In 1922, Southern Rhodesia – an area under British occupation and strongly multiracial – voted against joining the Union of South Africa as a fifth province or near-complete autonomy in a referendum. On 1 October 1923, the first Constitution for the new colony of Southern Rhodesia would come into force, according to which the country had the right to elect its own three-member legislature, prime minister and cabinet, although in matters of foreign policy the British The crown had the first say, and at the same time it had the right to veto measures that affected the natives.
In 1953, it merged with the two other British colonial states of Central Africa to form the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland – a union in which a central government was responsible for defense and economy. This federation would dissolve in 1963.
Having experienced relative economic growth throughout this time, the situation between the two governments – Rhodesia and Great Britain – in the early 1960s would become increasingly difficult, with the conflicts between the two sides now evident. More specifically, the Rhodesian government, which was mostly made up of members of the country’s white minority, did not agree with Britain’s decolonization policies. More specifically, he refused the principle “no independence before the rule of the majority”, as he believed that after about 40 years of self-government he had the right to complete independence, without any question of changing the situation as it was. Thus, in the two years 1964-1965 an impasse arose in the discussions between the Prime Ministers of Great Britain, Harold Wilson, and Rhodesia, Ian Smith.
Under these circumstances, Rhodesia would unilaterally proceed to the next step. On 11 November 1965, Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (or UDI) would be announced, with the approval of the Rhodesian Cabinet. Based on this movement, the British territory since 1923 was now an independent sovereign state.
“Kathimerini” published on its front page the 12her November the specific declaration and stressed that “it is very similar to the essential points of the American declaration of independence of 4her July 1776 which was adopted by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia”.
Naturally, both Great Britain and the Commonwealth considered this unilateral declaration illegal. But they were not the only ones. We read that “England and America do not recognize the new regime and will apply a series of sanctions”, while at the same time “a meeting of the Security Council” was requested by the group of African member countries of the UN “to examine the “threat against peace and security” ”, which was created following the declaration of independence under Rhodesia”. There were fears that it would cause “deep turmoil both within Africa and internationally with the risk of becoming a new Congo”. The United Nations would eventually impose, for the first time in its history, economic sanctions.
In the midst of almost complete international isolation, Rhodesia continued as an unrecognized state, but a civil war would later break out that would end in 1980, when the country gained internationally recognized independence as Zimbabwe.
Column Editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigone-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
