Rhodesia (Rise and Fall)

Rhodesia, or more properly, the Dominion of Rhodesia, is a parliamentary republic located in southern Africa. Its capital is Salisbury.

History
After the successful independence movement in North America, which ended with the Confederate States leaving the United States, the British government began examining its own efforts in Africa, and by the 1880s, at the Congress of Berlin, had divided Africa up along with the other European nations. Going under various names until Cecil Rhodes coined the name 'Rhodesia,' the area had already come under heavy British interest for nearly 20 years prior.

By 1886, there were already 4,800 British living in the area that would become Rhodesia, mostly soldiers, but some families as well. By 1899, there were 80,000 Europeans living in the territory, and by 1912, there were 308,000 with 922,000 Africans. Many of the native Africans who wanted to continue their tribal existence were deported either voluntarily or not into Angola, Mozambique, or the Dutch Congo, while a number of Africans did assimilate to the British culture and began seeing themselves not as Africans, but as Rhodesians, forming with the British a new and unique culture. These Africans did face discrimination, limits on the kinds of jobs they could obtain or their advancement, racism, and other difficulties, but the onset of the first World War gave many a chance to prove themselves.

During the course of the first World War, over 125,000 Rhodesians fought together in the war, with a disproportionate amount of casualties faced by the African Rhodesians, not due to being placed intentionally in harm's way, but due to their own willingness to fight at the front lines in Africa and in Europe for their home country. Over 86,000 veterans of the war returned home with a newfound sense of pride in themselves and both white and black Rhodesians who shared the experience helped reduce some racial tensions, giving the franchise to black Rhodesian veterans and allowing them more economic mobility, but still segregating them somewhat from the white populations.

The second World War, however, was a much larger affair, and involved over 200,000 Rhodesians across the world. Returning from the war, the United Rhodesian Veterans soon became a peaceful veterans group that began its activism for black suffrage, equal rights, and more self-government. By 1945, Rhodesia had a population of 1.4 million Africans and 2.8 million Europeans. Over the course of ten years, with a series of peaceful protests and demonstrations, Rhodesians slowly won over more and more of the population until the 1955 Civil Rights Act, and the 1957 Voting Rights Act were passed in the Rhodesian Parliament, granting legal equality between the African and European Rhodesians, allowing them all to vote, hold office, and guaranteed equal treatment under the law.

In the 1958 elections, Rhodesia sent over 80 Africans to the parliament, a first for the dominion. In 1960, with a boom in immigration from the United Kingdom, Europe, and even the Americas, Rhodesia's population grew to 4.9 million whites and 2.1 million blacks. Locals began buying televisions, watching British and American television shows, and local news broadcasts. Starting in 1963, however, the first locally produced Rhodesian shows were produced, such as Rocko the Clown (a kids' show with kids, black and white, as contestants in little games where they could win prizes, interspersed with cartoons), Space Force (a semi-serious sci-fi show with production values between Star Trek and Lost in Space, featuring a serious of human-colonized planets), and Wanna Bet? (a game show).

The 1960s were a time of change for the country, but its economy was booming with tobacco and cotton, copper mining, and a growing local computer industry and automobile industry that only slowed down with the 1973 OPEC oil crisis, which forced the young country to seek oil elsewhere, including South Africa. About the same time, a growing environmental consciousness amongst the youth and others in society brought attention to the plight of elephants, rhinoceros, and other native animals, and habitat destruction, causing some of the first endangered animal laws and environmental laws to be passed in the dominion.

In 1980, the dominion had roughly 14 million people, 3.9 million of which were black, the rest white or Indian, imported from India to help work the tobacco and other agriculture either manually or mechanically. Rhodesian pop culture exploded during this time with several dozen locally produced TV shows, such as Friday Night Heat (a sketch comedy show running from 11:30 PM to 1 AM), Time Skip (a time traveler from Rhodesia travels through history to teach kids about history), Safari Sam (local wildlife activist Sam Cleary teaches kids about animals, interspersed with cartoons, including some local cartoons), and several popular dramas, comedies, sitcoms like All in the Neighborhood (showing two older families, white and black, dealing with everyday life, including their kids dating mixed-race, and dealing with Indians coming into the country), and more.

A small recession in 1987 and in 1994 was not enough to slow the economy, but a scandal in 1995 did topple the Weinecki government, forcing his resignation as prime minister, leading to Rodger Kuanda becoming the first black prime minister of Rhodesia, serving for two terms, and visiting Queen Elizabeth II in London on four separate occasions, and hosting her once to open a session of parliament in person.

By the year 2000, there were 24 million Rhodesians, 6.4 million of which were of African ancestry. The country reports 86% Christian, 7% Hindu, and 7% other religion as of 2020, with 31 million persons (7.3 million black, 2.5 million Indian, 21.2 million white). Due to the terrorist attacks in New York in 2001, immigration from the Middle East was halted aside from refugee cases.