security forces and furnished more recruits for the insurgents.<ref name="frontiersmen"/> In response, the Rhodesian security forces began coordinating operations in Mozambique with the Portuguese army to intercept ZANLA insurgents before they could cross the border.<ref name=Minter>{{cite book|last=Minter|first=William|title=Apartheid's Contras: An Inquiry into the Roots of War in Angola and Mozambique|year=1994|pages=32–40|publisher=Witwatersrand University Press|location=Johannesburg|isbn=978-1439216187}}</ref>
The practical alliances between ZIPRA and MK, and later ZANLA and FRELIMO, prompted Rhodesia to look increasingly towards South Africa and Portugal for active assistance.<ref name=Volk/> Rhodesian politicians frequently reminded officials in the other two nations of common security interests based on the similarity of their restive internal situations.<ref name=Volk/> They saw strong parallels between their nation's position of being threatened by black nationalist insurgencies and the Portuguese predicament with FRELIMO in Mozambique, as well as to a lesser extent the insurgencies in South Africa and [[South West Africa]].<ref name=Volk/> Under the auspices of the [[Alcora Exercise]], the three countries' bureaucracies began routinely sharing information and seeking common diplomatic positions.<ref name=Volk/> Lieutenant General Alan Fraser, a senior strategist in the [[South African Defence Force]] wrote in 1970, "there can be no doubt in any of our minds that we have a common enemy: we, i.e. Portugal, the RSA and Rhodesia. Unless we are to lay ourselves open to the possibility of defeat in detail, we must fight this enemy jointly—if not simultaneously."<ref name=Volk/> Nevertheless, aside from intelligence-sharing and some limited coordination on the operational level in Mozambique, the Portuguese could offer Rhodesia little decisive assistance. Portuguese military resources in Mozambique were preoccupied with FRELIMO and somewhat depleted by a decade of war, and little could be spared to assist a foreign ally.<ref name=Volk/> Rhodesia expected far more from South Africa, which possessed far greater military resources and infinitely more diplomatic influence abroad.<ref name=Volk/>
After the collapse of Portuguese rule in Mozambique in 1974–1975, it was no longer viable for the Smith regime to sustain white [[minority rule]] indefinitely. By this time, even South Africa's [[John Vorster|Vorster]] had come to this view. While Vorster was unwilling to make concessions to his own country's black people, he concluded that white minority rule was not sustainable in a country where black people outnumbered white people 22:1.<ref name="impression">{{cite web |url=http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001975/Wright/Wright12/Wright12.html |title=APF newsletter, "Appraisal of Rhodesia in 1975" |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531063909/http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001975/Wright/Wright12/Wright12.html |archive-date=31 May 2009 }}</ref> In 1976, there were 270,000 Rhodesians of European descent and six million Africans.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Weinraub |first1=Bernard |title=White Moderates Cling To Hopes for Rhodesia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1976/07/13/archives/white-moderates-cling-to-hopes-for-rhodesia.html |newspaper=The New York Times |access-date=27 January 2021 |date=13 July 1976}}</ref>
International business groups involved in the country (e.g. [[Lonrho]]) transferred their support from the Rhodesian government to black nationalist parties. Business leaders and politicians feted Nkomo on his visits to Europe. ZANU also attracted business supporters who saw the course that future events were likely to take.<ref>[[The Guardian]], 21 April 2000 [https://www.theguardian.com/international/story/0,3604,212767,00.html British Multimillionaire bankrolls Mugabe party]</ref> Funding and arms support provided by supporters, particularly from the Soviet Union and its allies in the latter 1970s, allowed both ZIPRA and the ZANLA to acquire more sophisticated weaponry, thereby increasing the military pressure that the guerrillas were able to place on Rhodesia.
Until 1972, containing the guerrillas was little more than a police action. Even as late as August 1975 when Rhodesian government and black nationalist leaders met [[Victoria Falls Conference (1975)|at Victoria Falls]] for negotiations brokered by South Africa and Zambia, the talks never got beyond the procedural phase.<ref>Brookings Institution: [http://brookings.nap.edu/books/0815775938/html/156.html p156, study on conflict resolution] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060921232031/http://brookings.nap.edu/books/0815775938/html/156.html |date=21 September 2006 }}</ref> Rhodesian representatives made it clear they were prepared to fight an all out war to prevent majority rule.<ref>{{cite news|title=Peace talks fail|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/26/newsid_2535000/2535825.stm|work=BBC News|access-date=27 November 2007|date=26 August 1975|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080307132412/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/26/newsid_2535000/2535825.stm|archive-date=7 March 2008|url-status=live }}</ref> However, the situation changed dramatically after the end of Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique in 1975. Rhodesia now found itself almost entirely surrounded by hostile states and even South Africa, its only real ally, pressed for a settlement.
{{blockquote|Having let slip one chance after another of reaching an accommodation with more moderate black leaders, Rhodesia's whites seem to have made the tragic choice of facing black nationalism over the barrel of a gun rather than the conference table. The downhill road toward a race war in Rhodesia is becoming increasingly slippery with blood.|''[[Rand Daily Mail]]'' editorial, May 1976<ref>{{cite web|year=1976|url=http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,914118-1,00.html|title=Rhodesia: A Strike At the Lifeline|publisher=Rand Daily Mail via TIME magazine|page=2|access-date=23 November 2007}}{{Dead link|date=April 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>}}
At this point, ZANU's alliance with FRELIMO and the porous border between Mozambique and eastern Rhodesia enabled large-scale training and infiltration of ZANU/ZANLA fighters. The governments of Zambia and Botswana were also emboldened sufficiently to allow resistance movement bases to be set up in their territories. Guerrillas began to launch operations deep inside Rhodesia, attacking roads, railways, economic targets and isolated security force positions, in 1976.<ref>{{cite magazine|year=1976|url=http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,914118-1,00.html|title=A Strike at the Lifeline|magazine=TIME magazine|access-date=23 November 2007}}{{Dead link|date=April 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>
[[File:Rhodesian Army recruitment Bush War 1976.png|thumb|A Rhodesian servicewoman taking aim with her [[Browning Hi-Power]] [[9×19mm]] [[semi-automatic pistol]]; from a 1976 army recruitment poster]]
The government adopted a [[strategic hamlet]]s policy of the kind used in [[Malayan Emergency#Comparisons with Vietnam|Malaya]] and [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]] to restrict the influence of insurgents over the population of rural areas. Local people were forced to relocate to protected villages (PVs) which were strictly controlled and guarded by the government against rebel atrocities. The protected villages were compared by the guerrillas to [[concentration camps]]. Some contemporary accounts claim that this interference in the lives of local residents induced many of them who had previously been neutral to support the guerrillas.<ref>APF Newsletter, 1976 :[http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001975/Wright/Wright17/Wright17.html Rhodesia's "Protected" Black people.] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071217225248/http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001975/Wright/Wright17/Wright17.html|date=17 December 2007}}</ref>
The war degenerated into rounds of increasing brutality from all three parties involved (ZANU and ZAPU, and the Rhodesian Army). Mike Subritzky, a former [[New Zealand|NZ]] Army ceasefire monitor in Rhodesia, in 1980 described the war as "both bloody and brutal and brought out the very worst in the opposing combatants on all three sides."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://riv.co.nz/rnza/tales/subritzky5.htm#ps|title=Operation Agila, "The British Empire's Last Sunset"|publisher=NZ History|access-date=23 November 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071118152034/http://riv.co.nz/rnza/tales/subritzky5.htm#ps|archive-date=18 November 2007 }}</ref>
A major problem for the Rhodesian state in fighting the Bush War was always a shortage of manpower.<ref name="Brownell"/>{{rp|601}} Of the 3,000 white men liable for conscription in 1973, only about 1,000 reported when called-up.<ref name="Brownell"/>{{rp|601}} In February 1978, the Rhodesian Army stated it needed a minimum of 1,041 men to continue combat operations, and of those called up, only 570 reported for duty while the rest chose to move to South Africa.<ref name="Brownell"/>{{rp|601}} White emigration increased as the state called up more and more men to fight in the war, creating a vicious circle, which gradually limited the capacity of the Rhodesian state to continue the war.<ref name="Brownell"/>{{rp|602}} In order to stop white emigration, the Smith government brought in a law in 1975 forbidding Rhodesian citizens from holding foreign currency, but the law was widely flouted.<ref name="Brownell"/>{{rp|604}} In order to encourage white emigration, the guerrillas of ZANU and ZAPU followed a strategy of attacking anything and everything that was of economic value across the country in order to force the state to call up more men, and of killing white civilians.<ref name="Brownell">{{cite journal |doi=10.1080/03057070802259837 |pages=591–610 |title=The Hole in Rhodesia's Bucket: White Emigration and the End of Settler Rule|year=2008|last1=Brownell|first1=Josiah|journal=Journal of Southern African Studies|volume=34|issue=3|s2cid=145336659}}</ref>{{rp|606}} Killing Rhodesian white citizens tended to have an "echo effect" as the ZANU and ZAPU had each estimated that for one white citizen killed, it caused about 20 to leave Rhodesia.<ref name="Brownell"/>{{rp|606}}
===End of the Bush War===
{{multiple image
| align = left
| image1 = RhodesiaAllies1965.png
| width1 = 180
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| caption1 =
| image2 = RhodesiaAllies1975-en.svg
| width2 = 180
| alt2 =
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| footer = The geographical situation in 1965 (left, on UDI) and 1975 (right, after the independence of Mozambique and Angola from Portugal). Green: Rhodesia; purple: friendly nations; orange: hostile states; grey: neutral countries
}}
Rhodesia began to lose vital economic and military support from South Africa, which, while sympathetic to the white minority government, never accorded it diplomatic recognition. The South African government placed limits on the fuel and munitions they supplied to the Rhodesian military. They also withdrew the personnel and equipment that they had previously provided to aid the war effort, though covert military support continued.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/24/newsid_2537000/2537969.stm |title=BBC ON THIS DAY &#124; 24 &#124; 1976: White rule in Rhodesia to end |work=BBC News |access-date=9 October 2012 |date=24 September 1976 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121023233416/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/september/24/newsid_2537000/2537969.stm |archive-date=23 October 2012 |url-status=live }}</ref>
In 1976, the South African government and [[United States government]]s worked together to place pressure on Smith to agree to a form of majority rule. In response to the initiative of US Secretary of State [[Henry Kissinger]], in 1976 Ian Smith accepted the principle of black majority rule within two years.<ref name="news.bbc.co.uk"/> The Rhodesians now offered more concessions, but those concessions, focused on reaching an "internal settlement" with moderate black leaders, were insufficient to end the war.
