alternatehistory.com

Got the next update done. A bit more on Africa, and I'll post footnotes tomorrow since there's a lot of place and people names here. I didn't get into the actual colonial administration as much as I wanted to, but I can always come back to it later.

Part Seventy-Three: The Kaiser's Place in the Sun

Madagaskar Run: Another point of contention between the colonial powers in the late nineteenth century was the ownership of the large island of Madagaskar off the coast of eastern Africa. The French had established Fort Dauphine as a presence on the southern tip of the island, but starting in the 19th century other European powers gained interest in Madagaskar. The monarchs of the island courted the powers and Great Britain, Germany, and Portugal all had settlements on the island by 1880. As Queen Ranavalona III and Prime Minister Rainilaiarivony[1] of Madagaskar continued to court the European powers and westernize the country, the competing claims of Europe kept them from establishing lasting sovereignty over the island.

Unfortunately for the natives, the Europeans were mostly kept at bay by Rainilaiarivony's success at playing the European countries off each other. With the death of the Prime Minister in 1884, European influence over the island steadily grew as the competing colonial powers began to resolve their differing claims. In 1887, Portugal rescinded its claim. The British were the next to give up their claim during the Congo Conference in exchange for support of British expansion into southern Africa. Two years later, German armies acted and moved from the German settlement of Rostenbucht[2] on the northwestern coast of Madagaskar and deposed Queen Ranavalona and established German control over the island. The native monarchy was soon replaced by German colonial administration under Hans Kowalski.

The sudden expansion of Germany into Madagaskar caused a dramatic reaction in France. Since the French had a presence on the island from the founding of Fort Dauphine in the 1600s, it had been assumed in many circles that Madagaskar would end up in the French colonial sphere. While several members of the French government initially raised an uproar over the German move, President Andre Clermont did not take any action to dispute the German invasion. Clermont's indecision regarding French colonial ambitions in Madagascar was a large contributor to the end of the long Bonapartist reign in the election of 1898 and the rise in Boulangism in France during the early 19th century.


United Ostafrika: Along with Madagaskar, Germany also looked north from its already established African colonies. The colonization of the region around Mogadischu and the need for easier contact with Oman led Germany to expand further into the Horn of Africa. The coastal cities of Puntland were conquered in the 1870s as Germany desired new coaling ports between Zanzibar and Muscat. In the ensuing decade, a German expedition to the Gulf of Aden brought German control to the cities of Berbera, Dschibutie, and Härar. The conquest of these cities which had held out against Ahmara and French influence from the Ethiopian Highlands meant an end to independence for much of the region and that German colonial interests in eastern Africa began pushing up against French interests.

While this created some contention between the two nations, they soon settled on a boundary between their East African colonies in the Treaty of Freiburg in 1891. France granted some concessions to Germany to give the latter access to the Congo River in the Congo Conference, which extended the German territories in East Africa. After these disputes were settled, the German government began consolidating its administration of the colonies. The Mogadischu governorate was made a subregion and placed under the administration of the governorate of Zanzibar in 1899. Four years later, the entire area of German colonization, including Madagaskar and Oman, were consolidated under the newly created Deutsche Ostafrika. Hans Kowalski, now well known in Germany for his explorations and efficient management of Rufiji and Madagaskar, was appointed the first Hauptgoverneur[3] of Ostafrika.

The development of German Ostafrika had already begun during the 1880s and 1890s as Germany used the agricultural land in Ostafrika for coffee and rubber plantations. To expedite the movement of the rubber and coffee to the main port cities in Ostafrika, railroads were built connecting the highlands of Tanganjika and Kerinja[4] to Mombasa, Pangani, and . The railroad was extended to Mogadischu, Neuwilhemshafen, and Rufijimund by 1900. After the creation of a unified Ostafrika administration, the core of Germany's African possessions further grew economically with the discovery of gold near Bismarcksee[5]. The discovery of gold and the creation of Germany's colonial governorates made Ostafrika the largest and most prosperous of the European colonies in Africa at the time.

[1] The OTL Prime Minister of Madagascar during the late 19th century leading up to France's invasion.
[2] On the left bank of the Bombetoka Estuary, across from OTL Mahajanga.
[3] Hauptgoverneur means "all-governor" or head governor.
[4] Kerinja = Kenya
[5] OTL Northwestern Tanzania, where the Sekenke and Kirondatal gold mines are.