Nyasaland

Nyasaland was a British protectorate in south-eastern Africa, existing from 1907 until independence in 1964. It was formed when the British Central Africa Protectorate, established in the 1890s, was renamed Nyasaland on 6 July 1907. The territory was administered by a governor with an executive and legislative council, and Zomba served as the administrative capital, while Blantyre became the chief commercial town. Mission schools and plantation agriculture shaped the colonial economy, and the territory remained one of the poorest in the region. Colonial policy alienated large areas of African communal land to European estates, and in 1915 the Reverend John Chilembwe led an unsuccessful rising against forced labour and racial discrimination. From 1953 to 1963 Nyasaland was joined with Northern and Southern Rhodesia in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, an arrangement widely opposed by Africans. After the federation dissolved, Nyasaland became independent on 6 July 1964 and was renamed Malawi, with Zomba as its first capital.