A Shift in Priorities

[rast]

Biting the Bullet

On July 25th, 1920, at 15:15 hours local time, the Ottoman troop transport ship “Güneş ışını”, a small passenger liner, berthed at Port Said harbour, while the two other transport vessels requested passage through the canal and the two destroyers steamed back to the Central Powers fleet. Miralay (Colonel) Ahmed Değirmenci Bey was the first man ready to leave ship. He was confronted by British soldiers aiming at him with their rifles. Değirmenci stopped in the passenger door and stood still.
“Call your officer!” he shouted over to the English.
After few moments, a young second lieutenant approached the pier and saluted casually.
“I’m Colonel Değirmenci of the Ottoman Army. Would you please give order that a landing bridge is brought forward and installed, so that my regiment can leave ship?”
“Colonel, Sir, this is beyond my competence, but I will send word to my battalion. Please wait.”

Değirmenci had spent three years in England before the war and was familiar with the English military. Until now, he was satisfied with developments.
It took almost thirty minutes before a senior British officer turned up, a lieutenant-colonel, as far as Değirmenci could tell.
“I’m Lieutenant-Colonel Miller, Sir!” the man shouted over. “I understand you want to disembark your troops here, is that correct?”
“That is correct, Sir, I am under order to take over security of Port Said from the British Army.”
“Colonel, that exceeds my orders. – I need to get in contact with HQ. – Sir, may I ask you to wait until I have received more information?”
Değirmenci ordered a cigar, a tea and a chair. These pompous Englishmen...

After about two and a half hours, Miller was back.
“Sorry, Sir!” he shouted. “We need to get in contact with our government in London. That will take some time. – Please, remain where you are, we cannot authorise that you and your people leave ship!”
Değirmenci sighed. He had expected nothing else, but he was sorry for his men who were confined to the cramped interior of the “Güneş ışını” in the full heat of Egyptian summer.

In London, circuits now started to overheat.

The French ambassador, Paul Cambon, stated that he and France were sympathetic with Britain’s cause, but regrettably there was nothing France could do.
“Remember, we just have been beaten in a cruel war by a cruel enemy. Important regions of France still are fields of debris, our youth has been slaughtered. We cannot – and we will not – risk another German invasion. – As you are well aware, international law is on the side of the Sublime Porte, as are Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Russia, Italy and Belgium. – You know that I have always been a strong advocate of the Entente Cordiale, but France cannot risk another war with Germany over the Suez Canal or British dominion of Egypt, I’m sorry.”
Even the request that the French fleet show her flag in the eastern Mediterranean met with plain rejection.
“If we do that, we will automatically be rated as your allies. The German answer would not be to send more ships to the Levant, they would send their armies to visit Paris. General Ludendorff certainly would appreciate another joyride to destroy what remained undamaged after the first excursion of the Boches.”

The US ambassador, John W. Daris, wasn’t even sympathetic.
“Hey, calm down. – Reports from our embassy in Cairo clearly show that the Zaghloul government is in control of the situation. Riots have ended, people are back at work. Zaghloul is completely in charge and Halil Kut Pasha acts like a good constitutional monarch, just like your King George. Zaghloul wants the Turks to take over safeguarding of the Suez Canal. – The Sublime Porte and Zaghloul have announced that they will respect the rights of the Suez Canal Company and keep open the canal as international waterway. So, what do you folks want?”

The Japanese minister to London, Count Chinda Sutemi, preserved a non-committal stance.
“My country does not see any obligation for herself arising from your engagement in Egypt. You know that the Anglo-Japanese Alliance is not applicable. – In 1917, we did send warships to the Mediterranean because we already were at war with the Central Powers. Today we are at peace with them. And no clause of the Anglo-Japanese Treaty does oblige us to wage war with them again.”

German ambassador Friedrich Shtamer had just received a message from the Wilhelmsstraße in Berlin.
“The German Government is very much interested in preserving peace. However, there is no doubt that the approach of the Sublime Porte in Egypt is in accordance with valid treaties and international law. Should armed conflict arise from British refusal to fulfil legitimate Ottoman claims, Germany will honour her obligations to the Sublime Porte.”

The British Cabinet was meeting in almost continuous session and debated what to do. Nobody wanted to cede control of the Suez Canal – but everybody was aware that a war with the Central Powers at present could only lead to the end of the British Empire.
It was clear that Germany could not invade Britain. MI6, the foreign section of the Directorate of Military Intelligence had obtained papers from last year’s German exercise “Seelöwe”, which clearly proved that at present Germany had no capability to launch an invasion of England. – But now, with peace restored on the Balkans, the Germans – from their bases in the Trans-Caucasus – clearly had the capability to reach out to the Masjed Soleiman oil field in Persia. And in British perception the Turks, factually masters of Central Asia, had won the capability to reach out to India.
What still remained in home waters of the Grand Fleet was not superior to the German High Seas Fleet. The German submarine fleet had been drastically reduced after the war, but still retained more than one hundred modern and powerful U-Boats in active service.
The British army was committed in India, as were the contributions of the dominions.
Was there any probability that General Rawlinson and his weak forces could hold the Suez Canal against Turkish and Egyptian assault?

Finally, on July 28th, the British cabinet arrived at a decision. In the final poll only Winston Churchill voted for fighting it out.

