Basic information
Official name: Colony of Southern Rhodesia
Languages: English is the official language, spoken by the white upper classes. Amongst the blacks, Shona and Ndebele are widely spoken.
Capital city: Salisbury
Demonym: (Southern) Rhodesian
History: There is not much to write here, for Rhodesia is a country but thirty years old. It was colonised by Britain between 1888 and 1890, it was ruled by the British South Africa Company until a referendum in 1922 saw the BSAC's land south of the Zambezi decline joining the Union of South Africa, and instead it opted for a responsible self-government, officialy being granted this on October 1st 1923. Despite officially being a mere crown colony, Southern Rhodesia's prime minister attends Empire/Commonwealth Conferences and the government in Salisbury exercises the powers of anything between a Dominion or an Independent State.
Southern Rhodesia has developed itself into one of the richest and most advanced countries in Africa. Despite only 5% of the population being white, they have vast landed interests and nearly all of the highly educated and/or wealthy citizens are white. Salisbury has one of the few universities in British Africa, and its economy became the most industrialised in Africa.
Politics and Government: De jure a British colony, de facto a dominion. The political process takes place within the framework of a Constitutional Monarchy with a Parliamentary Democracy. Queen Elizabeth II is the current Head of State, her representative is the Governor, currently Major-General Sir John Noble Kennedy. The chief executive is the Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Huggins.
Military: It is small, compassing two infantry regiments, the all-white Royal Rhodesia Regiment, and the white-led, black-staffed Rhodesian African Rifles. Furthermore, it has an armoured battalion, the Rhodesian Armoured Corps. They are well-trained and equipped. Currently the RAR are in Malaya.
The military history of Rhodesia is a short one, but what it lacks in length it makes up for in valor. In World War I, 40% of Rhodesia's white males were under arms. In World War II, so many Rhodesians were in the service that the RAR or RR were not deployed as a unit to prevent them from taking heavy casualties, which would have the potential of literally decimating Rhodesia's white population. Instead they were embedded with South African and British units, including the LRDG. Rhodesian pilots received more rewards than the pilots of any other commonwealth nation and divided by population, Southern Rhodesia lost the most men of any British territory. This military history is engrained in the national mind, and integral to the national character.
Geography: Landlocked and wholly in the tropics, it straddles an extensive high inland plateau that drops northwards to the Zambezi valley where the border with Northern Rhodesia is and similarly drops southwards to the Limpopo valley and the border with South Africa. Very rich in resources and a lot of good farmland is present despite the generally dry climate.
Economy: Whilst heavily reliant on farming by white landowners and black farmhands, the country does know an industrial sector that kickstarted during WWII is now rapidly expanding off in the booming post-WWII global economy.
Culture: Most of the Rhodesian whites are British. It prides itself in its military history. There exists a strong culture of segregation, but it is different than what can be seen in South African apartheid.
Infrastructure , science and development: Very good by African standards, although nothing of major note has been achieved in Rhodesia.
Analysis: Rhodesia finds itself facing an uncertain future, as it is unwilling to relinquish its white-minority government in the face of Britain going on the path of jettisoning its colonies. A preparation for this is the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, in an attempt to seek a middle way between white-dominated South Africa and Portugal, and black majority states. However, the endurance of this federation decides on the power the whites, especially in Southern Rhodesia, are willing to cede the blacks. And currently, that stands at none. On the short term, Rhodesia's success is expected to continue. But on a longer term, Rhodesia's whites on a collision course with the black nationalists -and a British labour government overseeing decolonisation-