Zionist Uganda
- Thread starter David bar Elias
- Start date
El Berto said:What's the spoken language in the Dominion? Hebrew? Yiddish? English?
Great stuff, BTW!
English and Yiddish are the languages that bind the Dominion together, since they're both languages of trade and commerce. Hebrew is primarily still used for religious services, and is not as central to this Jewish nation as the Israel we all know (although it'll change with the times as technology develops).
1929-1939:
The Roaring Twenties came to a shocking end with the Wall St. Crash of 1929. The Crash began a ripple effect around the world.
For East Africa, things, for the first time in the nation's history, began to look grim. Factories closed, unemployment rose, and a feeling of despair rose and rose. It seemed Trumpledor's 1928 retirement had taken away more than just the everlasting era of good feelings.....
In the elections of 1931, Levi Eshkol's Labour Party swept to power after years in the wilderness. "So they didn't beat Moses," one Conservative MP was heard to have remarked. Eshkol ran on a platform of economic reform and promises of direct government intervention.
ITO agents were dispatched to New York, where the situation was far more dire. It wasn't hard to find eager recruits for life in East Africa. Some 230,000 American Jews immigrated to Africa during this time period.
Eshkol acted quickly. Meeting with South Africa's Jan Smutts, both East Africa and South Africa signed an accord to end all trade barriers remaining between the two dominions (there were never that many anyways). Pretty soon, East Africa was supplying South Africa with practical goods, while South Africa began supplying East Africa with luxury items (like wine, for instance) and mineral goods. The Diamond Trade became a centerpeice of this relationship. Pretty soon, unemployment in both South and East Africa was heading south again. Government-sponsered work programs built new irrigation canals, reseeded grazing land (helping out the Massai's extensive cattle heards), and began experimentation with solar power. Jan Smutts, against his instincts, (but then again, the Jews of East Africa had been right on practically everything thus far), copied these moves, and bound his nation closer with East Africa.
In Europe, things were going from bad to worse. In Germany, the perpetually angry Great War veteran Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) was becoming the dominent government party. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck angrilly denounced the Nazis. Having seen first hand the power of the Jewish fighting man, he attacked Hitler's ideologies fervently. But without his exploits in OTL, there were far fewer people willing to listen to Vorbeck. After several death threats, he fled with his family back to East Africa in 1932, to New Jerusalem. He became the new neighbor to the aging Joseph Trumpledor, who embraced his former foe like a brother.
Hitler became the absolute ruler of Germany in 1933, and soon, anti-Jewish laws began to be passed. ITO agents desperately warned as many Jews as possible to come to East Africa. Despite the fact that Hitler in Mein Kampf had written: "If only twelve million of those Hebrew vultures had been subject to the gas, the Fatherland would still have maintained the wealthy territories of Africa," the German Jews were at first aloof. Why, they had fervently supported Germany in the Great War, and many had served in the Fatherland's defence. How could their nation turn on them so? But slowly but surely, the trickle of Jewish refugees from Germany became a flood, as every last Jew in Germany, and later Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia fled to East Africa. This accelerated after the events of the Nuremburg Laws (1935) and Kristalnacht (1938). East Africa welcomed each and every one. Albert Einstein, before leaving for Port Shalom, told his wife: "Take a good look at this house. You'll never see it again." Over 1.9 million Jews came in this latest wave of refugees. Sigmund Freud, Enrico Fermi (who had a Jewish wife), Leo Salizard, Edward Teller, and countless others soon found employment in the great universities of the Dominion. In 1937, Einstein drafted a letter to Eskhol warning him on the devastating effects of a hypothetical uranium bomb.....soon, East Africa began importing uranium from the Belgian Congo for Project David.......
The thirties also saw a new problem emerge. Benito Mussolini, the pugnacious dictator of Italy, fancied himself as a reincarnation of Augustus. Remembering the humiliating defeat that his nation had suffered at Adua in 1896, he began to plan for the invasion of Ethiopia.
Emperor Haile Salasie, the Lion of Judah, had long admired the Dominion of East Africa. There was a strong and ancient Jewish community in his nation, going back to the days of Saloman and the Queen of Sheba. As Italy's rhetoric became more belligerant, East Africa, backed strongly by South Africa, tried to force the League to do something substantial.
Instead, the League rolled over like a leaky galleon as Italian troops invaded Ethiopia from Italian Somalailand and Eritrea. The British government refused to close the Suez Canal, allowing Mussolini a clear route towards conquest. Oh, they passed an embargo, but left out oil.
Fustrated by the Mother Country's indifference, the East Africans and South Africans began covert gun running operations to aid to Ethiopians. But it was too little, too late. The Lion of Judah fled to New Jerusalem, along with countless refugees, including the entire Jewish community of the mountain kingdom. The Jewish Defence Forces began mobilizing.
