Barotseland
pre 1900 		History of Southern Africa







History of the Northwestern Rhodesia Protectorate, 1900-1911



Following treaties signed by King LEWANIKA of Barotseland with Cecil Rhodes' BRITISH SOUTH AFRICA COMPANY, the area was proclaimed a British Protectorate under the name of NORTHWESTERN RHODESIA; the protectorate extended beyond the borders of Barotseland, including territories which were Lunda kingdoms. The border to Angola was fixed in a treaty with Portugal in 1891 and again, by King Victor Emmanuel of Italy, in 1905; the border to the Congo Free State also by treaty in 1891. The seat of administration was first KALOLO; it was moved to LIVINGSTONE in 1907, located on the banks of the Zambezi river.
The colonial administration was most interested in opening up the COPPER BELT region. A railway line was built, from LIVINGSTONE to NDOLA, opened by 1909, to facilitate the export of copper.
The border between North Western Rhodesia and North Eastern Rhodesia was first fixed along the Kafue River (1899), in 1905 moved to the waist-line between Katanga Province and the Zambezi River.
The British South Africa Company, from the start, had little interest in preserving the territorial entity of Barotseland, which, however, maintained a greater degree of political autonomy than any other entity in Central Africa which had become a protectorate. In 1911 the protectorates of NORTH WESTERN RHODESIA and of NORTH EASTERN RHODESIA were formally joined to form the Protectorate of Northern Rhodesia.





EXTERNAL
FILES 		Articles from Infoplease : Western Province (of Zambia), Zambia, History of
Historical Notes on Northern Rhodesia, from Great North Road 'official' account from a 1936/37 Johannesburg Exhibition Catalogue
DOCUMENTS Flag of the British South Africa Company, from FOTW
Map of 1913 on African Religions, from J.G. Bartholomew, Literary and Historical Atlas of Africa and Australasia, 1913, from Perry Castaneda Library, UTexas; shows concentration of mission stations (within N. Rhodesia) in Barotseland
REFERENCE John J. Grotpeter, Historical Dictionary of Zambia, Metuchen : Scarecrow 1979
Article : British Central Africa, in : Statesman's Year Book 1898 p.178 [G]
Article : Rhodesia, in : Statesman's Year Book 1910 pp.189-194 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on August 22nd 2007

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