Editing Rhodesia (section)

== 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. 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.