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Slightly absurdly, the Emperor of Ethiopia styled hmself as King of Kings, which does rather imply a view of the world in which Ethiopia was number one; mind you he also claimed descent from the Queen of Sheba and is I believe, worshipped as a deity?

Knowing their future status IOTL, if they could know it, which they couldnt, of course not, but at the point of time of this alternate, their future was murky (as it was in OTL) and they would have made a call on what their reality at the time was, not having the benefit of future seeing'into...

At the risk of appearing flippant, what happened in OTL was so unexpected/unlikely that it verges on ASB. It would have taken so little to undo the attempts at negotiated settlement that you can pick and choose, both before, during and after the settlement process. Events more than individuals...

In terms of the dominions, without massive butterflies the size of 747's you can almost certainly leave the Union of South Africa out of the equation, we didnt even have a real navy until after world war war 2 in OTL, and most certainly, for a landward orientated African power, no way would they...

Possibly the Tiger talks?

@ Julius Vogel, you are correct in regarding the immigration problem as being thorny. There would have been a requirement for a period to train up and integrate the internal resources to prosecute the war. However, I would suggest that immigration would have dramatically slowed, considering that...

Assuming that there was internal acceptance of the settlement amongst the general population, ZANU/PF would have, in all likelihood, been forced to the negotiating table, at a disadvantage. With recognition, Zimbabwe Rhodesia could have received open military assistance, both from the west and...

IMHO it could have been done - if started in the fifties. The logistics and planning to smoothly do this, would have been awesome in their complexity - moving factories, people, national treasure (the entire national treasure would have to be relocated, from gold bullion to paintings to...

Get someone to understand the Blitz on London and its effects on civilians properly; Once this is done, scrap the carpet bombing program, shortly after dropping Harris out of a bomb bay whilst at height. Replace the heavy bomber raids with targetted, planned raids using Mosquitos and...

Bear in mind also, that the boers that were incarcerated, were not used to living in close quarters with others. These were subsistence farmers, used to acres and acres of space around them. The camps were crowded to a degree that would have required personal hygiense standards several grades...

Í suppose that this could be in either pre or post 1900 forums (1899 -1902) :D The demographic implcations are possibly the most interesting consideration, bearing in mind that blacks were also incarcerated, albeit in proportionately smaller numbers. However, as noted, this was total war, so...

I must admit to being absolutely stunned at the erudite postings on the (Revived) thread! If anything, the very well put points from both sides simply highlight the immense complexity of the South African story, a story which has not played out yet - for us, history is not yet over. However...

Times were very confused, and it is a bit hard to get a handle on this one. One option would be for the AVF and Mangope to form an alliance and unite the fragmented parts of Bophuthatswana, and carry on to "liberate"a corridor down to the northern west coast. The alliance could have a stated aim...

Blacks were never drafted, so didn't need to dodge - the SADF was a two facetted organisation; It maintained a fairly large conventional army and then used special forces to adress the insurgents, to a large degree. This does not obviously ignore the large conventional engagements of the 80's...

I would suggest that any such comments were more tongue in cheek, or chosen by the media - the white electorate had other reasons for wanting and end to it all, not least of all, IMHO, sheer exhaustion

As The Oncoming Storm says, the buffer states did help - sort of like throwing one person off of the sled, to the wolves, to save the others .... The End Conscription Campaign in SA was possible one of the most effective ANC fronts of them all. I served part of my time assisting the SAAF...

It started in 65 ish with the first incursions from SWAPO into Ovamboland; At first the SA Police were tasked to handle it, but as it slowly escalated the army got involved. But you are right, the faecal matter really started flying from the mid seventies. I think however that the critical issue...

One of the things that is not readily admitted to by those in the white community who lust after the so called good old days, was that civil disobedience amongst whites was growing. In particular, response to compulsory military call ups for active duty, were getting poorer and poorer. It should...

For clarity sake, the Republic did not end in 1994, it merely changed its political structure. In respect of the earliest end of Apartheid, it could have been abandoned at any time in the rule of the National Party. However, if Apartheid as a political philosophy had not been implemented by...

I do not believe that it was inevitable; Rather a mixture of clever diplomacy, decisive use of force when required and lots of luck. To my mind, how it held together as long as it did is the true miracle. The second set of figures quoted for the actual measurable military power of the Empire...