OHC
deep green blue collar rainbow
- Location
- Little Beirut
- Pronouns
- they/she
Ayn Rand's Objectivist Katanga made for a fun AH story, but required some creative PODs to get the ball rolling - Rand never had direct ties to Congolese politics. However, I've been doing some reading and it seems as though the idea of American libertarians engaging in neocolonial adventurism isn't total fantasy. During the 1970s and 1980s, a Nevada-based think tank called the Phoenix Foundation supposedly bankrolled several attempts to create tax havens in newly independent island countries.
Their first project was the "Republic of Minerva," an artificial island created by dumping sand on a Tongan reef; like other utopian micronations it was never taken seriously, and they moved on to encouraging separatist movements. They were involved in efforts by the white minority in the Bahamas to separate the island of Abaco as either a crown colony or an independent republic at the time of Bahamian independence in 1973. The idea was endorsed briefly by some Monday Club MPs - Ronald Bell attempted to amend the Bahamas Independence Act to remove Abaco - but it doesn't seem as though it ever had much support either in the halls of power or on the ground. Bell's amendment was defeated and the Abaco Independence Movement went nowhere in the decolonized Bahamas. Maybe under a very right-wing Tory government it would have been feasible, but not in conditions like OTL's.
More interesting from an AH standpoint is Phoenix's role in Vanuatu. Some traditionalist elements in the Anglo-French New Hebrides, particularly Francophones and people affiliated with the John Frum cargo cult, were wary of the modernizing Anglos in charge of the upcoming independent state and in 1980 declared their own "Republic of Venerama" on the island of Espiritu Santo. With the British and French sitting on their hands, the Vanuatu authorities called upon Papua New Guinea to intervene, and the Coconut War ended when separatist leader Jimmy Stevens' son was killed at a Papuan roadblock. The Phoenix Foundation had provided the Venerama rebels with money, weapons, and logistical support, drawing up a plan for land-share certificates and a draft libertarian Venerama Constitution under which the right to vote could be purchased. The movement apparently also enjoyed quiet backing from the French. Unlike on Abaco, the traditionalist Nagriamel movement behind the revolt never went away and remains a player in Vanuatu as the political wing of John Frum.
I've gathered all this from idle research and I notice a lot of the information (including the article above) comes from the Vanuatu government, who I'm sure have an axe to grind, so if anyone has better sources on the Coconut War I'd love to see them. But assuming the broad strokes are accurate, there could be some interesting AH to be had here. If the French had intervened, as they so often do in their former colonies, could Venerama have gained its independence? If so, would the libertarians have been able to carry out their dreams?
Again, not an expert, but I doubt Phoenix would have been able to dominate the country for long, especially if it became a de facto French protectorate. I don't think any country would stand for a pay-to-vote scheme, and I could imagine conflicts over land emerging if there was an influx of rich foreigners - Jimmy Stevens had gotten his political start opposing foreign encroachment on traditional common land. Still, a French-backed Pacific tax haven politically dominated by the John Frum movement would probably be worth a vignette even if they expelled the swivel-eyed goldbugs right after independence.
Their first project was the "Republic of Minerva," an artificial island created by dumping sand on a Tongan reef; like other utopian micronations it was never taken seriously, and they moved on to encouraging separatist movements. They were involved in efforts by the white minority in the Bahamas to separate the island of Abaco as either a crown colony or an independent republic at the time of Bahamian independence in 1973. The idea was endorsed briefly by some Monday Club MPs - Ronald Bell attempted to amend the Bahamas Independence Act to remove Abaco - but it doesn't seem as though it ever had much support either in the halls of power or on the ground. Bell's amendment was defeated and the Abaco Independence Movement went nowhere in the decolonized Bahamas. Maybe under a very right-wing Tory government it would have been feasible, but not in conditions like OTL's.
More interesting from an AH standpoint is Phoenix's role in Vanuatu. Some traditionalist elements in the Anglo-French New Hebrides, particularly Francophones and people affiliated with the John Frum cargo cult, were wary of the modernizing Anglos in charge of the upcoming independent state and in 1980 declared their own "Republic of Venerama" on the island of Espiritu Santo. With the British and French sitting on their hands, the Vanuatu authorities called upon Papua New Guinea to intervene, and the Coconut War ended when separatist leader Jimmy Stevens' son was killed at a Papuan roadblock. The Phoenix Foundation had provided the Venerama rebels with money, weapons, and logistical support, drawing up a plan for land-share certificates and a draft libertarian Venerama Constitution under which the right to vote could be purchased. The movement apparently also enjoyed quiet backing from the French. Unlike on Abaco, the traditionalist Nagriamel movement behind the revolt never went away and remains a player in Vanuatu as the political wing of John Frum.
I've gathered all this from idle research and I notice a lot of the information (including the article above) comes from the Vanuatu government, who I'm sure have an axe to grind, so if anyone has better sources on the Coconut War I'd love to see them. But assuming the broad strokes are accurate, there could be some interesting AH to be had here. If the French had intervened, as they so often do in their former colonies, could Venerama have gained its independence? If so, would the libertarians have been able to carry out their dreams?
Again, not an expert, but I doubt Phoenix would have been able to dominate the country for long, especially if it became a de facto French protectorate. I don't think any country would stand for a pay-to-vote scheme, and I could imagine conflicts over land emerging if there was an influx of rich foreigners - Jimmy Stevens had gotten his political start opposing foreign encroachment on traditional common land. Still, a French-backed Pacific tax haven politically dominated by the John Frum movement would probably be worth a vignette even if they expelled the swivel-eyed goldbugs right after independence.