The outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 brought mixed fortunes for Southern Rhodesia. Whereas the colony previously relied largely on imports for manufactured goods, it now turned to local products because of the interruptions in international trade caused by the war. Imports became increasingly unavailable, inducing scarcity and high demand. Shortages stimulated calls for local industry to fill the vacuum. Consequently, an import substitution industrialisation (ISI) drive temporarily developed. However, this impact of the Second World War was not unique to Southern Rhodesia. It was also felt in some other parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The only exception to this was South Africa, which had a comparatively established secondary industry by the time the war broke out. Not all industrialisation was sparked off by the conditions of the war, however. For example, in British West Africa, Lord William M. Hailey had already recommended in 1938 that Britain allow her dependencies to develop local secondary industries. While these factors are acknowledged, the impact of the war stood out, as it accelerated industrial development.

At the same time, secondary industrial development in colonies such as Kenya and Southern Rhodesia was aided by the greater buying power of their White settler population. Southern Rhodesia had the crucial advantage of being a self-governing colony, a status that gave it some considerable control of the domestic economy. Southern Rhodesia under the Responsible Government was free to manipulate tariffs, something denied to every other colony. Shigeru Akita has observed a similar tendency in British India during the Great Depression, wherein a self-governing India took full advantage of her fiscal independence to promote her industries, which had the effect of elbowing out Britain’s efforts to dominate the Indian market.