On July 29th, at nine o’clock in the morning, civil workers started to install the passenger bridge. At 9:55 hours, the Turkish regiment started to leave the “Güneş ışını”. The British soldiers had withdrawn to their tents and watched the spectacle with obvious interest. Değirmenci patiently waited for Lieutenant-Colonel Miller to turn up again, while his staff set up the regimental command post and established contact with the port and canal authorities.

On July 31st, Suez too was secured by Ottoman forces. The British divisions were now marching to Suez, from where they were to be transported to Zanzibar.
Britain had lost control over Egypt and the Suez Canal. Who was to blame?

[rast]

Second Thoughts

The current South African prime minister, Jan Smuts, had served in the war as a British General. He had conquered German South-West Africa together with Louis Botha, and in 1916 had assumed command of the campaign in German East Africa. In early 1917, he had been invited to joint Lloyd George’s war cabinet and gone to London. After all his attempts to keep German South-West in possession of the Union of South Africa had come to nothing, he frustratedly had returned home after the signing of the Copenhagen treaty.
In September 1919, following Botha’s death, Smuts had been elected prime minister.

Thus it was under his responsibility that the South African Corps had joined the British Army in India. By then the Indian Insurgency had looked like something that would soon be overcome.
Today it looked like the beginning of the end of the British Empire…
Smuts was no Germanophobe, he didn’t believe that the Germans were behind all this. Certainly, their victory in France had been an important factor in undermining British reputation all around the world. But the Amritsar Massacre was completely “Made in Britain”, wasn’t it?
Nor had the Germans anything to do with the Jihad that now destabilised the British Colonial Empire.

Smuts somehow admired the Turks. They had finessed very adroitly on the Arabian peninsula and now in Egypt. Well, the Arabian peninsula was nothing but sand and rocks inhabited by rather dislikeable people. And Egypt was back in the Ottoman Empire by name only.
But that was exactly what was bothering Smuts…

He had no intention to proclaim South African independence from the British Empire. For all factual value, the Union was acting on its own. King George V. in London was a much more expedient head of state than a home grown president of state – if anything the Old Boer Hertzog, heaven forbid! – residing at Pretoria and trying to influence Smuts’ conduct of office. Foreign policy was made in London, officially… – but informal contacts weren’t forbidden, were they?
No, no – the problem was the awakening of the native peoples. Right now, only the Muslims were in rebellion, but Smuts foresaw that this soon would spill over to other beliefs and other races.

Smuts firmly believed in racial segregation. It was the duty of the whites to educate and direct the black and coloured peoples. It was certainly wrong to treat them badly. But they should have no political power.

The Germans had turned away from this credendum, they were tutoring their natives to take over administration of their colonies. That was as dangerous as the Jihad, although Smuts thought that only the generation now in training would eventually be able to seize power – but the time bomb was ticking… In another fifteen to twenty years Mittelafrika might become a power of its own, run by Germanised Negroes!
Smuts had seen the German educational and medical system in South-West and East Africa. It had already been advanced before the war, far more effective than anything the British or French had ever established. They now had enhanced it, a university was up and running in Daressalam and they were training black officers to command the German African Army! Crazy people, these Germans…

Smuts was really worried about German South-West, now also part of the Belgo-German Middle Africa administration, because of its proximity to the Union. Bad German ideas would soon start to agitate the “Nie-Blanks” (non whites) inside the Union.
Time to establish some laws that clearly regulated the relations between “Blanks” and “Nie-Blanks” in the Union.
And time to think about German South-West. He knew from his friends in London that Winston Churchill was promoting to start some unrest in South-West. Perhaps not a bad idea…
After all, South-West in possession of the Union would be a nice reward for loyalty to Britain, wouldn’t it?

[rast]

Realignment

On August 6th, 1920, Grand Vizier Mehmet Talat Pasha announced a realignment of the Ottoman Empire.
The Empire was now organised in four Emirates (principalities): The Turkish Emirate under Enver Pasha, the Arabian Emirate under Kemal Pasha, the Egyptian Emirate under Halil Kut Pasha and the Mesopotamian Emirate under Çemal Pasha. The Emirs were appointed by the Sultan.
Each Emirate was to elect an own parliament, which would exercise legislation over internal affairs, elect a prime minister – and send permanent delegates to the Senate, the upper house of the Ottoman parliament. The Chamber of Deputies, the lower house, would be elected by common franchise of all tax-paying males above the age of 21 years throughout the Ottoman Empire.
The Turkish Emirate was composed of European Turkey, Anatolia and the Ottoman Aegean Islands, it’s capital was Istanbul. The Arabian Emirate, with the capital Medina, comprised the Arabian Peninsula and Palestine. The Egyptian Emirate was made up of Egypt, Sudan, Libya and the Sinai Peninsula with Cairo as capital. The Mesopotamian Emirate consisted of Mesopotamia and Syria and had its capital in Baghdad.
Each Emirate would be composed of Vilayets administered by Walis (governors), appointed by the Emir and answerable to provincial assemblies elected by the people.
Talat Pasha further explained that Cyprus was considered a Vilayet of the Turkish Emirate.
At the same time he recognized the Emirate of Bukhara, run by Mohammed Alim Khan, the Republic of Kazakhstan, reigned by the Alash Orda government, and the Khanate of Kokand under Selim Khan as new states and allies of the Sublime Porte.

