MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Zambia

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Zambia, on the map of history

What was Zambia before it was Zambia? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Zambia · The Great War, 1914–1918

OPEN WWI ON THE LIVING MAP →

Zambia · The Cold War, 1945–1991

OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →

Zambia (N. Rhodesia) · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Northern Rhodesia became independent Zambia in October 1964 under Kenneth Kaunda, its economy built entirely on Copperbelt mining. Kaunda made Lusaka a haven for southern Africa’s liberation movements — the ANC, ZAPU, SWAPO — and paid the economic and military price of being a frontline state. When copper prices collapsed, so did the one-commodity economy independence had inherited.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →