Rhodesia was the common name of the erstwhile British colony of Southern Rhodesia between the renaming of Northern Rhodesia as Zambia in 1964 and the establishment of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia in 1979. After a brief return to colonial status as Southern Rhodesia from 1979 to 1980 the country became the independent nation of Zimbabwe in April 1980. The country is landlocked and located in southern Africa. It was governed by predominantly white Settler Governments until 1979, initially as a self governing colony then, after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence as a self proclaimed sovereign Dominion and latterly a Republic. The colony was named after Cecil Rhodes, whose British South Africa Company acquired the land in the nineteenth century. The colony gained internationally-recognized independence from Britain in 1980 and became the Republic of Zimbabwe. Before 1964 the name "Rhodesia" on its own referred to the territory of today's Zambia and Zimbabwe.