[Bmao]

Very clever reorganization of the Ottoman Empire.

I like how you have a form of limited democracy take hold, with the election of assemballies. Granted, full democratization might not happen, nor may it even be ideal for them to adopt US or even German style democracy, but its probably better than anything that was developed in the Middle East in OTL.

I'm a little confused as to what the relationship would be between the Emirs, the Walis and the Prime Minister of each of these emirates. What measures are in place to ensure that these separate Emirates don't start harboring sectarian sentiments?

Does this also mean that in the national government, there would also be the election of representatives? Or are only senators now sent to the Sublime Porte?

I'm basically a fraud when it comes to the workings of the Ottoman Government, so could you explain how it works in a bit more detail, and how it would work after the reforms were implemented?

[clifton]

The fall of the British Empire. Rise of Germany Empire

[rast]

The new Ottoman system is both: Top down and bottom up.
The Grand Vizier and the Emirs are not elected but appointed; as you can see it's the ruling clique sharing these positions. Nor - of course - is the Sultan elected.
There are - as before - national elections (only age lowered from 25 to 21) for the lower house. The upper house is made up from representatives of the emirates elected by the provincial parliaments (before change appointed by the Sultan). The two houses have approx. the power of the German pre-1914 Reichtstag; they control the budget but have no direct influence over the decisions of the Grand Vizier.
In the emirates, there is a double headed leadership: The Emir and the elected Prime Minister. The Emir appoints the Walis and controls the police and the judges, the Prime Minister is answerable to the prov. parliament and guides law making and taxes.
The outer frame are the armed forces, which are controlled by the central government.
The system is a mix of pre-1914 German elements and the OTL modern Pakistani constitution. Both are federal systems - and that is also the way it is going to be in the OE, they will develop in a federation.

[rast]

No Trespassing

The departure of the Bolshevik leaders had finally allowed the Japanese to advance to Chita. But with the Bolshevik threat gone, there was no longer a rationale for Japanese forces being in Outer Manchuria. Was it time for Japan to spell out the truth?
On August 8th, 1920, at St.Petersburg, Russian prime minister Pavel N. Milyukov thanked Japan for her generous help in vanquishing Bolshevism – and asked her politely to remove her forces from Russian soil until the end of the year…

On August 9th, Mikhail N. Tukhachevsky, who had been captured in the battle of Nikolsk-Ussuriysky, received a visitor in his well guarded lodge at Kagoshima in southern Japan. Japanese foreign minister Uchida Kosai had an interesting bargain to propose.
On August 10th, Japanese prime minister Hara Takashi officially thanked Milyukov for his kind words – and at the same time announced that Japanese forces were still encountering Bolshevik resistance. In other words, the threat was still there – and required Japanese military presence.
At this time, Tukhachevsky and some of his junior leaders, who had also been captured in October 1919, were already on board a Japanese destroyer heading for Vladivostok on topmost speed.

When falling back, the Bolsheviks had thoroughly destroyed the Trans-Siberian Railway. As a result, Tsarist forces had just reached Omsk by early August. But is was known that the Bolshevik leaders had fled, and so far, the Bolshevik communities encountered had offered no resistance.
On August 15th, a strong Cossack detachment was sent out to take Novonikolayevsk. There were 500 versts of mainly flat country, dense forests and few spots of farm land, between Omsk and Novonikolayevsk. The Cossacks took twelve days before they approached Novonikolayevsk.
On August 27th, the lead “sotnia” (company) was ambushed and wiped out when they tried to cross the Ob River near the site of the destroyed railway bridge. It was noted that the enemy possessed a strong artillery arm, which obviously disposed of a good ammunition supply.
Reconnaissance soon revealed that strong Bolshevik forces held the east bank of River Ob.

The Japanese prime minister now was proven to have told the truth: There were still Bolsheviks in Siberia, and somehow, they must have managed to set up arms and ammunition production.
Owing to the complete destruction of infrastructure, it soon became clear that no major campaign against them could be conducted still in 1920.

[rast]

The End of a Proud Nation

On August 10th, 1920, Belgrade capitulated unconditionally.
The food situation was tense but not yet altogether hopeless because vegetables and grain had been grown in gardens and parks. The medical situation was grave, all supplies were long gone. An outbreak of typhus had developed into an epidemic. But most of all, the Serbs had lost the battle for publicity. Events in the British Empire had overtaken interest in the fate of the Serbs, and clever Hungarian and Croatian handling of the press had reinforced that trend. Finally, the Serbs had to realise that they might starve or fever themselves to death without anybody taking notice.
General Sarkotić, the commander of the besieging army, nevertheless held up quarantine of the city, letting his medics and supply services go in, but nobody out.
Prime Minister Ljubomir Davidović, General Petar Bojović and the other leaders of Serb resistance were arrested and vanished in typical Balkans mode to be never seen again.

