The territory of modern Zimbabwe had been colonised by the British South Africa Company in 1890, with the Pioneer Column raising the Union Jack over Fort Salisbury (modern-day Harare) and formally establishing company, and by extension, British, rule over the territory.
[2] A settler culture that had already existed since the time of company would come to cement fully and the white population began to identify as Rhodesians, often in conjunction with British/Afrikaner/Southern European identities of their ancestors.
The UK had opted to decolonise Africa and had adopted a firm policy of no independence before majority rule, which deeply upset the white establishment of the colony, in particular the radical Rhodesian Front party led by Winston Field and later, Ian Smith.
[6] The move was met with zero recognition (bar Apartheid South Africa and Portugal, both of whom never formally recognised Rhodesia as a sovereign state and only tacitly cooperated with them) from the international community and the UK government and the illegitimate state was still formally considered under British sovereignty for its roughly 15-year span of existence.
Given her refusal to appoint a Governor-general, from 1965 to 1970, an "Officer Administering the Government", Clifford Dupont served as the de facto head of state instead of the legal Governor of Rhodesia, Sir Humphrey Gibbs.
After a brief stint as the nation of Zimbabwe Rhodesia following an Internal Settlement that was denounced by the international community for not being satisfactory enough, the nation transiently reverted to its status as a self-governing British colony before being granted full independence and majority rule as Zimbabwe in 1980 under the landmark Lancaster House Agreement.
[10] Relations between the UK and Zimbabwe in the two decades directly following independence were close and friendly, as a large amount of the British descended white settlers remained in the country (though there was some exodus, but not overly significant) and continued to serve in important positions in politics, business, media, law and most notably agriculture.
This, coupled with British government's strong condemnation of various human rights abuses committed by Mugabe against opposition groups led to a severe collapse in relations between the two nations.
Mugabe proceeded to engage in a mass eviction of white landowners from their farms, which directly led to the collapse of Zimbabwean economy, national food supply and agricultural exports.
[18][19][20] In light of this, relations between the UK and Zimbabwe have been slowly improving under Mnangagwa, and the country applied to rejoin the Commonwealth in 2018 after its 2003 withdrawal.
Mugabe kept several British advisors around him during the early part of his rule, including Lord Soames who he formed a friendship with.
When white South African mercenaries were sent by the government of Apartheid South Africa to sabotage equipment in Zimbabwe and effect a breakout of prisoners at a Zimbabwean prison, Thatcher shared crucial intelligence with Mugabe which allowed the Zimbabwean authorities to apprehend the offenders and thwart their efforts.
later in 1988, Mugabe was hosted by Thatcher at Chequers, where the two had talks described as "almost gossipy" in what was called an “excellent atmosphere"; both leaders were actively determined to repair relations from that point forward.
About these communities Thatcher commented "The land settlement scheme we saw this morning seemed to us extremely good in every way, not only for the variety of agriculture and the kind of village and rural life they were having, but also the education they were giving in the schools and the health service which they received.
She agreed and on a Sunday evening at Downing Street the two sat and talked informally about the world and life like old friends – she sipping whisky and he water.
The previous prime ministers of Margaret Thatcher and John Major had both supported helping Zimbabwe financially to redress colonial era imbalances in landownership, however the government of Tony Blair disagreed with this approach and withdrew the funding.
[32] After this Mugabe engaged in his controversial land-reform program, in which the predominantly white farm owners were forced off their lands along with their workers, who were typically of regional descent.
On 18 February 2002, the European Union announced a travel ban on Robert Mugabe, which prohibited him from entering the United Kingdom .
He welcomed politicians and business leaders from the UK to engage with Zimbabwe saying "Our quarrel with Britain is over" and that "we have opened our doors to old and new friends.