At the time, some Rhodesians said the still embittered history between the British-dominated Rhodesia and the [[Afrikaner]]-dominated South Africa partly led the South African government to withdraw its aid to Rhodesia. Ian Smith said in his memoirs that even though many white South Africans supported Rhodesia, South African Prime Minister [[John Vorster]]'s policy of [[détente]] with the black African states ended up with Rhodesia being offered as the "sacrificial lamb" to buy more time for South Africa. Other observers perceived South Africa's distancing itself from Rhodesia as being an early move in the process that led to majority rule in South Africa itself.<ref>APF newsletter, 1976: [http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001975/Wright/Wright19/Wright19.html appraisal of Rhodesia in 1976] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100911213214/http://www.aliciapatterson.org/APF001975/Wright/Wright19/Wright19.html |date=11 September 2010 }}</ref>
{{blockquote|In 1976 South Africa saw settlement of the Rhodesian question as vital on several fronts: to cauterise the wound of the psychological blow … caused by her defeat in the Angolan conflict; to pre-empt possible Cuban intervention in Rhodesia and the possibility of South Africa being sucked into another [[Cold War]] regional conflict without the support and endorsement of the western powers|Dr Sue Onslow|South Africa and UDI<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CWSC/pdf/40_years_on_abstracts.doc|title=Cold War Studies Project|work=lse.ac.uk|access-date=8 June 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070615023738/http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/CWSC/pdf/40_years_on_abstracts.doc|archive-date=15 June 2007|url-status=live }}</ref>}}
In the latter 1970s, the militants had successfully put the economy of Rhodesia under significant pressure while the numbers of guerrillas in the country were steadily increasing.<ref>Time magazine, 7 August 1978: [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948221-1,00.html Rhodesia faces collapse] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930090622/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,948221-1,00.html |date=30 September 2007 }}</ref><ref>Time magazine, 1 August 1978: [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915164-1,00.html taking the chicken run] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930122153/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915164-1,00.html |date=30 September 2007 }}</ref> The government abandoned its early strategy of trying to defend the borders in favour of trying to defend key economic areas and lines of communication with South Africa, while the rest of the countryside became a patchwork of "[[no-go area]]s".
====Late 1970s====
By the late 1970s, Rhodesia's front-line forces contained about 25,000 regular troops and police – backed up by relatively strong army and police reserves.<ref>{{cite web|author=Major Charles Lohman and Major Robert MacPherson|title="Rhodesia: Tactical Victory, Strategic Defeat" WAR SINCE 1945 SEMINAR AND SYMPOSIUM, US Marine Corps Command and Staff College, June 1983 – See Chapter 3|url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/2546386/Rhodesia-Tactical-Victory-Srategic-Defeat|publisher=Scribd.com|access-date=9 October 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121102105856/http://www.scribd.com/doc/2546386/Rhodesia-Tactical-Victory-Srategic-Defeat|archive-date=2 November 2012|url-status=live }}</ref> Its mechanised contingent consisted of light armoured cars and improvised [[MRAP|mine-protected]] armoured personnel carriers, complemented by eight tanks (Polish built [[T-54/T-55 Operators and variants#Poland|T-55LD]] tanks), delivered in the last year of the war. The [[Rhodesian Air Force]] operated an assortment of both [[English Electric Canberra|Canberra]] light bombers, [[Hawker Hunter]] fighter bombers, older [[de Havilland Vampire]] jets as well as a somewhat antiquated, but still potent, helicopter arm. These forces, including highly trained special operations units, were capable of launching devastating raids on resistance movement camps outside the country, as in [[Operation Dingo]] in 1977 and other similar operations.
Nevertheless, guerrilla pressure inside the country itself was steadily increasing in the latter 1970s. By 1978–1979, the war had become a contest between the guerrilla warfare placing ever increasing pressure on the Rhodesian regime and civil population, and the Rhodesian government's strategy of trying to hold off the militants until external recognition for a compromise political settlement with moderate black leaders could be secured.
By this time, the need to cut a deal was apparent to most Rhodesians, but not to all. Ian Smith had dismissed his intransigent Defence Minister, [[P. K. van der Byl]], as early as 1976.<ref>Rhodesia Worldwide: [http://www.rhodesiana.com/rsr/rsr3-004.html "PK"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060313201045/http://www.rhodesiana.com/rsr/rsr3-004.html |date=13 March 2006 }}</ref> Van der Byl was a hard-line opponent of any form of compromise with domestic opposition or the international community since before UDI.
{{blockquote|...it is better to fight to the last man and the last cartridge and die with some honour. Because, what is being presented to us here is a degree of humiliation...|P. K. van der Byl in 1977, commenting on a British peace plan.<ref>The Past is Another Country, Martin Meredith, p 291</ref>}}
Van der Byl eventually retired to his country estate outside [[Cape Town]], but there were elements in Rhodesia, mainly embittered former security force personnel, who forcibly opposed majority rule up to and well beyond the establishment of majority rule.<ref>Newsnet report : [http://www.newsnet.co.zw/index.php?nID=6941 saboteurs hit Zimbabwean military, partisan comment] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070418031150/http://www.newsnet.co.zw/index.php?nID=6941|date=18 April 2007}}</ref> New white immigrants continued to arrive in Rhodesia right up to the eve of majority rule.<ref>''Time'' magazine, October 1977 : [https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,915681,00.html The Land of Opportunity]</ref>
====Intensification of the Bush War====
The work of journalists such as [[Lord Richard Cecil]], son of [[Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 6th Marquess of Salisbury|The 6th Marquess of Salisbury]], stiffened the morale of Rhodesians and their overseas supporters.<ref>''The Guardian'', 15 July 2003: [https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,,998195,00.html obituary of sixth Marquess of Salisbury]</ref> Lord Richard produced news reports for ITN which typically contrasted the "incompetent" insurgents with the "superbly professional" government troops.<ref>Nick Downie report: [http://www.rhodesianforces.org/Pages/Army/Rhodesia%20-%20a%20study%20in%20military%20incompetence.htm] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060510234222/http://www.rhodesianforces.org/Pages/Army/Rhodesia%20-%20a%20study%20in%20military%20incompetence.htm|date=10 May 2006}}</ref> A group of ZANLA fighters killed Lord Richard on 20 April 1978 when he was accompanying a Rhodesian airborne unit employed in Fire Force Operations.<ref>2nd Lt CJE Vincent BCR who was present when Lord Cecil was killed</ref>
The shooting down on 3 September 1978 of the civilian [[Air Rhodesia]] airliner, a [[Vickers Viscount]] named the ''[[Air Rhodesia Flight 825|Hunyani]]'', in the [[Kariba, Zimbabwe|Kariba]] area by ZIPRA fighters using a [[surface-to-air missile]], with the subsequent massacre of 10 of its 18 survivors, is widely considered to be the event that finally destroyed the Rhodesians' will to continue the war. Although militarily insignificant, the loss of this aircraft (and a second Viscount, named the ''[[Air Rhodesia Flight 827|Umniati]]'', in 1979) demonstrated the reach of resistance movements extended to Rhodesian civil society.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://home.iprimus.com.au/rob_rickards/viscounts/hunyani.htm |title=The Viscount Disasters – The Story |access-date=13 January 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060304002303/http://home.iprimus.com.au/rob_rickards/viscounts/hunyani.htm |archive-date=4 March 2006 |url-status=live }}</ref>
The Rhodesians' means to continue the war were also eroding fast. In December 1978, a ZANLA unit penetrated the outskirts of Salisbury and fired a volley of rockets and [[incendiary device]] rounds into the main oil storage depot – the most heavily defended economic asset in the country. The storage tanks burned for five days, giving off a column of smoke that could be seen {{convert|80|mi|km|order=flip}} away. {{convert|0.5e6|oilbbl|m3|spell=In}} of petroleum product (comprising Rhodesia's strategic oil reserve) were lost.<ref>The Atlantic Monthly : [http://www.rmi.org/cms/Download.aspx?id=1296&file=S83-08_FragileDomEnergy.pdf&title=The+Fragility+of+Domestic+Energy The Fragility of Domestic Energy, see page 5]{{dead link|date=December 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>
The government's defence spending increased from R$30 million, 8.5% of the national budget in 1971 to 1972, to R$400 m in 1978 to 1979, 47% of the national budget. In 1980, the post-independence government of Zimbabwe inherited a US$500 million national debt.<ref>Selby thesis: [http://www.zwnews.com/3-Main%20Body.pdf ZWNEWS.com] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120813050154/http://www.zwnews.com/3-Main%20Body.pdf |date=13 August 2012 }}, p 88</ref>
===End of UDI (1979)===
[[File:Internal Settlement.jpg|thumb|Signing of the Rhodesian Internal Settlement (from left: Bishop Abel Muzorewa, [[Ian Smith]], [[Jeremiah Chirau]] and [[Ndabaningi Sithole]])]]
The Rhodesian army continued its "mobile counter-offensive" strategy of holding key positions ("vital asset ground") while carrying out raids into the no-go areas and into neighbouring countries. While often extraordinarily successful in inflicting heavy guerrilla casualties, such raids also on occasion failed to achieve their objectives. In April 1979 special forces carried out a raid on [[Joshua Nkomo]]'s residence in [[Lusaka]] ([[Zambia]]) with the stated intention of assassinating him.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Did UK warn Mugabe and Nkomo about assassination attempts?|work=BBC News|date=August 2011|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14311834|access-date=2021-11-02}}</ref> Nkomo and his family left hastily a few hours before the raid – having clearly been warned that the raid was coming.
