AHC: Large African independent country

How and when large (e.g. 10.000.000 km^2) African independent country could have been born?
 
Wouldn't it almost immediately dissolve? I can understand the maintenance of a common currency, but full political unity seems a bit of a tougher sell.
 
Muhammad Ali, and his successors, are far more successful ITTL at playing off the various European powers against each other, and able to fully break the Egyptian state away from the Turks, take Greece as a vassal/protectorate/etc., put down the Arabs, conquer the Sudan and Ethiopia, and eventually expand across the North African and East African coasts and down the Nile into the heart of the continent.
 
Muhammad Ali, and his successors, are far more successful ITTL at playing off the various European powers against each other, and able to fully break the Egyptian state away from the Turks, take Greece as a vassal/protectorate/etc., put down the Arabs, conquer the Sudan and Ethiopia, and eventually expand across the North African and East African coasts and down the Nile into the heart of the continent.

Conquering the Sudan I can see, conquering westward into Darfur and Chad from there I can see. Conquering Ethiopia? That is not going to be easy, and even if it's accomplished, holding on to a fiercely Christian nation is going to be very difficult.

It's not impossible, but Muhammad Ali's successors will have to do a lot of things right. If the Egyptians give the Ethiopians internal autonomy, freedom to practice Orthodox Christianity, and give Ethiopian soldiers a chance to participate in future conquests, it could happen.
 
Conquering the Sudan I can see, conquering westward into Darfur and Chad from there I can see. Conquering Ethiopia? That is not going to be easy, and even if it's accomplished, holding on to a fiercely Christian nation is going to be very difficult.

It's not impossible, but Muhammad Ali's successors will have to do a lot of things right. If the Egyptians give the Ethiopians internal autonomy, freedom to practice Orthodox Christianity, and give Ethiopian soldiers a chance to participate in future conquests, it could happen.

Agree Ethiopia seems unlikely but there are other directions Egypt can expand. If it is this successful, it could easily take more Ottoman provinces in North Africa, likely expanding into Tunisia. And it could also take Jerusalem and the Hejaz. Perhaps from there move into the interior of the Arabian Peninsula.


There you would have a state the includes all of OTL Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, a good chunk of Sudan and Chad plus Israel, Palestine, Jordan, and a good chuck of Saudi Arabia. I'd say this is good for large independent African country.
 
Conquering the Sudan I can see, conquering westward into Darfur and Chad from there I can see. Conquering Ethiopia? That is not going to be easy, and even if it's accomplished, holding on to a fiercely Christian nation is going to be very difficult.

It's not impossible, but Muhammad Ali's successors will have to do a lot of things right. If the Egyptians give the Ethiopians internal autonomy, freedom to practice Orthodox Christianity, and give Ethiopian soldiers a chance to participate in future conquests, it could happen.

They tried twice IOTL. It ended badly both times.
 
They tried twice IOTL. It ended badly both times.

If they could somehow pull it off though, it'd give the Egyptians entry into East Africa, where they'd likely be able to pull the various Somali sultanates and tribes into their sphere against European incursion (and Ethiopian rebels).
 
If they could somehow pull it off though, it'd give the Egyptians entry into East Africa, where they'd likely be able to pull the various Somali sultanates and tribes into their sphere against European incursion (and Ethiopian rebels).

That could also be done by sea, though.
 
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