AHC: More Independent African Nations

Scary. I was actually able to figure out what IIUC means. Anyhow I think the French sphere actually didn't really take off in Morocco until around NIII. I too would like to know just "how" an African nation would remain independent.
 
How about the Boer Republics stave off the British (possibly by public reaction back home in Britain at the cost). Then you have an African (Afrikaaner) nation, not a colony of anyone....
 
Madagascar strikes me as a very strong contender - if you have more heated Anglo-French relations in the later 19th Century, I could see it being a case of neither power getting dominance due to neither power wishing to become embroiled in a global war over the issue - instead you have factions within the Kingdom trying to get more influence ala Persia or Siam.

Best bet is have French encroachments spark an event similar to the Sudan Crisis (French-provoked violence leads to British missionaries being killed), this would lead to Britain 'protecting' Malagasy freedom but if the monarchs of the island are saavy they could play the two against each other.
 
Great, so now we have some idea how Morrocco, Madagascar, and the Boer States could have maintains sovereignty.

I think the one that most intrigues me right now, though, is the Sokoto Caliphate. Any ideas there?
 
In the case of Sokoto, an alternate history may be one where the British simply don't have the wherewithal to invade what is, funadamentally, a pretty inhospitable territory.

Content with controling the Niger Delta (already running on a shoestring budget), the British are happy to leave everything beyond a certain point to the Sokotans. In turn, they recognise that a French advance from the north poses a threat, so they supply the Hausa emirs with guns and a modicum of military training, on the understanding that a semi-armed, loyal ally makes more sense than an expensive, restive, subjugated populace. The British - and, in particular, Frederick Lugard - found much to admire in the spiritual dictatorship of the Sokotan emirs, and it's not inconceivable that they might be inclined to regard them higher than the pagan African tribes they encountered elsewhere.

With enough British guns, it's perfectly feasible that the Sokotans could reach an Ethiopian standard of modernisation by the end fo the first decade of the twentieth century.

Perhaps interestingly, if you stop the British advance into Sokoto (and, indeed, turn the Sokotans into armed allies), you might also butterfly away some of France's conquests in Chad.
 
Free Zuidafrika?

You'd have to delay the discovery of mineral wealth until the Afrikaaners had built up enough population to deter the Brits from even thinking about it.
 
It would be interesting to see if we could get more in the way of protectorates like Bechuanaland, where the colonial power was rather more hands off. It might be possible to make Zimbabwe a proctectorate rather than a settler colony, if one could butterfly the independence of the Afrikaner republics and the rise of Rhodes.

So maybe either remove the first Boer War, or make it a clear British victory where the post war settlement is that the republics are under clear British control. Then somehow hope that Britain restrains northern drift and keeps Bechuanaland and Zimbabwe as protectorates.
 

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It would be interesting to see if we could get more in the way of protectorates like Bechuanaland, where the colonial power was rather more hands off. It might be possible to make Zimbabwe a proctectorate rather than a settler colony, if one could butterfly the independence of the Afrikaner republics and the rise of Rhodes.

So maybe either remove the first Boer War, or make it a clear British victory where the post war settlement is that the republics are under clear British control. Then somehow hope that Britain restrains northern drift and keeps Bechuanaland and Zimbabwe as protectorates.
Well, the British exercised a hands off attitude in several Protectorates where there were no major economic gains to be made. Northern Nigeria is a prime example of the Indirect Rule principle, where the Emirs pretty much could continue run things like they had always done after the conquest. (Except Slave Trading and raiding became illegal, instead a black market flourished).
 
Could the independent Zulu Kingdom be possible? Maybe they could make an alliance with the Boer republics and defeat Brits in South Africa :eek:
 
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