Ignorant? To argue? I object the very statement you have for debate and argument is the synthesis of human quality. To ignore that which you see befitting to yourself thrust to your comment is a ridiculous claim ignorance to your own selfish perspective....
It's crazy how important the Albanians were in the Ottoman Empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. The Albanians kept the Balkans in check for the Ottomans and when they weren't paid for for doing so after the Orlov revolt the Albanian mercenaries started plundering and ignoring Ottoman commands, which led to the entire region rebelling and by the 1890s the Ottomans had been mostly pushed out of the Balkans.
@@isaiahfraser2968 here's an alternate history video of mine where I talk alot about africa, I think it's very interesting. I even talk a lil about the white south africans and the igbo ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1Pt5Xu8Ebbw.html Don't let the title fool you
Although borders (not necessarily just Africa's, but the whole world's) seems and feels quite fixed to many of us, this video really reminds me that nothing is eternal, and "borders" between countries can change anytime with any reason, seen or unforseen.
The borders in central Europe were some of the most fought about and confusing in history and mostly "disappeared" in the last decades. Sure they are still there on a map and in reality but going from Germany to any of the neighboring countries you don't really feel that you are crossing a border. Only the signs suddenly look different. That really changed the perspective on borders here.
Wow, an actual alternate history video. I'm a little skeptical about one part of the South Africa one. I find it unlikely that the British would just aggressively seize the Portuguese colonies in the region, even parts of them. I could see them maybe buying them, or some other peaceful transition, though even that I feel would be unlikely. The British and Portuguese have one of the most stable and long lasting alliances in European history, I don't think the scramble for Africa would be enough to significantly alter that.
The Portugese had claimed the coast and only really went for the interior once the technology was ready after the Berlin conference. Also independence. The US did fought the British a few times and they also did just settle Mexican land.
Can you imagine the Europeans somehow coming to an understanding and just merging all or some of their African colonies? Like some kind of federation of african colonies? Even just the southern British, German and Portuguese ones (I just can't even imagine the french being a part of that) would make for such a Juggernaut.
I see what you mean but the British did give the Portuguese and ultimatum in the 1900s to give up north and south Rhodesia to them so I don't see why they wouldn’t do the same for the others
I wouldn't mind the geopolitics so much if he didn't make such sweeping generalizations tenuously based on broad historical trends in countries and regions which he clearly know nothing about.
@@honeycomblord9384 imagine his family and bloodline stills stays (despite not coming to America), that he is born in modern time, (where in this world he's in Africa, instead of America)
Just looking at the thumbnail, the 1st one reminds me of the bunch of West African countries that negotiate decolonization from France, the 2nd seems to be the British Northeastern part with the Nile etc at its peak, & the 3rd seems to be the British Southern part extending into German Namibia after WW1
@@yonathanrakau1783 If Australia is any indicator to go by it would probably have quite a bit of ethnic cleansing going on in the background. At least SA would probably have a better power handover than the one from our timeline, since the current SA government is still riding the "We stopped Apartheid!" bandwagon, so if there wasn't as heavy of an Apartheid system politicians wouldn't be able to ride that train all the way to a comfy new office.
@@C4Cole05 i dont think there will be much black people in this video like irl since most of butuan died with diseases and majority of the blacks in the south probably dutch brought slaves from west africa
@@C4Cole05 The we ended "apartheid bandwagon" isn't working anymore. The only reason they made it so far is because people in the past didn't have any good alternatives but now they do. 40% people who could've voted didn't vote in the 2019 elections but now more people are going to vote. So yeah their days are numbered.
Whatifalthist: “Drawing borders without thought of culture, religion, and geography is always not a good way to start a society” Also Whatifalthist: “Let’s draw some borders in Africa for fun uwu.”
2:00 "people forget that the _Muslims_ were in the process of colonizing Africa in the 19th century before the Europeans did..." Those regions were already Muslim and that happened not in the 1800s but between the 600s to 1300s. The lands the Muhammad Ali Dynasty came to rule were already Muslim. 4:25 Shows westward expansion. Ignores that fact that Chad and northern CAR are already Muslim. Chad had countless Muslim dynasties (Furthermore, eastern Chad and western Sudan are historically linked, while western Chad is linked to northeast Nigeria and northwest Cameroon by way of the Kanem-Borno Empire). It's also unlikely that Sudan/Egypt would expand its empire southward given that it's completely different geographically requiring different warfare tactics. Uganda, northeast DR Congo and Kenya all have Muslim populations, and if southward expansion was an ambition from the north then it would have happened already centuries ago. 5:28 Nope. Central and East Africa already had Muslim kingdoms and they weren't Arabic speaking. Muslim rule doesn't automatically mean Arabic language, especially NOT if there's a pre-Arab Muslim presence. There's specific reasons for how Arabic came to dominate the regions where it has (which I can easily elaborate). 8:09 The previous West African Muslim kingdoms were already separate from North Africa. That's partly why the Songhai didn't have guns and cannons.