After the epidemic had died down, the able-bodied men were transferred to detention camps, while the civilian population was allowed to return.
Serbian pluck was at its end now. It was estimated that half of the Serbian pre-war population, approximately 2.2 million people, were dead. The males in the age group from sixteen to thirty-five years had suffered most, three quarters of them had perished.
In good old Balkans tradition, Croats and Bosniaks had raped Serbian women en masse, making sure that most fertile females now carried mixed offspring.
Croat detention camps had regularly released two thirds of the men admitted, those considered inoffensive. But the final third – those considered dangerous – had disappeared.
Serbian fighting spirit had been utterly broken, the Croats had proven to be stronger. Those Serbs still alive submitted to the new rulers.

This left old King Petar I. Karađorđević and his son, Aleksandar, both in exile in London, plus the Serb diaspora around the world to hold up the dream of a Serbian nation.
In the mountains and hills of the Balkans, however, this dream had just been killed.

[rast]

Business Affairs

On Friday, August 20th, 1920, the German company Benz & Cie. bought the bankrupt French company Renault Frères. Before the war, Renault had been a very successful producer of motor cars and commercial vehicles. During the war, the company had become a major supplier of ammunition, engines – and tanks (Chars in French). A substantial number of Chars FT17 had been produced but never been used in combat. After the war, the French government had failed to pay Renault’s bills.
The purchase evoked a very hostile reaction in the French press. In 1914, the Germans had invaded France with their armies, were they now sending their businessmen to buy her out?
Journalistic investigation soon revealed that the Renault purchase was only the peak of a veritable iceberg.
Schneider-Creuzot was factually owned by Krupp. The majority of Peugeot shares was held by Mannesmann. The German Reichsbahn, founded on April 1st, 1920, controlled the Chemin de Fer de l’Est and the Chemin de Fer du Nord. SPAD was owned by AEG and Blériot Aéronautique by Siemens. The Interessengemeinschaft der deutschen Teerfarbenfabriken, the trust of the German chemical industry, had bought the French chemical industry. French mining companies were owned by Stinnes, Röchling and the Prussian State.
All these transactions had happened in secrecy and by use of proxy companies in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Italy, Sweden and Belgium. Nevertheless, the French government must have known about it…

Prime Minister Maurras finally had to answer an inquiry in parliament, after he had avoided any statement to the press for some time.
Yes, his government had known about the German take-overs. It had allowed them to happen because they were the only instrument to stabilise the French economy. The downswing had been stopped. There was hope that in 1921 moderate economic growth would set in.
The Germans were desperately searching for production capacities. France offered them and also had a huge pool of unemployed skilled workers and engineers, just what the German industry needed. The German companies – now busy with reconstructing Russia – had an enormous want of labour. Either unemployed Frenchmen went to Germany to work there or the Germans bought the production facilities in France. For the benefit of the French economy as a whole, his government had seen that the second option occurred.
Because of the general anti-German sentiment of the population, the deals had been kept under the rug.

This led to some more questions from the deputies.
Why was it that reconstruction in Russia was going on already, while in France, after two years of peace, there still was so much debris unattended?
Well, Russia could pay with resources that the Germans wanted. So, for all practical reasons, the Russian government could afford to have the Germans work for them. France could only offer surplus production capacity and skilled labour, these first had to earn the money that was required to reconstruct the country.
If the situation was like this, why not try to politically approach Germany? After all, without further agreements the German capitalists could drop French assets as easily as they had bought them, once the boom was over.
Yes, that was a valid point. One was already working on it. But it was still too early to reveal details. The work was not an easy one. German industrialists were not in vain called “profit sharks” by their compatriots. They vigorously defended their rights to “hire and fire” as well as “buy and sell”.

Maurras’ open statements might have led to a national debate in France how to deal with Germany in future – if not the big West African Mutiny had captured all attention the next day…

[rast]

Flying through the Air

After the Dutch Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij (KLM) had conducted the first – non-Zeppelin – passenger transport in May 1920, German companies had been arroused to the possibilities of this new business.
While the DELAG – the world’s first airline, founded in 1909 – still focusing on Zeppelins, had already established a European flight network after the war, fixed wing aircraft had mainly been used for transporting mail and freight. The DELAG Zeppelins, using helium gas bought in the USA, were generally considered a safe means of transport and enjoyed great popularity.
Fixed wing aircraft were not considered that safe – and their advantage in relation to railway traffic and Zeppelin air transport still had to be established.
Nevertheless, the Junkers Company, known as supplier of sturdy ground strafing and fighter aircraft to the armed forces, now founded the company “Junkers Luftverkehr” (air traffic) and developed a – as they saw it – reliable passenger plane, the F 13.
The F 13, which would become known as the “tin donkey”, had been designed solely as passenger or freight aircraft without any military consideration. It was an all-metal plane and could carry four passengers.
But while the Russian government – surrounded by demolished transport infrastructure – immediately saw the advantage of this means of transport and ordered ten test models, marketing in Germany proved difficult.
In speed, the F 13 offered no advantage over rail traffic. And for those who wanted the kick of seeing the world from above, the DELAG Zeppelins provided a comfortable and well proven opportunity.

