What it says on the tin.
How could the people of that region gain the benefit of its wealth?
How could the people of that region gain the benefit of its wealth?
AHC The people of the Congo get the benefit of its rubber and mineral wealth
- Thread starter Derek Jackson
- Start date
Before the colonial power(s) leave? Requires an ASB, basically the "Congo" has to become a unified political entity, which it is not even today although it is a country with borders, internally Congolese identity is limited. If you jump that hurdle, it has to be strong enough to resist whatever European power(s) want to own it - unified is nice, but if your army has spears and bows against breech loading rifles and machine guns the odds are not good. Finally, there is the issue of developing the resources. Developing mines, and building the infrastructure to move minerals etc to ports (that need to be built) so that the wealth can be sold on the world market requires a lot of capital as well as a fair number of trained personnel - a unified Congo has none of these so the issue then becomes how to attract foreign capital and skilled personnel without them taking over.
The best benefit would be extraction as fast as possible until it wasn't worth it anymore and then the country can transition and not be held back by Dutch disease.
If we're assuming during or post colonialism then your best bet is to have a benevolent overseer on par with the greats from history, or alternatively for the first years of independence to be similarly guided by a native equivalent (though the issue is that democracy limits the benefits of the greats and the leaving colonial powers attempted to establish democracy usually).
If we're assuming during or post colonialism then your best bet is to have a benevolent overseer on par with the greats from history, or alternatively for the first years of independence to be similarly guided by a native equivalent (though the issue is that democracy limits the benefits of the greats and the leaving colonial powers attempted to establish democracy usually).
Are you talking about something resembling the borders of OTL!DRCongo?
Best bet is to start early. Instead of handing the Congo "Free" State over to a Belgian colonial admin only a degree better, they get started on functional infrastructure and 'native' civil service/engineers/doctors/etc. literally from day one while initiating bottom-up self governance (municipal, and so forth, and so on) ASAP.
Oh, and kill the segregation nonsense dead.
Deleted member 67076
By avoiding or crippling colonialism. You'd need something like a Saudi Arabia situation where a promising western based warlord unites the region (Cant be Tippu Tip) and gets concessions for plantations and mineral companies.
Later this gets nationalized and funneled into a sovereign wealth fund.
Maybe an alternate Chokwe Empire?
Later this gets nationalized and funneled into a sovereign wealth fund.
Maybe an alternate Chokwe Empire?
Firstly without the Europeans, Congo would not be one country. Maybe you could have a tribal federation, but I don't see why certain tribes of one area would agree to share resources with tribes from another area. If you do have the Europeans and one country, corruption becomes an inherent issue due to the hodgepodge heterogenous makeup of the country, at least initially. Congo is much more complicated in its ethnic makeup than Saudi Arabia and much more difficult to conquer and unify due to both terrain, population density, ect. It also makes no sense for say one tribe to have access to Western weaponry to unite the other region, while the others are unable to gain access via a rival European country for instance. In the case of Saudi Arabia, the British were at war with the Ottoman Empire and so supplied weapons to foster rebellion there, but that won't be the case with Congo which is very far away from any potential European war to warrant to much investment in military resources to build up one side against the others.
Thus without the Belgians I don't see how a unified Congo comes together until much later, but even then resources would not be shared among the tribes.
Thus without the Belgians I don't see how a unified Congo comes together until much later, but even then resources would not be shared among the tribes.
I would add that prior to colonialism, the native Congolese were rather ignorant of wild rubber and it's properties, which was a really odd case when you consider their contemporaries.
In the Amazon, native tribes used wild latex as an insulative material for clothing and as a way to create crude sports balls. In Southeast Asia, native rubber was used to add grips and handles to instruments, daggers, swords, and blowpipes. By contrast, and from what I could research, the Congolese knew next to nothing about latex and only saw the local rubber vines for their fruits and leaves, which were used for traditional medicine.
Because of this, they were initially reluctant to harvest what seemed like useless tree sap when Belgium came knocking.
In the Amazon, native tribes used wild latex as an insulative material for clothing and as a way to create crude sports balls. In Southeast Asia, native rubber was used to add grips and handles to instruments, daggers, swords, and blowpipes. By contrast, and from what I could research, the Congolese knew next to nothing about latex and only saw the local rubber vines for their fruits and leaves, which were used for traditional medicine.
Because of this, they were initially reluctant to harvest what seemed like useless tree sap when Belgium came knocking.
What about a Man Who Would be King situation where some slightly insane Europeans decide to go carve out a kingdom in the Congo? They miraculously succeed and when Africa is carved up, they’re left be as an odd curiosity not worth fighting over. When the rubber boom happens, the kingdom establishes a trade agreement with whoever owns the rest of the Congo and begins exporting, with the profits reinvested in the Congo to improve infrastructure and bring in modern technology. If that’s too crazy, is there a powerful tribal chieftain or a kingdom that can take its place? I doubt either occurrence would make the Congo a power of any caliber, but maybe they can get by as a client state like Morocco or Tunis, except with a lot more autonomy.
The Best chance is for the the Catholic kingdom of Kongo survive to unify the region. If they are able to maintain control of the mouth of the river and the coasts they should have a monopoly on European technology. Once the slave trade ends they can switch to trading palm oil and rubber.