title: Rhodesia

text: As early as 1960, minority rule in Southern Rhodesia was already being challenged by a rising tide of political violence led by black African nationalists such as Joshua Nkomo and Ndabaningi Sithole. A sustained period of civil unrest between 1960 and 1965 further polarised relations between the government and the increasingly militant black nationalists. After their public campaigns were initially suppressed, many black nationalists believed that negotiation was completely incapable of meeting their aspirations. Petrol bombings by politicised radicals became increasingly common, with the "Zimbabwe Review" observing in 1961, "for the first time home-made petrol bombs were used by freedom fighters in Salisbury against settler establishments." Between January and September 1962, nationalists detonated 33 bombs and were implicated in 28 acts of arson, and 27 acts of sabotage against communications infrastructure. The nationalists also murdered a number of black Rhodesians who were accused of collaboration with the security forces. Nkomo's party, the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) announced that year that it had formed a military wing, the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) and "the decision to start bringing in arms and ammunition and to send young men away for sabotage training" had already been implemented. As early as 1960, ZAPU's predecessor, the National Democratic Party (NDP), had established informal contacts with the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, and discussed the possibility of obtaining military training in Eastern Europe for its members. In July 1962, Nkomo visited Moscow and discussed plans for a ZAPU-led armed uprising in Rhodesia. He made formal requests for Soviet funding and arms for ZIPRA, explaining that "for these purposes ZAPU needs arms, explosives, revolvers...the party also needs money to bribe persons who guard important installations, to carry out sabotage". The Soviets agreed to supply ZAPU with limited funds beginning in 1963, and increased its level of financial support after UDI. In 1963, ZIPRA also made its first formal request to the Soviet Union for military training. The Soviets began training ZIPRA militants in guerrilla warfare in early 1964.


title: Rhodesia

text: Nkomo's public endorsement of a violent strategy confirmed white politicians' opposition to ZAPU and fed their negative attitudes towards black nationalists at large. In response to the formation of ZIPRA, the Rhodesian government banned ZAPU, driving that party's supporters underground. It also passed draconian security legislation restricting the right to assembly and granting the security forces broad powers to crack down on suspected political subversives. For the first time, the death sentence was also introduced for any act of politically inspired terrorism which involved arson or the use of explosives.


title: Rhodesia

text: The emergence of guerrilla warfare and acts of urban insurrection by the black nationalist parties in Rhodesia allowed racial politics to be elevated into an issue of law and order in white Rhodesian public discourse. To Smith and his government, black nationalists were stateless dissidents whose primary motives were not political, but crime and perpetuating lawlessness; for example, Smith preferred to describe the insurgents as "gangsters" in his commentary. The use of weapons and explosives sourced from communist states by the black nationalists also disguised the racial dynamics of the conflict, allowing white Rhodesians to claim that they were targets of Soviet-directed communist agitators rather than a domestic political movement. Smith and his supporters perceived themselves as collective defenders of the traditional values of the British Empire against the twin threats of international communism, manifested through the Soviet Union's support for black nationalist militants, and the social and political decadence of the West. Often repeated appeals to the Christian heritage of their pioneer ancestors in "defending the free world" and sustaining "Western civilisation" reflected these beliefs. This was hardly an unusual opinion among white minorities in Southern Africa at the time; a dossier compiled by United States intelligence officials on the topic found that:


title: Rhodesia

text: ZAPU's attempts to implement its armed struggle were hamstrung by a factional split within the party between 1962 and 1963. A number of ZAPU dissidents rejected Nkomo's authority and formed their own organisation, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU), with Ndabangingi Sithole as its president and Robert Mugabe as its general secretary. By August 1964, ZANU was banned by the Rhodesian government as well, which cited widespread acts of violent intimidation attributed to its members. ZANU's agenda was left-wing and pan-Africanist; it demanded a one-party state with majority rule and the abolition of private property. Ethnic tensions also exaberated the split: ZANU recruited almost solely from the Shona-speaking peoples of Rhodesia. Its chief support base was the rural peasantry in the Mashonaland countryside. ZAPU did retain Shona members, even among its senior leadership following the split. However, thereafter it recruited predominantly from the Ndebele ethnic group. Due to ZAPU's close relationship with the Soviet Union, ZANU found itself ostracised by the Soviet bloc but soon found a new ally in the People's Republic of China. Its political ideology was somewhat more influenced by the principles of Maoism than ZAPU, and a sympathetic Chinese government soon agreed to furbish weapons and training for ZANU's own war effort.


title: Rhodesia

text: After UDI, ZANU formed its own military wing, the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army (ZANLA). While ZANLA and ZIPRA both planned for an armed struggle against the Rhodesian government, their respective leadership disagreed on the means of conducting the insurgency. ZIPRA favoured Soviet thinking, placing an emphasis on acquiring sophisticated weaponry in the hopes of winning a conventional battle like the Viet Minh at Dien Bien Phu. ZANLA placed greater emphasis on the politicisation of the local populace in the areas it operated, and favoured a more irregular style of warfare.


title: Rhodesia

text: In early April 1966, two groups of ZANLA insurgents recently trained at a Chinese military facility in Nanjing crossed into Rhodesia from Zambia, having been issued vague instructions to sabotage important installations and kill white farmers. Five were arrested by the Rhodesian security forces almost immediately. Another seven initially evaded capture and planned to destroy an electric pylon near Sinoia. Their explosive charges failed to detonate and were discovered by the security forces, who tracked the insurgents to a nearby ranch on April 28. All seven were cornered and killed after a brief firefight; this event is considered to be the first engagement of the Rhodesian Bush War. The action at Sinoia has been commemorated by supporters of the guerrillas since as ""Chimurenga Day"", and occupies a place of pride in ZANU hagiography.


title: Rhodesia

text: In August 1967, a large and better-equipped column of almost seventy ZIPRA insurgents infiltrated Rhodesia from Zambia, bolstered by recruits from an allied South African militant organisation, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK). The insurgents failed to cultivate prior contacts with the local populace, which immediately informed on their presence to Rhodesian officials. Within the month, the Rhodesian police and army had launched a counteroffensive codenamed Operation Nickel, killing forty-seven insurgents, capturing another twenty, and driving the survivors across the border into Botswana. An even larger ZIPRA column of over a hundred insurgents was intercepted in early 1968 and annihilated by the security forces. A third ZIPRA incursion attempt in July 1969 met with similarly catastrophic results. Thereafter, ZIPRA abandoned the notion of attempting to infiltrate the country with large groups of insurgents equipped only with small arms; it limited itself to more irregular forms of warfare until it could stockpile enough heavy weaponry to mount a major conventional invasion. For its part, the ZANLA leadership criticised ZIPRA's continued fixation with winning a major conventional engagement, arguing that the failed incursions demonstrated the futility of engaging the Rhodesian military in the type of pitched battles in which it held an indisputable advantage. ZIPRA's failure to obtain support from the locals was also noted, and ZANLA began implementing a long-term covert politicisation programme to cultivate civilian support throughout its future area of operations.


title: Rhodesia

text: By December 1972, ZANLA had cached arms and established a vast underground network of informants and supporters in northeastern Rhodesia. As a result of the erosion of Portuguese authority in Mozambique's border provinces due to the Mozambican War of Independence, ZANLA was also able to establish external sanctuaries there. It was also in the process of cultivating a military alliance with the leading black nationalist movement in Mozambique, the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO). On December 21, a group of ZANLA insurgents under Rex Nhongo crossed into Rhodesia from Mozambique and raided an isolated commercial farm. In the successive months, this attack was followed by a succession of raids on white farmers throughout the northeastern districts of the country and resulted in several casualties among the security forces. The propaganda value of these raids, coupled with the success of ZANLA's politicisation campaign, denied intelligence to the security forces and furbished more recruits for the insurgents. In response, the Rhodesian security forces began coordinating operations in Mozambique with the Portuguese army to intercept ZANLA insurgents before they could cross the border.


title: Rhodesia

text: The practical alliances between ZIPRA and MK, and later ZANLA and FRELIMO, prompted Rhodesia to look increasingly towards South Africa and Portugal for active assistance. Rhodesian politicians frequently reminded officials in the other two nations of common security interests based on the similarity of their restive internal situations. They saw strong parallels between their nation's position of being threatened by black nationalist insurgencies and the Portuguese predicament with FRELIMO in Mozambique, as well as to a lesser extent the insurgencies in South Africa and South West Africa. Under the auspices of the Alcora Exercise, the three countries' bureaucracies began routinely sharing information and seeking common diplomatic positions. Lieutenant General Alan Fraser, a senior strategist in the South African Defence Force wrote in 1970, "there can be no doubt in any of our minds that we have a common enemy: we, i.e. Portugal, the RSA and Rhodesia. Unless we are to lay ourselves open to the possibility of defeat in detail, we must fight this enemy jointly—if not simultaneously." Nevertheless, aside from intelligence-sharing and some limited coordination on the operational level in Mozambique, the Portuguese could offer Rhodesia little decisive assistance. Portuguese military resources in Mozambique were preoccupied with FRELIMO and somewhat depleted by a decade of war, and little could be spared to assist a foreign ally. Rhodesia expected far more from South Africa, which possessed far greater military resources and infinitely more diplomatic influence abroad.


title: Rhodesia

text: After the collapse of Portuguese rule in Mozambique in 1974–1975, it was no longer viable for the Smith regime to sustain white minority rule indefinitely. By this time, even South Africa's Vorster had come to this view. While Vorster was unwilling to make concessions to his own country's black people, he concluded that white minority rule was not sustainable in a country where black people outnumbered white people 22:1. In 1976, there were 270,000 Rhodesians of European descent and six million Africans.


title: Rhodesia

text: International business groups involved in the country (e.g. Lonrho) transferred their support from the Rhodesian government to black nationalist parties. Business leaders and politicians feted Nkomo on his visits to Europe. ZANU also attracted business supporters who saw the course that future events were likely to take. Funding and arms support provided by supporters, particularly from the Soviet Union and its allies in the latter 1970s, allowed both ZIPRA and the ZANLA to acquire more sophisticated weaponry, thereby increasing the military pressure that the guerrillas were able to place on Rhodesia.


