Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, also not officially Central African Federation, was a semi - independent state in southern Africa that existed from 1953 until the end of 1963. He covered the previous British colony Rhodesia and the Protectorates Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland with a total of 1,262,986 km ².

The unofficial name of the Central African Federation for actually lying in the southern Africa region goes back to never implemented plans from the 1880s for a British Central Africa, which in addition to the two Rhodesia and Njasslands also parts of present-day Democratic Republic of Congo should include.

Formation

1927, the proportion of blacks and whites 38,200 to 922,000 in Southern Rhodesia, 4000 to 1,000,000 in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1700 to 1,350,000. 1946, Southern Rhodesia 80,500 to 1,640,000 White Black, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland 20,000 to 1,600,000 2,300 2,340,000 to.

On 8 November 1950, the first negotiations for a federal state for Rhodesia and Nyasaland started. While many contentious issues have been resolved in the following negotiations, some turned out to be almost insurmountable. Without the continued commitment of the Deputy Under Secretary of the Colonial Office, Sir Andrew Cohen, it would hardly come to an agreement.

Cohen, who was Jewish, was still under the impression of the Holocaust, was an anti-racist and advocate of African rights. He feared that Southern Rhodesia could come into the orbit of the racist South Africa, and therefore worked on the Federation out, which should reduce this risk. Southern Rhodesia and the northern areas had very different traditions of what the negotiations even more difficult.

Foundation

The Federation was formed on 1 August 1953. The aim of the British Government was to form a State which trod a middle ground between the black -ruled states, and those who remained under white governments. The Federation eventually failed because the black nationalists demanded more influence than the whites wanted to concede. The heads of government of the state were the Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Martin Huggins 1953-1956 and Sir Roy Welensky from 1956 until the dissolution of the Federation. The parliament consisted of a " Federal Assembly" said chamber, composed of elected partly and partly appointed members.

The Federation

The Federation had five branches of government: the Federation, three territorial and one British. Huggins gave up his position as Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia to become Prime Minister of the Federation. Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia was now Sir Garfield Todd.

Despite the convoluted government structure, the Federation grew economically. After the first year, the gross domestic product consisted of 350 million pounds. After two years this had grown to 450 million pounds. Against the advice of economists, the construction of the Kariba Dam was completed in 1955 announced a project that had a circumference of 78 million pounds and the emergence of the world's biggest artificial lake at the time of the Lake Kariba meant. Proposals, instead, to build a cheap and economically far more profitable dam in the Shire in Nyasaland were dropped, presumably because the mainly black population would have benefited from this project.

Nyasaland had no important mineral deposits. In contrast, rich in Northern Rhodesia copper deposits were present.

Dissolution of the federation

During the Congo crisis, the Prime Minister of the Federation Roy Welensky was viewed more and more as the arch-reactionary, which was underlined by his support of Katanga separatism.

1962 had both the British as well as the Parliament of the Federation of separation Njassalands agreed, but the südrhodesische Prime Minister Sir Edgar Whitehead had asked the British to secrecy until after the elections in 1962. A year later, the same status of Northern Rhodesia was awarded what the end of the Federation sealed in the immediate future.

This was despite the fact that shortly before the new Commonwealth Secretary Duncan Sandys had negotiated a document which provided regarding the decision-making in the Federation as a new Constitution of the Federation largely reduced rights in Britain.

A last attempt to save the Federation, but ultimately the Forum to its resolution - - On 5 July 1963, the Victoria Falls conference came to an end and its result was that the Federation was practically gone. Only the distribution of the remaining assets items remained as the last formality.

On December 31, 1963, the Federation was formally dissolved and its possessions were divided among the individual governments, with the majority of Southern Rhodesia, in particular the army stocks received. Northern Rhodesia became Zambia and Nyasaland as shortly thereafter as Malawi 's independence from Britain. The remaining area of ​​Southern Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe was then called Rhodesia. It declared in 1965 under the leadership of Ian Smith and his Rhodesian Front unilateral independence.

The legacy of the Federation

The decade-long federation may remain a footnote in the history of the 20th century, its influence on Central Africa but was not insignificant.

The British influence and British affiliated Federation was in contrast to the only other regional power, the clear racist Republic of South Africa. The dissolution of the Federation produced the independent holding managed by Africans countries Malawi and Zambia, while Southern Rhodesia remained until independence in 1980 under the rule of the white minority, with a lot of the time was marked by civil war. Following the unilateral declaration of independence a deepening conflict between the African nationalists supportive Zambia and South Africa supported Southern Rhodesia, where there was some heated rhetoric and occasionally open military hostilities arose.