In 1979, some special forces units were accused of using counterinsurgent operations as cover for ivory poaching and smuggling. Colonel [[Reid-Daly]] (commander of the [[Selous Scouts]]) discovered that his phone was bugged and after challenging a superior officer on this issue was court martialled for insubordination. He received the lightest sentence possible, a caution, but he continued to fight his conviction and eventually resigned his commission and left the Army.
By 1978–1979, up to 70% of the regular army was composed of black soldiers (though both the army and police reserves remained overwhelmingly white). By 1979 there were also 30 black commissioned officers in the regular army. While there was never any suggestion of disloyalty among the soldiers from predominantly black units (in particular within the Selous Scouts or the [[Rhodesian African Rifles]] – RAR), some argue that, by the time of the 1980 election, many of the RAR soldiers voted for Robert Mugabe.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Montgomery|first=Margaret B.|title=Perspective {{!}} The military provides a model for how institutions can address racism|language=en-US|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/23/military-provides-model-how-institutions-can-address-racism/|access-date=2021-01-24|issn=0190-8286}}</ref>
As the result of an [[Internal Settlement]] signed on 3 March 1978 between the Rhodesian government and the moderate African nationalist parties, which were not in exile and not involved in the war, elections were held in April 1979. The [[United African National Council]] (UANC) party won a majority in this election, and its leader, [[Abel Muzorewa]] (a [[United Methodist Church]] bishop), became the country's first black prime minister on 1 June 1979. The country's name was changed to [[Zimbabwe Rhodesia]]. The internal settlement left control of the country's police, security forces, civil service and judiciary in white hands, for the moment. It assured whites of about one-third of the seats in parliament. It was essentially a power-sharing arrangement between white people and black people which, in the eyes of many, particularly the insurgents, did not amount to majority rule.<ref>BBC "On this day" report :[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/1/newsid_2492000/2492915.stm 1 June 1979] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061115003348/http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/1/newsid_2492000/2492915.stm|date=15 November 2006}}.</ref> However, the [[United States Senate]] voted to end economic sanctions against Zimbabwe Rhodesia on 12 June.<ref name="endsanctions">[https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/13/archives/senate-votes-down-a-move-to-preserve-rhodesia-sanctions-armsbill.html Senate Votes Down A Move To Preserve Rhodesia Sanctions; Arms-Bill Veto Threatened White House Says 52-to-41 Margin Shows President Has Support to Prevent an Override] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180722214110/https://www.nytimes.com/1979/06/13/archives/senate-votes-down-a-move-to-preserve-rhodesia-sanctions-armsbill.html |date=22 July 2018 }}, 13 June 1979. The New York Times.</ref>
While the 1979 election was described by the Rhodesian government as non-racial and democratic, it did not include the main nationalist parties ZANU and ZAPU. In spite of offers from Ian Smith, the latter parties declined to participate in an election in which their political position would be insecure and under a proposed constitution which they had played no part in drafting and which was perceived as retaining strong white minority privilege.
Bishop Muzorewa's government did not receive international recognition. The Bush War continued unabated and sanctions were not lifted. The international community refused to accept the validity of any agreement which did not incorporate the main nationalist parties. The British Government (then led by the recently elected [[Margaret Thatcher]]) issued invitations to all parties to attend a peace conference at [[Lancaster House]]. These negotiations took place in London in late 1979. The three-month-long conference almost failed to reach conclusion, due to disagreements on [[Land reform in Zimbabwe|land reform]], but resulted in the [[Lancaster House Agreement]]. UDI ended, and Rhodesia temporarily reverted to the status of a British colony (the 'Colony of Southern Rhodesia').<ref>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''."</ref> As per the agreement, [[Christopher Soames|Lord Soames]] became Governor with full legislative and executive powers.
The Lancaster House Agreement further provided for a ceasefire which was followed by an internationally supervised general election, held in [[Southern Rhodesian general election, 1980|February 1980]]. ZANU led by [[Robert Mugabe]] won this election, some alleged,{{who|date=March 2017}} by terrorising its political opposition, including supporters of ZAPU, through former insurgents that had not confined themselves to the designated guerrilla assembly points, as stipulated by the Lancaster House Agreement. The observers and Soames were accused of looking the other way, and Mugabe's victory was certified. Nevertheless, few could doubt that Mugabe's support within his majority Shona tribal group was extremely strong. The Rhodesian military seriously considered mounting a coup against a perceived stolen election ("Operation Quartz") to prevent ZANU from taking over the country.<ref>{{cite web|first=R.|last=Allport|title=Operation Quartz – Rhodesia 1980|url=http://www.memoriesofrhodesia.com/media/documents/Op-Quartz.pdf|website=memoriesofrhodesia.com|access-date=5 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110101171326/http://www.memoriesofrhodesia.com/media/documents/Op-Quartz.pdf|archive-date=1 January 2011|url-status=live }}</ref> The alleged coup was to include the assassination of Mugabe and coordinated assaults on guerrilla assembly points throughout the country. The plan was eventually scuttled, as it was obvious that Mugabe enjoyed widespread support from the black majority despite voter intimidation, as well as the fact that the coup would gain no external support, and a conflagration which would engulf the country was seen as inevitable.
===Republic of Zimbabwe (1980)===
On 18 April 1980 the country became independent within the [[Commonwealth of Nations]] as the Republic of Zimbabwe, and its capital, Salisbury, was renamed [[Harare]] two years later.
== Geography ==
Rhodesia is equivalent in territory to modern [[Zimbabwe]]. It was a [[landlocked country]] in [[southern Africa]], lying between latitudes [[15th parallel south|15°]] and [[23rd parallel south|23°S]], and longitudes [[25th meridian east|25°]] and [[34th meridian east|34°E]]. It was bordered by [[South Africa]] to the south, the [[Bechuanaland Protectorate]] (later [[Botswana]]) to the west and southwest, [[Zambia]] to the northwest, and [[Mozambique]] to the east and northeast. Its northwest corner was roughly {{convert|150|m|ft|sigfig=1|abbr=off}} from [[South West Africa]] (present-day [[Namibia]]), South Africa, nearly forming a four-nation [[quadripoint]]. Most of the country was elevated, consisting of a central plateau (high veld) stretching from the southwest northwards with altitudes between {{convert|1,000 and 1,600|m|ft|abbr=on}}. The country's extreme east was mountainous, this area being known as the [[Eastern Highlands]], with [[Mount Nyangani|Mount Inyangani]] as the highest point at {{convert|2,592|m|ft|abbr=on}}.{{citation needed|date=May 2016}}
=== Climate ===
{{Main|Climate of Zimbabwe}}
Rhodesia had a [[tropical climate]] with many local variations. The southern areas were known for their heat and aridity, parts of the central plateau received frost in winter, the [[Zambezi]] valley was also known for its extreme heat and the Eastern Highlands usually experienced cool temperatures and the highest rainfall in the country. The country's rainy season was from late October to March and the hot climate was moderated by increasing altitude. The country was faced with recurring droughts, and severe storms were rare.<ref name="Baughan, M. 2005">Baughan, M. (2005). ''Continent in the Balance: Zimbabwe-Juvenile literature''. Philadelphia, PA: Mason Crest Publishers; {{ISBN|1590848101}}.</ref>
=== Biodiversity ===
{{Main|Wildlife of Zimbabwe}}
The country was mostly savannah, although the moist and mountainous eastern highlands supported areas of tropical evergreen and hardwood forests. Trees found in these Eastern Highlands included [[teak]], [[mahogany]], enormous specimens of [[Strangler fig|strangling fig]], [[Newtonia buchananii|forest newtonia]], big leaf, [[Celtis africana|white stinkwood]], [[Celtis mildbraedii|chirinda stinkwood]], [[Senegalia nigrescens|knobthorn]] and many others.
In the low-lying parts of the country [[Vachellia xanthophloea|fever trees]], [[mopane]], [[combretum]] and [[Adansonia|baobabs]] abound. Much of the country was covered by [[miombo]] woodland, dominated by [[brachystegia]] species and others. Among the numerous flowers and shrubs were [[hibiscus]], [[flame lily]], [[Scadoxus puniceus|snake lily]], [[spider lily]], [[Leonotis|leonotus]], [[Cassia (genus)|cassia]], [[Wisteria|tree wisteria]] and [[dombeya]]. There were around 350 species of mammals that can be found in Rhodesia. There were also many snakes and lizards, over 500 bird species, and 131 fish species.
