Why did Rhodesia Declare Independence?

Support this channel on Patreon

Sources & Affiliates
Robert Blake, A History of Rhodesia (1977)
Ian Douglas Smith, Bitter Harvest: Zimbabwe and the Aftermath of its Independence (2008)
Harold Macmillan, Pointing the Way 1959-1961, (1972)
Harold Macmillan, At the End of the Day, (1973)
Harold Wilson, The Labour Government 1964-1970: A Personal Record, (1971)
Bishop Abel Tendekai Muzorewa, Rise Up and Walk (1978)
Lawrence Vambe, From Rhodesia to Zimbabwe (1976)
Robin Palmer, Land and Racial Domination in Rhodesia (1977)

Guest Voices
@OldBritannia
@Bamise
@CivilWarWeekByWeek
@SomasAcademy
@Soliloquy084

Try a free month of Skillshare to learn new skills!

Try out Workona for your research projects!

Try out Dodoist Pro!

Check The Casual Historian Merch Stores

Give a one time contribution on PayPal

Buy me a book from my Amazon Wish List

Check Out the Blog

Check Out My History of the Modern Middle East Podcast

This page contains affiliate links. If you choose to purchase after clicking a link, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you

[donaldwobamajr]

After going from a Gaddafi video to a Rhodesia video, I can only conclude that Causal Historian is determined to trigger the entire political spectrum.

[gabrielethier]

It's nice to see that Zimbabwe manage to move past it's bad history, now everyone's a trillionaire

[loopwithers]

A big salute to you for including contemporary published quotes. This hugely adds to contextualising and revealing the thinking behind hugely wrong headed political and business decisions.

[glendodds]

Ian Smith and Robert Mugabe both went to universities in South Africa because at the time there was no university in Southern Rhodesia.

[shinrapresident]

I am Rhodesian and was born in '79. My family are beekeepers, tended to farms and owned a meadery. My father had a Master's degree in entomology while I have a Bachelor's degree in the same field. My father introduced beekeeping to the local cotton farms and demonstrated that not only did quantity increase but quality along with it. My father then made mead(honeywine) with his harvests(which is always shared with the farm owners) and exported it to South Africa. Now the government is spending $3.5 billion USD to bring us farmers back. I am my father's heir, so I was offered $6.5 million USD and 83 acres of land to return and teach apiculture.

[bigfungus]

Thank you for making such in depth videos about relatively hard to learn of or obscure moments in our recent past,
Most people don't even know what Rhodesia was let alone the history of it.

Your series on Lebanon was one of the greatest binges I went on for history videos, I just want to say thanks and I look forward to the quality content you've made.

[Soliloquy]

Fun fact, when I recorded that Garfield Todd quote I was somewhat sick, so I sound awful. I now regret not finding time to redo it.

[ianhall]

Why did Rhodesia declare independence". Because South Africa's Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd advised Ian Smith to settle with Britain, but South Africa would support Ian Smith if he declared independence. Verwoerd himself was slain by one of the servants the next year in 1966.

[Hochspitz]

What was not touched on in this video is just how complicated the tribal system was. There were four main tribes, the Shona being by far the largest in population and covering the largest land area and from which Mugabe hailed. The second most powerful were the Matabele (Ndebele) of whom Nkomo was their leader, lived in the surrounding territory of Bulawayo, Rhodesia's 2nd largest city. All 4 major tribes spoke different languages which also caused certain barriers and their history, before white settlement was not, dare I say, based on "Love thy neighbour."
Mzilikazi, a Zulu warrior commander much revered in Shaka's army took his forces north after shafting Shaka for whatever reason. (Most likely stealing cattle). He didn't under estimate Shaka's wrath and thus employed a total scorched earth policy in his wake so that Shaka could not follow him and exact retribution. Upon arriving in Bulawayo, Mzilikazi found a very placid, peaceful Shona people, slaughtered them all and founded his new seat of power, Matabeleland. For a long time he waged war against the Shona, stealing their villages and livestock and expanding his sphere of influence.
It is true that British colonial rule wherever they went around the world, just like other countries in Europe, used and abused the native peoples but to be fair to Rhodes, he did put a halt to Matabele incursions and broker an uneasy peace between the the tribes
So it not surprising that Nkomo (who considered himself a direct descendant of Mzilikazi whether true or not) was ever going to ally with Mugabe and why Nkomo chose Soviet Union whilst Mugabe chose China, two mega powers that weren't friends either and both of which also had their eyes set on Africa as Great Britain, Belgium, France and Portugal were being forced out.
Ian Smith might have been a naive politician but I do believe he tried to be the best statesman he could be for the country that was considered the bread basket of Africa.
It is also worth noting that one of the first things Mugabe did upon coming to power was for all intents and purposes the mass genocide of the Ndelebe people, thus ensuring no opposition for his foreseeable future.

[demokrative]

A very well made informative video of how the political landscape looked like up until Rhodesian Independence. As I have a bit of prior knowledge into the matter. This was the best video on the subject so far. Well done! New subscribe!

[arunavio]

They gave Rhodesia to the hands of Mugabe who took it to the ruins .. if they had still gone with Ian Smith post transition, Zimbabwe would have on a growth path unmatched in the southern hemisphere .

[Lion_Heart_Zimbabwe]

Speaking as a white Zimbabwean of British stock, I congratulate you on how well and accurate your video was presented. Unfortunately, it was a sad piece of history that we all wish we could have done better. Rhodesia was one of the best run and successful nations in Earth's history with a great leader and government, a successful economy and good, kind people of both British ( as well as other Europeans ) and Africans. However, our government was too strict on the racial policy. While I believe the Western powers had a negative agenda on controlling our country's resources, we should have integrated Africans into our government with equal freedoms sooner, thus preventing the Bush War. All we need now is forgiveness, compassion for both our sides, peace, friendship and loving-kindness. The past is long dead. We need to move forward and work together to build a new, better country out of the ashes.

[martinhumphreys]

That was so incredibly informative. Thank you!

[dsullivan]

Love your videos, always incredibly informative without ever being boring. Also you can see your health and fitness effort is paying dividends, looking great.

[pixeldunevisualization]

Excellent Video as usual. love your unbiased stance!

[kevanhubbard]

I went there when it was still Rhodesia in 1973.We were flying with South African Airways London to Johannesburg and the plane, a Boeing 747, refueled in Las Palmas and then Salisbury, Rhodesia.SAA couldn't fly over most African countries so went down the coast to what was then South West Africa and cut inland.The name Rhodesia lives on in the dog, the Rhodesian Ridgeback which is sort of like a Great Dane type dog.

[camloff]

In Portuguese colonial Mozambique we appreciated very much important rich products and very good meat South Rhodesians produced and exported to us. Now it is Zimbabwe and it is kaput ...

[theshirehighlander]

Being from Nyasaland myself, this just paints a very colorful picture of how things were like. The book excerpts just whetting my appetite for which books to read. Your research is better than nothing I have ever come across. Keep on doing the great work.

[skiesboi]

I'm a Zimbabwean, and I'd be very happy to help you with pronunciation of our names, because it's driving me nuts:
Sithole is pronounced Si-TO-le
Nkomo was from the Nde-BE-le nation (I hardly recognised what you said), and there were a few others.

I find this a shame as I think that you did a really good documentary about a history that I think is too often cherry-picked to shore up people's ideology. So well done for that.

[Mman]

I've been interested in this topic for years now and I have to say this is a really good and well put together video