An independent projection placed Tsvangirai in the lead, but without the majority needed to avoid a second round. children—occurred late in the year. The government amended the Constitution in 1986, eliminating the voter rolls and replacing the white seats with seats filled by nominated members. Bishop Muzorewa, whose party won a majority in the elections of April [citation needed] Some families were removed to transit camps, where they had no shelter or cooking facilities and minimal food, supplies, and sanitary facilities. [61][62] The settlement of the Second Congo War brought back Zimbabwe's substantial military commitment, although some troops remain to secure the mining assets under their control. Wilson steered Britain clear of direct military involvement in the Vietnam War, though he gave verbal support to the U.S. war effort. BSAC concession seekers operated north of the Zambezi River, their territorial acquisitions being halted only in Katanga, by rivals financed by King Leopold II of Belgium. South Africa tried to deflect global disgust with its apartheid system by setting up autonomous tribal “homelands” for blacks, but no other government recognized them. Two years later Mugabe’s rule was under even greater threat during the country’s presidential elections. Newspapers were closed (bombed in one case), the state dominated print, radio and TV, voters were bought with food (and threatened with no food), the leader of the opposition, Morgan Tsvangirai, went through two treason trials and up to one million ghost voters were created on the ballot role. That month, sanctions were lifted and a cease-fire Zimbabwe, officially Republic of Zimbabwe, formerly (1911–64) Southern Rhodesia, (1964–79) Rhodesia, or (1979–80) Zimbabwe Rhodesia, landlocked country of southern Africa. Later that year Mugabe commissioned a report by the BBC on press freedom in Zimbabwe. social progress, but internal dissent became increasingly evident. Following elections held in February, Robert Mugabe became the it is believed that they were farmers, herdsmen, and hunters who lived [25] In 1895 the BSAC adopted the name 'Rhodesia' for the territory of Zambesia, in honour of Cecil Rhodes. Unsatisfied with a de facto one-party state, Mugabe called on the ZANU-PF Central Committee to support the creation of a de jure one-party state in September 1990 and lost. When Dutch trekboers converged on the Transvaal in 1836, they drove the tribe even further northward. Nkomo (ZAPU) left for exile in Britain and did not return until Mugabe guaranteed his safety. Rhodes is now rich beyond the reach of everyday imagination, but he wants this wealth for a very specific purpose. This experiment met with very mixed results and Zimbabwe fell further behind the first world and unemployment. The remains of ironworking cultures that date back to Omissions? Except for a small area of internal drainage in the dry southwest, these three rivers carry the entire runoff of the country to the Indian Ocean via Mozambique. December 1987. With all this and the forced and violent removal of white farmers in a brutal land redistribution program, Mugabe has earned himself widespread scorn from the international arena. with the growing radicalization of the Zimbabwe Confederation of Trade 1969. but under conditions of universal franchise and African majority rule. Meanwhile, the British government had begun new consultations on the The British government viewed UDI as illegal and providing for qualified majority rule and universal suffrage. low voter turnout. Rhodes, whose [74] Despite Tsvangirai's continuing claims to have won a first round majority, he refused to participate in the second round. , the San were driven out or killed, and the early ironworkers were The government's Fifth Brigade, trained by the Democratic [106] Emmerson Mnangagwa was sworn in as President on 24 November 2017. It is Europeans from southern Africa who later exert a profound influence. By 1978 Smith recognizes the need for concessions. Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. On Wednesday 15 November 2017 the military placed President Mugabe under house arrest and removed him from power. History . Hostilities ended with independence in 1980. These social policies lead to an increase in the debt ratio.Several laws were passed in the 1980s in an attempt to reduce wage gaps. Come the Bantu domination and the Shona people came, followed by the Nguni and Zulu tribes. The [60], The country, which used to be one of Africa's richest, became one of its poorest. for the government to purchase half of the mostly white-owned commercial As the economy sputtered, political opposition grew. Additionally Mugabe had started to appoint judges sympathetic to the government[citation needed], making any judicial appeal futile. [59] There was widespread hunger, manipulated by the government so that opposition strongholds suffer the most. This in turn brought with it further discontent within the population. Mzilikaze, had fled from the Zulus in South Africa. King Mzilikazi had established the Ndebele Kingdom, with Shona subjects paying tribute to him. ZUM, two seats; and ZANU-Ndonga, one seat. This political pressure from Rhodesia's African majority, combined with support for their cause from the United Nations, causes the federal government in 1961 to introduce a new constitution, allowing for African representation in Rhodesia's parliament. This latter kingdom is established by a ruler who is known as the Munhumutapa - a title adopted by all his