ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the important variables comprising the international political-economic context of the struggle. It analyses not only the support for Rhodesia by the British, South Africans, and Americans, but also the constraints on the pursuit of their economic self-interests. The British role in the Zimbabwean negotiations and in the administration of elections can be understood only through analysis of its economic stake in its colony. British capital had benefited greatly from white minority rule in Rhodesia. The major contrast between Britain as a colonial power and the white settlers reflected their different economic positions. Rhodesia provided Britain with agricultural as well as mineral commodities. Cheap land and a high standard of living were offered to the kinsfolk back home; from 1953 -1960, immigration in Rhodesia from Britain increased by 40 percent. Britain's trade with the rest of Africa was more than double its trade with Rhodesia. Other African countries provided food and raw material to the ex-colonial power.