title: Rhodesia

text: Until 1972, containing the guerrillas was little more than a police action. Even as late as August 1975 when Rhodesian government and black nationalist leaders met at Victoria Falls for negotiations brokered by South Africa and Zambia, the talks never got beyond the procedural phase. Rhodesian representatives made it clear they were prepared to fight an all out war to prevent majority rule. However, the situation changed dramatically after the end of Portuguese colonial rule in Mozambique in 1975. Rhodesia now found itself almost entirely surrounded by hostile states and even South Africa, its only real ally, pressed for a settlement.


title: Rhodesia

text: At this point, ZANU's alliance with FRELIMO and the porous border between Mozambique and eastern Rhodesia enabled large-scale training and infiltration of ZANU/ZANLA fighters. The governments of Zambia and Botswana were also emboldened sufficiently to allow resistance movement bases to be set up in their territories. Guerrillas began to launch operations deep inside Rhodesia, attacking roads, railways, economic targets and isolated security force positions, in 1976.


title: Rhodesia

text: The government adopted a strategic hamlets policy of the kind used in Malaya and Vietnam to restrict the influence of insurgents over the population of rural areas. Local people were forced to relocate to protected villages (PVs) which were strictly controlled and guarded by the government against rebel atrocities. The protected villages were compared by the guerrillas to concentration camps. Some contemporary accounts claim that this interference in the lives of local residents induced many of them who had previously been neutral to support the guerrillas.


title: Rhodesia

text: The war degenerated into rounds of increasing brutality from all three parties involved (ZANU and ZAPU, and the Rhodesian Army). Mike Subritzky, a former NZ Army ceasefire monitor in Rhodesia, in 1980 described the war as "both bloody and brutal and brought out the very worst in the opposing combatants on all three sides."


title: Rhodesia

text: A major problem for the Rhodesian state in fighting the Bush War was always a shortage of manpower. Of the 3,000 white men liable for conscription in 1973, only about 1,000 reported when called-up. In February 1978, the Rhodesian Army stated it needed a minimum of 1,041 men to continue combat operations, and of those called up, only 570 reported for duty while the rest chose to move to South Africa. White emigration increased as the state called up more and more men to fight in the war, creating a vicious circle, which gradually limited the capacity of the Rhodesian state to continue the war. In order to stop white emigration, the Smith government brought in a law in 1975 forbidding Rhodesian citizens from holding foreign currency, but the law was widely flouted. In order to encourage white emigration, the guerrillas of ZANU and ZAPU followed a strategy of attacking anything and everything that was of economic value across the country in order to force the state to call up more men, and of killing white civilians. Killing Rhodesian white citizens tended to have an "echo effect" as the ZANU and ZAPU had each estimated that for one white citizen killed, it caused about 20 to leave Rhodesia.


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia began to lose vital economic and military support from South Africa, which, while sympathetic to the white minority government, never accorded it diplomatic recognition. The South African government placed limits on the fuel and munitions they supplied to the Rhodesian military. They also withdrew the personnel and equipment that they had previously provided to aid the war effort, though covert military support continued.


title: Rhodesia

text: In 1976, the South African government and United States governments worked together to place pressure on Smith to agree to a form of majority rule. In response to the initiative of US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, in 1976 Ian Smith accepted the principle of black majority rule within two years. The Rhodesians now offered more concessions, but those concessions, focused on reaching an "internal settlement" with moderate black leaders, were insufficient to end the war.


title: Rhodesia

text: At the time, some Rhodesians said the still embittered history between the British-dominated Rhodesia and the Afrikaner-dominated South Africa partly led the South African government to withdraw its aid to Rhodesia. Ian Smith said in his memoirs that even though many white South Africans supported Rhodesia, South African Prime Minister John Vorster's policy of détente with the black African states ended up with Rhodesia being offered as the "sacrificial lamb" to buy more time for South Africa. Other observers perceived South Africa's distancing itself from Rhodesia as being an early move in the process that led to majority rule in South Africa itself.


title: Rhodesia

text: In the latter 1970s, the militants had successfully put the economy of Rhodesia under significant pressure while the numbers of guerrillas in the country were steadily increasing. The government abandoned its early strategy of trying to defend the borders in favour of trying to defend key economic areas and lines of communication with South Africa, while the rest of the countryside became a patchwork of "no-go areas".


title: Rhodesia

text: By the late 1970s, Rhodesia's front-line forces contained about 25,000 regular troops and police – backed up by relatively strong army and police reserves. Its mechanised contingent consisted of light armoured cars and improvised mine-protected armoured personnel carriers, complemented by eight tanks (Polish built T-55LD tanks), delivered in the last year of the war. The Rhodesian Air Force operated an assortment of both Canberra light bombers, Hawker Hunter fighter bombers, older de Havilland Vampire jets as well as a somewhat antiquated, but still potent, helicopter arm. These forces, including highly trained special operations units, were capable of launching devastating raids on resistance movement camps outside the country, as in Operation Dingo in 1977 and other similar operations.


title: Rhodesia

text: Nevertheless, guerrilla pressure inside the country itself was steadily increasing in the latter 1970s. By 1978–1979, the war had become a contest between the guerrilla warfare placing ever increasing pressure on the Rhodesian regime and civil population, and the Rhodesian government's strategy of trying to hold off the militants until external recognition for a compromise political settlement with moderate black leaders could be secured.


title: Rhodesia

text: By this time, the need to cut a deal was apparent to most Rhodesians, but not to all. Ian Smith had dismissed his intransigent Defence Minister, P. K. van der Byl, as early as 1976. Van der Byl was a hard-line opponent of any form of compromise with domestic opposition or the international community since before UDI.


title: Rhodesia

text: Van der Byl eventually retired to his country estate outside Cape Town, but there were elements in Rhodesia, mainly embittered former security force personnel, who forcibly opposed majority rule up to and well beyond the establishment of majority rule. New white immigrants continued to arrive in Rhodesia right up to the eve of majority rule.


title: Rhodesia

text: The work of journalists such as Lord Richard Cecil, son of The 6th Marquess of Salisbury, stiffened the morale of Rhodesians and their overseas supporters. Lord Richard produced news reports for ITN which typically contrasted the "incompetent" insurgents with the "superbly professional" government troops. A group of ZANLA fighters killed Lord Richard on 20 April 1978 when he was accompanying a Rhodesian airborne unit employed in Fire Force Operations.


title: Rhodesia

text: The shooting down on 3 September 1978 of the civilian Air Rhodesia airliner, a Vickers Viscount named the "Hunyani", in the Kariba area by ZIPRA fighters using a surface-to-air missile, with the subsequent massacre of 10 of its 18 survivors, is widely considered to be the event that finally destroyed the Rhodesians' will to continue the war. Although militarily insignificant, the loss of this aircraft (and a second Viscount, named the "Umniati", in 1979) demonstrated the reach of resistance movements extended to Rhodesian civil society.


title: Rhodesia

text: The Rhodesians' means to continue the war were also eroding fast. In December 1978, a ZANLA unit penetrated the outskirts of Salisbury and fired a volley of rockets and incendiary device rounds into the main oil storage depot – the most heavily defended economic asset in the country. The storage tanks burned for five days, giving off a column of smoke that could be seen away. of petroleum product (comprising Rhodesia's strategic oil reserve) were lost.


title: Rhodesia

text: The government's defence spending increased from R$30 million, 8.5% of the national budget in 1971 to 1972, to R$400 m in 1978 to 1979, 47% of the national budget. In 1980, the post-independence government of Zimbabwe inherited a US$500 million national debt.


title: Rhodesia

text: The Rhodesian army continued its "mobile counter-offensive" strategy of holding key positions ("vital asset ground") while carrying out raids into the no-go areas and into neighbouring countries. While often extraordinarily successful in inflicting heavy guerrilla casualties, such raids also on occasion failed to achieve their objectives. In April 1979 special forces carried out a raid on Joshua Nkomo's residence in Lusaka (Zambia) with the stated intention of assassinating him. Nkomo and his family left hastily a few hours before the raid – having clearly been warned that the raid was coming.


title: Rhodesia

text: In 1979, some special forces units were accused of using counterinsurgent operations as cover for ivory poaching and smuggling. Colonel Reid-Daly (commander of the Selous Scouts) discovered that his phone was bugged and after challenging a superior officer on this issue was court martialled for insubordination. He received the lightest sentence possible, a caution, but he continued to fight his conviction and eventually resigned his commission and left the Army.


title: Rhodesia

text: By 1978–1979, up to 70% of the regular army was composed of black soldiers (though both the army and police reserves remained overwhelmingly white). By 1979 there were also 30 black commissioned officers in the regular army. While there was never any suggestion of disloyalty among the soldiers from predominantly black units (in particular within the Selous Scouts or the Rhodesian African Rifles – RAR), some argue that, by the time of the 1980 election, many of the RAR soldiers voted for Robert Mugabe.


title: Rhodesia

text: As the result of an Internal Settlement signed on 3 March 1978 between the Rhodesian government and the moderate African nationalist parties, which were not in exile and not involved in the war, elections were held in April 1979. The United African National Council (UANC) party won a majority in this election, and its leader, Abel Muzorewa (a United Methodist Church bishop), became the country's first black prime minister on 1 June 1979. The country's name was changed to Zimbabwe Rhodesia. The internal settlement left control of the country's police, security forces, civil service and judiciary in white hands, for the moment. It assured whites of about one-third of the seats in parliament. It was essentially a power-sharing arrangement between white people and black people which, in the eyes of many, particularly the insurgents, did not amount to majority rule. However, the United States Senate voted to end economic sanctions against Zimbabwe Rhodesia on 12 June.


title: Rhodesia

text: While the 1979 election was described by the Rhodesian government as non-racial and democratic, it did not include the main nationalist parties ZANU and ZAPU. In spite of offers from Ian Smith, the latter parties declined to participate in an election in which their political position would be insecure and under a proposed constitution which they had played no part in drafting and which was perceived as retaining strong white minority privilege.