==Government and politics==
{{More citations needed section|date=May 2020}}
{{Politics of Rhodesia}}
{{Main|Politics of Rhodesia}}
[[File:Flag of the President of Rhodesia (1970–1979).svg|thumb|upright=1.1|The presidential flag of Rhodesia]]
Although Southern Rhodesia never gained full [[Dominion]] status within the [[Commonwealth of Nations]], Southern Rhodesians ruled themselves from the attainment of '[[responsible government|Responsible Government]]' in 1923. Its electoral register had property and education qualifications. Over the years various electoral arrangements made at a national and municipal level upheld these standards. For example, the franchise for the first [[Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council]] election in 1899 contained the following requirement:
<blockquote>voters to be British subjects, male, 21 years of age and older, able to write their address and occupation, and then to fulfil the following financial requirements: (a) ownership of a registered mining claim in Southern Rhodesia, or (b) occupying immovable property worth £75, or (c) receiving wages or salary of £50 per annum in Southern Rhodesia. Six months' continuous residence was also required for qualifications (b) and (c).</blockquote>
Following [[Cecil Rhodes]]'s dictum of "equal rights for all civilised men", there was an implicit, albeit not an overt, racial component to the franchise, which effectively excluded a majority of native black people from the electorate via such means as [[property qualification]]s.<ref>{{cite web | title=Voting Requirements Raised | website=The New York Times | date=1964-09-12 | url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/09/12/archives/voting-requirements-raised.html | access-date=2024-06-04}}</ref>
Up until the 1950s, Southern Rhodesia had a vibrant political life with right and left wing parties competing for power. The [[Rhodesian Labour Party]] held seats in the Assembly and in municipal councils throughout the 1920s and 1930s. From 1953 to 1958, the prime minister was [[Garfield Todd]], a liberal who did much to promote the development of the black community through investment in education, housing and healthcare. However, the government forced Todd from office because his proposed reforms were seen by many whites as too radical.
From 1958 onwards, white settler politics consolidated and ossified around resistance to majority rule, setting the stage for UDI. The 1961 Constitution governed Southern Rhodesia and independent Rhodesia up until 1969, using the Westminster Parliamentary System modified by a system of separate voter rolls with differing property and education qualifications, without regard to race. Whites ended up with the majority of Assembly seats with Whites attaining 50 out of 66 seats. Blacks would only attain 16 out of the 66 seats in the Rhodesian Parliament.
The 1969 republican constitution established a [[bicameral]] Parliament consisting of an indirectly elected [[Senate of Rhodesia|Senate]] and a directly elected [[House of Assembly of Rhodesia|House of Assembly]], effectively reserving the majority of seats for whites. The office of [[President of Rhodesia|President]] had only ceremonial significance with the Prime Minister holding executive power.
The Constitution of the short-lived [[Zimbabwe Rhodesia]], which saw a black-led government elected for the first time, reserved 28 of the 100 parliamentary seats for whites. The independence constitution agreed at [[Lancaster House Agreement|Lancaster House]] watered those provisions down and reserved 20 out of 100 seats for whites in the House of Assembly and 8 out of 40 seats in the Senate. The constitution prohibited Zimbabwe authorities from altering the Constitution for seven years without unanimous consent and required a three-quarters vote in Parliament for a further three years. The government amended the Constitution in 1987 to abolish the seats reserved for whites, and replace the office of Prime Minister with an executive President. In 1990, the government abolished the Senate.
===Administrative divisions===
[[File:Rhodesia adm location map with names.svg|upright=1.35|thumb|right|[[Provinces of Rhodesia|Administrative divisions of Rhodesia]]]]
Rhodesia had a [[centralised government]] and was divided into seven provinces and two cities with provincial status, for administrative purposes. Each province had a provincial capital from where government administration was usually carried out.
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
! Province !! Capital
|-
| [[Manicaland]] || [[Umtali]]
|-
| [[North Mashonaland]] || [[Harare|Salisbury]]
|-
| [[South Mashonaland]] || [[Harare|Salisbury]]
|-
| [[Victoria Province|Victoria]] || [[Masvingo|Fort Victoria]]
|-
| [[Matabeleland North|North Matabeleland]] || [[Bulawayo]]
|-
| [[Matabeleland South|South Matabeleland]] || [[Bulawayo]]
|-
| [[Midlands Province|Midlands]] || [[Gwelo]]
|}
==Military==
{{main|Rhodesian Security Forces }}
[[File:Rhodesian Eland and T-55.jpg|thumb|260px|Troops of the [[Rhodesian Armoured Corps]] in 1979]]
[[Southern Rhodesia]] had long been distinctive among British dependencies in that it had financed and developed its own security forces and command structure.<ref name="Good">{{cite book|title=U.D.I: The International Politics of the Rhodesian Rebellion|last=Good|first=Robert|date=1973|publisher=Faber & Faber Press|isbn=978-1400869176|location=London|pages=55–59}}</ref> After UDI, this posed a particular dilemma for the British government, which considered and rejected various proposals aimed at ending Rhodesia's state of rebellion by force.<ref name="Good" /> Harold Wilson once remarked that bringing an end to Rhodesian independence "would not be a case of arresting a subversive individual. It would mean a bloody war, and probably a bloody war turning into a bloody civil war."<ref name="Good" /> The formidable nature of the Rhodesian security forces, as well as British fears of a direct South African intervention on behalf of the rogue colony, preempted the further consideration of military options.<ref name="Good" />
For much of its existence Rhodesia maintained a small professional standing army of 3,400 troops, about a third of whom were black volunteers.<ref name="Good" /> In the tradition of many colonial armies, it was primarily organised into light infantry battalions trained and equipped for counter-insurgency warfare or internal security actions,<ref name="Arnold">{{cite book|title=Wars in the Third World Since 1945|last=Arnold|first=Guy|date=2016|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing Plc|isbn=978-14742-9102-6|location=Philadelphia|page=67}}</ref> and possessed little artillery or armour.<ref name="Good" /> The [[Royal Rhodesian Air Force]] (RRAF) had 1,000 personnel and six squadrons of aircraft, including forty to fifty [[Hawker Hunter]] and [[de Havilland Vampire]] strike aircraft and [[English Electric Canberra]] light bombers.<ref name="Good" /> It also possessed a helicopter squadron, a transport squadron, and a light reconnaissance squadron.<ref name="Good" /> The Rhodesian military was backed by the [[British South Africa Police]] (BSAP), a well-equipped police force whose title was derived from the law enforcement division of the British South Africa Company.<ref name="Good" /> The BSAP had armoured vehicles of its own and a potent paramilitary capability.<ref name="Good" /> Domestic and external intelligence gathering were vested in the [[Central Intelligence Organisation]] (CIO).<ref name="COIN">{{cite book|title=Counterinsurgency in Modern Warfare|last=Wood|first=JRT|date=2008|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=978-1846032813|editor1-last=Malkasian|editor1-first=Carter|location=Oxford|pages=[https://archive.org/details/counterinsurgenc00dani/page/189 189–342]|editor2-last=Marston|editor2-first=Daniel|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/counterinsurgenc00dani/page/189}}</ref>
As a result of the escalating rural insurgency, the Rhodesian Security Forces began to depend more heavily on white conscripts and reservists of the Territorial Force and Territorial reserves.<ref name="Arnold" /> Regular units remained small throughout the Rhodesian Bush War but became increasingly specialised and were often able to have an effect utterly disproportionate to their size.<ref name="mcnab2002">{{cite book|title=20th Century Military Uniforms|last=McNab|first=Chris|date=2002|publisher=Grange Books|isbn=1-84013-476-3|edition=2nd|location=Kent|page=196}}</ref> The security forces included a disproportionate number of personnel who had seen action during the [[First Malayan Emergency]] as well as the [[Aden Emergency]], and their experience gave Rhodesia's defence establishment a solid grounding in counter-insurgency warfare and small unit tactics in particular.<ref name="COIN" /> Nevertheless, the vastness of the operational area and Rhodesia's limited manpower pool left the army, air force, and BSAP constantly overstretched.<ref name="COIN" /> Budgetary and resource restraints, coupled with manpower shortages, meant the security forces could not expand quickly enough to match the guerrilla movements, and were almost always outnumbered.<ref name="COIN" /> Rhodesian units compensated for their disadvantage in this regard by pursuing an aggressive preemptive and counterstrike strategy, raiding neighbouring states to destroy guerrilla forces in their external sanctuaries.<ref name="COIN" />
