AH Challenge/Idea: American Congo

[maverick]

Among the many oddities of the 19th Century and the Scramble for Africa we can find King Leopold of Belgium seizing a country the size of Australia for himself and with the most vast reserve of resources in the continent. And it wasn't a colony, it was HIS state!

But everyone knows that. But what if the Congo had been claimed by the Americans?

I know it sounds even odder, but how about if we make it a challenge?

Get the Congo Free State as a protectorate under the United States, not a state nor a territory, but everyone calls it the "American Congo" and the POTUS is also President of this state.

How could we get this?

 

[Haggis]

Well one has to remember that the US was the first nation to recognize Leopold's claim in the Congo and mostly that was carried through by some senator from Georgia, I don't remember his name but he wanted the Congo to be set up as a second Liberia basically, so really if there's a larger move to invest in a relatively unknown section of Africa then I think the US could've had a good go at the Congo.

Plus Stanley claimed to be American (even though he was British) so that was a feather in everyone's cap.

 

[carlton_bach]

It's not like the Congo was prime real estate, but the USA would need to takwe an active interest in acquiring it. Get into the colonial game early, so to speak. If they were at the table in Berlin with a real claim, they'd most likely get it. After all, the other powers didn't want the other side to get it, and the USA was still considered an odd one out, not a threat to any European power.

I did a story once where the USA acquire the Congo to run a 'back to Africa' programme after the ACW.