title: Rhodesia

text: Bishop Muzorewa's government did not receive international recognition. The Bush War continued unabated and sanctions were not lifted. The international community refused to accept the validity of any agreement which did not incorporate the main nationalist parties. The British Government (then led by the recently elected Margaret Thatcher) issued invitations to all parties to attend a peace conference at Lancaster House. These negotiations took place in London in late 1979. The three-month-long conference almost failed to reach conclusion, due to disagreements on land reform, but resulted in the Lancaster House Agreement. UDI ended, and Rhodesia temporarily reverted to the status of a British colony (the 'Colony of Southern Rhodesia'). As per the agreement, Lord Soames became Governor with full legislative and executive powers.


title: Rhodesia

text: The Lancaster House Agreement further provided for a ceasefire which was followed by an internationally supervised general election, held on February 1980. ZANU led by Robert Mugabe won this election, some alleged, by terrorising its political opposition, including supporters of ZAPU, through former insurgents that had not confined themselves to the designated guerrilla assembly points, as stipulated by the Lancaster House Agreement. The observers and Soames were accused of looking the other way, and Mugabe's victory was certified. Nevertheless, few could doubt that Mugabe's support within his majority Shona tribal group was extremely strong. The Rhodesian military seriously considered mounting a coup against a perceived stolen election ("Operation Quartz") to prevent ZANU from taking over the country. The alleged coup was to include the assassination of Mugabe and coordinated assaults on guerrilla assembly points throughout the country. The plan was eventually scuttled, as it was obvious that Mugabe enjoyed widespread support from the black majority despite voter intimidation, as well as the fact that the coup would gain no external support, and a conflagration which would engulf the country was seen as inevitable.


title: Rhodesia

text: Mugabe (and nationalists who supported his rule) were rather less concerned by Operation Quartz than by the possibility that there might be a mass exodus of the white community of the kind that had caused chaos in Mozambique five years earlier. Such an exodus had been prepared for by the South African government. With the agreement of the British Governor of Rhodesia, South African troops had entered the country to secure the road approaches to the Beit Bridge border crossing point. Refugee camps had been prepared in the Transvaal. On the day the election results became known, most white families had prepared contingency plans for flight, including the packing of cars and suitcases.


title: Rhodesia

text: However, after a meeting with Robert Mugabe and the central committee of ZANU (PF), Ian Smith was reassured that whites could and should stay in the new Zimbabwe. Mugabe promised that he would abide strictly by the terms of the Lancaster House Agreement and that changes in Zimbabwe would be made gradually and by a proper legal process. In a CBS news interview, Mugabe claimed that Rhodesian whites "...are still in control of the economy, the majority being commercial farmers." Mugabe, however, would reverse his commitment to these agreements some years later; the regime began confiscating white-owned farmlands. This is widely blamed for leading to the deterioration of the Zimbabwean economy, which plagues the country today.


title: Rhodesia

text: On 18 April 1980 the country became independent within the Commonwealth of Nations as the Republic of Zimbabwe, and its capital, Salisbury, was renamed Harare two years later.


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia is equivalent in territory to modern Zimbabwe. It was a landlocked country in southern Africa, lying between latitudes 15° and 23°S, and longitudes 25° and 34°E. It was bordered by South Africa to the south, the Bechuanaland Protectorate (later Botswana) to the west and southwest, Zambia to the northwest, and Mozambique to the east and northeast. Its northwest corner was roughly from South West Africa (present-day Namibia), South Africa, nearly forming a four-nation quadripoint. Most of the country was elevated, consisting of a central plateau (high veld) stretching from the southwest northwards with altitudes between . The country's extreme east was mountainous, this area being known as the Eastern Highlands, with Mount Inyangani as the highest point at .


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia had a tropical climate with many local variations. The southern areas were known for their heat and aridity, parts of the central plateau received frost in winter, the Zambezi valley was also known for its extreme heat and the Eastern Highlands usually experienced cool temperatures and the highest rainfall in the country. The country's rainy season was from late October to March and the hot climate was moderated by increasing altitude. The country was faced with recurring droughts, and severe storms were rare.


title: Rhodesia

text: The country was mostly savannah, although the moist and mountainous eastern highlands supported areas of tropical evergreen and hardwood forests. Trees found in these Eastern Highlands included teak, mahogany, enormous specimens of strangling fig, forest newtonia, big leaf, white stinkwood, chirinda stinkwood, knobthorn and many others.


title: Rhodesia

text: In the low-lying parts of the country fever trees, mopane, combretum and baobabs abound. Much of the country was covered by miombo woodland, dominated by brachystegia species and others. Among the numerous flowers and shrubs were hibiscus, flame lily, snake lily, spider lily, leonotus, cassia, tree wisteria and dombeya. There were around 350 species of mammals that can be found in Rhodesia. There were also many snakes and lizards, over 500 bird species, and 131 fish species.


title: Rhodesia

text: Although Southern Rhodesia never gained full Dominion status within the Commonwealth of Nations, Southern Rhodesians ruled themselves from the attainment of 'Responsible Government' in 1923. Its electoral register had property and education qualifications. Over the years various electoral arrangements made at a national and municipal level upheld these standards. For example, the franchise for the first Southern Rhodesian Legislative Council election in 1899 contained the following requirement:


title: Rhodesia

text: voters to be British subjects, male, 21 years of age and older, able to write their address and occupation, and then to fulfil the following financial requirements: (a) ownership of a registered mining claim in Southern Rhodesia, or (b) occupying immovable property worth £75, or (c) receiving wages or salary of £50 per annum in Southern Rhodesia. Six months' continuous residence was also required for qualifications (b) and (c).


title: Rhodesia

text: Following Cecil Rhodes's dictum of "equal rights for all civilised men", there was no overt racial component to the franchise. However, the requirement excluded a majority of native black people from the electorate.


title: Rhodesia

text: Up until the 1950s, Southern Rhodesia had a vibrant political life with right and left wing parties competing for power. The Rhodesian Labour Party held seats in the Assembly and in municipal councils throughout the 1920s and 1930s. From 1953 to 1958, the prime minister was Garfield Todd, a liberal who did much to promote the development of the black community through investment in education, housing and healthcare. However, the government forced Todd from office because his proposed reforms were seen by many whites as too radical.


title: Rhodesia

text: From 1958 onwards, white settler politics consolidated and ossified around resistance to majority rule, setting the stage for UDI. The 1961 Constitution governed Southern Rhodesia and independent Rhodesia up until 1969, using the Westminster Parliamentary System modified by a system of separate voter rolls with differing property and education qualifications, without regard to race. Whites ended up with the majority of Assembly seats.


title: Rhodesia

text: The 1969 republican constitution established a bicameral Parliament consisting of an indirectly elected Senate and a directly elected House of Assembly, effectively reserving the majority of seats for whites. The office of President had only ceremonial significance with the Prime Minister holding executive power.


title: Rhodesia

text: The Constitution of the short-lived Zimbabwe Rhodesia, which saw a black-led government elected for the first time, reserved 28 of the 100 parliamentary seats for whites. The independence constitution agreed at Lancaster House watered those provisions down and reserved 20 out of 100 seats for whites in the House of Assembly and 8 out of 40 seats in the Senate. The constitution prohibited Zimbabwe authorities from altering the Constitution for seven years without unanimous consent and required a three-quarters vote in Parliament for a further three years. The government amended the Constitution in 1987 to abolish the seats reserved for whites, and replace the office of Prime Minister with an executive President. In 1990, the government abolished the Senate.


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia had a centralised government and was divided into seven provinces and two cities with provincial status, for administrative purposes. Each province had a provincial capital from where government administration was usually carried out.


title: Rhodesia

text: Southern Rhodesia had long been distinctive among British dependencies in that it had financed and developed its own security forces and command structure. After UDI, this posed a particular dilemma for the British government, which considered and rejected various proposals aimed at ending Rhodesia's state of rebellion by force. Harold Wilson once remarked that bringing an end to Rhodesian independence "would not be a case of arresting a subversive individual. It would mean a bloody war, and probably a bloody war turning into a bloody civil war." The formidable nature of the Rhodesian security forces, as well as British fears of a direct South African intervention on behalf of the rogue colony, preempted the further consideration of military options.


title: Rhodesia

text: For much of its existence Rhodesia maintained a small professional standing army of 3,400 troops, about a third of whom were black volunteers. In the tradition of many colonial armies, it was primarily organised into light infantry battalions trained and equipped for counter-insurgency warfare or internal security actions, and possessed little artillery or armour. The Royal Rhodesian Air Force (RRAF) had 1,000 personnel and six squadrons of aircraft, including forty to fifty Hawker Hunter and de Havilland Vampire strike aircraft and English Electric Canberra light bombers. It also possessed a helicopter squadron, a transport squadron, and a light reconnaissance squadron. The Rhodesian military was backed by the British South Africa Police (BSAP), a well-equipped police force whose title was derived from the law enforcement division of the British South Africa Company. The BSAP had armoured vehicles of its own and a potent paramilitary capability. Domestic and external intelligence gathering were vested in the Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO).


title: Rhodesia

text: As a result of the escalating rural insurgency, the Rhodesian Security Forces began to depend more heavily on white conscripts and reservists of the Territorial Force and Territorial reserves. Regular units remained small throughout the Rhodesian Bush War but became increasingly specialised and were often able to have an effect utterly disproportionate to their size. The security forces included a disproportionate number of personnel who had seen action during the First Malayan Emergency as well as the Aden Emergency, and their experience gave Rhodesia's defence establishment a solid grounding in counter-insurgency warfare and small unit tactics in particular. Nevertheless, the vastness of the operational area and Rhodesia's limited manpower pool left the army, air force, and BSAP constantly overstretched. Budgetary and resource restraints, coupled with manpower shortages, meant the security forces could not expand quickly enough to match the guerrilla movements, and were almost always outnumbered. Rhodesian units compensated for their disadvantage in this regard by pursuing an aggressive preemptive and counterstrike strategy, raiding neighbouring states to destroy guerrilla forces in their external sanctuaries.