All white, male residents aged eighteen to twenty-three were obligated to fulfill four and a half months (later extended to nine months) of full-time [[national service]].<ref name="Good" /> This was followed by a three-year reservist obligation.<ref name="Good" /> By 1974 the national service intakes had been doubled, and white men over twenty-three were also conscripted.<ref name="Arnold" /> In 1978 the Rhodesian Army had about 14,000 white national servicemen, but continued manpower shortages forced it to recruit black volunteers in larger numbers and extend compulsory military service to all white males up to sixty years of age.<ref name="Arnold" /> By the end of the Rhodesian Bush War virtually all male white residents were either serving in the military or police in a full-time or part-time capacity.<ref name="Arnold" /> The size of the Rhodesian Army had swelled to about 20,000 personnel, and the BSAP to over 40,000, including reservists.<ref name="Arnold" />
===Biological and chemical warfare===
{{main|Rhodesia and weapons of mass destruction}}
From 1975 to 1980 the Rhodesian government made several attempts to weaponise chemical and biological agents.<ref name="Glenn Cross 1980">Glenn Cross, "Dirty War: Rhodesia and Chemical Biological Warfare, 1975–1980," Solihull, UK: Helion & Company, 2017</ref> Members of the security forces contaminated supplies before replacing them in guerrilla caches or planted them in rural stores to be stolen by the guerrillas during raids.<ref>Ed Bird. Special Branch War: Slaughter in the Rhodesian Bush Southern Ndebele land, 1976–1980. Solihull, UK: Helion & Company, Ltd. 2014.</ref> They also poisoned water sources along known infiltration routes along the Rhodesian border, forcing their opponents to travel through more arid regions or carry more water during their treks.<ref>Jim Parker, "Assignment Selous Scouts: The Inside Story of a Rhodesian Special Branch Officer". Johannesburg, South Africa: Galago Press, 2006</ref>
The chemical agents most used in the Rhodesian chemical and biological warfare (CBW) programme were [[parathion]] (an organophosphate insecticide) and [[thallium]] (a heavy metal commonly found in rodenticide).<ref>Chandré Gould and Peter Folb. "Project Coast: Apartheid's Chemical and Biological Warfare Programme". Geneva: United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, 2002.</ref> The weapons the Rhodesians selected for use also included ''Vibrio cholerae'' (causative agent of [[cholera]]) and possibly ''Bacillus anthracis'' (causative agent of [[anthrax]]). They also looked at using ''Rickettsia prowazekii'' (causative agent of epidemic [[typhus]]), and ''Salmonella typhi'' (causative agent of [[typhoid fever]]), and toxins such as [[ricin]] and [[botulinum]] toxin.<ref name="Glenn Cross 1980" />
Biological agents, namely ''Vibrio cholerae'', had some impact on the fighting capability of ZANLA.<ref name="the plague wars">Southern African News Feature: [https://web.archive.org/web/20131203093323/http://www.sardc.net/editorial/sanf/2001/iss21/specialreport.html the plague wars]</ref> Some former officers of the Rhodesian Security Forces alleged that anthrax was used covertly during the late 1970s, but this has been disputed.<ref name="Glenn Cross 1980" /> Use of ''anthracis'', ricin, or botulinum toxin was favoured during assassination attempts of prominent guerrilla commanders.<ref name="Glenn Cross 1980" />
== Economy ==
{{Main|Economic history of Zimbabwe}}
Economically, [[Southern Rhodesia]] developed an economy that was narrowly based on the production of a few [[primary products]], notably, [[chromium]] and [[tobacco]]. It was therefore vulnerable to the economic cycle. The deep [[The Great Depression|recession of the 1930s]] gave way to a post-war boom. This boom prompted the immigration of about 200,000 whites between 1945 and 1970, taking the white population up to 307,000. A large number of these immigrants were of British working-class origin, with others coming from the [[Belgian Congo]], [[British Kenya|Kenya]], [[Tanzania]], and later [[Portuguese Angola|Angola]] and [[Portuguese Mozambique|Mozambique]]. They established a relatively balanced economy, transforming what was once a primary producer dependent on backwoods farming into an industrial giant which spawned a strong manufacturing sector, [[iron]] and [[steel]] industries, and modern mining ventures. These economic successes owed little to foreign aid apart from the immigration of skilled labour.
The economy of the state of Rhodesia sustained international sanctions for a decade following the declaration of its independence, a resistance which waned as more southern African states declared independence and majority rule as well as the destruction of the [[Rhodesian Bush War]].
==Demographics==
=== Population ===
{{See also|White Zimbabweans}}
A central feature of the white community in Rhodesia was its transience, as white settlers were just as likely to leave Rhodesia after a few years as permanently settle; for example, of the 700 British settlers who were the first white settlers, arriving in 1890, only 15 were still living in Rhodesia in 1924.<ref name="Brownell"/>{{rp|6593}} As the white population of Rhodesia had a low birth rate (18 per 1,000 compared to the African rate of 48 per 1,000<ref name="Paxton">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O0zODQAAQBAJ|title=The Statesman's Year-Book 1971–72: The Businessman's Encyclopaedia of all nations|last=Paxton|first=John|publisher=[[Springer Nature]]|year=1971|isbn=978-0-230-27100-5|edition=108th|location=London|page=522}}</ref>), to maintain white population growth was largely dependent upon taking in new white immigrants with immigration accounting for 60% of the growth of the white Rhodesian population between 1955 and 1972.<ref name="Brownell"/>
In the ten years after the nation's independence from Britain, around 70,000 from the white population of Rhodesia emigrated out of the nation. 45% of the emigration was to [[South Africa]] due to it being geographically adjacent and sharing similarities in climate, topography, economic standards and social customs. The remaining mainly headed to other mainly white, English-speaking nations at the time, which being the [[United Kingdom]], [[Australia]], [[Canada]] and [[New Zealand]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=Rhodesia: Economic Aspects of White Resettlement |date=23 July 1976 |publisher=Central Intelligence Agency |language=en}}</ref>
However, the American historian Josiah Brownell noted that the turnover rate for white residents in Rhodesia was very high, as Rhodesia took in a total of 255,692 white immigrants between 1955 and 1979 while the same period a total of 246,583 whites emigrated. Even during the boom years of the late 1950s, when Rhodesia took in an average of 13,666 white immigrants per year, mostly from the United Kingdom and South Africa, an average of about 7,666 whites emigrated annually. Between 1961 and 1965, Rhodesia took in an average of 8,225 white immigrants per year while also having an average white emigration of 12,912 per year. Many prospective white immigrants in Rhodesia arrived seeking economic opportunities and departed with fluctuations in the security situation as the Bush War intensified. A substantial number were uninterested in settling there permanently and did not apply for Rhodesian citizenship, despite a much-publicised 1967 campaign urging them to do so.<ref name="Brownell"/>
Brownell asserted that patriotism in the white community was "shallow" due to its essentially expatriate character. He also claimed that the majority of white immigrants in the late 1960s and early 1970s were unskilled laborers who competed with the country's black African workforce and did not contribute badly needed technical or professional skills to the country, arguing that this was due to government policy aimed at making white immigration as "unselective as possible" and guaranteeing every white immigrant a job. The population of Rhodesia boomed during the late 1960s due to immigration and an exceptional rate of natural increase among its black citizens, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa at the time.<ref name="Brownell"/>
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
|+Numbers of white and black inhabitants before and during the [[Central African Federation]]<ref>{{cite book |title=An Introduction to the History of Central Africa |last=Wills |first=A.J. |year=1967 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |location=Durban |edition=2nd |isbn=0-620-06410-2 |page=Appendix IV |chapter=Three Territories |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLshAAAAMAAJ |access-date=19 June 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151026201016/https://books.google.com/books?id=TLshAAAAMAAJ |archive-date=26 October 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>
|-
! rowspan=2 | Year || colspan=2 | Southern Rhodesia || colspan=2 | Northern Rhodesia || colspan=2 | Nyasaland || colspan=2 | Total
|-
! White || Black || White || Black || White || Black || White || Black
|-
| '''1927''' || 38,200 (3.98%) || 922,000 (96.02%) || 4,000 (0.4%) || 1,000,000 (99.6%) || 1,700 (0.13%) || 1,350,000 (99.87%) || 43,900 (1.32%) || 3,272,000 (98.68%)
|-
| '''1946''' || 80,500 (4.79%) || 1,600,000 (95.21%) || 21,919 (1.32%) || 1,634,980 (97.68%) || 2,300 (0.10%) || 2,340,000 (99.90%) || 104,719 (1.84%) || 5,574,980 (98.16%)
|-
| '''1955''' || 150,000 (5.88%) || 2,400,000 (94.12%) || 65,000 (3.02%) || 2,085,000 (96.98%) || 6,300 (0.25%) || 2,550,000 (99.75%) ||  221,300 (3.05%) || 7,035,000 (96.95%)
|-
| '''1960''' || 223,000 (7.30%) || 2,830,000 (92.70%) || 76,000 (3.14%) || 2,340,000 (96.85%) || 9,300 (0.33%) || 2,810,000 (99.66%) ||  308,300 (3.72%) || 7,980,000 (96.28%)
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
|+Population of White, Black, Asian and Coloured inhabitants of Southern Rhodesia, 1911–1969<ref name="Paxton"/>
|-
! rowspan=1 | Year !! | White !! | Black (Est.) !! | Asiatic & Coloured !! | Total Population (Est.)