It was therefore for reasons of marketing, that the Junkers Company turned to Kaiser Wilhelm III. and offered to fly him and his family to Königsberg.
Wilhelm was no freak of technological development like his father or his uncle, and he had seen too many airplanes come down unintentionally during the war. His uncle, Prince Heinrich, had used makeshift aircraft carriers when commanding the naval operations in the Baltic, he was the right man for such a venture…
But Wilhelm was not the headstrong part of the Imperial Couple, Cecilie was.
How could one expect the Germans to buy a product when their Emperor refused to use it? Wasn’t it the duty of the head of state to foster German economic growth and development?
Once Cecilie had made up her mind, Wilhelm complied. The four boys would stay at home, thus also securing succession to the throne, while the two girls, five years old Alexandrine and three years old Cecilie, could accompany their parents.
This immediately led to shrill protests by the boys. Couldn’t the four of them have a second plane?
But even courageous Cecilie had no intention of risking all eggs in one basket. No, the boys would stay at home. They could fly later on another occasion.

On Friday, August 20th, at ten o’clock in the morning, the F 13 “Preußen” took-off at Berlin-Adlershof, after a lot of photographs and films had been made while the Imperial Couple and the little princesses mounted the plane. Four and a half hours later, the “Preußen” landed at Königsberg, from where the Imperial party proceded to Kadinen, an Imperial holiday ressort, and spent the weekend.
On Monday morning, they were driven to Danzig, where the “Preußen” was waiting for them. Via Stettin they flew to Potsdam, here the weekend trip ended.
Needless to say that each start and each landing had attracted huge crowds and hordes of journalists.

For the Junkers Company the Imperial weekend trip paid off well. Not only in Germany and Europe, but even in the USA interest in their product had been arroused.
Junkers Luftverkehr and a competing company, Aerotrans, set up by HAPAG director Albert Ballin, soon started to establish a Europe-wide network of passenger and freight fixed wing air transport.
Finland, Sweden, Italy and Bulgaria were quick to follow and created own national air transport companies using fixed wing aircraft made by Junkers, Caproni and Hansa-Brandenburg.
Seeing their European business shrinking, the DELAG now concentrated on establishing inter-continental flight services.

[rast]

Tirailleurs Sénégalais

The French had been employing African Negroes in their army since the mid of the nineteenth century. These had initially been slaves bought for the purpose. After the turn of the century, volunteers had taken the place of slaves. And only in 1912 did France introduce conscription in French West Africa.
During the war, some 212,000 black Africans had served in the French army, 163,000 of these on the Western Front. 30,000 had died for France.
They had been promised tax exemption, family allowances, reserved jobs for returning veterans and French citizenship. But the defeat of France and French economic decline had made these promises obsolete.
Disgruntled veterans had returned home. Under the Maurras government even the cheap gratification of awarding French citizenship had no longer been continued.

Under the surface, discontent and chagrin were boiling. Veterans’ associations were set up for mutual assistance. These associations soon became the nuclei for an anti-colonialist movement all over French West Africa.
The news about India’s liberation from colonial rule were studied with greatest intent. The proclamation of Jihad against the British and their underlings excited the Muslims in Mauretania, Senegal, French Sudan and Niger.

What finally started the erruption of violence, remains an object of contention between historians.
Most think that the unjust punishment of five Tirailleurs Sénégalais by a French officer at Dakar was the trigger. A minority still believes in a planned uprising, although events unfurled without any recognisable organisation or pre-planning.
All agree that it started at Dakar and spead all over French West Africa within twenty-four hours. It is also clear that the Tirailleurs Sénégalais were deeply involved. The pre-war troop of proud volunteers now had become a formation of reluctant and defiant conscripts.
In the Dakar barracks, French officers were killed, buildings were looted and set on fire. But violence soon spilled over to the civilian sector. After few hours, Dakar was burning, as was the palace of the French Governor General on Gorée Island. Governor General Martial Merlin was dangling from a tree in his garden.
Where cohesive French forces existed, the onslaught was stopped. But there were only few such units, the main French effort being currently in Algeria and Morocco.

Like a bushfire the insurgency diffused from Dakar in all directions. The battle cry had become: “Kill all Whites!”
Generally, the Muslim areas were observed to be more compliant to this calling, while in the southern Christian areas some isolated white men survived.

What had started on August 28th, 1920, vaulted into Groß Togoland already on August 30th. The northern lands and former Dahomey, both acquired from France in 1918, joined the insurgency. But also the old German Togo very soon succumbed to this wave of bloodshed.
Neither were British Sierra Leone, nor Gold-Cost, nor Nigeria, the latter already shaken by the Jihad, spared.
Also British Gambia went up into flames this time, as did Portuguese Guinea.
Only Liberia remained an island of tranquility in a tempest of violence.
To the north, the desert protected Morocco and Algeria from infection.

[DuQuense]

Re; The Wabis in British Somalia.

I don't see the Wabis having much luck in Italian Somalia, IS was one of the Success stories in Africa, and for a while in the 1920's Britain toyed with the Idea of Turning BS over to the Italians, and letting them take care of the Wabis.

[Bmao]

Why would Algieria remain 'uninfected?' I would think it woudl be especially Algieria that would be the hotbed of disgruntled veterans, as Algieria was basically the crown jewel of France's colonial empire.

It would be a hotbed of both Jihad AND disenfranchisement, and I'm frankly surprised that they hadn't been revolting already.

Therefore, if Algieria isn't a hotbed of insurgent activity, with the things that have been going on in subsaharan Africa, it is likely to become one very soon. The French would probably react to this situation by cracking down on their remaining colonies, especially Algieria, which would produce rather the opposite effect.

