AHC: Create a majority black-African European country

[Cuāuhtemōc]

This is my first AH/WI question/challenge in a long time so I hope you're all gentle when it comes to your criticism. My question is if it is possible for a country in Europe to have a black-African majority? What would be the most likeliest place for it on the continent? What would the society and economy be like?

 

[SpamBotSam]

This is my first AH/WI question/challenge in a long time so I hope you're all gentle when it comes to your criticism. My question is if it is possible for a country in Europe to have a black-African majority? What would be the most likeliest place for it on the continent? What would the society and economy be like?

Probably somewhere along the Mediterranean like Greece, because its close to africa and easy to colonize, due to its close proximity to Africa.

 

[Redhand]

The Liberia idea is put into action in one of the Channel Islands, which is granted independence with any existing residents evacuated. This could be put in place in a number of locations that the British owned, like maybe even a place like Orkney or Corfu. Any idea like this would however create huge backlash among the displaced population and raise a few eyebrows in the continent.

 

[idontlikesand]

slavery in one of the smaller nations like san marino or lichtenstein. When slavery is abolished the former slaves stay.

 

[Jonathan Edelstein]

During the Zanj Rebellion, the Abbasids offer peace terms to the rebelling slaves: surrender and agree to fight against the Byzantines in Sicily, and they and their families will receive freedom and grants of land. Centuries later, when the Abbasid tide recedes, Sicily emerges as a majority-black kingdom under an African king.

 

[raharris1973]

As discussed at least once before, if a European power (most likely France) wanted to set up a sugar focused monoculture economic closer to home and more defensible than overseas possessions, they might turn the Dodecanese, Crete, Malta, Cyprus, or the Balearics into that kind of place, import African slaves, buy up the land, expel tenants who were not sugar workers, etc. Eventually the place could have a black-African majority, and eventually it could have independence. Or depending on your definition of Europe, maybe this model could have been applied to the Azores, Canaries or Madeira.

Heck, it would be really and unlikely for them to do it, but the Venetians or Ottomans might have been able to do it.

 

[The Cosmonaut Cat]

Black Abkhazians get/are given their own state in the Caucasus?

 

[Johannes Parisiensis]

A sugar-producing Al-Andalus, importing black slaves.

 

[Orko]

Perhaps a part of Europe remains under Muslim control for a longer time, and in addition many slaves from East Africa are imported to it, creating a a region that is mostly black with a large Arab and Christian-European minority? I was thinking maybe Sicily, since it's an island it's harder to invade if a slave uprising happens, like in Haiti. The main problem with that is that there isn't really any reason to import so many slaves to Sicily, and it's also logistically pretty unlikely that a lot of ships from East Africa would import enough slaves to markets close enough to Sicily for slaves to populate and become a majority there.

 

[Sulemain]

During the Zanj Rebellion, the Abbasids offer peace terms to the rebelling slaves: surrender and agree to fight against the Byzantines in Sicily, and they and their families will receive freedom and grants of land. Centuries later, when the Abbasid tide recedes, Sicily emerges as a majority-black kingdom under an African king.

I expect an utterly brilliant award winning TL by tomorrow .

 

[JSmith]

This is my first AH/WI question/challenge in a long time so I hope you're all gentle when it comes to your criticism. My question is if it is possible for a country in Europe to have a black-African majority? What would be the most likeliest place for it on the continent? What would the society and economy be like?

This is a popular question here. Has anything extensive been done-either here or elsewhere-besides Lion's Blood by Stephen Barnes ?

 

[SunDeep]

In anticipation of when someone inevitably makes this suggestion, does bringing about this outcome through a nuclear holocaust count as cheating?

 

[Dirk]

In anticipation of when someone inevitably makes this suggestion, does bringing about this outcome through a nuclear holocaust count as cheating?

(Before 1900)

 

[Julius Vogel]

Earlier and better slave trading with West Africa? Rome then becomes Mussolini's nightmare

 

[Corsair_Caruso]

This is a popular question here. Has anything extensive been done-either here or elsewhere-besides Lion's Blood by Stephen Barnes ?

I enjoyed that book, but if you look at his "timeline," he still has the Battle of Tours take place, with Charles Martel in command of European forces.

... with a POD in the reign of Alexander the Great...

... that caused Rome to be destroyed in the Punic Wars when Egypt/Macedonia and Abyssinia allied with Carthage...

That is one of the weirdest butterfly nets I've ever seen.

 

[SunDeep]

(Before 1900)

It still happens. Trust me, I've started Afro-wank threads in this forum before.

 

[Morty Vicar]

Gibraltar seems an obvious candidate here. It would obviously be taken by Spain at some point, but if it has a distinct population and heritage it can gain it's independence at a later stage.

 

[vuun]

Maybe Portugal? Given how the Portuguese tried to integrate their African colonies into the country, would it be plausible to see large migrations or population transfers between metropolitan Portugal and the African colonies result in a black-majority Portugal?

 

[Bartholome de Fonte]

(Before 1900)

Because a half century of technological development couldn't happen earlier, right?

The safe bet seems to be somewhere along the Mediterranean Sea. What about that "Nubians settling Crete" idea you had floating around Cuāuhtemōc? Surely having some islands be majority of African descent from antiquity onwards would be interesting.

 

[Orko]

It's kind of cheating, but OTL Portugal, in a last attempt to keep its African colonies, integrated them into Portugal as equal members of the Portuguese nation. Considering that Angola right now has a larger population than Portugal, if the integration worked for them than even without immigration to Europe, Portugal, still an essentially European country, would technically be majority black (as these are all integrated, equal citizens of the Portuguese Republic and not colonial subjects).