Northern Rhodesia

Northern Rhodesia (English Northern Rhodesia) was a British protectorate formed in 1911 in south-central Africa, which gained independence as Zambia in 1964. Northern and Southern Rhodesia were named after Cecil Rhodes, the prime minister of the Cape Colony, who took possession of these territories for the British Crown in 1891 under a treaty of protection.

Rhodes' British South Africa Company had separately made Northwest Rhodesia as well as Northeast Rhodesia protectorate territories of the Company through treaties with rulers of the Lozi as well as the Bemba and Chewa. In 1911 they were placed under joint administration as Northern Rhodesia. In 1924, the state assumed sovereign rights and henceforth governed the country as a British protectorate.

Copper mining and smelting began in 1931 in Kapiri Mposhi, adjacent to what later became the Copperbelt. After a setback during the Great Depression, it was taken up on a large scale with migrant workers from Tanganyika. From 1935 there were repeated mass strikes by black miners and smelters in the Copperbelt, and later the first free trade unions, the African Mineworkers Union (AMU), of African workers. Like-minded people founded the Northern Rhodesian African National Congress party under Harry Nkumbula in 1948.

In 1953, the two Rhodesias were united with Nyassaland, now Malawi, to form the Central African Federation, which, however, dissolved in 1963, partly due to the resistance of the ANC, strongly supported by the Tonga in the south, and the newly formed, more energetic United National Independence Party (UNIP) under Kenneth Kaunda, based more strongly on the northern Bemba. The country was given internal autonomy. Kaunda won the elections with his UNIP and became president.

Northern Rhodesia was granted independence as Zambia on 24 October 1964 under its last governor, Sir Evelyn Hone.

See also

• History of Zambia