successors. gold and ivory trade with the coast, and by the mid-15th century had The meagre mineral reserves in most soils imply an inherently low fertility; under cultivation, productivity drops rapidly after a few years. century, the southern part becoming the Urozwi Empire, which flourished recognize any acts by the illegal regime and condemned Portugal and Botha kept what was then called South West Africa/Namibia under South African domination in defiance of the UN, which had withdrawn the mandate it had granted…. Zimbabwe, a landlocked country in south-central Africa, is slightly smaller than California. Not surprisingly, they led to black opposition. I want emails from Lonely Planet with travel and product information, promotions, advertisements, third-party offers, and surveys. Sithole and his ZANU-PF blamed the MDC supporters for perpetrating this violence; Western governments and prominent Western organisations have blamed ZANU-PF for the violence which seems very likely to be true. [63], The regime has managed to cling to power by creating wealthy enclaves for government ministers, and senior party members. Since the 2002 election, Zimbabwe has suffered further economic difficulty and growing political chaos. A parliamentary election was due later that year. These division severely weakened the opposition. Naunihal Singh, an assistant professor at the U.S. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. As much as a ton of gold is sometimes extracted in a year. The educational system in Zimbabwe which was once regarded as among the best in Africa, went into crisis in 2007 because of the country's economic meltdown. In the 1950s and 1960s two African parties, the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) and the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), emerged, but it wasn’t long before they were banned and their leaders imprisoned. The government began further amending the constitution. farming land at below-market prices, without the right of appeal, in [65] On 4 December 2007, The United States imposed travel sanctions against 38 people with ties to President Mugabe because they "played a central role in the regime's escalated human rights abuses. A seam of gold, running along the highest ridge, shows signs of having been worked in at least four places before 1000 AD. resettlement of the landless (52,000 out of 162,000 landless families It is widely suspected that the underlying purpose in each case is to dissuade him from standing as a presidential candidate in 1996. In 1991, however, growing opposition abroad and Robert Moffat, Livingstone's father-in-law, established Inyati Hoping to win the support of the majority peasant population and pacify war veterans, he began violently confiscating land from white commercial farmers for resettlement by African farmers. Despite this, and the election being damned by the US and European Union as ‘neither free nor fair’, the MDC lost by a mere four seats. In 1962, however, with growing African nationalism and general dissent, the UK government declared that Nyasaland had the right to secede from the Federation; soon afterwards, they said the same for Northern Rhodesia. Another question is the branches of the Bantu languages which they spoke. Commonwealth suspended Zimbabwe for one year. In 1988, the law gave women, at least in theory, the same rights as men. [36][37] See also: Foreign relations of Zimbabwe. A meeting took place in Geneva in October 1976 between the British and Its grasslands make excellent grazing for cattle. There was the introduction of bond notes to literally fight the biting cash crisis and liquidity crunch. The white-settler government Land was given to ministers, party faithful and foreign friends. with the grant of rights, Rhodes was able to obtain a royal charter for signed an internal agreement with Muzorewa, Sithole, and other leaders, In 1837 the Boers, pressing north, drive the. The capital is Harare (formerly called Salisbury). Ancient granite formations mark the landscape of the Matopo Hills of southwestern Zimbabwe. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. Zimbabwe. A white legislature was set up, and European immigration began in earnest. Frelimo’s support for the…. The economy was run along corporatist lines with strict governmental controls on all aspects of the economy. 1897, Europeans were guaranteed unimpeded settlement. In the last quarter of the 19th century the driving force behind British colonial expansion in Africa is Cecil Rhodes. The BBC issued its report on 26 June, recommending the privatisation of the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation and its independence from political interests. February, voters soundly rejected the proposals much to the chagrin of In 1990 the government abolished the Senate and increased the House of Assembly's membership to include members nominated by the President. 1980-03-04 Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe African National Union - Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) comes to power, winning the parliamentary election in Zimbabwe, making Mugabe Zimbabwe's first black prime minister; 1980-04-18 Zimbabwe (formerly Southern Rhodesia) declares independence from UK; 1982-04-18 Zimbabwean capital Salisbury renamed Harare; 1982-07-10 Zimbabwe beats Bermuda by 5 wickets … However the head of the African Union described it as such. © a state media barrage, and intimidated the opposition. diplomatic pressures were mounting for Mugabe to abandon his survival