During the early years of independence, Zambia was comparatively prosperous. Copper prices rose steadily from 1964 to 1970, boosted by the Vietnam War, and Zambia became the world’s third largest producer of copper. Meanwhile, the leakage of copper profits abroad was greatly reduced. In 1964 the government acquired the mineral rights of the BSAC, and thereafter it also increased mining taxation. The country embarked on long-overdue investment in communications and social services. In 1960 there had been only 2,500 Africans in secondary schools; by 1971 there were 54,000. At independence there were fewer than 100 Zambian university graduates; in 1965 the University of Zambia was founded, and by 1971 it had 2,000 students. Zambians finally began to predominate in the upper ranks of the civil service, the army, business, and the professions. The copper industry still relied heavily on white expertise, but the colour bar had vanished, and in 1966 black mine workers secured a large increase in pay, which soon affected wage levels generally.

On the other hand, Zambia incurred massive costs from the survival of white supremacy across the Zambezi. Following (Southern) Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) in 1965, the United Nations imposed sanctions intended to isolate that country, but these bore much more heavily on Zambia. Copper exports were expensively rerouted northward, and a tarmac road and oil pipeline were built to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Trade with Rhodesia was steadily reduced, and the border was finally closed in 1973. A new coal mine and new hydroelectric schemes made Zambia largely independent of the Rhodesian-controlled power station at the Kariba Dam (built in 1959). In 1970–75 China built a railway from the Copperbelt to Dar es Salaam, which committed Zambia and Tanzania to extensive trade with China.

National integration had been a major task for Zambia’s leaders at independence. White settlers presented no great difficulty, and those farmers who stayed on were valued for their major contribution to food production. African “tribalism” was a more serious problem. This had less to do with the survival of precolonial political loyalties than with regional differences aggravated under colonial rule and the absence of any African lingua franca. The Lozi and other peoples in the west and south had long depended on labour migration across the Zambezi; the Copperbelt was dominated by Bemba speakers from the northeast. Kaunda did not himself belong to any major ethnic group, but his continuation in power required constant reshuffling of colleagues in the party and the government to preclude the emergence of a rival. In the name of national unity, UNIP sometimes made exaggerated claims to allegiance; such claims had brought it into armed conflict in 1964 with the Lumpa church founded by Alice Lenshina and in the late 1960s with Jehovah’s Witnesses. UNIP also challenged the independence of the judiciary, though from 1969 the authority of the bench was strengthened by the appointment of black Zambian judges.

In the early 1970s Zambia’s economic fortunes took a turn for the worse. Copper continued to provide the great bulk of export earnings, but prices fluctuated erratically and suffered a prolonged fall in 1975. The price of oil shot up in 1973, and inflation, already serious, rapidly increased. The government, committed to high spending, both public and private, reacted by borrowing heavily abroad and drawing on reserves. Investment declined, as did the efficiency of the transport network. State control of the mining industry, achieved in 1969–75, artificially prolonged its life but also increased the scope of corruption, as did parastatal corporations set up to promote industrial diversification.

The government became increasingly authoritarian. Kaunda felt threatened by critics at home and by the illegal Rhodesian regime, which harassed African guerrillas based in Zambia. UDI had already prompted Kaunda to impose emergency regulations, which thereafter were regularly renewed by the National Assembly and enabled the president to detain political opponents without trial. In 1973 the National Assembly approved a one-party constitution, and in 1975 UNIP took over Zambia’s main newspaper. To some extent, fear of foreign attack diminished with the advent of independence in Portuguese Africa in 1975 and in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) in 1980. But warfare in Angola and South African interference continued to provide pretexts to curb internal opposition.

Still more worrying, however, was the deepening economic crisis. Kaunda urged Zambians to look to agriculture rather than mining for a solution, but rural development policies, though consuming foreign aid, were mostly ill-conceived and failed to stem the historic drift to the towns. By 1980, out of a population of 5.7 million, more than 2 million lived in towns—many without jobs or housing—and inevitably, disease and crime flourished. Urban dwellers refused to pay the high prices that might have encouraged more farmers to produce for the market. Government subsidies sometimes bridged the gap, but their partial removal in 1986 and 1990 provoked major food riots in the towns. The restoration of subsidies in 1987 cost Zambia the support of the International Monetary Fund, though such support had been critical in coping with enormous foreign debts. Mounting discontent was reflected in recurrent closings of the University of Zambia, and in August 1991, in response to widespread pressure, the National Assembly abolished the one-party state. Multiparty elections were held in October, and Kaunda was decisively defeated by a trade union leader, Frederick Chiluba of the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD). UNIP was left with fewer than one-sixth of the seats in the National Assembly.