Mussolini, for his part, tired of the Jewish state's annoying sermonizing, and began anti-semetic programs of his own (even worse than in OTL). This led to the complete exodus of the Italian Jews. ITO agents in France, the Low Countries, and Iberia began handing out visas. Most accepted, although some just wouldn't budge, which would cost them dearly later.
In 1938, the Dominion held a referendum on a name change. Wether or not to declare their nation the State of Israel. Despite opposition from the Orthodox, the referendum passed. The Dominion of East Africa became the State of Israel, a Dominion of the British Empire. The Jewish Defence Forces became the Israeli Defence Forces, and became open to everyone, including non-Jews. Watching Neville Chamberlain (the son of the great Joseph Chamberlain) throw the Czechs to the wolves, Jan Smutts and Levi Eshkol began preparing their nations for conflict. They weren't fooled when the British PM claimed he had "Peace in our time!" The die was rapidly being cast......
By 1939, Hitler began making demands of Poland. As there were almost no more Jews left in Europe (and none left in Poland), Hitler began his truely dark deeds on September 1, 1939, when German forces smashed into that long-haplass nation.
Great Britain and France declared war on September 3, followed alomst immediently afterwards by the Dominions of Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and (largely against her will), India.
"We, the people of Israel, and our brothers-in-arms across the British Empire must make ourselves an arsenal of freedom in a world gone rife with the diseases of evil," declared Prime Minister Eshkol in his nation's declaration of War on Germany. "We will not stop until the German mad-dog has been put down for all time."
World War II was on.......
To be continued........
The Roaring Twenties came to a shocking end with the Wall St. Crash of 1929. The Crash began a ripple effect around the world.
For East Africa, things, for the first time in the nation's history, began to look grim. Factories closed, unemployment rose, and a feeling of despair rose and rose. It seemed Trumpledor's 1928 retirement had taken away more than just the everlasting era of good feelings.....
In the elections of 1931, Levi Eshkol's Labour Party swept to power after years in the wilderness. "So they didn't beat Moses," one Conservative MP was heard to have remarked. Eshkol ran on a platform of economic reform and promises of direct government intervention.
ITO agents were dispatched to New York, where the situation was far more dire. It wasn't hard to find eager recruits for life in East Africa. Some 230,000 American Jews immigrated to Africa during this time period.
Eshkol acted quickly. Meeting with South Africa's Jan Smutts, both East Africa and South Africa signed an accord to end all trade barriers remaining between the two dominions (there were never that many anyways). Pretty soon, East Africa was supplying South Africa with practical goods, while South Africa began supplying East Africa with luxury items (like wine, for instance) and mineral goods. The Diamond Trade became a centerpeice of this relationship. Pretty soon, unemployment in both South and East Africa was heading south again. Government-sponsered work programs built new irrigation canals, reseeded grazing land (helping out the Massai's extensive cattle heards), and began experimentation with solar power. Jan Smutts, against his instincts, (but then again, the Jews of East Africa had been right on practically everything thus far), copied these moves, and bound his nation closer with East Africa.
In Europe, things were going from bad to worse. In Germany, the perpetually angry Great War veteran Adolf Hitler's National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) was becoming the dominent government party. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck angrilly denounced the Nazis. Having seen first hand the power of the Jewish fighting man, he attacked Hitler's ideologies fervently. But without his exploits in OTL, there were far fewer people willing to listen to Vorbeck. After several death threats, he fled with his family back to East Africa in 1932, to New Jerusalem. He became the new neighbor to the aging Joseph Trumpledor, who embraced his former foe like a brother.
Hitler became the absolute ruler of Germany in 1933, and soon, anti-Jewish laws began to be passed. ITO agents desperately warned as many Jews as possible to come to East Africa. Despite the fact that Hitler in Mein Kampf had written: "If only twelve million of those Hebrew vultures had been subject to the gas, the Fatherland would still have maintained the wealthy territories of Africa," the German Jews were at first aloof. Why, they had fervently supported Germany in the Great War, and many had served in the Fatherland's defence. How could their nation turn on them so? But slowly but surely, the trickle of Jewish refugees from Germany became a flood, as every last Jew in Germany, and later Austria, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia fled to East Africa. This accelerated after the events of the Nuremburg Laws (1935) and Kristalnacht (1938). East Africa welcomed each and every one. Albert Einstein, before leaving for Port Shalom, told his wife: "Take a good look at this house. You'll never see it again." Over 1.9 million Jews came in this latest wave of refugees. Sigmund Freud, Enrico Fermi (who had a Jewish wife), Leo Salizard, Edward Teller, and countless others soon found employment in the great universities of the Dominion. In 1937, Einstein drafted a letter to Eskhol warning him on the devastating effects of a hypothetical uranium bomb.....soon, East Africa began importing uranium from the Belgian Congo for Project David.......