Also, this has to affect the German colonies in Africa also, even though their treatment of the native peoples is substantially better. Granted, the insurgency will only be rather limited in comparison to the rebellions pulsating through the British and French African possessions, and there might be far less popular support for the rebels amongst the native African population, but there will still be some people who might use this opportunity to cause trouble.


All in all, this anti-colonial rebellion might quickly transform into a 'Black Power' movement, and spread beyond Africa. It may well end up affecting the United States also, with the African Americans seeing what is happening in Africa and ask for greater political rights. This sort of thing might also affect Latin America and their who racial order.

Tell me if my ideas are too overblown.

[Expat]

This is a really great effort! Thanks for updating so frequently, and I actually like that you keep your cards close to your chest as far as the future goes.

I was getting a bit skeptical with Germany's run of good luck, but your mention of riots in their African colonies eased that feeling. We're all familiar with how a wank's supposed to go; just so long as there's a modicum of realism applied, I say feel free to let Germany flourish!

If you are looking for things to write about, I'm interested in what's happening with international cooperation here. Seems like even though there's no LoN, there's a broad slate of nations willing to cooperate. Could we maybe hear about efforts to put together some treaties? restricting armaments, the use of gas, basic rights of sovereign states...anything like that going on?

Also, you seem to have touched every area of the globe but Latin America. Totally OTL there? Certainly Germany developed interests there IOTL, any signs of that again? CP victory have any effect on Mexican relations considering Zimmerman?

Finally just a quick question: I assume Poland's in Germany's Sphere, is that correct? Much resentment there?
Thanks again!

[rast]

Togoland ist abgebrannt

The frenzy of the Great West African Mutiny quickly died down. In Dakar, the epicentre of the outbreak, it became quiet already on August 30th. Like the violence had spread, now fatigue and neglect made their way to the fringes of the outrage area.
Before any of the colonial powers really could react, all was over…

The French authorities later computed that 4,385 white French citizens had been killed. The Germans counted 418 German victims and 45 whites from other nationalities. The British mourned 334 of their own, the Portuguese 129. The number of black Africans perished could never be established with precision but is believed to be between fifteen and seventeen thousand.
German and British garrisons had withstood the violence. The French had successfully defended Abidjan, Conakry and St.Louis.
But out in the field, damage was enormous. Schools had been burned, houses looted, plantations ravaged, telegraph lines interrupted, churches destroyed… The structures of civil administration had ceased to exist.

The German Governor of Groß Togoland, Dr. Johannes Kirchbaum, laconically cabled to Berlin and Daressalam: “Togoland ist abgebrannt” (Togoland has burned down).
Those of his white teachers and administrators still alive had fled to Lomé and now demanded immediate repatriation. The missionaries and the Reichsbahn engineers who had worked on improving the infrastructure were no better. Only the employees of commercial companies and the military showed more resolve.
Lomé, the capital, had sustained no damage. There had been sufficient forces to secure a wide perimeter around the city. The nature of the uprising had not led to organised attacks by large formations, the insurgents had acted in small groups, carried forward by those who had already killed white men or women. The success of the mutiny lay in its suddenness and rapid dissemination, utterly surprising the colonials out in the field.

Kirchbaum sent out his soldiers already on September 1st, 1920. There was no resistance, but many natives fled when the military approached. Those that remained in their villages of course affirmed that they had done no wrong. By September 4th, the litoral and an area up to 35 kilometres inland had been re-occupied, to do more the available number of soldiers didn’t suffice, according to the commanding officer, Colonel von Bock.
After consultation with Daressalam and Berlin, Kirchbaum issued the following appeal:

“Horrible crimes have happened. The perpetrators shall not be forgiven, they will face just punishment. But the German Emperor does not wish to chastise all his African subjects indiscriminately.
Therefore, the people of Groß Togoland are called to return to their towns and villages and to continue their everyday life, repair the damages done and await the return of the German administration.
Those who have failed are invited to come forward and confess, rueful culprits who voluntarily surrender shall live.”

This invocation, together with the fact that Kirchbaum remorselessly sent out his surviving teachers and administrators over their loud protests, did a lot to defuse the situation. Overriding his commanding officer, he also sent small detachments of soldiers to the outskirts of Togoland. The soldiers, which nowhere met organised resistance, spread the appeal – and the awareness that the German masters still were present.
When reinforcements finally arrived by the end of September, Kirchbaum was in control of Groß Togoland again already and asked Berlin not to send more soldiers but more teachers and technicians.

In the British and Portuguese colonies the situation was defused in similar ways before the natives could arrive at own structures of self-government.

French West Africa was quite another case. The area was simply too large to come again under the control of those few French forces and administrators still alive.
And reinforcements were not in sight. Morocco, Algeria and Tunis – far more important in French perception – tied down all available forces. Only by martial law and curfew the situation there could be kept from exploding.
So, large inland areas of French West Africa remained under factual control of the natives who now were forced to develop structures of self-rule.
The new native entities attracted all those who had fled the re-pacified colonies for fear of persecution and execution. These outlaws would form the core of a black resistance movement against colonial rule in Africa.

