The
Unilateral Declaration of Independence (
UDI) was a statement adopted by the
Cabinet of
Rhodesia on 11 November 1965, announcing that Rhodesia, a British territory in southern Africa that had
governed itself since 1923, now regarded itself as an independent
sovereign state. The culmination of a protracted dispute between the British and Rhodesian governments regarding the terms under which the latter could become fully independent, it was the first unilateral break from the United Kingdom by one of its colonies since the
United States Declaration of Independence nearly two centuries before. Britain, the
Commonwealth and the
United Nations all deemed Rhodesia's UDI illegal, and economic sanctions, the first in the UN's history, were imposed on the breakaway colony. Amid near-complete international isolation, Rhodesia continued as an
unrecognised state with the assistance of South Africa and Portugal.