title: Rhodesia

text: All white, male residents aged eighteen to twenty-three were obligated to fulfill four and a half months (later extended to nine months) of full-time national service. This was followed by a three-year reservist obligation. By 1974 the national service intakes had been doubled, and white men over twenty-three were also conscripted. In 1978 the Rhodesian Army had about 14,000 white national servicemen, but continued manpower shortages forced it to recruit black volunteers in larger numbers and extend compulsory military service to all white males up to sixty years of age. By the end of the Rhodesian Bush War virtually all male white residents were either serving in the military or police in a full-time or part-time capacity. The size of the Rhodesian Army had swelled to about 20,000 personnel, and the BSAP to over 40,000, including reservists.


title: Rhodesia

text: From 1975 to 1980 the Rhodesian government made several attempts to weaponise chemical and biological agents. Members of the security forces contaminated supplies before replacing them in guerrilla caches or planted them in rural stores to be stolen by the guerrillas during raids. They also poisoned water sources along known infiltration routes along the Rhodesian border, forcing their opponents to travel through more arid regions or carry more water during their treks.


title: Rhodesia

text: The chemical agents most used in the Rhodesian chemical and biological warfare (CBW) programme were parathion (an organophosphate insecticide) and thallium (a heavy metal commonly found in rodenticide). The weapons the Rhodesians selected for use also included "Vibrio cholerae" (causative agent of cholera) and possibly "Bacillus anthracis" (causative agent of anthrax). They also looked at using "Rickettsia prowazekii" (causative agent of epidemic typhus), and "Salmonella typhi" (causative agent of typhoid fever), and toxins such as ricin and botulinum toxin.


title: Rhodesia

text: Biological agents, namely "Vibrio cholerae", had some impact on the fighting capability of ZANLA. Some former officers of the Rhodesian Security Forces alleged that anthrax was used covertly during the late 1970s, but this has been disputed. Use of "anthracis", ricin, or botulinum toxin was favoured during assassination attempts of prominent guerrilla commanders.


title: Rhodesia

text: Economically, Southern Rhodesia developed an economy that was narrowly based on the production of a few primary products, notably, chromium and tobacco. It was therefore vulnerable to the economic cycle. The deep recession of the 1930s gave way to a post-war boom. This boom prompted the immigration of about 200,000 whites between 1945 and 1970, taking the white population up to 307,000. A large number of these immigrants were of British working-class origin, with others coming from the Belgian Congo, Kenya, Tanzania, and later Angola and Mozambique. They established a relatively balanced economy, transforming what was once a primary producer dependent on backwoods farming into an industrial giant which spawned a strong manufacturing sector, iron and steel industries, and modern mining ventures. These economic successes owed little to foreign aid apart from the immigration of skilled labour.


title: Rhodesia

text: The economy of the state of Rhodesia sustained international sanctions for a decade following the declaration of its independence, a resistance which waned as more southern African states declared independence and majority rule as well as the destruction of the Rhodesian Bush War.


title: Rhodesia

text: A central feature of the white community in Rhodesia was its transience, as white settlers were just as likely to leave Rhodesia after a few years as permanently settle; for example, of the 700 British settlers who were the first white settlers, arriving in 1890, only 15 were still living in Rhodesia in 1924. As the white population of Rhodesia had a low birth rate (18 per 1,000 compared to the African rate of 48 per 1,000), to maintain white population growth was largely dependent upon taking in new white immigrants with immigration accounting for 60% of the growth of the white Rhodesian population between 1955 and 1972.


title: Rhodesia

text: However, the American historian Josiah Brownell noted that the turnover rate for white residents in Rhodesia was very high, as Rhodesia took in a total of 255,692 white immigrants between 1955 and 1979 while the same period a total of 246,583 whites emigrated. Even during the boom years of the late 1950s, when Rhodesia took in an average of 13,666 white immigrants per year, mostly from the United Kingdom and South Africa, an average of about 7,666 whites emigrated annually. Between 1961 and 1965, Rhodesia took in an average of 8,225 white immigrants per year while also having an average white emigration of 12,912 per year. Many prospective white immigrants in Rhodesia arrived seeking economic opportunities and departed with fluctuations in the security situation as the Bush War intensified. A substantial number were uninterested in settling there permanently and did not apply for Rhodesian citizenship, despite a much-publicised 1967 campaign urging them to do so.


title: Rhodesia

text: Brownell asserted that patriotism in the white community was "shallow" due to its essentially expatriate character. He also claimed that the majority of white immigrants in the late 1960s and early 1970s were unskilled laborers who competed with the country's black African workforce and did not contribute badly needed technical or professional skills to the country, arguing that this was due to government policy aimed at making white immigration as "unselective as possible" and guaranteeing every white immigrant a job. The population of Rhodesia boomed during the late 1960s due to immigration and an exceptional rate of natural increase among its black citizens, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa at the time.


title: Rhodesia

text: White Rhodesians mostly spoke English, with a minority that spoke Afrikaans. Approximately 70% of black Rhodesians spoke Shona, and around 20% spoke Ndebele. A majority of Rhodesia's Indian community spoke Gujarati and a minority spoke Hindi.


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia predominantly adhered to Christianity, with Protestantism being the largest denomination. However, many native Africans still adhered to traditional African religions.


title: Rhodesia

text: Throughout the period of its Unilateral Declaration of Independence (1965 to 1979), Rhodesia pursued a foreign policy of attempting to secure recognition as an independent country, and insisting that its political system would include 'gradual steps to majority rule.' Ardently anti-communist, Rhodesia tried to present itself to the West as a front-line state against communist expansion in Africa, to little avail.


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia received little international recognition during its existence; recognition only occurred after elections in 1980 and a transition to majority rule.


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia wished to retain its economic prosperity and also feared communist elements in the rebel forces, and thus felt their policy of a gradual progression to black majority rule was justified. However, the international community refused to accept this rationale, believing that their policies were perpetuating racism. This attitude was part of the larger decolonisation context, during which Western powers such as the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium hastened to grant independence to their colonies in Africa.


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia was originally a British colony. Although decolonisation in Africa had begun after World War II, it began accelerating in the early 1960s, causing Britain to negotiate independence rapidly with several of its colonies. During this period, it adopted a foreign policy called NIBMAR, or No Independence Before Majority African Rule, mandating democratic reforms that placed governance in the hands of the majority black Africans. The governing white minority of Rhodesia, led by Ian Smith, opposed the policy and its implications. On 11 November 1965, Rhodesia's minority white government made a unilateral declaration of independence (UDI) from the United Kingdom, as it became apparent that negotiations would not lead to independence under the white regime.


title: Rhodesia

text: The United Kingdom government immediately brought in legislation (Southern Rhodesia Act 1965) which formally abolished all Rhodesian government institutions. This move made life difficult for Rhodesian citizens who wished to travel internationally as passports issued by Rhodesia's UDI administration were not recognised as valid; in January 1966, the British issued a statement accepting as valid any passport issued before the declaration of independence and allowing six-month United Kingdom passports to be granted when they expired – provided that the bearer declared they did not intend to aid the UDI Rhodesian government.


title: Rhodesia

text: Until late 1969, Rhodesia still recognised Queen Elizabeth II as head of state, even though it opposed the British government itself for hindering its goals of independence. However she refused to accept the title "Queen of Rhodesia" and eventually the Smith government abandoned their attempts to remain loyal to the British Crown. In a 1969 referendum, a majority of the electorate voted to declare Rhodesia an independent republic. The hope being that this move would facilitate recognition as an independent state by the international community, but the issue of white minority rule remained and continued to hinder this effort, and like the UDI before it, the proclamation of a republic lacked international recognition.


title: Rhodesia

text: After the declaration of independence, and indeed for the entire duration of its existence, Rhodesia did not receive official recognition from any state, although it did maintain diplomatic relations with South Africa, which was then under apartheid. South Africa did not recognise Rhodesia to preserve its fragile positions with other nations, but frequently assisted the Rhodesian state. Portugal maintained informal relations until the Carnation Revolution of 1974. The day following the declaration of independence, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution (S/RES/216) calling upon all states not to accord Rhodesia recognition, and to refrain from any assistance. The Security Council also imposed selective mandatory economic sanctions, which were later made comprehensive.


title: Rhodesia

text: Malawi, Israel, South Africa, Portugal and Iran did not comply with economic sanctions against Rhodesia. The US, despite voting in favour of the sanctions at the UNSC, violated them to buy chromium ore from Rhodesia. Kenneth Kaunda, president of Zambia, also accused western oil companies of violating the sanctions and selling oil to Rhodesia.