|-
| '''1911''' || 23,606 (3.06%) || 744,559 (96.56%) || 2,912 (0.38%) || 771,077
|-
| '''1921''' || 33,620 (3.73%) || 862,319 (95.90%) || 3,248 (0.36%) || 899,187
|-
| '''1931''' || 49,910 (4.42%) || 1,076,000 (95.22%) || 4,102 (0.36%) || 1,130,000
|-
| '''1941''' || 68,954 (4.66%) || 1,404,000 (94.93%) || 6,521 (0.44%) || 1,479,000
|-
|'''1951''' || 135,596 (5.84%) || 2,170,000 (93.53%) || 10,283 (0.44%) || 2,320,000
|-
|'''1961''' || 221,504 (6.74%) || 3,618,150 (92.80%) || 17,812 (0.46%) || 3,857,466
|-
|'''1969''' || 258,580 (6.49%) || 4,840,000 (93.09%) || 23,870 (0.47%) || 5,090,000
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
|+White Rhodesian vital statistics, 1963–1969<ref name="Paxton"/>
|-
! rowspan=1 | Year !! | Births !! | Deaths !! | Marriages !! | Immigrants
|-
| '''1963''' || 4,457 || 1,449 || 2,008 || 5,093
|-
| '''1964''' || 4,017 || 1,306 || 2,046 || 7,000
|-
| '''1965''' || 3,863 || 1,369 || 2,071 || 11,128
|-
|'''1966''' || 3,782 || 1,460 || 2,035 || 6,418
|-
|'''1967''' || 4,031 || 1,512 || — || 9,618
|-
|'''1968''' || 4,004 || 1,646 || — || 11,864
|-
|'''1969''' || 4,089 || 1,633 || — || 10,929
|}
{| class="wikitable" style="margin:auto;"
|+Population of the main urban areas in 1969<ref name="Paxton"/>
|-
! rowspan=1 | City !! | White !! | Black !! | Other !! | Total
|-
| '''Salisbury''' || 96,420 (25.07%) || 280,090 (72.84%) || 8,020 (2.09%) || 384,530
|-
| '''Bulawayo''' || 50,090 (20.40%) || 187,590 (76.38%) || 7,910 (3.22%) || 245,590
|-
| '''Umtali''' || 8,340 (17.93%) || 36,220 (77.88%) || 1,950 (4.20%) || 46,510
|-
|'''Gwelo''' || 8,390 (18.23%) || 36,880 (80.12%) || 760 (1.65%) || 46,030
|-
|'''Que Que''' || 3,160 (9.62%) || 29,250 (89.01%) || 450 (1.37%) || 32,860
|-
|'''Gatooma''' || 1,880 (8.97%) || 18,770 (89.55%) || 310 (1.48%) || 20,960
|-
|'''Wankie''' || 2,160 (10.72%) || 17,980 (89.28%) || — || 20,140
|-
|'''Shabani''' || 1,560 (9.87%) || 14,170 (89.63%) || 80 (0.51%) || 15,810
|-
|'''Fort Victoria''' || 2,530 (22.29%) || 8,470 (74.63%) || 350 (3.08%) || 11,350
|}
=== Language ===
{{Main|Languages of Zimbabwe}}
White Rhodesians mostly spoke English, with a minority that spoke [[Afrikaans]].  Approximately 70% of black Rhodesians spoke [[Shona language|Shona]], and around 20% spoke [[Northern Ndebele language|Ndebele]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nde|title=Ndebele|work=Ethnologue|access-date=2018-01-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725153454/https://www.ethnologue.com/language/nde|archive-date=25 July 2018|url-status=live}}</ref> A majority of [[Indians in Zimbabwe|Rhodesia's Indian community]] spoke [[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] and a minority spoke [[Hindi]].
=== Religion ===
{{Main|Religion in Zimbabwe}}
Rhodesia predominantly adhered to [[Christianity]], with [[Protestantism]] being the largest denomination. However, many native Africans still adhered to [[traditional African religions]].
==Foreign relations==
Throughout the period of its [[Unilateral Declaration of Independence (Rhodesia)|Unilateral Declaration of Independence]] (1965 to 1979), Rhodesia pursued a foreign policy of attempting to secure recognition as an independent country, and insisting that its political system would include 'gradual steps to majority rule.' Ardently anti-communist, Rhodesia tried to present itself to the West as a front-line state against communist expansion in Africa, to little avail.
Rhodesia received little international recognition during its existence; recognition only occurred after elections in 1980 and a transition to majority rule.
Rhodesia wished to retain its economic prosperity and also feared communist elements in the rebel forces, and thus felt their policy of a gradual progression to black majority rule was justified. However, the international community refused to accept this rationale, believing that their policies were perpetuating racism. This attitude was part of the larger [[decolonisation]] context, during which Western powers such as the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium hastened to grant independence to their colonies in Africa.
===The UK and the UDI===
Rhodesia was originally a [[British colony]]. Although [[decolonisation]] in Africa had begun after World War II, it began accelerating in the early 1960s, causing Britain to negotiate independence rapidly with several of its colonies. During this period, it adopted a foreign policy called [[NIBMAR]], or No Independence Before Majority African Rule, mandating democratic reforms that placed governance in the hands of the majority black Africans. The governing white minority of Rhodesia, led by Ian Smith, opposed the policy and its implications. On 11 November 1965, Rhodesia's minority white government made a [[Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|unilateral declaration of independence]] (UDI) from the United Kingdom, as it became apparent that negotiations would not lead to independence under the white regime.
The United Kingdom government immediately brought in legislation ([[Southern Rhodesia Act 1965]]) which formally abolished all Rhodesian government institutions. This move made life difficult for Rhodesian citizens who wished to travel internationally as passports issued by Rhodesia's UDI administration were not recognised as valid;<ref name="Passports invalidated">The Southern Rhodesia (Property in Passports) Order 1965 provided that they were the property of the British government, allowing them to be impounded if presented by anyone arriving at a port of entry. See [https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1965/nov/24/passports-british-nationality#S5CV0721P0_19651124_HOC_545 Hansard] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090713163414/http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1965/nov/24/passports-british-nationality#S5CV0721P0_19651124_HOC_545 |date=13 July 2009 }}, HC 5ser vol 721 col 696.</ref> in January 1966, the British issued a statement accepting as valid any passport issued before the declaration of independence and allowing six-month United Kingdom passports to be granted when they expired – provided that the bearer declared they did not intend to aid the UDI Rhodesian government.<ref name="1966 statement">The statement is printed in Hansard. {{hansard|url=1966/jan/25/rhodesia#S5CV0723P0_19660125_HOC_22 |access-date=20 July 2009}}</ref>
Developments in Britain helped to alienate the white Rhodesian population from the former mother country, namely Queen Elizabeth II's 1966 speech to the Jamaican legislature where she endorsed majority rule and her attempt in 1968 to block the hanging of what Rhodesians perceived as Zimbabwean nationalist terrorists.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Boender |first=Niels |date=2 November 2023 |title=From Federation to 'White Redoubt': Africa and the Global Radical-Right in the Geographical Imagination of UDI-Era Rhodesian Propaganda, 1962–1970 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03086534.2023.2166380 |journal=[[The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History]] |language=en |volume=51 |issue=6 |pages=1200–1228 |doi=10.1080/03086534.2023.2166380 |issn=0308-6534 |access-date=30 June 2024 |via=Taylor and Francis Online}}</ref>
Until late 1969, Rhodesia still recognised [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II]] as head of state, even though it opposed the British government itself for hindering its goals of independence. However she refused to accept the title ''Queen of Rhodesia'' and eventually the Smith government abandoned their attempts to remain loyal to the British Crown. In a 1969 referendum, a majority of the electorate voted to declare Rhodesia an independent republic. The hope being that this move would facilitate recognition as an independent state by the international community, but the issue of white minority rule remained and continued to hinder this effort, and like the UDI before it, the proclamation of a republic lacked international recognition.
===Sanctions===
After the declaration of independence, and indeed for the entire duration of its existence, Rhodesia did not receive official recognition from any state, although it did maintain diplomatic relations with South Africa, which was then under [[apartheid]]. South Africa did not recognise Rhodesia to preserve its fragile positions with other nations, but frequently assisted the Rhodesian state. Portugal maintained informal relations until the [[Carnation Revolution]] of 1974. The day following the declaration of independence, the [[United Nations Security Council]] passed a resolution ([[United Nations Security Council Resolution 216|S/RES/216]]) calling upon all states not to accord Rhodesia recognition, and to refrain from any assistance. The Security Council also imposed selective mandatory economic sanctions, which were later made comprehensive.
[[Malawi]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836951,00.html |title=Malawi: Heroes or Neros? – TIME |publisher=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=1967-04-14 |access-date=2017-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513203812/http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,836951,00.html |archive-date=13 May 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> The US, despite voting in favour of the sanctions at the UNSC, violated them to buy chromium ore from Rhodesia.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://library.cqpress.com/cqalmanac/document.php?id=cqal75-1214210 |title=CQ Almanac Online Edition |publisher=Library.cqpress.com |access-date=2017-09-20}}</ref> Kenneth Kaunda, president of Zambia, also accused western oil companies of violating the sanctions and selling oil to Rhodesia.<ref>{{cite news |last=Ottaway |first=David B. |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/09/22/zambian-to-meet-with-callaghan-on-un-oil-sanction-violations/bdd35f61-e9cb-463f-a319-38981df92cf3/ |title=Zambian to Meet With Callaghan On U.N. Oil Sanction Violations |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=1978-09-22 |access-date=2017-09-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160611055905/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/09/22/zambian-to-meet-with-callaghan-on-un-oil-sanction-violations/bdd35f61-e9cb-463f-a319-38981df92cf3/ |archive-date=11 June 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref>
===International perspective===
Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965 was promptly condemned by the international community. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 216 of 12 November 1965 called "upon all States not to recognise this illegal racist minority regime in Southern Rhodesia."<ref>[[Wikisource:United Nations Security Council Resolution 216]]</ref>
Rhodesia campaigned for international acceptance and invoked the doctrine of [[non-intervention]] in internal affairs as justification for rebuking external criticism of its internal policies. However, the emerging doctrine of [[self-determination]] in colonial situations meant that most nations regarded Rhodesia's self-declared independence as illegitimate.
[[Zambia]], formerly [[Northern Rhodesia]], took a pragmatic approach towards Rhodesia. [[Kenneth Kaunda]], heavily dependent on access through Rhodesia for his nation's copper ore exports, fuel, and power imports unofficially worked with the Rhodesian government. Rhodesia still allowed Zambia to export and import its goods through its territory to Mozambique ports, despite the Zambian government's official policy of hostility and non-recognition of the post-UDI Smith Administration.
