Final answer:
Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, was named and administered as a British colony with internal white minority self-government around 1923, following British colonial consolidation. It wasn't until 1980 that Zimbabwe achieved full independence after a civil conflict and the end of minority rule.
Step-by-step explanation:
The country known as Zimbabwe today was once the British colony of Southern Rhodesia. This region experienced significant colonial activity from British interests in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The British South Africa Company, led by Cecil Rhodes, initially administered the territory, and in 1923, Southern Rhodesia was officially named as such, after Rhodes himself. This governance was under the ambit of the British Empire but granted a form of white minority self-government. It was only in 1980 that the nation, after a protracted struggle for majority rule and civil conflict, achieved full independence and became known as Zimbabwe.
Before independence, Southern Rhodesia went through periods of maneuvering for self-governance and even an attempt at unilateral declaration of independence in 1965 by the white minority leadership. This rogue move was met with sanctions by the United Nations and was not recognized internationally. South Rhodesia became a British colony with internal self-government around the period after Britain consolidated power post-Boer Wars, specifically in the year after 1910 when the British Empire reorganized and granted nominal autonomous governance to white settlers in the region.