Description
PRE-ORDER NOW - Published: 19/01/2026
First published in 1977, A History of Rhodesia is a history of the origins and course of modern European occupation of `Southern Rhodesia', `Rhodesia' as it has been termed since the old `Northern Rhodesia' became independent under the name Zambia in 1963. Robert Blake describes the years of the Monomotapa; the Portuguese occupation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries; the Ndebele kingdom of the nineteenth century; the advent of Cecil Rhodes and the establishment of the Chartered Company which ruled Rhodesia until 1922; the period Southern Rhodesia enjoyed a self-governing colony from 1923 to 1951; the years of the Central African Federation from 1953 to its dissolution in 1963; and finally the dramatic course of events which led to Ian Smith's government making a unilateral declaration of independence in 1965. The years since UDI are covered by a long epilogue that takes the story forward to the early months of 1977. Rhodesian history is a strange and intriguing compound of romance, idealism, courage, arrogance, avarice and accident. Rhodesia's story is not only that of economic, political, ideological and external forces which have shaped it-it is also that of the individuals who made-or failed to make decisions: Rhodes, Lobengula, Jameson, Lord Malvern, Roy Welensky, Garfield Todd, Joshua Nkomo, Ian Smith. Written with access to many collections of papers not normally available to historians, Robert Blake's book is a major contribution to the history of colonial and post-colonial Africa.Binding: Paperback / softback