[rast]

Polish Displeasure

Józef Piłsudski was dissatisfied. He, the proponent of a Greater Poland, had to rule this miserable torso of the Rzeczpospolita Polska. And to rule it with dictatorial powers, just to keep a lid on all those nationalistic firebrands. Fortunately, the army commanders supported his views. Poland could not risk to challenge Germany over Wielkopolska or parts of Silesia – or the German ally Lithuania over Vilnius, his place of birth. Now that Germany and Russia had signed a treaty of alliance and mutual support, Poland was encircled by Germany and her allies. Only to the south, the Slovaks might soon gain independence from Hungary and join the Czechs. But Piłsudski harboured no illusions about the power and influence of this Czecho-Slovak entity, it was a kind of Slavic speaking miniature biotope surrounded by Germans and Hungarians.
Of course the Germans had given all the area east of Brest-Litovsk back to Russia, Poland had only received a small area east of Grodno, mainly inhabited by Poles, while the Lida and Vilnius districts had gone to Lithuania.

Even worse, German policy opposite the Poles had changed. The pre-war attempts to Germanise the Poles had only strengthened Polish nationalism. But these attempts had been stopped.
On the contrary, Prussian prime minister Otto Braun, who had replaced Paul Hirsch in spring of 1920, had even suggested to introduce Polish as language of instruction in schools in Polish speaking areas. This had led to widespread protests in Wielkopolska and Silesia! The Prussian Poles wanted to learn German, otherwise they stood no chance for profitable jobs on the German labour market.
The great agrarians east of the Elbe river had motorised and mechanised their farms, they no longer needed hordes of unskilled seasonal labourers from the Polish speaking areas. Cheap unskilled labour in construction and industry today came from southern Italy and Croatia, where mainly Serbs and Bosniaks took the opportunity to work in Germany. So, the Poles in Germany, already used to the high German standard of living, had to compete for jobs with better qualification; these they only could get when they had the proper education and were fluent in German.

Opposite the Ukraine, Poland also had claims. But the Germans had stabilised the Hetmanate, and now the Ukraine, rich in agricultural products and natural resources, had become a stable and prosperous country, where those Poles that had ended up there after the plebiscite liked to live. Needless to say that the country was allied to Germany.
Only in Lithuania, the situation was more favourable for the Polish cause. The Lithuanians forced everybody to speak their language. The strong Polish minority resented this. The Rzeczpospolita of course supported the dissenters.

France and Great Britain were potential allies. But neither of them nor altogether both would be able to prevent a German invasion and occupation of Poland. The Germans didn’t even need Russian, Ukrainian or Hungarian support for such an operation.
The USA, with their strong Polish minority, were sympathetic to the Polish quest. At least the outgoing president had been. But they were far away, and big business was today between the US and Germany.
No, better keep the lid upon all those chauvinistic spitfires – and behave opposite Germany, even if it hurt…

[rast]

Bellyache

The Great West African Mutiny had profound effects on the mindset of the German social democrats. Originally, the party had been completely contra to colonies. After the war, they had only been talked into accepting colonial responsibility by Matthias Erzberger and his roman-catholic colleagues. Now, after the horrible events in Africa, inner-party discussion was raging again.
Not only Africa, however, fuelled the debate, events in India also played an important role. If all these peoples rebelled against colonial rule, wasn’t it better to give them their independence? The party always had opposed the colonial conduct of pre-war Imperial Germany.
Only Erzberger’s plan to educate and elevate the natives had finally influenced them to agree to his proposals. Now, they had gotten cold feet.
A special party convent was arranged at Leipzig, which met on Saturday, September 18th.
Soon, it became clear that most delegates were in favour of terminating the German colonial enterprise.
It didn’t change their mind that Gustav Noske, the colonial minister, talked against abandoning the colonies.
“If Germany leaves her colonies tomorrow, who do you think will move in there the day after? England? France? Japan? The United States of America? Portugal? Italy? The Ottoman Empire? – I have been there, believe me, these native peoples in Africa are not yet ready for independence. This may be different in India, which I do not know, but it is true for Africa. – If we abandon them, the Negroes will only become the victims of the next power that moves in.”
Considerations about resources didn’t play any role in social democratic consideration; they were no capitalists, weren’t they?
On Sunday, September 19th, the convent cast the final ballot. With 728 to 243 votes the social democrats decided that Germany should disengage from holding colonies.

[rast]

Coalition Capers

Matthias Erzberger was not at all amused by the attitude of the social democrats. This social conscience that they displayed all of a sudden was infuriating – and completely out of touch with realities. These black peoples in Africa required guidance, education and protection. The “Sozis” just proposed to abandon them.
One possibility was to call for reelection. But although the Catholic element had been strengthened by the accession of the former Austrian lands, the Bavarian, Austrian and Tyrolian Catholics had created own people’s parties, the BVP, ÖVP and TVP, which all three denied the claim to leadership of the senior Zentrum.

