Northern Rhodesia was intensely unpopular among the vast African majority and its formation hastened calls for majority rule. As a result of this pressure, the country became independent in 1964 as Zambia. The geographical, as opposed to political, term "Rhodesia" referred to a region generally comprising the areas that are today Zambia and Zimbabwe. From 1964, it only referred to the former Southern Rhodesia. The name "Rhodesia" was derived from Cecil John Rhodes, the British capitalist and empire-builder who was a guiding figure in British expansion north of the Limpopo River into south-central Africa. Rhodes pushed British influence into the region by
Northern Rhodesia Police destroyed the German Fleet on Lake Tanganyika. In May 1916 all five NRP companies crossed into German East Africa. Combined with the two BSAP companies, in what was misnamed the Southern Rhodesia Column under Lieutenant Colonel R. E. Murray , played a full part in driving the enemy out of Tanganyika. In December 1917 the NRP troops in the field were reorganised into four double companies as the Northern Rhodesia Police Service Battalion. Meanwhile the CID and Town Police had kept on with their work back home. They obtained nearly twice as many convictions in 1917 as in 1914. In