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1948 Southern Rhodesia General Election
General elections were held in Southern Rhodesia on 15 September 1948. They saw Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins regain the overall majority he had lost in the previous elections in 1946. Huggins' United Party won a landslide, reducing the opposition Liberal Party to a small minority. Background The 1946 election had left the United Party in a precarious position in an overall minority in the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly, and reliant on the support of the Rhodesia Labour Party. Huggins was therefore seeking an opportunity to re-establish an overall majority. However, Huggins knew from his experience in 1934 that he needed to justify asking for a dissolution of the Assembly and a general election, as the Governor was not necessarily willing to grant one merely because it had been asked for. Early in 1948, Huggins made his move by proposing that his own United Party merge with the opposition Liberal Party (which was a right-wing organisation). He then went to the Legisl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Southern Rhodesia
Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as south Zambesia until annexed by Britain at the behest of Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company, for whom the colony was named. The bounding territories were Bechuanaland (Botswana), Northern Rhodesia (Zambia), Moçambique (Mozambique), and the Transvaal Republic (for two brief periods instead the British Transvaal Colony, from 1910 the Union of South Africa, and then from 1961 the Republic of South Africa). This southern region, known for its extensive gold reserves, was first purchased by the BSAC's Pioneer Column on the strength of a Mineral Concession extracted from its Matabele overlord, Lobengula, and various majority Mashona vassal chiefs in 1890. Though parts of the territory were laid claim to by the Bechuana and Po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |