Wilson and Rhodesia: UDI and British Policy Towards Africa

This article examines the policy of Wilson and his government in dealing with the Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Ian Smith's Rhodesian white minority government in November 1965. This was a major challenge to a liberal, democratising programme of decolonisation and led to British and then United Nations sanctions against Rhodesia. The article argues that Wilson was compelled by contradictory pressures to adopt an equivocal policy towards UDI; while this avoided potential serious consequences for the British economy and British diplomacy, it left unresolved questions of Rhodesia's future which were decided by Zimbabwe's liberation war in the 1970s.