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965 was promptly condemned by the international community. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 216 of 12 November 1965 called "upon all States not to recognise this illegal racist minority regime in Southern Rhodesia."


title: Rhodesia

text: Rhodesia campaigned for international acceptance and invoked the doctrine of non-intervention in internal affairs as justification for rebuking external criticism of its internal policies. However, the emerging doctrine of self-determination in colonial situations meant that most nations regarded Rhodesia's self-declared independence as illegitimate.


title: Rhodesia

text: Zambia, formerly Northern Rhodesia, took a pragmatic approach towards Rhodesia. Kenneth Kaunda, heavily dependent on access through Rhodesia for his nation's copper ore exports, fuel, and power imports unofficially worked with the Rhodesian government. Rhodesia still allowed Zambia to export and import its goods through its territory to Mozambique ports, despite the Zambian government's official policy of hostility and non-recognition of the post-UDI Smith Administration.


title: Rhodesia

text: The United States, like all other Western nations, refused to recognise Rhodesia, but unlike others allowed its Consulate-General to function as a communications conduit between the US government in Washington, DC and the Rhodesian government in Salisbury. When Rhodesia set up the Rhodesian Information Office in Washington, DC, OAS nations loudly protested. The US government responded by saying the Rhodesian mission and its staff had no official diplomatic status and violated no US laws.


title: Rhodesia

text: Portugal pursued a middle path with Rhodesia. While not officially recognising Rhodesia under Ian Smith, the government of António Salazar did permit Rhodesia to establish a representative mission in Lisbon, and permitted Rhodesian exports and imports through their colony of Mozambique. The Portuguese government in power at that time, authoritarian and ardently anti-communist, gave active behind-the-scenes support in Rhodesia's fight against the guerrilla groups.


title: Rhodesia

text: South Africa, itself under international pressure as a white minority government, pursued a policy of détente with the black African states at the time. These states wanted South Africa to pressure Ian Smith to accept a faster transition to majority rule in Rhodesia, in return for pledges of non-interference in South Africa's internal affairs. Prime Minister John Vorster, believing majority rule in Rhodesia would lead to international acceptance for South Africa, used a number of tactics to pressure Smith. The South African government held up shipments of fuel and ammunition and pulled out friendly South African forces from Rhodesia. The combined loss of Mozambique and the loss of support from South Africa dealt critical blows to the Rhodesian government.


title: Rhodesia

text: After the UDI, Rhodesia maintained several overseas missions, including Pretoria, and until 1975, Lisbon in Portugal and Lourenço Marques (now Maputo) in Mozambique.


title: Rhodesia

text: Since 1961, Rhodesia had an "Accredited Diplomatic Representative" with South Africa, heading a "Rhodesian Diplomatic Mission" or "de facto" embassy. Before South Africa left the Commonwealth that year, the then Southern Rhodesia had exchanged High Commissioners with the then Union of South Africa, but following the change in status, the Republic now had a "South African Diplomatic Mission" in Salisbury.


title: Rhodesia

text: During 1965, the government of Rhodesia made moves to establish a mission in Lisbon separate from the British Embassy, with its own accredited representative, having previously been able to establish its own consulate in Lourenço Marques, capital of Portuguese Mozambique. This prompted protests from the British government, which was determined that the representative, Harry Reedman, should be a nominal member of the British Ambassador's staff. For their part, the Portuguese authorities sought a compromise whereby they would accept Reedman as an independent representative but deny him diplomatic status.


title: Rhodesia

text: The Rhodesian Information Office in Washington remained open following UDI, but its director, Ken Towsey, and his staff were deprived of their diplomatic status. Previously, there had been a "Minister for Rhodesian Affairs" operating under the aegis of the British Embassy in Washington, as well representatives in Tokyo and Bonn. Following the country's independence as Zimbabwe, Towsey became chargé d'affaires at the new embassy.


title: Rhodesia

text: The High Commission in London, known as Rhodesia House, continued to function until it was closed in 1969 following the decision by white Rhodesians in a referendum to make the country a republic, along with the "British Residual Mission" in Salisbury. Prior to its closure, the mission flew the newly adopted Flag of Rhodesia, considered illegal by the Foreign Office, prompting calls by Labour MP Willie Hamilton for its removal.


title: Rhodesia

text: In Australia, the federal government sought to close the Rhodesia Information Centre in Sydney, but it remained open, operating under the jurisdiction of the state of New South Wales. In 1973, the Labor government of Gough Whitlam cut post and telephone links to the centre, but this was ruled illegal by the High Court. An office was also established in Paris, but this was closed down by the French government in 1977.


title: Rhodesia

text: Similarly, the United States recalled its consul-general from Salisbury, and reduced consular staff, but did not move to close its consulate until the declaration of a republic in 1970. South Africa, however, retained its "Accredited Diplomatic Representative" after UDI, which allowed it to continue to recognise British sovereignty as well as to deal with the "de facto" authority of the government of Ian Smith.


title: Rhodesia

text: The South African Diplomatic Mission in Salisbury became the only such mission remaining in the country after 1975, when Portugal downgraded its mission to consul level, having recalled its consul-general in Salisbury in May 1970. After Zimbabwe's independence, the new government closed its missions in Pretoria and Cape Town, only maintaining a trade mission in Johannesburg, while the South African Diplomatic Mission in Salisbury was also closed.


title: Rhodesia

text: The growing intensity of the civil war and a lack of international support eventually led the Rhodesian government to submit to an agreement with the UK in 1979. This led to internationally supervised elections, won by Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front and Robert Mugabe, establishing the internationally recognised Zimbabwe.


title: Rhodesia

text: In the ten years after independence, around 60% of the white population of Zimbabwe emigrated, most to South Africa and to other mainly white, English speaking countries where they formed expatriate communities. Politically within Zimbabwe, the consolidation of power by Robert Mugabe continued through the 1980s. Following amendments to the country's constitution in 1987, parliamentary seats reserved for whites were abolished, and an executive presidency was created, held by Mugabe. Many expatriates and some of the whites who stayed in Zimbabwe became deeply nostalgic for Rhodesia. These individuals are known as "Rhodies". Native whites who are more accepting of the new order are known as "Zimbos".


title: Rhodesia

text: The main newspapers were the "Rhodesia Herald" in Salisbury and "The Chronicle" in Bulawayo. Following UDI, in 1976, the state-run Rhodesian Broadcasting Corporation (RBC) took over the privately owned Rhodesia Television (RTV) service, in which it had previously acquired a 51 per cent stake.


title: Rhodesia

text: Among the news magazines published in Rhodesia under UDI were the "Illustrated Life Rhodesia", while "The Valiant Years" by Beryl Salt told the history of Rhodesia from 1890 to 1978 entirely through the medium of facsimile reproduction of articles and headlines from Rhodesian newspapers.


title: Rhodesia

text: Since Rhodesia was a former colony of the United Kingdom, all of the sports that were born in the United Kingdom enjoyed considerable popularity in Rhodesia; especially cricket, rugby, football, netball, golf, tennis, lawn bowls, field hockey, etc. Just like neighbouring South Africa, Rhodesia was barred from both competing against and participating with Commonwealth member countries.


title: Wolverine

text: The wolverine (), (Gulo gulo; "Gulo" is Latin for "glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, "kwiihkwahaacheew"), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscular carnivore and a solitary animal. The wolverine has a reputation for ferocity and strength out of proportion to its size, with the documented ability to kill prey many times larger than itself.


title: Wolverine

text: The wolverine is found primarily in remote reaches of the Northern boreal forests and subarctic and alpine tundra of the Northern Hemisphere, with the greatest numbers in Northern Canada, the U.S. state of Alaska, the mainland Nordic countries of Europe, and throughout western Russia and Siberia. Its population has steadily declined since the 19th century owing to trapping, range reduction and habitat fragmentation. The wolverine is now essentially absent from the southern end of its range in both Europe and North America.


title: Wolverine

text: Genetic evidence suggests that the wolverine is most closely related to the tayra and martens, all of which shared a Eurasian ancestor.


title: Wolverine

text: There are two subspecies: the Old World form, "Gulo gulo gulo", and the New World form, "G. g. luscus". Some authors had described as many as four additional North American subspecies, including ones limited to Vancouver Island ("G. g. vancouverensis") and the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska ("G. g. katschemakensis"). However, the most currently accepted taxonomy recognizes either the two continental subspecies or "G. gulo" as a single Holarctic taxon.


title: Wolverine

text: Recently compiled genetic evidence suggests most of North America's wolverines are descended from a single source, likely originating from Beringia during the last glaciation and rapidly expanding thereafter, though considerable uncertainty to this conclusion is due to the difficulty of collecting samples in the extremely depleted southern extent of the range.


title: Wolverine

text: Anatomically, the wolverine is an elongated animal that is low to the ground. With strong limbs, broad and rounded head, small eyes and short rounded ears, it most closely resembles a large fisher. Though its legs are short, its large, five-toed paws with crampon-like claws and plantigrade posture enable it to climb up and over steep cliffs, trees and snow-covered peaks with relative ease.


title: Wolverine

text: The adult wolverine is about the size of a medium dog, with a body length ranging from ; standing at the shoulder; and a tail length of . Males range in weight from , and females . Exceptionally large males of as much as are referenced in Russian literature, though such weights are deemed in "Mammals of the Soviet Union" to be improbable. The males are often 10–15% larger than the females in linear measurements and can be 30–40% greater in weight. According to some sources, Eurasian wolverines are claimed to be larger and heavier than North American, with average weights in excess of . However, this may refer more specifically to areas such as Siberia, as data from Fennoscandian wolverines shows they are typically around the same size as their American counterparts. It is the largest of terrestrial mustelids; only the marine-dwelling sea otter, the giant otter of the Amazon basin and the semi-aquatic African clawless otter are larger—while the European badger may reach a similar body mass, especially in autumn.


title: Wolverine

text: Wolverines have thick, dark, oily fur which is highly hydrophobic, making it resistant to frost. This has led to its traditional popularity among hunters and trappers as a lining in jackets and parkas in Arctic conditions. A light-silvery facial mask is distinct in some individuals, and a pale buff stripe runs laterally from the shoulders along the side and crossing the rump just above a bushy tail. Some individuals display prominent white hair patches on their throats or chests.


title: Wolverine

text: Like many other mustelids, it has potent anal scent glands used for marking territory and sexual signaling. The pungent odor has given rise to the nicknames "skunk bear" and "nasty cat." Wolverines, like other mustelids, possess a special upper molar in the back of the mouth that is rotated 90 degrees, towards the inside of the mouth. This special characteristic allows wolverines to tear off meat from prey or carrion that has been frozen solid.


title: Wolverine

text: Wolverines are considered to be primarily scavengers. A majority of the wolverine's sustenance is derived from carrion, on which it depends almost exclusively in winter and early spring. Wolverines may find carrion themselves, feed on it after the predator (often, a pack of wolves) has finished, or simply take it from another predator. Wolverines are also known to follow wolf and lynx trails, purportedly with the intent of scavenging the remains of their kills. Whether eating live prey or carrion, the wolverine's feeding style appears voracious, leading to the nickname of "glutton" (also the basis of the scientific name). However, this feeding style is believed to be an adaptation to food scarcity, especially in winter.