The thirties also saw a new problem emerge. Benito Mussolini, the pugnacious dictator of Italy, fancied himself as a reincarnation of Augustus. Remembering the humiliating defeat that his nation had suffered at Adua in 1896, he began to plan for the invasion of Ethiopia.
Emperor Haile Salasie, the Lion of Judah, had long admired the Dominion of East Africa. There was a strong and ancient Jewish community in his nation, going back to the days of Saloman and the Queen of Sheba. As Italy's rhetoric became more belligerant, East Africa, backed strongly by South Africa, tried to force the League to do something substantial.
Instead, the League rolled over like a leaky galleon as Italian troops invaded Ethiopia from Italian Somalailand and Eritrea. The British government refused to close the Suez Canal, allowing Mussolini a clear route towards conquest. Oh, they passed an embargo, but left out oil.
Fustrated by the Mother Country's indifference, the East Africans and South Africans began covert gun running operations to aid to Ethiopians. But it was too little, too late. The Lion of Judah fled to New Jerusalem, along with countless refugees, including the entire Jewish community of the mountain kingdom. The Jewish Defence Forces began mobilizing.
Mussolini, for his part, tired of the Jewish state's annoying sermonizing, and began anti-semetic programs of his own (even worse than in OTL). This led to the complete exodus of the Italian Jews. ITO agents in France, the Low Countries, and Iberia began handing out visas. Most accepted, although some just wouldn't budge, which would cost them dearly later.
In 1938, the Dominion held a referendum on a name change. Wether or not to declare their nation the State of Israel. Despite opposition from the Orthodox, the referendum passed. The Dominion of East Africa became the State of Israel, a Dominion of the British Empire. The Jewish Defence Forces became the Israeli Defence Forces, and became open to everyone, including non-Jews. Watching Neville Chamberlain (the son of the great Joseph Chamberlain) throw the Czechs to the wolves, Jan Smutts and Levi Eshkol began preparing their nations for conflict. They weren't fooled when the British PM claimed he had "Peace in our time!" The die was rapidly being cast......
By 1939, Hitler began making demands of Poland. As there were almost no more Jews left in Europe (and none left in Poland), Hitler began his truely dark deeds on September 1, 1939, when German forces smashed into that long-haplass nation.
Great Britain and France declared war on September 3, followed alomst immediently afterwards by the Dominions of Israel, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and (largely against her will), India.
"We, the people of Israel, and our brothers-in-arms across the British Empire must make ourselves an arsenal of freedom in a world gone rife with the diseases of evil," declared Prime Minister Eshkol in his nation's declaration of War on Germany. "We will not stop until the German mad-dog has been put down for all time."
World War II was on.......
To be continued........
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Well, largely because you've taken a Jewish state, and converted it into an Empire. Rather than building a Jewish-majority state on largely unpopulated lands in Eastern Africa, you've built a Jewish-run Empire of sorts that dominates over its neighboring African peoples.David bar Elias said:
Well, Uganda and Kenya weren't utterly empty lands like Palestine was at the turn of the last century. Something different was bound to happen.
The Jews aren't like the Draka. I havn't had them form a super-union with South Africa, declare full independence from Britain, and go on a conquering spree.
Israel in TTL, is simply a Jewish majority state with a much more diverse population....a population that will only grow more diverse as the TL progresses.....
The Jews aren't like the Draka. I havn't had them form a super-union with South Africa, declare full independence from Britain, and go on a conquering spree.
Israel in TTL, is simply a Jewish majority state with a much more diverse population....a population that will only grow more diverse as the TL progresses.....
Well, why not? There is a horrendously bad anti-semetic outbreak in Russia, and the Uganda Plan does its job-it gives the Jews of Russia a refuge. With millions of people flowing into Uganda, and no reason for the British to stop it (I mean, how many oil rich Arab states are going to be angry at that?), the settlements expand from Uganda, the Mau plateau, and coastal Kenya into a major democratic nation.
Err, yes....I'm not sure how to make those...
Where's the best place for a template?
Anyways, I gotta get some rest. I'll have some more tommorow....
Where's the best place for a template?
Anyways, I gotta get some rest. I'll have some more tommorow....
David bar Elias said:
I fully agree. You're sending 10 Millions Jews to East Africa, additional to the natives, which are integrated. Those settlements will spread very fast over the regions. 10 Million Jews in 1930 will make a great difference. It's more than Israel has today!
And I dont' think it's bad to make them an Empire. They're democratic, peaceful and probably less racist than any country in that time - OTL or ATL.
