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Republic of Rhodesia
Rhodesianflag
Axisworldmaphighlightrhodesia
Official language English
Capital Salisbury
Largest Cities Salisbury: 1,800,000
Bulawayo: 800,000
Saint Mary's: 350,000
Population 14,000,000
Nation formed August 14, 1946
Currency Rhodesian Dollar (RHO)
Prime Minister Jacob Wellington (Rhodesian Front)
Our Timeline Equivalent Zimbabwe

The Republic of Rhodesia is a sovereign nation in Southeast Africa ruled by a white minority government made up mostly by the descendants of English colonists who settled there during Britain's imperial apex in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following the collapse of the United Kingdom and its colonial empire after its defeat in the Second World War, the colonial government of Southern Rhodesia scrambled to maintain its control over the nation as other former British holdings fell into chaos and subsequently succumbed to the Axis war machine. Taking cues from its neighbour South Africa, the Southern Rhodesian parliament led by Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins unilaterally declared independence from the UK in 1946 and quickly declared its support for the Axis Powers before German troops reached the Zambezi River. Although Adolf Hitler was initially intent on simply conquering the country, military and political officials in the war-weary Nazi Empire convinced him to entertain the notion of a truce with the white supremacist Rhodesian government as a means of sparing the Reich the human and financial expense of yet another costly war and occupation in Africa. After a tense period of deliberations and negotiations, the Reich agreed to respect Rhodesian sovereignty in return for access to a portion of Rhodesia's rich natural resources.

As in neighbouring South Africa, a small minority of whites serve as the nation's elite. Unlike South Africa, however, Rhodesia maintains a free and fair democracy for its white citizens (although the black majority is similarly oppressed and disenfranchised). Nonetheless, blacks in Rhodesia have a better lot than anywhere else in colonial Africa, as the nation's vast natural resources have afforded it a good deal of prosperity and created a wealth of jobs in the mining and agricultural industries. The government of long-time moderate Prime Minister Ian Smith also asserted Rhodesia's sovereignty against both the Nazi Empire and the Afrikaner-dominated South African regime by prohibiting the Axis slave trade from passing through his nation, thus ensuring at least de jure freedom for the black residents of Rhodesia.

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