The series of photos below were taken when Zimbabwe was still the “bread basket” of Africa, a fertile land in agriculture and rich in resources.
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| Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, was once considered an economic engine of Africa. Pictured here is a tobacco farm around 1900. |
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| Construction of farms, mines, and railways took place in Rhodesia in the late 1890s and early 1900s. Zimbabwe still has the world's third largest platinum reserves. |
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| British Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs Iain Macleod confronts independence protesters in Zimbabwe in March 1960. |
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| One of the mines in Zimbabwe circa 1899. Zimbabwe was named Rhodesia after British businessman and politician Cecil Rhodes. |
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| Morgan Mine in 1899. Rhodes built the mines and infrastructure on the one hand; on the other, he brutally suppressed native African uprisings. |
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| People cross the Zukerboschrand River in 1896. Zimbabwe's economic output during this period was impressive. |
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| Zimbabwe in the early 20th century was famous for its hunters. Here are some dead hippos in the Mlembo River. |
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| Captain Harding sits in front of a group of native soldiers in 1898. |
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| British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan visits the Kariba Dam in January 1960. Four years later, a white minority in southern Rhodesia seceded from Britain and established an apartheid regime similar to that of South Africa. |
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| A shop and passersby. The photo shows Zimbabwe's economy beginning to prosper in 1899. |
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| Indigenous Zimbabweans watch the auction. The country was once a major agricultural exporter. |
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| Workers lay railway tracks according to plans drawn up by Cecil Rhodes, near Broken Hill in 1900. |
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| Villagers in traditional clothes in 1910. |
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| The area of a coal mine built around 1910. |
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| Waihi Mine. |
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| British Prime Minister's wife Dorothy Macmillan visits a medical facility in Zimbabwe during her visit to Africa in 1960. |
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| Independence supporters gathered here in March 1960. |
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| Protesters block British government vehicles. |
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| Two oxcarts loaded with wheat in March 1960. Zimbabwe used to export wheat, tobacco and maize to the rest of Africa as well as to other continents. |
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| A white man poses with native Zimbabweans in front of a mud hut, 1910. |
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| Urban housing area in Salisbury (now Harare, capital of Zimbabwe) in 1900./. |
According to VOV
