Circle of Willis
Well-known member
After 14 years of fighting, the Rhodesian government of Ian Smith reached an accord with the moderate opposition led by Bishop Abel Muzorewa and former ZANU leader Ndabaningi Sithole (who had been ousted by Robert Mugabe). This 'Internal Settlement' provided for black majority rule by striking down most racial barriers to the franchise, although about 20 seats out of 100 were de facto reserved for whites by way of property & income qualifications which the country's black majority didn't meet. Rhodesia was renamed Zimbabwe-Rhodesia and took on a new flag, and the 1979 election which followed this agreement saw Muzorewa's party of moderate reconcilers, the UANC, win a majority in a process that international observers agreed to have been free & fair.
However, Jimmy Carter's USA and Margaret Thatcher's Britain refused to lift sanctions on Z-R, officially because the militant ZANU and ZAPU had not been included and so it wasn't 'really' representative of the black majority in their view. (Practically speaking, I would guess that the US probably didn't do it because of Carter's attempt at a much more idealistic & frankly at times starry-eyed foreign policy, while Britain likely was still smarting over how the Rhodesians issued a UDI from the Empire a few decades prior) Socialist African dictatorships and one-party states such as Julius Nyerere's Tanzania and Kenneth Kaunda's Zambia, obviously, did not accept the Internal Settlement either. Eventually, Smith & the Rhodesians cracked under this international pressure and more or less capitulated to the radical revolutionaries under Mugabe in 1980. As we know, after taking power in the 1980 election (where they were reported to have engaged in extensive voter intimidation) said radicals then proceeded to completely destroy the breadbasket of Africa and turn it into a basketcase (complete with ethnic cleansing, not just of the white Rhodesians but also the Matabele support base of Mugabe's ZAPU rivals).
However. What if the West did after all agree that the Internal Settlement was sufficient, and proceed to drop sanctions & recognize Zimbabwe-Rhodesia as legitimate following the election of Muzorewa as prime minister?
However, Jimmy Carter's USA and Margaret Thatcher's Britain refused to lift sanctions on Z-R, officially because the militant ZANU and ZAPU had not been included and so it wasn't 'really' representative of the black majority in their view. (Practically speaking, I would guess that the US probably didn't do it because of Carter's attempt at a much more idealistic & frankly at times starry-eyed foreign policy, while Britain likely was still smarting over how the Rhodesians issued a UDI from the Empire a few decades prior) Socialist African dictatorships and one-party states such as Julius Nyerere's Tanzania and Kenneth Kaunda's Zambia, obviously, did not accept the Internal Settlement either. Eventually, Smith & the Rhodesians cracked under this international pressure and more or less capitulated to the radical revolutionaries under Mugabe in 1980. As we know, after taking power in the 1980 election (where they were reported to have engaged in extensive voter intimidation) said radicals then proceeded to completely destroy the breadbasket of Africa and turn it into a basketcase (complete with ethnic cleansing, not just of the white Rhodesians but also the Matabele support base of Mugabe's ZAPU rivals).
However. What if the West did after all agree that the Internal Settlement was sufficient, and proceed to drop sanctions & recognize Zimbabwe-Rhodesia as legitimate following the election of Muzorewa as prime minister?
