Company rule in Rhodesia

Origins

In 1889 the British South Africa Company of Cecil Rhodes received a royal charter, based on the Rudd Concession from the Ndebele king Lobengula. Its Pioneer Column marched into Mashonaland and raised the flag at Fort Salisbury in September 1890. In 1893 the company conquered the Ndebele Kingdom.

Rule and society

The company ruled through administrators such as Leander Starr Jameson and William Milton, granting land and mining claims to settlers in hope of a second Witwatersrand that never appeared. The Ndebele and Shona risings of 1896-1897, the first Chimurenga, were suppressed. North of the Zambezi it governed North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia, later Northern Rhodesia.

Decline and legacy

Settlers resented company rule. In a 1922 referendum they rejected union with South Africa, and in 1923 Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing British colony; Northern Rhodesia passed to the Colonial Office in 1924, though the company kept mineral rights.