Africa is such an amazing and interesting place. It’s such a shame that it isn’t more widely taught about and that most kids will never know more than the pyramids of Egypt :(
History is expansive, which means that the school system has to pick and choose which parts of it should be covered. Of course priority goes to events, nations and topics that have affected their nation the most. This means that, for the majority of the western world, Africa, South America and parts of Asia get left out, as they haven’t had as great an impact on the western world as other parts of the planet. Finally, as these places are not very significant politically in the modern world, they remain largely forgotten, as they rarely come up in news or political discussions.
@@kingofdragonsgameplay1369 I agree with you but how many times in our twelve years of school did we see a focus on American history and not world history. I had one world history ap and one geography course in my entire k-12 learning career. From Elementary to high school there was a strong focus on American/Western history. Although in math and science I saw a wider variety in education. If you ask me it’s a choice by the state to focus on American history. Hell growing up inTexas I had a Texas history course which felt more like a variation of American history.
I imagined this morning in class when I was bored the AWI (African War I) in 2040 between United States of Africa and Egypt vs East African Union and Anglo South Africa and you make a video about each one. Life is good
I missed these ones so much. Geopolitics is interesting but heavy and long, and this alt history is just entertaining and interesting. He litterally said lets have some fun
Whos ready for another clipable quote about egypt after it being easy to opress. Edit ah yes best combonation of slave labor fertile soil and warm climate.
@@JcLazy1 I'm moroccan and hoped to see my country mentioned, i still enjoyed all the others and I have always rooted for african growth and success, im a big fan of ethiopia, nigeria, kenya and rwanda. Those countries have bright futures, and I am not jealous, I just love my country and knowing how important it was at one point, was surprised it didn't get mentioned ^^
Damn love this coverage, I'd like to see more Africa getting spotlight, I have a suggestion please do one on what if the Mongols conquered Egypt and continue their campaign in Africa. I mean Mongols horse archer prove themselves to be unchallenged even in the scorching desert area like the Middle East, Central Asia, and Gobi Desert. This makes me wonder can they survive the Sahara?
In a word, no. Not at their population densities. They'd have to largely abandon the horse, the yurt and the massive amounts of sheep/cattle that they herded. They'd basically devolve down to the population level and ferocity of the local bedouins. After all, the Gobi may be a desert but it still has grass and water, and areas right next to it which are more grassy/wet; the Sahara is a giant expanse of sand with a few oases scattered throughout.
There’s no way they can make it past the Sahara. It’s much larger and emptier than any other desert they have ever faced. If they made it past the Sahara the tsetse fly would kill off there horses, which is why horses could only be used in North Africa, The Sahel, and Ethiopia in precolonial times.
@@lif3andthings763 They wouldn’t even of known the fly existed until it was too late. Even today there is still no cure for the disease the tsetse fly causes.
@@hashkangaroo there is a second less known choice which was to the kind of tried at least according to Marco polo so take with a grain of salt Mogadishu the modern capital of the state of Somalia which was an extremely rich port city and the landscape while not perfect could be altered and the population is more dense way more so and so the chance of them surviving in a pseudo-Mongol-Somali way is an interesting thought considering but are nomadic cultures but the use of the horse in the 2 varied a lot with the Somalis using the camel more but this all forgetting that the Mongol had animals breed for an area were snow is possibility every now and again while Somalia is on the equator
The Igbo empire doesn't work. First off, the Igbo traditionally weren't a united people. In fact, they still aren't. Second if the Igbo rebel against the Sokoto, other kingdoms would rebel too and the most likely result would be a patchwork of free states, some more powerful than others, but no empires. In fact, the only thing the Sokoto Caliphate had going for it was it's use of calvary. I would know since they conquered the plains Yoruba easily enough but started to falter once they reached us forest Yoruba. It seems you're not considering the restrictions terrain had on the actual empires that formed in West Africa. They came at us every time and their horses faltered every time. The ones we didn't kill, the tsetse flies did. ✌🏿
Thank you, made a similar comment myself. I think not to may people know of how the societies of pre colonial Africa actually operated. If anything, the Yoruba, Edo or Ashanti were in the best position to do what Rudyard wants. ill post my original comment below.
