1 of 11 Zambia was seen as one of Africa's brightest stars, when Kenneth Kaunda became the first president on 24 October 1964 after leading the struggle for independence from the UK.
2 of 11 He inherited an economy which was comparable in size to South Korea, but heavily dependent on mining in the Copperbelt.
3 of 11 Zambia paid a heavy price for supporting the black nationalist struggle in both Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South Africa.
4 of 11 Behind the diplomatic niceties, former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher cannot have approved as Mr Kaunda nationalised key industries and banned all parties but his own.
5 of 11 Zambia was "born with a copper spoon in its mouth". Copper exports made it one of the richest countries in Africa in the 1960s...
6 of 11 ... but the economy declined sharply as copper prices crashed. Zambians were reduced to breaking stones in front of the ruined mines.
7 of 11 By 1991, it was time for a change. Food riots led Mr Kaunda to allow multi-party elections, which he lost to former unionist Frederick Chiluba (left), re-elected five years later.
8 of 11 Mr Chiluba promised higher living standards but these never materialised. By 1999, some 90,000 children were living rough on Zambia's streets - many orphaned by Aids.
9 of 11 Although Mr Kaunda presided over Zambia's economic decline, he was praised for being one of the first African leaders to acknowledge that one of his relatives had died from Aids.
10 of 11 Mr Chiluba stood down in 2001 and was later charged with 80 counts of theft worth $40m. These have now been scaled back to six counts, valued at $500,000.
11 of 11 Mr Chiluba's successor is trying to diversify the economy, but the future looks far from rosy, with more than six out of 10 Zambians now living on less than a dollar a day. South Korea's economy is now 100 times bigger than that of Zambia.