Strategos' Risk
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Seychelles and Albert Rene
wtf and here I thought the White Rajahs of Sarawak were the last 20th century example of the trope
Seychelles and Albert Rene
Both countries there was much less disposession and forced removals in the colonial period, and much less, in Botswana case negligible, white resistance to decolonisation.
Rear echelon, safe house and some supply stuff.
Brickhill OTOH was an officer in ZIPRA, later a Commissar
Depending how you count Seychelles and Albert Rene
Rene's born Seychellois, and his administration (longest in the country's history) ran on moderate socialist lines.wtf and here I thought the White Rajahs of Sarawak were the last 20th century example of the trope
Rene's born Seychellois, and his administration (longest in the country's history) ran on moderate socialist lines.
He's credited with the countries substantial growth in standard of living.. ..and also with human rights abuses.
Most prominently Jeremy Brickhill of ZIPRA.
Much less prominently, in Zambia, literally my parents
@Burton K Wheeler once said at the other place that the Rhodesian military's relative success was more because of the guerrilas' incompetence than its own merits.Even the Fireforce isn't really that impressive. It was a clever way of using extremely limited resources, but the Rhodesian gimmicks only worked as well as they did because of the severe weaknesses of their opponents. In terms of quantitative gear, a single Vietnamese infantry division was about as big as the entire Rhodesian army and better-equipped in many ways. (Trying to fly into battle in even early Vietnam with just a few OH-6 equivalents would be suicidal)
Talking about the qualitative skill gap is iffier both because every army varies internally and because there's an obvious and uncomfortable racial side to claiming the ineptitude of ZANLA and ZIPRA. But I have read evenhanded sources claiming them as lacking compared to other light infantry/irregular forces of the same time period (and that they were getting noticeably better by the war's end).
And of course, the Rhodesian security forces beyond the glamorous tip-of-the-spear types often had severe tactical issues of their own beyond just a very small and shrinking manpower pool.
A white socialist Pan-Africanist. The Seychelles were... interesting.
I used to work with a woman whose parents hid people running from the police in their garage, although we parted ways before I got anymore details.
Rene's born Seychellois, and his administration (longest in the country's history) ran on moderate socialist lines.
He's credited with the countries substantial growth in standard of living.. ..and also with human rights abuses.
According to his Wikipedia page at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France-Albert_René#Legacy, France-Albert René used to be widely regarded as a benevolent dictator but further evidence of his human rights abuses since 2018 has led to a reassesment of his record. On the other hand, René did allow a peaceful transition to democracyIt's post-colonial Africa, the vast majority of cases you were lucky if you got the former with the latter!
I submit the Clunies-Ross family of the Cocos-Keeling islands.wtf and here I thought the White Rajahs of Sarawak were the last 20th century example of the trope
Nah.Dunno how relevant it is, but the soon to be former Rhodesian African Rifles handily defeating ZIPRA elements in the 1981 Entumbane clashes is often cited as evidence that ZIPRA conventional offensives (or at least the first such one) would be quickly and decisively crushed.
I imagine its the same with the Rhodesians as they'd handly kick the crap out of their local enemies until someone with an actual army came to play and suddenly the limitations of a tiny manpower pool and and barely supported light infantry force would come home to bite. Maybe they'd win a few engagements, they only have to lose a few or not win cheaply enough for the whole house of cards to collapse.
Tbh I never really understood on AH.Com back in the day why people seemed to think that the Rhodesians or the British could have won Vietnam if only the Americans had turned to their expertise, given the stuff they did tactically was stuff the Americans already did and honestly seemed to do better in many cases
Not an entirely fair comparison - South Vietnam had, I'm fairly sure, more than 5% of the population supporting them.British snobbery mixed with understandable one-upmanship, IMHO. (And the idea of the Rhodesians in particular winning anything given how they lost the countryside so comparably quickly in their own country against a divided opposition with far less external support than other eastern clients got is laughable.)
I imagine its the same with the Rhodesians as they'd handly kick the crap out of their local enemies until someone with an actual army came to play and suddenly the limitations of a tiny manpower pool and and barely supported light infantry force would come home to bite.
The Rhodesians have to win every battle, while their opponents only have to win once.
And the idea of the Rhodesians in particular winning anything given how they lost the countryside so comparably quickly in their own country against a divided opposition with far less external support than other eastern clients got is laughable.
Tbh I never really understood on AH.Com back in the day why people seemed to think that the Rhodesians or the British could have won Vietnam if only the Americans had turned to their expertise, given the stuff they did tactically was stuff the Americans already did and honestly seemed to do better in many cases whilst why the British success in Malaysia which was the go through example was basically getting a majority of the population on side in a race war against an unpopular minority. The contexts were massively different in terms of the quality and capability of the enemy.
The Rhodieboo stuff is particularly infuriating, it’s a lot of tacticool fetishizing over a race war. The Selous Scouts literally stooped to dabbling in weapons of mass destruction.
So I ended up subverting it somewhat in this character profile for a fanfic project based on Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, set in an alternate future where the colonial empires lasted longer. How’d I do with treating the subject?
Afraid not in all honesty. I've never played Alpha Centauri nor am I super interested in Rhodesia so reading a fic set in one about bashing the other just is a bit too much of a reach. Sorry.Can I trouble you to read my fanfic