Flag of Rhodesia the Federation, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland became the independent states of Zambia and Malawi respectively. Southern Rhodesia became known simply as Rhodesia, although its legal name remained the Colony of Southern Rhodesia. In April 1964 Rhodesia adopted a light air force ensign with the shield from the coat of arms of Rhodesia in the fly. This was the first time the lighter shade of blue ensign was used by a British colony, although Fiji and Tuvalu both adopted the colour after independence. Following the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) on 11 November 1965, the flag was retained, but three years
Northern Rhodesia cattle farming in Barotseland, but Northern Rhodesia had attracted little white settlement, in contrast to its southern neighbour. Unlike Southern Rhodesia, which had seen a flood of fortune-seeking prospectors seeking to set up independent mines, Northern Rhodesia's mining policy was to agree large-scale deals with major commercial mining companies. Large-scale mining on the Northern Rhodesian Copperbelt started after 1924 and was mainly financed from the United States of America and South Africa. Chester Beatty's and Sir Edmund Davis's Selection Trust already had an interest in the fairly small Bwana Mkubwa copper mine, which had opened in 1901 on the site