A coalition of the Zentrum and the FVP with the National Liberals and the Conservatives, which had united to form the Großdeutsche Nationale Partei (GDNP), would just yield a very narrow majority of two votes.
Erzberger had no problem with the National Liberals, their leader Gustav Stresemann was an arch monarchist and – during the war - had been as annexationist as Erzberger had been initially, but he already had shown that he could adapt to democratic rules.
The GDNP was quite another matter: There were Grand Admiral Tirpitz and his deputy Wolfgang Kapp from the former Vaterlandspartei, the German ultra-jingoists; Alfred Hugenberg, once chief executive of Krupp, now on the way to become the German Lord Northcliffe; Elard von Oldenburg-Januschau, the spokesman of the east-Elbian great agrarians; Georg von Schönerer, the cunning boss of the Austrian pan-Germanists; and quite some more once mighty or influential persons. They all might take advantage of the opportunities that democracy might provide them, but they were no democrats, their aim was the destruction of democracy and the establishment of an authoritarian rule – with themselves in leading positions.
Was it really advisable to co-operate with these people?

The right wing social democrats – men like Gustav Noske and August Winnig – were not in favour of their party’s new course, but they would stick to it in typical party discipline. Erzberger had already talked to them, they regretted very much but they couldn’t be of help.

So, the question remained: Reelection or coalition with the reactionaries?

Erzberger had been one of the few in Germany to publicly protest Ottoman treatment of the Armenians during the war. He was a convinced democrat and a patriot.
After some further deliberations and talks, he had made up his mind.
On September 23rd, 1920, the coalition of SPD, FVP and Zentrum was declared terminated. New elections were fixed for Sunday, November 14th. Until then, the old government would carry on managerially.

[rast]

One Plebiscite and two Elections

On Sunday, October 3rd, 1920, the contractual plebiscite was held in Upper Hungary/Slovakia. It became a plain disappointment for the Slovak nationalists. – Like already before, in the case of the Slovenians, many people living in the border regions decided for the larger entity where their business interests lay.
All the raving of the Slovak and Czech chauvinists didn’t help. People had to live, just belonging to a nice new Slovak state wasn’t enough, one had to have one’s subsistence as well. If this livelihood was made in Hungary, one better remained there. This plain truth led to a rather small entity, a kind of appendix to Czechia.
In Warsaw, Józef Piłsudski saw his impression of the “Slavic speaking miniature biotope surrounded by Germans and Hungarians” verified. This was not a state, it was a caricature of a state.

Next came the Americans. On November 2nd, the new US President was to be elected.
Republican candidate Warren G. Harding had conducted a classic front porch campaign under the motto “Back to Normalcy” – directed against the unpopular “progressive” approach of Woodrow Wilson and promising a return to “America first”, isolationism and laissez-faire, while his wife Florence had cleverly manipulated the press.
But then it had become known that he entertained an intimate relationship with yet another woman, a notorious supporter of Germany. Who from the Republican leadership had leaked out this information was never established, but the party bosses had been informed about the affair when Harding had accepted nomination. Therefore, political circles thought it must have been one of them disagreeing with Harding.

The Democrats, where Robert L. Owen and Franklin D. Roosevelt formed a very effective duo, had conducted a whirlwind campaign with rallies, train station speeches, and formal addresses. They didn’t propagate a continuation of Wilsons’s “progressive” course but also proposed an “America first” course of consolidation and national recovery.
However, most observers thought that most Americans had no idea what the two presidential candidates really stood for, nor that the two knew it themselves.
In the end, it were Owen’s good looks and Harding’s extramarital affair that influenced the female voters and brought the decision. With a rather narrow majority of 272 electoral votes out of a total of 531, Owen and his running mate Roosevelt were elected for office.

On November 23rd it was show time in Germany.
The number of seats for the Reichstag had been enhanced to 469 in order to accommodate the deputies of the new states.
German workers and small craftsmen didn’t care for colonies. Their support for the popular social democrats was unbowed. The SPD won 192 seats.
The Zentrum stagnated at 92 seats, while the BVP gained 3, the ÖVP 4 and the TVP 2.
The progressives fared better, the FVP scored 68. Stresemann and his national liberals achieved 23 seats.
The GDNP arrived at 61 seats. The rest went to the Poles, Danes, French, Anti-Semites and other splinter parties.

That meant that SPD and FVP could rule together. Would the FVP accept the SPD programme of colonial disengagement? Negotiations started on November 24th.
The FVP politicians knew their counterparts and how to take them. The coalition contract determined: Germany would disengage from her African colonies until 1944. That left two native generations to be educated.

Erzberger’s gamble had backfired. But nevertheless he was contend, the colonies would not just be abandoned but led to tactical independence. Now he would concentrate on integrating this rebellious little people’s parties – and perhaps merge with the Stresemann group, in four years, there would be another chance.
On December 13th, 1920, Friedrich Ebert was elected chancellor again.

[wormyguy]

While I enjoy this TL very much, I think you're starting to change it into a little too much of a Socialist-wank. After the president spent tens of millions of dollars and thousands of lives interfering in European affairs in favor of the accursed British and French in order to accomplish absolutely nothing, at best the good name of the Democratic Party will be sullied for several decades to come, and most likely, the party will disintegrate and splinter, and be replaced by another (maybe Teddy Roosevelt's Progressives?). The media of the time would be far too conservative to report on an extramarital affair (especially if it were a rumor). One must also remember, too, that the newspapers were controlled by wealthy industrialists and Republican/conservative activists, who would not report such news without ample proof, given that it would damage their own political goals. Ironically, too, the political mindsets of people in those days would have been more rational in terms of reactions to political scandals, they would actually have reacted stronger to the scandal of the unsuccessful US involvement in the war than to the alleged scandal of Harding's infidelity.