Editing Rhodesia (section)

===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 British government 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>