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Accommodating Imperialism: the Compromise of the Settler State in Southern Rhodesia, 1923–1929

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Ian Phimister
Ian Phimister
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
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Extract

Although Southern Rhodesia's settler minority won responsible government from Britain in 1923, it was on terms circumscribed by the interests of metropolitan accumulation. As the dependent partner, Southern Rhodesia was obliged to accept constitutional provisions seeking to guard against initiatives which might disturb that process. Consequently, the settler state found itself hamstrung when it tried to gain some say over how the railway system operated. It was even less successful when it turned its attention to base mineral mining, where a handful of large companies did pretty much as they pleased. Efforts to find overseas markets for cattle and tobacco were also unsatisfactory. Neither the state nor settler producers could obtain the terms they wanted. Accumulation proceeded on terrain designed and dominated by imperialism.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 25 , Issue 3 , July 1984 , pp. 279 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

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