# Victoria Falls Amalgamation Conference (1936)

URL: https://allhistories.com/zambia/timeline/1936-victoria-falls-amalgamation-conference
Location: Livingstone, Southern Province, Zambia
Themes: main-event

The Passfield Memorandum and the Hilton Young report had convinced Northern Rhodesia's settlers that they would never gain self-government on their own. During the depression their representatives looked increasingly to Southern Rhodesia, and after the 1935 Copperbelt strike all candidates in the Legislative Council election supported investigating amalgamation. In January 1936 the elected unofficial members of the Northern Rhodesian Legislative Council met representatives of the Southern Rhodesian political parties at Victoria Falls. The conference resolved in favour of amalgamation of the two territories 'under a constitution conferring the right of complete self-government'. The pressure for union came mainly from the Northern Rhodesians, while the Southern Rhodesian Labour Party was wary, and the British government was concerned about extending Southern Rhodesia's policies of job reservation and segregation to the north. The British government at first refused to appoint a royal commission, but under continued pressure from Godfrey Huggins, Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia, it agreed in 1937 to set up the Bledisloe Commission. African opinion, largely ignored at Victoria Falls, was overwhelmingly opposed to amalgamation, an opposition that would grow into the nationalist movement of the 1950s. At this point in the timeline (January 1936), the King of the United Kingdom and Emperor of India was George V (6 May 1910 – 20 January 1936); the Governor of Northern Rhodesia was Hubert Winthrop Young (7 January 1935 – July 1938).

## Why it matters
The 1936 conference made amalgamation with Southern Rhodesia the official goal of Northern Rhodesia's settler politicians.

Ruler at the Time: [George V](https://allhistories.com/zambia/rulers/george-v)

Governor of Northern Rhodesia: Hubert Winthrop Young

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Bledisloe Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bledisloe_Commission)
- [Wikipedia — Godfrey Huggins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Huggins)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Federation+of+Rhodesia+and+Nyasaland)
- [Wikipedia — Protectorate And Copperbelt (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Rhodesia)