title: Wolverine

text: The wolverine is also a powerful and versatile predator. Its prey mainly consists of small to medium-sized mammals, but the wolverine has been recorded killing prey such as adult deer that are many times larger than itself. Prey species include porcupines, squirrels, chipmunks, beavers, marmots, moles, gophers, rabbits, voles, mice, rats, shrews, lemmings, caribou, roe deer, white-tailed deer, mule deer, sheep, goats, cattle, bison, moose, and elk. Smaller predators are occasionally preyed on, including martens, mink, foxes, Eurasian lynx, weasels, coyote, and wolf pups. Wolverines have also been known to kill Canada lynx in Yukon, Canada. Wolverines often pursue live prey that are relatively easy to obtain, including animals caught in traps, newborn mammals, and deer (including adult moose and elk) when they are weakened by winter or immobilized by heavy snow. Their diets are sometimes supplemented by birds' eggs, birds (especially geese), roots, seeds, insect larvae, and berries.


title: Wolverine

text: Wolverines inhabiting the Old World (specifically, Fennoscandia) hunt more actively than their North American relatives. This may be because competing predator populations in Eurasia are not as dense, making it more practical for the wolverine to hunt for itself than to wait for another animal to make a kill and then try to snatch it. They often feed on carrion left by wolves, so changes in wolf populations may affect the population of wolverines. They are also known on occasion to eat plant material.


title: Wolverine

text: Wolverines frequently cache their food during times of plenty. This is of particular importance to lactating females in the winter and early spring, a time when food is scarce.


title: Wolverine

text: Wolves, American black bears, brown bears, cougars, and golden eagles are capable of killing wolverines, particularly young and inexperienced individuals. Wolves are thought to be the wolverine's most important natural predator, with the arrival of wolves to a wolverine's territory presumably leading the latter to abandon the area. Armed with powerful jaws, sharp claws, and a thick hide, wolverines, like most mustelids, are remarkably strong for their size. They may defend against larger or more numerous predators such as wolves or bears. By far, their most serious predator is the grey wolf, with an extensive record of wolverine fatalities attributed to wolves in both North America and Eurasia. In North America, another predator (less frequent) is the cougar. At least one account reported a wolverine's apparent attempt to steal a kill from a black bear, although the bear won what was ultimately a fatal contest for the wolverine. There are a few accounts of brown bears killing and consuming wolverines as well and, although also reported at times to be chased off prey, in some areas such as Denali National Park, wolverines seemed to try to actively avoid encounters with grizzly bears as they have been reported in areas where wolves start hunting them.


title: Wolverine

text: Successful males will form lifetime relationships with two or three females, which they will visit occasionally, while other males are left without a mate. Mating season is in the summer, but the actual implantation of the embryo (blastocyst) in the uterus is stayed until early winter, delaying the development of the fetus. Females will often not produce young if food is scarce. The gestation period is 30–50 days, and litters of typically two or three young ("kits") are born in the spring. Kits develop rapidly, reaching adult size within the first year. The typical longevity of a wolverine in captivity is around 15 to 17 years, but in the wild the average lifespan is more likely between 8 and 10 years. Fathers make visits to their offspring until they are weaned at 10 weeks of age; also, once the young are about six months old, some reconnect with their fathers and travel together for a time.


title: Wolverine

text: Wolverines live primarily in isolated arctic, boreal, and alpine regions of northern Canada, Alaska, Siberia, and Fennoscandia; they are also native to European Russia, the Baltic countries, the Russian Far East, northeast China and Mongolia. In the Sierra Nevada, wolverines were sighted near Winnemucca Lake in spring 1995 and at Toe Jam Lake north of the Yosemite border in 1996; and later photographed by baited cameras, including in 2008 and 2009, near Lake Tahoe. According to a 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service publication, "wolverines are found in the North Cascades in Washington and the Northern Rocky Mountains in Idaho, Montana, Oregon (Wallowa Range), and Wyoming. Individual wolverines have also moved into historic range in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California and the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, but have not established breeding populations in these areas." In 2022, Colorado Parks and Wildlife considered plans to reintroduce the wolverine to the state.


title: Wolverine

text: Wolverines are also found in Utah but are very rarely seen, with only 6 confirmed sightings since the first confirmed sighting in 1979. 3 of these 6 confirmed Utah sightings have been caught on video. A wolverine, a male, was finally captured and tagged in Utah in 2022 before being released back into the wild to better understand the animal's range.


title: Wolverine

text: In August 2020, the National Park Service reported that wolverines had been sighted at Mount Rainier, Washington, for the first time in more than a century. The sighting was of a reproductive female and her two offspring.


title: Wolverine

text: In 2004, the first confirmed sighting of a wolverine in Michigan since the early 19th century took place, when a Michigan Department of Natural Resources wildlife biologist photographed a wolverine in Ubly, Michigan. The specimen was found dead at the Minden City State Game Area in Sanilac County, Michigan in 2010; no further wolverines have been spotted in Michigan.


title: Wolverine

text: Most New World wolverines live in Canada and Alaska. However, wolverines were once recorded as also being present in Colorado, areas of the southwestern United States (Arizona and New Mexico), the Midwest (Indiana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin), New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Massachusetts) and in New York and Pennsylvania.


title: Wolverine

text: There had been sporadic records of wolverines in Ukraine, but it is rather unclear whether the wolverines would have formed sustainable populations.


title: Wolverine

text: Unique records of encounters with wolverines have been noted in Latvia as well, the most recent one being in late July 2022 (although it can be disputed because of the unclear footage); the population was widespread around 16th—17th centuries, but nowadays it is not native to the area.


title: Wolverine

text: The world's total wolverine population is not known. The animal exhibits a low population density and requires a very large home range. The wolverine is listed by the IUCN as Least Concern because of its "wide distribution, remaining large populations, and the unlikelihood that it is in decline at a rate fast enough to trigger even Near Threatened".


title: Wolverine

text: The range of a male wolverine can be more than 620 km (240 mi), encompassing the ranges of several females which have smaller home ranges of roughly 130–260 km (50–100 mi). Adult wolverines try for the most part to keep nonoverlapping ranges with adults of the same sex. Radio tracking suggests an animal can range hundreds of miles in a few months.


title: Wolverine

text: Female wolverines burrow into snow in February to create a den, which is used until weaning in mid-May. Areas inhabited nonseasonally by wolverines are thus restricted to zones with late-spring snowmelts. This fact has led to concern that global warming will shrink the ranges of wolverine populations.


title: Wolverine

text: This requirement for large territories brings wolverines into conflict with human development, and hunting and trapping further reduce their numbers, causing them to disappear from large parts of their former range; attempts to have them declared an endangered species have met with little success. In February 2013, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service proposed giving Endangered Species Act protections to the wolverine due to its winter habitat in the northern Rockies diminishing. This was as a result of a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife.


title: Wolverine

text: The Wildlife Conservation Society reported in June 2009 that a wolverine researchers had been tracking for almost three months had crossed into northern Colorado. Society officials had tagged the young male wolverine in Wyoming near Grand Teton National Park, and it had traveled southward for about . It was the first wolverine seen in Colorado since 1919, and its appearance was also confirmed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife. In May 2016 the same wolverine was killed by a cattle ranch-hand in North Dakota, ending a greater-than-800-mile (1287 km) trip by this lone male wolverine, dubbed M-56. This was the first verified sighting of a Wolverine in North Dakota in 150 years. In February 2014, a wolverine was seen in Utah, the first confirmed sighting in that state in 30 years.


title: Wolverine

text: Around a hundred wolverines are held in zoos across North America and Europe, and they have been bred in captivity, but only with difficulty and high infant mortality.


title: Wolverine

text: The wolverine's questionable reputation as an insatiable glutton (reflected in the Latin genus name "Gulo") may be in part due to a false etymology. The less common name for the animal in Norwegian, "fjellfross", meaning "mountain cat", is thought to have worked its way into German as "Vielfraß", which means "glutton" (literally "devours much"). Its name in other West Germanic languages is similar (e.g. ).


title: Wolverine

text: The Finnish name is "ahma", derived from "ahmatti," which is translated as "glutton". Similarly, the Estonian name is "ahm", with the equivalent meaning to the Finnish name. In Lithuanian, it is "ernis"; in Latvian, "tinis" or "āmrija".


title: Wolverine

text: The Eastern Slavic росомаха ("rosomakha") and the Polish and Czech name "rosomák" seem to be borrowed from the Finnish "rasva-maha" (fat belly). Similarly, the Hungarian name is "rozsomák" or "torkosborz" which means "gluttonous badger".


title: Wolverine

text: In French-speaking parts of Canada, the wolverine is referred to as "carcajou", borrowed from the Innu-aimun or Montagnais "kuàkuàtsheu". However, in France, the wolverine's name is "glouton" (glutton).


title: Wolverine

text: Purported gluttony is reflected neither in the English name "wolverine" nor in the names used in North Germanic languages. The English word wolverine (alteration of the earlier form, wolvering, of uncertain origin) probably implies "a little wolf". The name in Proto-Norse, "erafaz" and Old Norse, "jarfr", lives on in the regular Icelandic name "jarfi", regular Norwegian name "jerv", regular Swedish name "järv" and regular Danish name "jærv".


title: Wolverine

text: Many North American cities, teams, and organizations use the wolverine as a mascot. For example, the US state of Michigan is, by tradition, known as "the Wolverine State", and the University of Michigan takes the animal as its mascot. There have also been professional baseball and football clubs called the "Wolverines". The association is well and long established: for example, many Detroiters volunteered to fight during the American Civil War and George Armstrong Custer, who led the Michigan Brigade, called them the "Wolverines". The origins of this association are obscure; it may derive from a busy trade in wolverine furs in Sault Ste. Marie in the 18th century or may recall a disparagement intended to compare early settlers in Michigan with the vicious mammal. Wolverines are, however, extremely rare in Michigan. A sighting in February 2004 near Ubly was the first confirmed sighting in Michigan in 200 years. The animal was found dead in 2010.


