On this day, November 11, 1965, Rhodesia declared a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from Great Britain.
This marked the first separation from Britain by a colony since the US in 1776.
The slowdown was modeled after a US statement.
The declaration was born out of British demands for majority rule in Rhodesia.
The Rhodesians refused, as in their opinion, relinquishing political control meant the takeover of the country by Marxist revolutionary movements.
Britain condemned the independence move as a rebellion. The UN responded by imposing sanctions.
Despite the isolation, the Rhodesians chose to fight to keep the revolutionary movements away from the country.
This led to the brutal Bush War. For over a decade they fought it in a grueling guerrilla war against several Marxist forces that attacked them from all sides.
The war ended in 1979 during the Lancaster House Agreement, which abolished the UDI, and Britain set the stage for the new country of Zimbabwe to declare independence in April 1980.