- Location
- Over the rainbow
The whole of Arabia was part of Africa until (in geological terms) relatively recently, so you’re not wrong as such, just slightly out of date (no more than 25 million years).
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Alternate History General Discussion
- Thread starter Elektronaut
- Start date
Talwar
Well-Known Sword
- Pronouns
- he/him
Geological technicalities are my favorite kind of technicalities.The whole of Arabia was part of Africa until (in geological terms) relatively recently, so you’re not wrong as such, just slightly out of date (no more than 25 million years).
Yes I have assigned Aden to the wrong continent.
No worries, a buffed up Aden/southern Yemen is also interesting.
Wondering where a good enough place to put the hypothetical "African Singapore" (country that can achieve massive non-resource based economic growth and increase in living standards) that @Gary Oswald talked about in his "Africa Without The Scramble" post would be.
Somewhere in the Horn of Africa would be the obvious choice. It's a strategic location for international trade and also regional trade between East Africa and the Middle East.
In my head canon, Yemen joins the African Union in 2026Yes I have assigned Aden to the wrong continent.
Saw this Roman AH novel and went "hmm...."
Saw this Roman AH novel and went "hmm...."
Book three promises: "invaders from the west [of North America] will shatter that peace and plunge the continent into war: The Mongol Horde has arrived and they are taking no prisoners."
Go Big Or Go Home
- Location
- North Alabama
Belatedly watched Matt Mitrovich’s latest video before work. A lot of fun and plenty to think about here. @Charles EP M. should enjoy it, I think.
Happy_tuhy
Member
Wondering where a good enough place to put the hypothetical "African Singapore" (country that can achieve massive non-resource based economic growth and increase in living standards) that @Gary Oswald talked about in his "Africa Without The Scramble" post would be.
A good place would be on the shipping routes between Suez and East Asia- that’s where Singapore is afterall.
This leaves the Horn of Africa, however it doesn't have too many good harbors. Socotra is an ideal condition, but it has no good harbors. Berbera or Tadjourna could be good candidates- historically they were important port cities which could capitalize on their location and navigate prosperity through trade with a hostile hinterland.
Wondering where a good enough place to put the hypothetical "African Singapore" (country that can achieve massive non-resource based economic growth and increase in living standards) that @Gary Oswald talked about in his "Africa Without The Scramble" post would be.
Djibouti, maybe (if Horn of Africa is still the focus)?
- Location
- Western New York
The USS New Jersey Museum YouTube channel is starting a series about the lunacy of Plan Z that might be of interest:
Talwar
Well-Known Sword
- Pronouns
- he/him
It's almost like the mere presence of the letter z just makes plans and operations worse somehow.
- Location
- Over the rainbow
Never let ZZ Top plan anything.It's almost like the mere presence of the letter z just makes plans and operations worse somehow.
ChrisNuttall
Well-known member
Here's a question that struck me when I was reading about France 1940.
In Nazi Germany, were there any senior military officers/commanders who'd been high-ranked (generals, for example) in 1914-18? I don't mean Ludendorff and people like him - i mean people who were actually formulating tactics and/or leading men into battle.
Chris
In Nazi Germany, were there any senior military officers/commanders who'd been high-ranked (generals, for example) in 1914-18? I don't mean Ludendorff and people like him - i mean people who were actually formulating tactics and/or leading men into battle.
Chris
Wondering where a good enough place to put the hypothetical "African Singapore" (country that can achieve massive non-resource based economic growth and increase in living standards) that @Gary Oswald talked about in his "Africa Without The Scramble" post would be.
Others have posted good suggestions in the Horn, so if we look at the Atlantic seaboard, Dakar, Abidjan, and Lagos might have some promise, but Singaporification would require trade and cultural linkages that go beyond the hinterland, so would need an early colonial POD.
Cape Verde is an option
I'd be curious to read a TL about an independent Réunion. The cultural aspects alone would be fascinating.Would Mauritius or Reunion count?
The OTL ‘African Singapore’ is commonly said to be Rwanda.
Rwanda is a Potemkin village. Read Michela Wrong's Do Not Disturb for some insights into the Kagame regime.
Wondering where a good enough place to put the hypothetical "African Singapore" (country that can achieve massive non-resource based economic growth and increase in living standards) that @Gary Oswald talked about in his "Africa Without The Scramble" post would be.
With no Union of South Africa in 1910 the Cape might be a possibility. A well-known SA historian (who is also probably SA's greatest curmudgeon) RW Johnson, wrote a little while ago that the 1910 Union led to the 'Transvaalification' of South Africa, mainly because of its economic clout. Of course things weren't good for POCs anywhere in Southern Africa at the time but as those things went the Cape was pretty liberal, especially compared to the Transvaal, and to a lesser degree Natal (there was a qualified franchise in the Cape for example).
With no Union we might see no apartheid in the Cape (there will still obviously be racial discrimination) and slow moves to reform. Of course, it may not attract European settlement in great numbers, many people will probably still be attracted to the gold fields of the Transvaal.
That all said, Stellenbosch in the Cape is the intellectual home of Afrikaner nationalism and even without Union in 1910 we may have seen quite close ties between the Transvaal and the Cape.
And I'm not sure we could say the Cape would be a Singapore analogue, as the old Cape Colony/Province has a surface area equal to that of France.
And here is Johnson's piece, may be of interest.
I suppose you could say that the American Civil War had shades of this as well - the abolitionist movement was very religious, that men like John Brown, William Garrison, John Rankin, and Elijah Lovejoy were its most ardent supporters shouldn’t be surprising. Conversely I have read that Southern universities was a hub of secularist thought in the US with regards to biology and the like, and that many Southerners outright denied things like a common ancestry for all races. Whatever religiosity that the South had was a result of its own traditions, whereas many Christians in the North viewed the war as a religious crusade. But then begs the question of how much of Northern religiosity comes from its Puritan heritage? It’s interesting to think about. That the South had numerous Jews in their ranks, with Judah P. Benjamin being its Secretary of State, whereas Union Generals Grant and Butler were pretty anti-Semitic in their war time behavior is another interesting contrast (Butler going so far to say that the Jews are betraying America as they betrayed Jesus).
Idea: South wins Civil War, US becomes Russia of the Western Hemisphere i.e. religious, militarist, anti-Semitic, multinational.