ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Company rule in Rhodesia

Okay kiddo, so back in the olden days, there was a country called Rhodesia, which is now known as Zimbabwe. While it was still called Rhodesia, the country was ruled by a group of people who owned a big company called British South Africa Company. This group was called the company rule.

It's kind of like a big game of pretend, where the company was like a king and ruled over everyone else in the country. They made all the important decisions and told people what to do. Just like how the grown-ups make decisions for you and tell you what to do, except on a much bigger scale.

Now, this might sound fun at first since the company group had all the power, but it wasn't very fair for everyone else. The people in the company group were mostly white and they didn't treat the people in the country who were black very nicely. They took most of the country's resources for themselves and didn't share it with everyone else.

So, because of this, lots of people in Rhodesia didn't like the company rule and wanted to change it. After lots of struggle, the country eventually became independent and the people were able to make their own rules and decisions for themselves.

In short, company rule was when a big company owned and ruled a country, which wasn't fair for everyone else. But, now the country is free and people can make their own choices based on what they think is right.