title: Wolverine

text: Marvel Comics character James "Logan" Howlett was given the name "Wolverine" because of his short stature, keen animal senses, and ferocity.


title: Wolverine

text: The wolverine is prevalent in stories and oral history from various Algonquian tribes and figures prominently in the mythology of the Innu people of eastern Quebec and Labrador. The wolverine is known as Kuekuatsheu, a conniving trickster who created the world. The story of the formation of the Innu world begins long ago when Kuekuatsheu built a big boat similar to Noah's Ark and put all the various animal species in it. There was a great deal of rain, and the land was flooded. Kuekuatsheu told a mink to dive into the water to retrieve some mud and rocks which he mixed together to create an island, which is the world that is presently inhabited along with all the animals. Many tales of Kuekuatsheu are often humorous and irreverent and include crude references to bodily functions. Some Northeastern tribes, such as the Miꞌkmaq and Passamaquoddy, refer to the wolverine as Lox, who usually appears in tales as a trickster and thief (although generally more dangerous than its Innu counterpart) and is often depicted as a companion to the wolf. Similarly, the Dené, a group of the Athabaskan-speaking natives of northwestern Canada, have many stories of the wolverine as a trickster and cultural transformer much like the coyote in the Navajo tradition or raven in Northwest Coast traditions.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Wicked is a 2003 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel "", in turn based on L. Frank Baum's 1900 novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" and its 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film adaptation.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: The show is told from the perspective of, and focuses on, the witches of the Land of Oz; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy Gale arrives in Oz from Kansas. "Wicked" tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (later Glinda the Good Witch), whose relationship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's private fall from grace.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Produced by Universal Stage Productions, in coalition with Marc Platt, Jon B. Platt, and David Stone, with direction by Joe Mantello and choreography by Wayne Cilento, the original production of "Wicked" premiered on Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre in October 2003, after completing pre-Broadway tryouts at San Francisco's Curran Theatre in May and June of that year. Its original stars included Idina Menzel as Elphaba, Kristin Chenoweth as Glinda, and Joel Grey as the Wizard. The original Broadway production won three Tony Awards and seven Drama Desk Awards, while its original cast album received a Grammy Award. On October 28, 2019, with its 6,681st performance, it surpassed ""Les Misérables"" to become Broadway's fifth-longest running show. A typical performance of the show takes about two hours and 30 minutes, including an intermission.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: The success of the Broadway production has spawned many productions worldwide, including a long-running West End production. "Wicked" has broken box-office records around the world, holding weekly-gross-takings records in Los Angeles, Chicago, St. Louis, and London. In the week ending January 2, 2011, the London, Broadway, and both North American touring productions simultaneously broke their respective records for the highest weekly gross. In the final week of 2013, the Broadway production broke this record again, earning $3.2 million. In 2016, "Wicked" surpassed $1 billion in total Broadway revenue, joining "The Phantom of the Opera" and "The Lion King" as the only Broadway shows to do so. In 2017, "Wicked" surpassed "The Phantom of the Opera" as Broadway's second-highest grossing musical, trailing only "The Lion King". Wicked had performed in 16 different countries and is still going strong.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: A two-part film adaptation, directed by Jon M. Chu starring Cynthia Erivo as Elphaba, Ariana Grande as Glinda and Jonathan Bailey as Fiyero is currently in the works. is set for release on Christmas Day in 2024, with the second part to follow a year later.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz discovered Maguire's 1995 novel "Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West" while on vacation, and saw its potential for a dramatic adaptation. However, Maguire had released the rights to Universal Pictures, which had planned to develop a live-action feature film. In 1998, Schwartz persuaded Maguire to release the rights to a stage production while also making what Schwartz called an "impassioned plea" to Universal producer Marc Platt to realize Schwartz's own intended adaptation. Persuaded, Platt signed on as joint producer of the project with Universal and David Stone.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: The novel, described as a political, social, and ethical commentary on the nature of good and evil, takes place in the Land of Oz, in the years surrounding Dorothy's arrival. The story centers on Elphaba, a misunderstood, smart, and fiery girl with emerald-green skin, who grows up to become the notorious Wicked Witch of the West and Galinda, the beautiful, blonde, popular girl who grows up to become Glinda the Good Witch of the South. The story is divided into five scenes based on the location and presents events, characters, and situations adapted from L Frank Baum's "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (1900) and its 1939 film adaptation in new ways. It is designed to set the reader thinking about what it really is to be "Wicked," and whether good intentions with bad results are the same as bad intentions with bad results. Schwartz considered how best to condense the novel's dense and complicated plot into a sensible script. To this end, he collaborated with Emmy Award-winning writer Winnie Holzman to develop the outline of the plot over the course of a year, while meeting with producer Marc Platt to refine the structural outline of the show, creating an original stage piece rather than a strict adaptation of Maguire's work.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: While the draft followed Maguire's idea of retelling the story of the 1939 film from the perspective of its main villain, the storyline of the stage adaptation "goes far afield" from the novel. Holzman observed in an interview with "Playbill" that: "It was [Maguire's] brilliant idea to take this hated figure and tell things from her point of view, and to have the two witches be roommates in college, but the way in which their friendship develops—and really the whole plot—is different onstage." Schwartz justified the deviation, saying: "Primarily we were interested in the relationship between Galinda—who becomes Glinda—and Elphaba... the friendship of these two women and how their characters lead them to completely different destinies." Other major plot modifications include Fiyero's appearance as the scarecrow, Elphaba's survival at the end, Nessarose using a wheelchair instead of being born without arms, Boq having a continuing love interest for Glinda and eventually becoming the Tin Woodman instead of Nick Chopper, cutting Elphaba's years in the Vinkus, the deletion of Liir's birth, Fiyero not having a wife and children, Doctor Dillamond being fired instead of being murdered, and Madame Morrible going to prison instead of dying.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: The book, lyrics, and score for the musical were developed through a series of readings. In these developmental workshops, Kristin Chenoweth, the Tony Award–winning actress whom Schwartz had in mind while composing the music for the character, joined the project as Glinda. Stephanie J. Block played Elphaba in the workshops (she played Elphaba in the first national tour and later as a Broadway cast replacement) before Idina Menzel was cast in the role in late 2000. Earlier that year, the creators recruited New York producer Stone, who began planning the Broadway production. Joe Mantello was engaged as director and Wayne Cilento as choreographer, while designer Eugene Lee created the set and visual style for the production inspired by W. W. Denslow's original illustrations for Baum's novels and Maguire's concept of the story being told through a giant clock. Costume designer Susan Hilferty created a "twisted Edwardian" style in building more than 200 costumes, while lighting designer Kenneth Posner used more than 800 lights to give each of the 54 distinct scenes and locations "its own mood." By April 2003, the show was in rehearsals.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Following the out-of-town tryout in San Francisco in May and June 2003, which received mixed critical reception, the creative team made extensive changes before its transfer to Broadway. Holzman recalled:


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Stephen [Schwartz] wisely had insisted on having three months to rewrite in between the time we closed in San Francisco and when we were to go back into rehearsals in New York. That was crucial; that was the thing that made the biggest difference in the life of the show. That time is what made the show work.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Elements of the book were rewritten, while several songs underwent minor changes. "Which Way is the Party?," the introductory song to the character Fiyero, was replaced by "Dancing Through Life." Concern existed that Menzel's Elphaba "got a little overshadowed" by Chenoweth's Glinda, with "San Francisco Chronicle" critic Robert Hurwitt writing, "Menzel's brightly intense Elphaba the Wicked Witch [needs] a chance of holding her own alongside Chenoweth's gloriously, insidiously bubbly Glinda." As a result, the creative team set about making Elphaba "more prominent." In making the Broadway revisions, Schwartz recalled, "It was clear there was work to be done and revisions to be made in the book and the score. The critical community was, frankly, very helpful to us."


title: Wicked (musical)

text: "Wicked" starts off with a celebration in Oz, following the death of Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West. Glinda the Good floats in and reveals Elphaba's past: her mother had an affair with a traveling salesman while her father, the governor of Munchkinland, was away. She gave birth to a girl with green skin, whom her father rejected at birth ("No One Mourns the Wicked"). After being asked if she was Elphaba's friend, Glinda reminisces about their past. Years earlier, Elphaba arrives at Shiz University ("Dear Old Shiz"). Her father showered all of his affection on her younger sister Nessarose, who uses a wheelchair, and gives Nessa a pair of jeweled shoes. The headmistress of Shiz, Madame Morrible, decides to take Nessa under her wing, assigning the nerdy Elphaba and the popular Galinda to be roommates. Elphaba, anxious, uses magic to pull Nessarose's wheelchair back after Morrible attempts to depart with her sister. Morrible recognizes Elphaba's potential and decides to teach her sorcery. She tells Elphaba her powers might allow her to one day work with the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, something Elphaba has dreamed of her whole life ("The Wizard and I").


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Galinda and Elphaba clash with each other in their letters to their parents and even in classes ("What Is This Feeling?"), such as history, with Doctor Dillamond, a goat who, as the only Animal professor at Shiz, is beginning to suffer from discrimination. He tells Elphaba about a conspiracy to stop animals from speaking, and she wants to let the Wizard know because he could stop it ("Something Bad"). Meanwhile, a handsome roguish prince Fiyero arrives at Shiz and introduces the other students to his philosophy of not caring about life and worries. They decide to attend a party at the Ozdust Ballroom that evening. A Munchkin named Boq asks Galinda to go with him, but she convinces him to take Nessarose so she can go with Fiyero. Nessa becomes deeply enamored with Boq and convinces Elphaba to find a way to thank Galinda for her "help". At the party, Madame Morrible tells Galinda she can join her sorcery class, at Elphaba's request, and gives her a wand. Elphaba arrives wearing a hat Galinda gave her as a practical joke, only to find the other students laughing and staring while she dances alone. Galinda has a change of heart and decides to dance with her, and soon everyone joins them, allowing both girls to finally bond ("Dancing Through Life").


