i was thinking more on the line of an alternate ending of the french-dahomey wars in the 1890is
dahomey monarchy lost mainly as a result of poor tactics and ignoring the krup artilery and german machineguns they bought just before the start of the wars, after the port royal incidents
if they decided to go for guerrilla warfare instead of charging into concentrated rifle fire and pitting clubs against bajonetes they could of had much more succes against the french senegalese forces and foreing legion, especially given the number of winchesters and manlichers they got of german traders, and the shere size and organisation of the kings army
it would seem they didnt quite get how artilery and machineguns worked, as they had no trained personel, but as it was comonplace to pay mercenaries to operate such mashines and train crews this could of gone much diferent
probbably a few PODs before the 1800eds would make ewen more diference
then in the historical context of WWI such a nation is a natural ally ot the central powers, getting ewen more weapons and equipment, as well as experienced instructors, and possibly expanding its territory
after being on the losing side it might lose much of its territorial gains but would still be a important factor in the region
then WWII comes and gods know what might happen