He made a statement about Igbo cultural values being similar to European values. I feel like since Igbo's statistically thrive economically in the West, he thinks that they are most competent to form an empire. I don't know how I feel about that. Kind of put me off to be honest. I'm glad someone is making interesting videos like this. I wish he had known more about Africa though, especially West Africa. It felt like everything was in relation to Europe or Islam. I understand that its hard to discuss what-ifs like this without these comparisons, but this video is a lot different than what I expected.
@@reggiestockton8166 Yeah. It almost seems as if he believes that only civilisations that mirror the West are capable of success. What he's not understanding is that the Igbo thrive EVERYWHERE, in fact it's one of the reasons why the civil war happened. I do agree that his content is ❤️, but this man doesn't think Africa is important at all on the world stage, how do you expect him to know twat about us? It's vexing. To be fair, his opinions are his business. I just wish he'd pay a bit more attention to Africa and actually know what he's talking about. Hey Whatifalthist! I hope you see this!😒
@@kolawaleojomo6817 Here was my original comment: Hey Whatifalthist, Nigerian Here I think your analysis of West Africa is a bit wrong. West Africa above the the Mangrove and Tropical rainforests (i.e the Sahel) has mostly been dominated by herder cultures with strong urban tendencies. One of the most notable things about the Igbo is that they had historically been the most decentralised, non urbanised and semi anarchist society in the region. Igbo society is very much based in the tribal chieftains and local communities with very little sense of a greater igbo identity beyond linguistic until the Colonial era, In fact a lot of Slaves came from the frequent infighting within and between Igbo communities. This led to them having the lowest population of the Big 3 in Nigeria (Hausa, Yoruba and Igbo respectively) In contrast to that the Yoruba and Hausa operated highly urban traditional iron age kingdoms with warrior aristocracies and complex institutions of state power. The Hausa however after becoming muslim and gaining access to european firearms became very expansionist and swallowed many smaller communities. As the Sooto Caliphate, They had 2 major wars with the Yoruba in the 17th Century and almost conquered the Oyo Empire. If any society fits the bill of hat you actually expect to from your West African Superstate, it would be the Yoruba or maybe the Benin (Edo). The Igbo simply did not have the institutions for such. Also the Ashanti of Ghana are a good fit as well Till this day, wester Nigeria has the highest GDP per capita, Literacy rates and Human development indexes in not just the entire country, but All of west Africa. And are the second largest Sub-Saharan Ethnic Group on the planet (Only behind the Hausa). I think you need to look into Nigeria and broadly west Africa more, an alternate history of the region could be very fascinating. Love your work and have been an avid follower for 3 years now.
The South African empire nearly did happen. At one point Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia where under South Africa's government with them running more like "states" in the US than countries. Many still think it should have stayed that way and too much division happened mostly because of the vast amount of different African tribes who all wanted to rule themselves instead of joining together to form one bigger and stronger nation
it´s not only that there are too many ethnic groups, but rather the simple fact that majority of african states are still stuck in the tribal phase. You have entire civil wars and genocides due to tribal affiliations all across the continent. If the process of centralization and eventual creation of national identities in Europe went relatively well and organic, in africa´s case it was quite the opposite. Often times due to colonialism previously warring tribes, who had nothing in common would often get put together in artificially created states and have to now live in this new reality. Thefore nowadays There is no "black identity" in mainland africa and the tensions will only continue till the national and eventually continental identities form. Though fortunately things like the spread of christianity help the process, more precisely with the new religion different tribe now have something cultural in common and therefore something to unite under.
