Zimbabwe Rhodesia lives

what would of happened if the international community had recognized Republic of Zimbabwe Rhodesia and not pushed for the Lancaster House Agreement?
 
After the UDI, that's ASB. The only way you can really get this to work is if you have a different set of events leading up to the UDI. Not even South Africa gave full diplomatic recognition to Rhodesia, so the chances of the international community doing that are non-existant.
 
Ah, sorry, too a hasty a response there!

I'm not really sure how you could get this going since any settlement which excluded ZAPU and ZANU and simultaneously retained a role for Smith was, probably rightly, thought to be an unstable one which would probably be unworkable anyway. The Bush War was just too advanced at that stage for Smith to cut a deal with the moderate opposition and pretend it fixed things.

If you just want to abort ZANU-PF Zimbabwe, which I suspect you do, then the best bet there would be a much earlier settlement or even no UDI.
 
what would of happened if the international community had recognized Republic of Zimbabwe Rhodesia and not pushed for the Lancaster House Agreement?

It's hard to say, but I think that would have been an unstable arrangement, and would eventually have fallen apart as Blacks would not have accepted long-term the disproportionate power of the white minority. But who knows? Stranger things have worked.
 
It's hard to say, but I think that would have been an unstable arrangement, and would eventually have fallen apart as Blacks would not have accepted long-term the disproportionate power of the white minority. But who knows? Stranger things have worked.

i'd point out New Zealand and it's Māori seats as a case when a minority is special electoral power
 
If only it could have happened! Bishop Abel Muzorewa, though a black African, was unacceptable to the frontline African states, despite having been chosen by a 67% majority in an election British observers believed had been free and fair. These were in fact the only free and fair, all-inclusive elections that country has ever had. The international sanctions should have been lifted.
But the leaders of Zambia and Tanzania, Kenneth Kuanda and Julius Nyere, who were themselves heads of one-party dictatorships with crumbling socialist economies, denounced the result as undemocratic, demanding new elections. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, for once less an iron lady than a jellyfish, gave in to this demand, betraying the Rhodesians who had fought for Britain in two World Wars.
So in the end, new elections were held, in which ZANU and ZIPRA guerrillas terrorized the people into voting for Mugabe. Lord Soames knew of this intimidation, and considered invalidating the results of the election, but in the end decided not to. Robert Mugabe became, in effect, Zimbabwe's president for life.
There was a contingency plan, "Operation Quartz", for the Rhodesian armed forces to eliminate Mugabe and his associates, and eradicate the guerrillas while they were a vulnerable target, concentrated at their assembly points, in order to save the country from the terrorist leader's misrule, which they cannily foresaw. Sadly, the order to strike never came.
But what if it had taken place? I think the West would have publicly condemned the operation, but privately congratulated the Rhodesians on a job well done, and later, after all the furor, quietly lifted the sanctions.
Zimbabwe-Rhodesia would probably still be the breadbasket of lower Africa, and a loyal ally of the West, instead of the long-oppressed, bankrupt, pestilential hellhole it has become.
Why do we in the West persist in treating friends like enemies, and enemies like friends?
 
cometogether right now

Muzorewa expands government of national unity to bring in Sithole, and Minister for External affairs, remember he had run ZANU until 1976.
Also make use of Garfield tood, and boss Littlefield.
Chirau needed to be in the public limelight sooner.
It so crazy it just might work.
 
i'd point out New Zealand and it's Māori seats as a case when a minority is special electoral power

Yes, but the Maori were a disenfranchised minority being assured at least minimal representation. Z-R had whites, the former imperial ruling minority, being given disproportionate power. I think that's an unstable situation, especially since the Whites will control the economy.
 
Yes, but the Maori were a disenfranchised minority being assured at least minimal representation. Z-R had whites, the former imperial ruling minority, being given disproportionate power. I think that's an unstable situation, especially since the Whites will control the economy.

you have a point, the push for Land reform would be huge (it's the one thing thats saved Mugabe's ass all these years)
 
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