ZIMBABWE FROM COLONY TO TYRANNY

Late 1800s – Zimbabwe colonised by Cecil John Rhodes. The country was named Southern Rhodesia after him.

1889 – Rhodes’ British South Africa Company (BSA) gains a British mandate to colonise what becomes Southern Rhodesia.

1893 – Ndebele uprising against British South Africa rule is crushed.

1922 – BSA administration ends, the white minority opts for self-government.

1930-60s – Black opposition to colonial rule grows.

1964 – Ian Smith of the Rhodesian Front becomes prime minister and tries to persuade Britain to grant independence.

1965 – Smith unilaterally declares independence under white minority rule, sparking international outrage and economic sanctions.

1972 – Guerrilla war against white rule intensifies.

1979 – British-brokered all-party talks in London lead to a peace agreement and new constitution, which guarantees minority rights.

1980 – Veteran pro-independence leader Robert Mugabe (above) and his Zanu party win British-supervised independence elections. Mugabe is named prime minister. 1998 – Economic crisis accompanied by riots and strikes.

2002 – Mugabe re-elected in presidential elections condemned as seriously flawed by the opposition and foreign observers. Commonwealth suspends Zimbabwe from its councils for a year.

2002 – Around 2,900 white farmers ordered to leave their land.

2005 – The US brands Zimbabwe one of the world’s six “outposts of tyranny”.

2005 – Ruling Zanu-PF party wins two-thirds of the votes in parliamentary polls. Main opposition party says election was rigged.

2006 Inflation exceeds 1,000 per cent.

2008 – Zimbabwe declares national emergency over a cholera epidemic.

2010 – Indigenisation law forces foreign-owned businesses to sell majority stake to locals.

2013 – Presidential and parliamentary elections. Mugabe gains a seventh term in office and his Zanu-PF party three-quarters of the seats in parliament. The opposition MDC dismisses the polls as a fraud.

20017 – Mugabe resigns days after the military takes control. Emmerson Mnangagwa becomes president.