@@gameoflife9576 @Kastravec Shushtavec There isn't any Albanian influence on Egyptian culture at all, ask any random Egyptian in street about what albania is and he will either mishear it Germany( because Germany is called "Almanyia" in Egypt so they have similar sounding names) or they will think you are saying something about natural Cow Milk ( plural of Milk in arabic is "Alban") and believe me I'm telling you this from personal experience, Egyptian don't know what the hell albania is lol imagine believing fucking useless Albania conquered Egypt while it was just a worthless province in the ottoman Empire, Albanians soldiers at Muhammed Ali's time were called in Arabic Arna'uut or Arna'uud( turkish was Arnavut or Arnaut) and to this day some few Egyptians have Arna'uut as there family name(and if you ask them they still won't know what albania is😂😂), that's the only albanian influence on Modern Egypt, even mohammed Ali got rid them and replaced them by native Egyptian soldiers to build Egypt's modern Army
I just love that he couldn't bring himself to call it "Egyptian empire" even when he was talking about an imperialistic alternate egypt XD This dude's egypto-allergy is so ridiculously funny XD
They did, and that Christianity was explicitly the state religion of the Eastern Roman Empire. Then Mohammed came up with his version of Protestantism 1000 years before Martin Luther. He wasn't even the only one doing that at the time (or before), he was the most successful empire builder of the bunch. Universalist monotheism has been producing charismatic preachers who've produced updated versions ever since it began. Fewer are produced in good times when strong political hierarchies keep their opponents down and more when those hierarchies break down and rebellion and civil war break out.
@North Sea Pirate almost Muslims have a very different view on Jesus existence than Christians so maybe what Druze Yazidis or Alawites are to Islam would be a slightly better description each of these broke away in some way and become their own thing from Islam.
@@abdiabdi3225 There were early Christians who also did not view Christ as divine such as the Ebionites (300s). The Arians (named for Arius of Alexandria, 300s) also denied the Trinity. Early Christianity was very amorphous and adapted to local conditions, even amongst the Arabs. It was Constantine (Roman emperor) who established the notion of a definitive Church hierarchy and ruleset (the Council of Nicaea), which he based on his own system of ruling the Late Empire. That notion of a definitive hierarchy linked to the Roman Empire didn't fit well outside that Empire. The Church of Rome, which post-Empire adapted to appeal to the Germanic conquerors of the Western Empire, would eventually also clash with, and be heretical to, the Orthodox Imperial Church. By pointing to various Islamic sects, I'd add the Almohads and Wahhabis in your list, you just reinforce my original point about the recurring impact of charismatic preachers, empire building and otherwise, who've adopted and adapted the notion of a universalist monotheism to their particular conditions. My guess is that the OP was really talking about a middle east that adopted the teachings of the Church of Rome. Somehow I don't think the cultural viewpoints of Germanic tribes has ever fit very well in the Mideast. The French tried to introduce the Church of Rome to Christians in Lebanon during the Mandate period through their schools and the locals just stuck with their own local versions of Christianity. Constantine's Orthodoxy didn't fit very well in Roman Egypt either, which is partly why that region was so easy to conquer for Mohammed's followers.
You should do a video of what will happen when humanity gains some sort of FTL travel with which we can travel to other star systems. I know it’d be hard to predict considering how things such as technology would factor in, but I sorta wonder how it would affect culture and whatnot. It’d also be cool if you talked about how we would react if, while we expanded into the galaxy, we met another intelligent race.
The introduction of deviated lines of cultural and ethnic development through history, gives a slight chance to see how we are, in our own predicament. It seems that human drama has not limits. (We live in a single pane of reflection among many.)
If I had to chose 5 people to bring with me into the apocalypse, Whatifaltist would be my first pick for the purpose of structuring and planning a post apocalypse civilization.
I always like the one about Muhammad Ali's dynasty scenario because it is one of the most famous and the most likely situation as well if the Europeans didn't poke their noses into where they don't belong.
Mozambique should get mentioned here. It is one of the few places in africa with a working harbor during the 19th century, and it has access to coal, lime, and iron mines in close proximity to each other. If it wasnt a disease infested death trap unitl modern medicine it would have become a center of trade. Perhaps not all of Mozambique, but the end of the end of the Zambezi river is a great place for early civ to develop.
It's ironic that resistance to the diseases common to Europe made Africans suitable for enslavement , and later citizenship in European colonies, but lack of resistance to those diseases by Native Americans eliminated most of their populations facilitating European conquest and colonization of Native American lands. Also, lack of resistance to diseases common to Africa by Europeans prevented Africa from becoming another Australia , Americas, or Canada. So much of history was determined by microbes.
I made a vid where I made some great powers out of some african countries logically. I even spoke a bit about the igbo ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1Pt5Xu8Ebbw.html don't let the title fool you.
