Residents of the Republic of Zimbabwe celebrate Independence Day on April 18. On this day in 1980, the independence of the State of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia was recognized, after independence it became known simply as Zimbabwe.
The Republic of Zimbabwe is located in the southern part of Africa and is located between the Victoria Falls, the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It borders South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Zambia, and has no access to the sea. In ancient times, there was a very powerful Monomotapa empire on the territory of Zimbabwe.
This empire was founded by the Gokomere people — the ancestors of the current Shona, who represent the vast majority of the population of Zimbabwe. When in the XV century the local lands were discovered by the Portuguese, The monomotapa covered almost the entire modern Zimbabwean territory, as well as part of Mozambique, but as a result of clashes with the Portuguese navigators who arrived, the empire fell.
By the 17th century, some of the Shona tribes that had previously inhabited Monomotapa had united again, creating the Rozvi Empire. The united tribes managed to expel the Portuguese and live peacefully, but in the middle of the XIX century the Ndebele tribes began to move here, besides, after the discovery of gold reserves, the territory of Zimbabwe in the same period fell into the zone of interests of Great Britain.
In 1889, the British South African Company was able to obtain the right to develop vast territories within the borders of present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia, and in 1895, the troops of this company entered Mashonaland. As a result, this was the beginning of British colonization Southern and Northern Rhodesia.
The black population tried to rebel against British rule, but the technological gap was huge, so the uprising was suppressed. And since the beginning of the twentieth century, the settlement of Southern Rhodesia by white residents began. They expressed their desire to remain within the British Empire in a referendum in 1922, while no one thought to ask the black population.
After the end of the Second World War, the destruction of the colonial system began. In many of the newly independent former African colonies, power passed to the black majority, but in South Africa, power passed to the white minority, and London refused to give independence to Southern Rhodesia until this changed.
However, the Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia Ian Smith declared independence from Great Britain anyway on November 11, 1965. It was not recognized by the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth of Nations, or the UN. Economic sanctions were imposed on Southern Rhodesia.
The government of Ian Smith pursued a policy of segregation in the country. Representatives of the oppressed black population began an armed guerrilla struggle. To avoid a full-scale civil war, Smith began negotiations with moderate black leaders.
After the Lancasterhouse Conference in December 1979, power in the country was temporarily transferred to the British governor, and on April 18, 1980, Zimbabwe’s independence was officially recognized.
A source : https://anydaylife.com/calendar/1908 © Anydaylife.com
