Harare small military force of the British South Africa Company, and named Fort Salisbury after the British prime minister Lord Salisbury. Company administrators demarcated the city and ran it until Southern Rhodesia achieved responsible government in 1923. Salisbury was thereafter the seat of the Southern Rhodesian (later Rhodesian) government and, between 1953 and 1963, the capital of the Central African Federation. It retained the name Salisbury until 1982, when it was renamed Harare on the second anniversary of Zimbabwean independence. Harare is Zimbabwe's leading political, financial, commercial, and communications centre, as well as a trade centre for tobacco, maize, cotton, and
Harare Province took the same name. Harare Province covers an area of , making it the 2nd-smallest province in Zimbabwe, after Bulawayo Metropolitan Province. It is situated in the northeastern part of the country, in the Mashonaland region. It is bordered to the north by Mashonaland Central Province, to the west by Mashonaland West Province, and to the east and south by Mashonaland East Province. Harare proper covers most of the province's area, while Chitungwiza and Epworth take up smaller areas of the province, both bordering Mashonaland East. Under the Köppen climate classification, Harare Province has a subtropical highland climate (Köppen "Cwb"),