quality:correction, structural:expansion
Early colonial history

The Pioneer Column, a military volunteer force of settlers organised by Cecil Rhodes, founded the city on 12 September 1890 as a fort. They originally named the city Fort Salisbury after The 3rd Marquess of Salisbury, then- Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and it subsequently became known simply as Salisbury. The Salisbury Polo Club was formed in 1896. Salisbury was declared a municipality in 1897, and it became a city in 1935.

At the time of the city's founding, its site and surroundings were poorly drained. The earliest development was on sloping ground along the left bank of a stream, in an area where the Julius Nyerere Way industrial road runs today. The first area to be fully drained was near the head of the stream and was named Causeway. Causeway is now the site of many important government buildings, including the Senate House and the Office of the Prime Minister. After the position was abolished in January 1988, the office was renamed for the use of the President.

Salisbury was the seat of the British South Africa Company administrator and became capital of the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia in 1923.