Max Sinister
Banned
I have some points too:
- It goes a bit too fast. During a few decades, several million Jews go to East Africa. I'm not even sure whether that's possible with pre-WW1 logistics. I just mean: How many ships would have to go back and forth? If we assume 100 Jews per ship (and many ships won't just transport persons, and many of those persons won't be Jews), that's 100000 ships. Makes 10000 per year (1905-14; I guess during the war ships are needed for something else, and with the Kriegsmarine on the run, shipping Jews to Uganda is dangerous). Almost 300 per day. Did the Kenyan harbors have the capacity for that many ships? How many ships arrived in Mombasa on an average day in OTL 1910?
- Not all Jews would like to go to Africa. In Western Europe, many were quite assimilated, gave their kids non-Jewish names (Albert, Sig[is]mund...), not to talk about those who converted to Christianity. Those who went to America will be quite happy there either, I expect. Mostly, at least.
- And wouldn't some people object the rapid growth of "Israel"? IOTL many Arabs criticized Jewish immigration to then-Palestine. Uganda is more thinly populated, but it is. We can expect some resistance from Massai, Kikuyu and so on.
- The mass emigration of Jews from europe (and America) will cause some butterflies. Poland had 3 million Jews before WW2. Hard to tell how it would change, but there'd be definitely some change.
- It goes a bit too fast. During a few decades, several million Jews go to East Africa. I'm not even sure whether that's possible with pre-WW1 logistics. I just mean: How many ships would have to go back and forth? If we assume 100 Jews per ship (and many ships won't just transport persons, and many of those persons won't be Jews), that's 100000 ships. Makes 10000 per year (1905-14; I guess during the war ships are needed for something else, and with the Kriegsmarine on the run, shipping Jews to Uganda is dangerous). Almost 300 per day. Did the Kenyan harbors have the capacity for that many ships? How many ships arrived in Mombasa on an average day in OTL 1910?
- Not all Jews would like to go to Africa. In Western Europe, many were quite assimilated, gave their kids non-Jewish names (Albert, Sig[is]mund...), not to talk about those who converted to Christianity. Those who went to America will be quite happy there either, I expect. Mostly, at least.
- And wouldn't some people object the rapid growth of "Israel"? IOTL many Arabs criticized Jewish immigration to then-Palestine. Uganda is more thinly populated, but it is. We can expect some resistance from Massai, Kikuyu and so on.
- The mass emigration of Jews from europe (and America) will cause some butterflies. Poland had 3 million Jews before WW2. Hard to tell how it would change, but there'd be definitely some change.
Giving the natives the vote (who will be in the majority) is suicide, they will have no experience with democracy, advanced economics or even real education (the Jewish immigrants will not be able to educate the entire populace within ten years or so of arriving, to say nothing of the recently acquired German territories).
Making a franchise based upon property/education which is colour blind is one thing but this is quite another.
This will result in a disaster even if we assume that somehow the Jewish immigrants magically solve racism and tribalism (both within their own ranks, among the natives and somehow amongst the South Africans).
Making a franchise based upon property/education which is colour blind is one thing but this is quite another.
This will result in a disaster even if we assume that somehow the Jewish immigrants magically solve racism and tribalism (both within their own ranks, among the natives and somehow amongst the South Africans).
Max Sinister
Banned
Well, pre-WW1 Africa was quite thinly settled. I guess it's less than 5 million for Uganda and Kenya together.
David bar Elias said:
They would probably both push for an Imperial preference system with Britain.
This Dominion doesn’t have the resources to create its own atomic weapon, at the very least they would need to go to the British for cooperation, if not turn the program over to them entirely.
It’s worth pointing out that most of the early work necessary for a bomb was done in Britain by British (and commonwealth) scientists so any commonwealth research into nuclear physics is probably going to be drawn there
As for Einstein’s letter, it was written by Szilárd, who came up with and pursued the idea of a chain reaction whilst in London (where he registered the idea with the admiralty so it could be protected under their secrecy laws) he would probably still follow this path but figuring out uranium for use in bombs by 1937 and getting a program going are a little out there.
Britain would probably have done something with this super dominion to the south.
The Indians weren’t against going to war, what annoyed them was that they weren’t asked (although Ghandi had idiotic notions about the British surrendering to the Germans and letting their soul force defeat him).
Max Sinister said:
By 1927 Kenay had a popualtion of 2,736,500, Uganda had a population of 3,157,100 and Tanzania 4,797,000.
Which gives them a combined popualtion of 10,690,600.
Add in Rwanda at 1,498,000 and we have 12,188,600.
This Dominion has a Jewish popualtion of 10.1 million by 1924.
Edit: I forgot to add in Zambia for 1,244,800 which takes us upto 13,432,600.
Second Edit: Also if Zambia is being added to East Africa then I imagine Malawi will have to be as well which add another 1,293,500.
Which takes us up to 14,725,600.
A sixty percent majority for the natives.
This Jewish homeland will before long have a majority of non ethnic Jews and most likely Christians.
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