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Later back in their dorm room, they continue to bond with secrets. Galinda decides to give her new friend a personality makeover ("Popular"). The next day, Dr. Dillamond arrives at class, explaining that he's leaving - he is no longer permitted to teach. Elphaba wants to help, but no one will stand up with her. Afterward, the students are introduced to the technical advantages of the cage, which will prevent any animal from speaking. Elphaba's anger cannot be contained and; in the ensuing chaos, she escapes alongside Fiyero, taking with them the lion cub that was imprisoned within the cage, the two of them sharing a private moment. Elphaba, alone, laments that she could never be loved by Fiyero as Galinda is ("I'm Not That Girl"). Madame Morrible arrives and tells Elphaba that the Wizard will meet her. Nessa, Fiyero, and Galinda see her off at the train station. Galinda tries to impress Fiyero by changing her name to "Glinda" in solidarity with Dr. Dillamond, but Fiyero just barely notices and says goodbye to Elphaba. Elphaba invites Glinda to the Emerald City with her ("One Short Day").


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Elphaba and Glinda meet the Wizard of Oz, who is not as scary as they thought ("A Sentimental Man"). He promises Elphaba to grant her request if she proves herself. Madame Morrible appears as the Wizard's new "press secretary." She gives Elphaba a book of spells, the "Grimmerie", which only the magically gifted can read. Elphaba is asked to perform a levitation spell on the Wizard's monkey servant, Chistery, but it makes Chistery very painfully sprout wings. She discovers that the Wizard is behind the suppression of the Animals and that he is a fraud who only creates a bunch of lies so he can continue on in power. She flees the Wizard's chamber, and Morrible warns all of Oz that Elphaba is a "wicked witch." After she refuses to take Glinda's advice to go back and apologise, Elphaba decides to go off to do what's right for her. She repeats the effect of the levitation spell on a broom and flies away from the Emerald City, leaving Glinda behind ("Defying Gravity").


title: Wicked (musical)

text: There has been a time skip, and now Elphaba is known as "The Wicked Witch of the West." The Wizard has given Glinda the title "Glinda the Good" and a public status as the nation's defender against Elphaba. Fiyero has become captain of the guard and tries to find Elphaba. He reluctantly agrees to marry Glinda. A press conference to celebrate their engagement is hijacked by the crowd's panicked rumors about Elphaba; one saying that she can be melted by water. Glinda maintains a cheerful front for the press but secretly regrets her decisions ("Thank Goodness").


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Elphaba visits Nessarose, now the governor of Munchkinland after the death of their father. Nessa has taken away the Munchkins' rights so that Boq can't leave her. Elphaba tries to convince her to join her against the Wizard, but Nessa is consumed by her problems. Elphaba tries to help by giving Nessa the power to walk, by turning Nessa's jeweled shoes into the magic ruby slippers. Nessa thinks Boq would love her now, but he sees this as proof that she no longer needs him and wants to tell Glinda of his love for her before she marries Fiyero. Nessa takes the "Grimmerie" to cast a spell to make Boq fall in love with her. She pronounces the words wrong and accidentally shrinks Boq's heart. She cries to Elphaba so she can save him and prevent Nessa from having to "live a life of loneliness" ("The Wicked Witch of the East"). Elphaba works another spell to save his life, transforming him into a Tin Man. Horrified, Nessa blames Elphaba.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Elphaba returns to the Emerald City to free the monkey servants and encounters the Wizard. He admits that he is an ordinary man and offers to redeem Elphaba's reputation ("Wonderful"). Even though she initially accepts his offer, when she discovers Dr. Dillamond who has lost the power of speech, Elphaba angrily accuses the Wizard, before he calls the guards to arrest her. Fiyero helps Elphaba escape and leaves with her. Heartbroken, Glinda tells the Wizard and Morrible that the only way to capture Elphaba is to make her believe her sister is in trouble ("I'm Not That Girl (Reprise)").


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Hidden away in a natural surrounding, Elphaba and Fiyero express their love for each other ("As Long As You're Mine"). Their happiness is interrupted by a sudden change in the weather. Elphaba and Glinda reunite at the spot where Nessa has just been crushed by a house with a girl named Dorothy inside. After a fight between the two witches, the Wizard's guards arrive. Fiyero holds Glinda hostage as Elphaba flees. Glinda pleads for the guards not to harm him as she knows he wouldn't really harm her, but they escort Fiyero to a nearby cornfield. At Kiamo Ko, Elphaba casts a spell to save Fiyero but is crestfallen by the limitations of her power. She finally accepts her reputation as a wicked witch ("No Good Deed").


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Meanwhile, the citizens of Oz, led by Madame Morrible and Boq the Tin Man, set off to destroy Elphaba. Glinda realizes that Madame Morrible is responsible for Nessa's death and that the situation and rumors have already gone too far. But when she confronts her, she tells her that there is also blood on her hands and advises her to smile and wave as the citizens set out to Kiamo Ko ("March of the Witch Hunters"). Elphaba captures Dorothy, refusing to release her until she relinquishes Nessa's slippers, the only thing left of her deceased sister. Glinda arrives to warn Elphaba of the danger and begs her to free Dorothy. Elphaba refuses until she receives a letter concerning Fiyero. She decides to surrender and the two women forgive each other of all allowances. Elphaba gives the Grimmerie to Glinda and they embrace one final time before saying goodbye forever, realizing how much they've changed because they knew each other ("For Good"). Elphaba forces Glinda to hide, and she witnesses from the shadows as Dorothy throws a bucket of water on Elphaba, melting her. The only remains of her are her pointy hat and the Green Elixir that she had slept with under her pillow.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Back at the Emerald City, Glinda confronts the Wizard with Elphaba's bottle, which he recognizes as his own; he was Elphaba's biological father and the cause of her green skin. Glinda banishes the Wizard from Oz and throws Morrible into prison for murdering Nessarose. Meanwhile, Dorothy's friend, Fiyero (now a scarecrow) comes to the spot where Elphaba melted. He knocks on the floor; Elphaba steps out from a trap door, apparently having faked her death, and they embrace. She regrets that she will never see Glinda again. Back outside the Wizard's palace, Glinda informs the People of Oz that the Wicked Witch is dead and that she will earn her title as "Glinda the Good". As the people celebrate and Glinda mourns quietly, Elphaba and Fiyero leave Oz ("Finale").


title: Wicked (musical)

text: "Note: "The Wicked Witch of the East" is the only major piece to not be featured on the cast recording, as the producers felt "the song included too much dialogue and would give some of the plot away to people who have not seen the show.""


title: Wicked (musical)

text: The score of "Wicked" is heavily thematic, bearing in some senses more resemblance to a film score than a traditional musical score. While many musical scores employ new motifs and melodies for each song with little overlap, Schwartz integrated a handful of leitmotifs throughout the production. Some of these motifs indicate irony – for example, when Glinda presents Elphaba with a "ghastly" hat in "Dancing through Life," the score reprises a theme from "What is this Feeling?" a few scenes earlier.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Two musical themes in "Wicked" run throughout the score. Although Schwartz rarely reuses motifs or melodies from earlier works, the first – Elphaba's theme – came from "The Survival of St. Joan", on which he worked as musical director. "I always liked this tune a lot and I never could figure out what to do with it," he remarked in an interview in 2004. The chord progression that he first penned in 1971 became a major theme of the show's orchestration. By changing the instruments that carry the motif in each instance, Schwartz enables the same melody to convey different moods. In the overture, the tune is carried by the orchestra's brass section, with heavy percussion. The result is, in Schwartz' own words, "like a giant shadow terrorizing you." When played by the piano with some electric bass in "As Long As You're Mine," however, the same chord progression becomes the basis for a romantic duet. And with new lyrics and an altered bridge, the theme forms the core of the song "No One Mourns the Wicked" and its reprises.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: Schwartz uses the "Unlimited" theme as the second major motif running through the score. Although not included as a titled song, the theme appears as an interlude in several of the musical numbers. In a tribute to Harold Arlen, who wrote the score for the 1939 film adaptation, the "Unlimited" melody incorporates the first seven notes of the song "Over the Rainbow." Schwartz included it as an inside joke as, "according to copyright law, when you get to the eighth note, then people can come and say, 'Oh you stole our tune.' And of course obviously it's also disguised in that it's completely different rhythmically. And it's also harmonized completely differently... It's over a different chord and so on, but still it's the first seven notes of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow'." Schwartz further obscured the motif's origin by setting it in a minor key in most instances. This also creates contrast in the songs in which it forms a part, for example in "Defying Gravity," which is written primarily in the key of D-flat major. In the song "The Wicked Witch of the East," however, when Elphaba finally uses her powers to let her sister walk, the "Unlimited" theme is played in a major key.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: A cast recording of the original Broadway production was released on December 16, 2003, by Universal Music. All of the songs featured on stage are present on the recording with the exception of "The Wizard and I (Reprise)," "A Sentimental Man (Reprise)" and "The Wicked Witch of the East." The short reprise of "No One Mourns the Wicked" that opens Act II is attached to the beginning of "Thank Goodness." The music was arranged by Stephen Oremus, who was also the conductor and musical director, and James Lynn Abbott, with orchestrations by William David Brohn. The recording received the Grammy Award for Best Musical Show Album in 2005 and was certified platinum by the RIAA on November 30, 2006. The album was certified double platinum on November 8, 2010. A fifth-anniversary special edition of the original Broadway cast recording was released on October 28, 2008, with a bonus CD including tracks from the Japanese and German cast recordings, "Making Good" – a song later replaced by "The Wizard and I" – sung by Stephanie J. Block with Schwartz at the piano, "I'm Not that Girl" by Kerry Ellis (featuring Brian May on guitar), Menzel's dance mix of "Defying Gravity" and "For Good" sung by LeAnn Rimes and Delta Goodrem.


title: Wicked (musical)

text: A German recording of the Stuttgart production was released on December 7, 2007, featuring a track listing and arrangements identical to those of the Broadway recording. The Japanese cast recording was released on July 23, 2008, featuring the original Tokyo cast. It is notable for being the only Cast Album of the show that includes Glinda's Finale dialogue.