OK, here goes-Jewish South Africa TL!
*Note-I'm not a butterfly fanatic. Because I'm coming up with this on the fly, everything outside South Africa will go as OTL until the late 19th century.
Thanks to Valdemar for ideas.
-1516: The Portuguese establish the Forte do Cabo da Boa Esperanca (Cape of Good Hope Fort) on the site of OTL Cape Town, to act as a rest stop for Portuguese ships using the Cape trade routes, and to deny the same to ships of other nations.
-1521: Needing farmers to grow food for passing ships, the Portuguese deport over a thousand Jews to the area around Boa Esperanca. Most of the immigrants engage in cattle herding or wheat growing.
-Rest of 16th century: Boa Esperanca becomes a favorite place for the Portuguese to deport their dwindling Jewish population, mainly from Portugal but also occassionally from Brazil. All in all, the number of Jews sent to the colony totals 6,000-7,000. Boa Esperanca recieves a few visits from the Holy Office, and the Jewish population-by now the overwhelming majority of the Portuguese inhabitants-is occasionally harrassed, but the area is generally considered a backwater and the Inquisition has bigger fish to fry. The Portuguese expansion triggers conflicts with the local Khoi population, which the Portuguese win, and most of the surrounding Khoi are enslaved or become wage laborers on Jewish-owned farms. By 1600, Boa Esperanca has over 20,000 Jewish inhabitants (due to natural population increase), over 6,000 Khoi, and about 1,500 Portuguese Christians (mostly consisting of the garrison and the colonial administrative staff)
-1607: During the Dutch-Portuguese War, the Dutch capture Boa Esperanca, which is ceded at the war's conclusion and renamed Kaapstaat (Cape Town). Most of the Jews regard this as a positive development, since the Dutch are largely tolerant and unconcerned with religion. Cape Town builds its first synagogue in 1612, and for the first time, public practice of Judaism is legalized. The colony sees a modest amount of immigration-Jews fleeing the collapse of Dutch Brazil, and its first Ashkenazim (the inhabitants up to this point have all been Ladino-speaking Sephardim) from the Netherlands and Germany. Most of the Ashkenazim take up residence in Cape Town or other urban areas, but the countryside remains dominated by Sephardim. While all the Christian Portuguese were forced to leave following the colony's capture, a small number of Dutch Christians, numbering no more than three or four thousand, immigrate to the colony. As the area is regarded as a backwater, little missionary activity takes place, and most of the colony's black and mixed-race people have much more contact with the Jewish population. Many eventually convert to Judaism.
As the Jewish population expands, settlers begin to migrate northward and westward.
-1790-By now, Dutch South Africa controls an area equal to
OTL Cape Colony. The population is divided between blacks (the majority of whom have adopted Judaism) and whites. The White population is made up of mostly Sephardic Jews, with Cape Town and other areas having a mixture of Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazi Jews, and Dutch.
-1795-1815: Napoleonic Wars. Dutch South Africa changes hands several times, but ultimately gets taken over by Britain, who organize it as the Cape Colony
-19th Century: After the establishment of British rule, a good many of the Dutch gradually leave, though Britain respects the rights of the Jewish inhabitants of Cape Colony. Some British settlers immigrate in to replace the Dutch, and English gradually becomes the Colony's language of education and government.
-1872: After much pressure, Cape Colony is granted responsible government. Jews are given the right to hold elected office, and Yiddish and Ladino become official languages of the colony alongside English. This period sees a growing amount of Ashkenazi immigration, mostly fleeing Russian persecution. As its government and economy are by now Jewish-dominated, Cape Colony is seen as a more attractive destination than the US, which gets substantially less Jewish immigration than OTL. In the wake of the Dreyfuss Affair, and due to the increasing anti-Jewish sentiment in Europe, some Jewish leaders, most notably Theodore Herzl, encourage Europe's Jews to immigrate to the Cape, to fully create a "new Jewish homeland". The number of new arrivals in Cape Colony picks up.
-1880's-British gradually take control of the southeastern coastline of Africa, which is administered as British Southeast Africa. After the conquest of the Zulu kingdoms in the 1890's, this area is discovered to have large quantities of gold, diamonds, and other minerals, all of which are annexed into Southeast Africa (excepting the Kimberly mine, discovered and claimed by residents of Cape Colony)
-1914-1918: WWI. The Cape Colony contributes troops to the British war effort, with the Royal Cape Army Corps (RCAC) distinguishing itself at the Somme and in stopping the Spring Offensive in 1918. Along with Canada and Australia, Cape Colony is allowed to send a separate delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference.
-1932-Statute of Westminster grants effective independence to the British Dominions. Cape Colony is renamed as the Dominion of South Africa.
-1933: Hitler comes to power in Germany.
-1935: Nuremberg laws passed. South African Prime Minister Herbert Goldstein announces that, due to the growing anti-Semetism in Germany, any Jew from there will be allowed immediate permanent residency in South Africa should he or she wish to immigrate. Charity funds are set up to pay for prospective immigrant's passage over, and by 1939, over three million German Jews have made the trip. Almost all become South African citizens.
-1939-1945: Under Prime Minister David Abrabanel, South Africa fights alongside the rest of the allies in World War II, and its people are stunned when they learn of the magnitude of the Holocaust.
-1946: South Africa offers permanent residency to all Jewish Displaced Persons in Europe. Most make the trip.
-1949: Responding to pressure from the new immigrants, who want complete independence from Britain, PM Abrabanel declares South Africa a republic and changes the name to Neve Israel (New Israel)
-1950-present: Neve Israel, by now majority Jewish, becomes a rather prosperous country, owing to the skills of its inhabitants and its natural resources (especially the diamond mines at Kimberly). As decolonization progresses, Neve Israel at first has bad relations with is neighbors, who percieve it as a holdover from the colonialist era, but this is ameliorated when Neve Israel gradually repeals colonial-era discrimination laws, and supports the independence of the remaining European colonies in Africa. By 2010, Neve Israel is well integrated into the African community and has long been the center of world Jewish life.
) being spoken differently in TTL.