The United States, like all other Western nations, refused to recognise Rhodesia, but unlike others allowed its [[Consulate-General]] to function as a communications conduit between the US government in Washington, DC and the Rhodesian government in Salisbury. When Rhodesia set up the [[Rhodesian Information Office]] in Washington, DC, [[Organization of American States|OAS]] nations loudly protested. The US government responded by saying the Rhodesian mission and its staff had no official diplomatic status and violated no US laws.
Portugal pursued a middle path with Rhodesia. While not officially recognising Rhodesia under Ian Smith, the government of [[António Salazar]] did permit Rhodesia to establish a [[Rhodesian mission in Lisbon|representative mission]] in Lisbon, and permitted Rhodesian exports and imports through their colony of Mozambique. The Portuguese government in power at that time, authoritarian and ardently anti-communist, gave active behind-the-scenes support in Rhodesia's fight against the guerrilla groups.
South Africa, itself under international pressure as a white minority government, pursued a policy of [[détente]] with the black African states at the time. These states wanted South Africa to pressure Ian Smith to accept a faster transition to majority rule in Rhodesia, in return for pledges of non-interference in South Africa's internal affairs. Prime Minister [[John Vorster]], believing majority rule in Rhodesia would lead to international acceptance for South Africa, used a number of tactics to pressure Smith. The South African government held up shipments of fuel and ammunition and pulled out friendly South African forces from Rhodesia. The combined loss of Mozambique and the loss of support from South Africa dealt critical blows to the Rhodesian government.
===Diplomatic relations===
After the UDI, Rhodesia maintained several overseas missions, including [[Pretoria]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Harry R. Strack|title=Sanctions: The Case of Rhodesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVt0AAAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2161-4|page=52}}</ref> and until 1975, [[Lisbon]] in Portugal and [[Lourenço Marques]] (now [[Maputo]]) in [[Mozambique]].<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z4tAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=76QMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4898%2C44571 Rhodesians to quit Lisbon] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160727020846/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Z4tAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=76QMAAAAIBAJ&pg=4898%2C44571 |date=27 July 2016 }}, ''[[Glasgow Herald]]'', 1 May 1975, page 4</ref>
Since 1961, Rhodesia had an "Accredited Diplomatic Representative" with [[South Africa]], heading a "Rhodesian Diplomatic Mission" or [[de facto embassy|''de facto'' embassy]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Report of the Secretary for Information, Immigration, and Tourism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lB4kAQAAIAAJ&q=+%22Rhodesian+Diplomatic+Mission%22|year=1964|publisher=Ministry of Information, Immigration, and Tourism}}</ref> Before South Africa left the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] that year, the then [[Southern Rhodesia]] had exchanged High Commissioners with the then [[Union of South Africa]], but following the change in status, the Republic now had a "South African Diplomatic Mission" in [[Harare|Salisbury]].<ref name="lloyd">{{cite book|author=Lorna Lloyd|title=Diplomacy with a Difference: the Commonwealth Office of High Commissioner, 1880–2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QeqwCQAAQBAJ&pg=PA240|year=2007|publisher=BRILL|isbn=978-90-474-2059-0|page=240}}</ref>
During 1965, the government of Rhodesia made moves to establish a [[Rhodesian mission in Lisbon|mission in Lisbon]] separate from the British Embassy, with its own accredited representative, having previously been able to establish its own consulate in Lourenço Marques, capital of [[Portuguese Mozambique]].<ref>[https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/41731/supplement/3745/data.pdf John Arthur KINSEY, Esq., Consul-General for the Federation at Lourenco Marques] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160315030058/https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/41731/supplement/3745/data.pdf |date=15 March 2016 }}, [[London Gazette]], 5 June 1959</ref> This prompted protests from the British government, which was determined that the representative, Harry Reedman, should be a nominal member of the British Ambassador's staff.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fWxAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iKMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2768,3715462&hl=en Rhodesia's Man in Lisbon: Objective Said To Be Achieved] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307211051/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=fWxAAAAAIBAJ&sjid=iKMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2768,3715462&hl=en |date=7 March 2016 }}, ''[[The Glasgow Herald]]'', 22 September 1965. page 9</ref> For their part, the Portuguese authorities sought a compromise whereby they would accept Reedman as an independent representative but deny him diplomatic status.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Kent Fedorowich|author2=Martin Thomas|title=International Diplomacy and Colonial Retreat|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ccm1AQAAQBAJ&pg=PA186|year=2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-26866-4|page=186}}</ref>
The Rhodesian Information Office in [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]] remained open following UDI, but its director, [[Ken Towsey]], and his staff were deprived of their diplomatic status.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ncZaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jmwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5989%2C2265141 Goldberg Back British Stand In U.N. Session] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308032508/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ncZaAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jmwDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5989%2C2265141 |date=8 March 2016 }},''[[Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]]'', 13 November 1965</ref> Previously, there had been a "Minister for Rhodesian Affairs" operating under the aegis of the [[British Embassy in Washington]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Deon Geldenhuys|title=Isolated States: A Comparative Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dVmhhVHvTAMC&pg=PA62|year=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-40268-2|page=62}}</ref> as well representatives in [[Tokyo]] and [[Bonn]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Vera Gowlland-Debbas|title=Collective Responses to Illegal Acts in International Law: United Nations Action in the Question of Southern Rhodesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rTDvVo52tEAC&pg=PA61|year=1990|publisher=Martinus Nijhoff Publishers|isbn=0-7923-0811-5|page=61}}</ref> Following the country's independence as [[Zimbabwe]], Towsey became chargé d'affaires at the new embassy.<ref>[https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/06/26/rhodesias-lobbyist-back-for-mugabe/1adf000e-80d9-40f2-9ec1-a2e720ab8278/ Rhodesia's Lobbyist Back for Mugabe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160206213207/https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1980/06/26/rhodesias-lobbyist-back-for-mugabe/1adf000e-80d9-40f2-9ec1-a2e720ab8278/ |date=6 February 2016 }}, ''[[The Washington Post]]'', 26 June 1980</ref>
The High Commission in London, known as [[Rhodesia House]], continued to function until it was closed in 1969 following the decision by white Rhodesians in a [[Rhodesian constitutional referendum, 1969|referendum]] to make the country a republic, along with the "British Residual Mission" in [[Harare|Salisbury]].<ref>{{hansard|1969/jun/24/rhodesia |access-date=13 March 2016}}</ref> Prior to its closure, the mission flew the newly adopted [[Flag of Rhodesia]], considered illegal by the [[Foreign and Commonwealth Office|Foreign Office]], prompting calls by [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] MP [[Willie Hamilton]] for its removal.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eH9AAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zqMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2718%2C414685 M.P. CALLS FOR REMOVAL OF RHODESIAN FLAG IN STRAND] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308041235/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=eH9AAAAAIBAJ&sjid=zqMMAAAAIBAJ&pg=2718%2C414685 |date=8 March 2016 }}, ''[[The Glasgow Herald]]'', 4 January 1969, page 1</ref>
In Australia, the federal government sought to close the [[Rhodesia Information Centre]] in [[Sydney]],<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LsNUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=spADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6314%2C341488 Rhodesia Office Will Be Closed] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308034851/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=LsNUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=spADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6314%2C341488 |date=8 March 2016 }}, ''[[The Age]]'', 3 April 1972</ref> but it remained open, operating under the jurisdiction of the state of [[New South Wales]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Paul Davey|title=The Nationals: The Progressive, Country, and National Party in New South Wales 1919–2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpyw6Oncs5QC&pg=PA223|year=2006|publisher=Federation Press|isbn=978-1-86287-526-5|page=223}}</ref> In 1973, the [[Australian Labor Party|Labor]] government of [[Gough Whitlam]] cut post and telephone links to the centre, but this was [[Bradley v Commonwealth|ruled illegal]] by the [[High Court of Australia|High Court]].<ref>[rathall+rhodesia++Minister+of+Finance+and+of+Posts+and+
Telecommunications&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=whitlam ''Africa Contemporary Record: Annual Survey and Documents, Volume 6''], Colin Legum, Africana Publishing Company, 1974</ref> An office was also established in [[Paris]], but this was closed down by the [[French government]] in 1977.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xr4gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=02kFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3922%2C4107566 US Not Closing Rhodesian Office] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308084342/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xr4gAAAAIBAJ&sjid=02kFAAAAIBAJ&pg=3922%2C4107566 |date=8 March 2016 }}, ''[[The Lewiston Daily Sun]]'', 27 August 1977, page 8</ref>
Similarly, the United States recalled its consul-general from [[Harare|Salisbury]], and reduced consular staff,<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=apEhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=D5gFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2570%2C6764188 US To Restrict Sales To Rhodesia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308031551/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=apEhAAAAIBAJ&sjid=D5gFAAAAIBAJ&pg=2570%2C6764188 |date=8 March 2016 }}, ''[[Reading Eagle]]'', 12 December 1965</ref> but did not move to close its consulate until the declaration of a republic in 1970.<ref>{{cite book|author=Zaki Laïdi|title=The Superpowers and Africa: The Constraints of a Rivalry, 1960–1990|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wMPBk25aptwC&pg=PA55|year=1990|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-46782-5|page=55}}</ref> [[South Africa]], however, retained its "Accredited Diplomatic Representative" after UDI,<ref name="google13"/> which allowed it to continue to recognise [[United Kingdom|British]] sovereignty as well as to deal with the ''de facto'' authority of the government of [[Ian Smith]].<ref name="google257"/>
The South African Diplomatic Mission in Salisbury became the only such mission remaining in the country after 1975,<ref>{{cite book|author=Thomas G. Mitchell|title=Native Vs. Settler: Ethnic Conflict in Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, and South Africa|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3PNt46aB_sYC&pg=PA141|year=2000|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-31357-8|page=141}}</ref> when Portugal downgraded its mission to consul level,<ref>{{cite book|author=Harry R. Strack|title=Sanctions: The Case of Rhodesia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZVt0AAAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Syracuse University Press|isbn=978-0-8156-2161-4|page=77}}</ref> having recalled its consul-general in Salisbury in May 1970.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2nIjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MWYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7488%2C4326539 Portugal Severs Key Link With Rhodesia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160308032138/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=2nIjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MWYEAAAAIBAJ&pg=7488%2C4326539 |date=8 March 2016 }}, ''[[Sarasota Herald-Tribune]]'', 27 April 1970</ref> After Zimbabwe's independence, the new government closed its missions in [[Pretoria]] and [[Cape Town]], only maintaining a trade mission in [[Johannesburg]],<ref>{{cite book|author=Richard Schwartz|title=Coming To Terms: Zimbabwe in the International Arena|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_q5A-Ve8ogIC&pg=PA68|year=2001|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-86064-647-8|page=68}}</ref> while the South African Diplomatic Mission in Salisbury was also closed.<ref>[https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uMRYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=v5IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5283%2C3162778 Salisbury whites queue up to flee] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307210015/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=uMRYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=v5IDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5283%2C3162778 |date=7 March 2016 }}, ''[[The Age]]'', 8 July 1980</ref>
===Results===
The growing intensity of the civil war and a lack of international support eventually led the Rhodesian government to submit to an agreement with the UK in 1979. This led to internationally supervised elections, won by [[Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front]] and Robert Mugabe, establishing the internationally recognised [[Zimbabwe]].