I would worship you if you would make a video about *"How India could have expanded ?"* Please.... Like a Mughal caliphat or a greater Hindu Empire Love from 🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳 I love your vids.
Since we are in africa here’s a very interesting alternate history, in 729 the oumayads were planning to go conquer sicily after the conquest of spain and when their entire army marched toward tunis to depart for sicily from tangier, berbers revolted in the west, then that army had to march again back to crush the rebellion but because they were exhausted they were crashed very badly and north west africa became independent, however what if the battle was won and arabs crushed the rebellion and kept spain morocco and western algeria then went to conquer sicily and italy how would the world be ?
The Ummyyads got them back under the leadership of handlha ibn safwan al kalbi however they rebelled again after the death of Caliph Hisham due to the third Muslim Civil War.
Okay, where's Morocco's empire? They Expanded into West Africa using guns in the 16th century and caused so much chaos that had they won against Mali Morocco would have probably developed a colonial empire in the region. I'm not really complaining, I absolutely love the fact you finally posted a good althis video on Africa, but like, just consider this idea, please. Also, what about a more successful Mutapa or Rozvi empire? The kingdom of Mutapa was able to defend itself against several Portuguese invasions, and had they learned how to build guns, I can clearly see them beating up the weak Portuguese positions in Mozambique and reaching the sea, which could allow them to sell their massive quantities of gold worldwide and maybe even develop a navy and dominate the east African trade lanes to Arabia. The Rozvi are another contender, as they inherited the Mutapa after the kingdom fell into a civil war, pushed the Portuguese back, again, and created a decentralized but heavily militaristic society that lasted until the second half of the 19th century, when their weakened state finally broke after several European invasions and attacks from neighboring kingdoms. Had they been able to get guns and push back the invaders, they could've probably expanded in all directions and maybe even stop the British attempts at colonizing the area, perhaps by gaining another great power as an anti-British ally and playing a similar game to Ethiopia. Again, just think about it.
Not really Morocco, the problem is that they didn't not have enough material you see, after they conquer a weakened shongai by civil wars which didn't fought seriously at all, they lost agaist the dendi kingdom where they have to fight in a swamp and if it wasn't for reinforcemtn they would have lost to Mali too never mentioning the revolt that happened during the they reign. This proves that in the forest and agaist kanem empire (which had guns) Morocco would probably get massacrated and conquer the sahel would be difficult let alone crontol them: they have to face, wolof, mossi, senoufo, Mali empire, hausa-fulani which would probably fought more seriously than shongai hence why would imployemnt all of his forces in they territory to conquer which would have last some years not with securing victory(considering the portugese campaign in current Angola and Zimbabwe) while for the rebels it will be more easy to take back the control of the state causing the situation to be uncontrollable on the long run and retreat. So no I think in the only a strong saehlian empire could take large part of West Africa prior to the 19th century.
@@tauempire1793 It's the Central African Republic, but with a dictator with a particularly big ego. Studied Napoleon's coronation ceremony and copied it. Was also a cannibal. Multiple wives too -- they had a village by his mansion.
Nice video!I have an alternate history idea which you could make a video about which is:What if Dracula and his servants made their own nation in Translyvania? I would recommend you to use the Dracula from Castlevania, it is the most realistic Dracula in my opinion.
Many of these empires center around horseman descending from the North. As far as I know, Africa doesn't have horses, because there is an illness certain flies carry, that's making them sick. 🦓 That's why the British experimented with zebras, but they are way too uncontrollable to be riden. So you can possibly ride down with a calvary, winning one or two battles, but in the long term, you can't maintain a mounted army in Sub-Saharan Africa.
In the US of Africa, what if The United States of America and Great Britain and all of the other allies support the former African-Americans militarily and economically? Call it colonial reparations', in addition to ensuring China doesn't expand its Belt and Road Initiative......
Ironic since I’m literally writing an essay on how different independent countries supported the struggle against Apartheid at the moment. The United States pf Africa has several elements it shares with such motivations, pan-africanism, black nationalism etc.
I don't know why you wouldn't think of Africa when it comes to historical empires, other than having an education which neglected the continent. It is true that there are longer periods of historical dark ages in sub-Saharan Africa for two simple reasons - the destruction of countless historical documents at the libraries of Timbuktu and the simple fact that more than half of African cultures kept oral histories with no written language and those oral traditions were very often lost under the weight of Western imperialism. However the Ghana, Mali and Songhai Empires are important examples of thriving African empires. There are plenty of powerful kingdoms as well.
