AHC: Save My Favorite Country {The D.R.C} From Becoming The D.R.C of OTL

I like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, if only because I like rooting for underdogs. I love playing as her in Shared Worlds and making her amazing.

I'm curious on how you would make her amazing. With a POD no earlier than 1935, make the D.R.C a regional power in Africa able to defend its borders. Bonus points if she's a strong player in world affairs. Super bonus points if she's on the level of say... Japan by the 80's.
 
Much stronger colonial investment in infastructure would be a start, particually setting up strong government owned industry for exploiting the plentiful natural resources. Roads, wells and basic development for the entire country before independance would allow a much stronger country. Perhaps a fascist belgium or a different colonial owner who would be interested in exploiting it much more than OTL.

Although it might not make a particually nice country a stronger military or centralised state might prevent the fragmentation and weakness of OTL. Communism or Fascism would give the political and social atmosphere conducive to state building.
 

Nietzsche

Banned
I like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, if only because I like rooting for underdogs. I love playing as her in Shared Worlds and making her amazing.

I'm curious on how you would make her amazing. With a POD no earlier than 1935, make the D.R.C a regional power in Africa able to defend its borders. Bonus points if she's a strong player in world affairs. Super bonus points if she's on the level of say... Japan by the 80's.

I'm not sure if "Miracle Worker" is in AH.com's job description.
 
Communism or Fascism would give the political and social atmosphere conducive to state building.

surly not fascism, that would not really be very good for this. Fascism doesn't really work for state building. It would be quick but not very good for the future!!
 

Nietzsche

Banned
surly not fascism, that would not really be very good for this. Fascism doesn't really work for state building. It would be quick but not very good for the future!!
You'd be surprised. Just because Fascism is terrible for human rights does not mean it doesn't work.
 
1935 is, from a technical POV, almost no challenge at all. Remains the problem of convincing Brussels in time that Congo needs black teachers, engineers, officers, cadres, etc. Training them and letting them gain experience and gain promotions will take time however. On the bright side, the infrastructure part existed in OTL, at independence Congo had a well-equipped port, good railways etc. 40 years later, they had the remnants of the same:eek:

So, have Belgium after WWII decide to integrate the Congo in a Belgian Union of sorts as an autonomous state, somewhat like France or Portugal did. This would mean a even larger 10-year plan than OTL, with the first university opening in ~1950 rather than 1954, and with more secondary schools being built. Slowly start diminishing segregation and open up lower officer ranks to Congolese who graduated from the Royal Military School.

Basically, have the Congolese become partners in the whole undertaking, rather than just workers. This should pre-empt some of the troubles of the fifties and allow a gradual, prepared independence in the mid-sixties or so rather than the rushed affair in 1960.

This way, at independence, there are some Congolese engineers & officers, with rising numbers & the government members will have gained experience in preparing the independence together with the colonial administration.

Ideally, Belgium would keep some troops stationed there, and continue to invest heavily in the country, only without OTL's patronising attitude which caused the Congolese to chase us away shortly after independence.

Unfortunately, I still don't really see how to give Brussels a long-term vision, Belgium is notoriously bad at long-term planning (read, we usually don't have any at all), let alone the long-term vision needed to implement such a development plan.
 
You'd be surprised. Just because Fascism is terrible for human rights does not mean it doesn't work.

It works for building a small country, but after that, it just begins to fail and to such an extent that everything will go back to as it was before the fascism actually took charge!
 
It works for building a small country, but after that, it just begins to fail and to such an extent that everything will go back to as it was before the fascism actually took charge!

It can work for larger countries as well. The autobahns in Germany were an excellent investment and modern centralised infastructure will help any country. Fascism lets investment happen without undue economic or social worries.

The key development for DRC would be a method of quickly transporting men and material around the country, something like a rail network or moterway system, particually to areas like Katanga where mineral wealth is. This would allow efficient exploitation of those resurces. It would also mean the national army can quickly crush rebellion in any area.

Fascism or Nationalism would also encourage national unity, a default language for schooling (probably french) would also make nationalist feeling much easier.
 
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It can work for larger countries as well. The autobahns in Germany were an excellent investment and modern centralised infastructure will help any country. Fascism lets investment happen without undue economic or social worries.

The key development for DRC would be a method of quickly transporting men and material around the country, something like a rail network or moterway system, particually to areas like Katanga where mineral wealth is. This would allow efficient exploitation of those resurces. It would also mean the national army can quickly crush rebellion in any area.

Fascism or Nationalism would also encourage national unity, a default language for schooling (probably french) would also make nationalist feeling much easier.
1 The first Autobahn predates Hitler coming to power.

2 Congo's large size + most of it basically being a large jungle makes railways far more interesting in the short to medium term, and they existed. (though an expansion would always be nice) How do you think Belgium got to exploit Katanga in the first place? They went downhill after independence when all the Belgian engineers supervising the maintenance went back to Belgium, with no-one to replace them. That's why I pointed out education and 'congolisation' as the key points of any attempt at a successful Congo.

And while Fascism & Communism are good at getting large scale projects going, they aren't quite as good at running a successful economy in the long term.
 
And while Fascism & Communism are good at getting large scale projects going, they aren't quite as good at running a successful economy in the long term.

Agreed, showy nationalist projects are going to fail if basic ammenities are not in place before hand. A long term stable economy for the DRC would be better based around stronger education and training of locals during the colonial era combined with a strong government commited to rooting out corruption and waste.

Local skilled labour would be key to ensuring the economy will keep moving once colonial master withdraw and thus the country is able to be self-sufficient and improve conditions for the people.
 
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