== Culture ==
===Media===
The most influential newspapers in the country were the ''[[Rhodesia Herald]]'' in [[Harare|Salisbury]] and ''[[The Chronicle (Zimbabwe)|The Chronicle]]'' in [[Bulawayo]]. Following UDI, in 1976, the state-run [[Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation|Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC)]] took over the privately owned [[Rhodesia Television|Rhodesia Television (RTV)]] service, in which it had previously acquired a 51 percent stake.<ref>{{cite book|author=John R. Bittner|title=Broadcasting: An Introduction|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=T7MsAAAAMAAJ|year=1980|publisher=Prentice-Hall International|page=263|isbn=9780130835352}}</ref>
Among the news magazines published in Rhodesia under UDI were the ''[[Illustrated Life Rhodesia]]'', while ''The Valiant Years'' by Beryl Salt told the history of Rhodesia from 1890 to 1978 entirely through the medium of facsimile reproduction of articles and headlines from Rhodesian newspapers.<ref>{{cite book|author=Beryl Salt|title=The Valiant years|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3qpBAAAAYAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Galaxie Press|isbn=9780869250730|access-date=19 June 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151107182030/https://books.google.com/books?id=3qpBAAAAYAAJ|archive-date=7 November 2015|url-status=live }}</ref>
===Sports===
As Rhodesia was a former colony of the United Kingdom, all of the sports that were born in the United Kingdom enjoyed considerable popularity in Rhodesia; especially [[cricket]], [[rugby football|rugby]], [[water polo]], [[association football|football]], [[netball]], [[golf]], [[tennis]] (including the [[Rhodesian Open Tennis Championships]]), [[lawn bowls]], [[field hockey]], etc. Just like neighbouring South Africa, Rhodesia was barred from both competing against and participating with [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] member countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Little |first=Charles |date=2011 |title=The Sports Boycott Against Rhodesia Reconsidered |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/17430437.2011.546519 |journal=Sport in Society |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=193–207|doi=10.1080/17430437.2011.546519 |s2cid=143654494 }}</ref>
==Legacy==
{{Unreferenced section|date=January 2024}}
In the ten years after transforming into [[Zimbabwe]], around 60% of the white population emigrated, most to [[South Africa]] and to other mainly white, English-speaking countries where they formed immigrant communities. Politically within Zimbabwe, the consolidation of power by [[Robert Mugabe]] continued through the 1980s. Following amendments to the country's [[Constitution of Zimbabwe|constitution]] in 1987, parliamentary seats reserved for whites were abolished, and an executive presidency was created, held by [[Mugabe]]. Many {{Who?|date=October 2023}} immigrants and some of the whites who stayed in Zimbabwe became deeply nostalgic for Rhodesia. These individuals are known as "[[Rhodie]]s". Native whites who are more accepting of the new order are known as "Zimbos".{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}}
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03086534.2017.1370219 |doi=10.1080/03086534.2017.1370219|title=Pattern, Puzzle, and Peculiarity: Rhodesia's UDI and Decolonisation in Southern Africa|year=2017|last1=Law|first1=Kate|journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History|volume=45|issue=5|pages=721–728|s2cid=159738781}}
* {{cite book |last1=Michel |first1=Eddie |title=The White House and White Africa: Presidential Policy Toward Rhodesia During the UDI Era, 1965-1979 |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=978-1138319998}}
* {{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Nancy |title=Jimmy Carter in Africa: Race and the Cold War |date=2016 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford, California |isbn=978-0804793858}}
*{{cite book |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-54283-2 |doi=10.1007/978-3-030-54283-2|title=Southern Rhodesia–South Africa Relations, 1923–1953|year=2020|last1=Mlombo|first1=Abraham|isbn=978-3-030-54282-5|s2cid=226514581}}
*{{cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03057070.2016.1222796 |doi=10.1080/03057070.2016.1222796|title='More a Cause than a Country': Historiography, UDI and the Crisis of Decolonisation in Rhodesia|year=2016|last1=Nyamunda|first1=Tinashe|journal=Journal of Southern African Studies|volume=42|issue=5|pages=1005–1019|s2cid=152098914}}
*{{cite book |doi=10.4324/9780429020179-3|chapter=Money, Banking and Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence|title=The Decolonisation of Zimbabwe|year=2020|last1=Nyamunda|first1=Tinashe|pages=26–56|isbn=9780429020179|s2cid=242256859}}
*{{cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582473.2013.846935 |doi=10.1080/02582473.2013.846935|title=The Strange Death of 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia': The Question of British Recognition of the Muzorewa Regime in Rhodesian Public Opinion, 1979|year=2014|last1=Waddy|first1=Nicholas|journal=South African Historical Journal|volume=66|issue=2|pages=227–248|s2cid=159650816}}
*{{cite journal |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17532523.2017.1357323 |doi=10.1080/17532523.2017.1357323 |title=Free and Fair? Rhodesians Reflect on the Elections of 1979 and 1980 |year=2017 |last1=Waddy |first1=Nicholas L. |journal=African Historical Review |volume=49 |pages=68–90 |s2cid=159934527 }}
* {{cite book |last1=Watts |first1=Carl Peter |title=Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence: An International History |date=2012 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=978-1403979070}}
==External links==
{{sisterlinks|Rhodesia}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20100911004039/http://www.newrhodesian.net/ Rhodesian Bush War historical research / discussion forum]
*[https://www.theguardian.com/zimbabwe/article/0,2763,211420,00.html Ironing the lawn in Salisbury – the last days of Rhodesia] (The Guardian)
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/26/newsid_2535000/2535825.stm 1975 BBC report on the failure of negotiations between the Rhodesian government and the black nationalists]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061005025933/http://brookings.nap.edu/books/0815775938/html/147.html The Brookings Institution : Managing Ethnic Conflict in Africa – Rhodesia/Zimbabwe]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20120813050154/http://www.zwnews.com/3-Main%20Body.pdf Selby, Angus (2006) "Commercial Farmers and the State: Interest Group Politics and Land Reform in Zimbabwe, 1890–2005", PhD Thesis, Oxford University]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20130513032239/http://www.jrtwood.com/roll_of_honour.asp Rhodesia Roll of Honour] – Those who died in defence of UDI
*[http://www.a2oxford.info Rhodesian aviation and comment] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809162559/http://a2oxford.info/ |date=9 August 2020 }}
*[https://www.rhodesia.me.uk/ Window on Rhodesia – history archive]
===Audio and video===
*[http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/710000/audio/_711975_udi1965.ram Audio of Ian Smith's radio address announcing UDI]
*{{YouTube|U-Ne_ep2Qlo|2 years of independence, 1967 Rhodesian MoI film (7 mins)}}
*{{YouTube|pJPsD41qnA4|Rhodesia to Zimbabwe, collection of film clips (6 mins)}}
*{{YouTube|iYDg3ofh7dM|Songs of UDI, 3 songs from 1977 (9 mins)}}
{{Rhodesian topics}}
{{Commonwealth realms}}
{{Authority control}}
{{Coord|19|S|30|E|type:country|display=title}}
[[Category:1965 establishments in Africa]]
[[Category:1979 disestablishments in Africa]]
[[Category:Former countries]]
[[Category:Former countries in Africa]]
[[Category:Former republics]]
[[Category:Former territorial entities in Africa]]
[[Category:Former unrecognized countries]]
[[Category:Rhodesia| ]]
[[Category:Rhodesian Bush War]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1979]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1965]]
[[Category:White supremacy in Africa]]