" the destruction of countless historical documents at the libraries of Timbuktu" This isn't completely true. As Timbuktu and the states that contained it declined into the modern period, the Libraries and personal collections have not been well kept and/or digitized. There is on going effort to digitize, preserve and translate them. I just hope that some rich guy could get interested in sponsoring it.
Tbf the video he’s made about Ethiopia is good- I’d also argue all of these alternatives were never very likely while an Ethiopian super state is actually still a fairly good possibility :)
As an Igbo person the idea of an Igbo empire fascinates me. But I know that such a thing could never exist, the reason being that the Igbo themselves are their own enemy. Our culture simply would not allow such an empire to exist. Igbo people functioned as city states under the Eze Nri who was the priest king but had no real political power, he strictly the cultural/religious influence. Rather power was concentrated into city states ruled by kings or chiefs who answered to councils governed by the titled men. If one Igbo city-state tried to conquer another, the rest of the city states would be compelled to war with the aggressor thus ending any attempts of unification which limits the ability of the Igbo to form an empire. Pre European colonization the Igbo had the perfect setup for a subsaharan empire, large population, organized government, strong economies with access to the major rivers of the region and strong influence over the other cultures in the southeastern region of modern Nigeria. But in order to conquer others you have to conquer yourself, you have to have one man in control of everything. Alexander the Great had to conquer the rest of Greece to unify it before making war with the Persians. The Chinese emperors had to put down regional powers to have ultimate control of China. A good regional example would be the Yoruba Oyo Empire. The Alaafin had to conquer the other Yoruba speaking peoples before he could muster the strength to make war with and conquer the surrounding cultures. As stated before Igbo culture would not accept that so it would fail before a king could even dream of such. At the very least even if a king was able to unify the Igbo peoples under one banner I do not think the empire would be as large as the one in your video. It would most likely encompass the region of modern day southeast Nigeria and western Cameroon. Westward expansion would be extremely difficult as the powerful Yourba Oyo and Edo (Benin) Empires would not be easy to deal with. And to the north the Sokoto Empire was also nothing to laugh at. But who knows, that's what makes history fun.
i got one. the Punic-Vandal Empire. in this timeline, the Vandal kingdom does not fall nor get incorporated into the Byzantine Empire or the Rashidun Caliphate. instead it survives and builds it's own empire similar to Carthage's imperial ambition.
Hey, I know some other people who liked drawing African borders. It's a shame they didn't make videos about geopolitics and history and were instead politicians and leaders of 19th century European powers.
Lithuanian-Russia Union = What If the Grand Duchy of Lithuania united the Russian principalities under a single political banner with a dual-monarchy involving both Lithuanian and Russians but Lithuania had the dominant position/role.
@@JcLazy1 Rise, O voices of Rhodesia, God may we Thy bounty share. Give us strength to face all danger, And where challenge is, to dare. Guide us, Lord, to wise decision, Ever of Thy grace aware, Oh, let our hearts beat bravely always For this land within Thy care. Rise, O voices of Rhodesia, Bringing her your proud acclaim, Grandly echoing through the mountains, Rolling o'er the far flung plain. Roaring in the mighty rivers, Joining in one grand refrain, Ascending to the sunlit heavens, Telling of her honoured name.
@@rossevanricamara4169 it was a bad idea from the start. Honestly if they would had been little more lenient they could had lasted like modern day South Africa But a white dominant country in Africa wouldn’t exist that long. Maybe if it was in North Africa.
@@JcLazy1 It was mostly communists versus the Rhodesians. While the Rhodesian government discriminated against the unwealthy blacks, no one wanted the communists. In fact, black people fought for Rhodesia in the bush war. But the fact remains, the whites that ruled the country were unfair but not brutal; and helped make the country wealthy back then. The communists, on the other hand, ruined it both for the blacks and whites. It wasn't a race war, it was Mugabe's class war against the white elite so he can take over their wealth and power.
i think Anglo south Africa is incredibly interesting, if britin could keep hold of the raj/got them to stay part of the commonwealth than india, South africa, and Australia would lock down the entire indian ocean and probably have some very powerful trade going on with resources, population numbers, and money involved. becoming a souther canada/uk situation.
