AHC & WI No Kongo Civil War?

Some info first, I refer to the Kingdom of Kongo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Kongo

Portuguese traders had already set up shop there, traded, and even educated some Kongo Nobility. Then the Kingdom of Kongo attempted to fight the portuguese with dutch aid. Didn't work.

I'm sorry, I don't know enough info about sub-saharan africa. But the potential for a strong state is there and it shouldn't go to waste in AH.com.

For starters, one should try to avoid the Kongo Civil War (1665-1709) which I think was a war fought between branch families of the royal family.
 
Anyone? Hello?

The possibilities for a Kongo TL have always been one of my favorite What-If's though they never seem to be popular here.

In my mind, if the Portugese acted a little differently (treating Kongo as a sister state for trading instead of a colony to be looted and for slaves), Kongo (which had already started being cultured with one of the King's sons being named a Bishop by the Pope - a first for Sub-Sarahan Africa - and many of the court taking Portugese names and building cathedrals) could have spread from Angola (where it was centered) into present day Congo (the former Belgian Congo) and former French Congo. Perhaps Rwanda/Burundi/mainland Tanzania (i.e. German East Africa before the Germans got it) as well, cutting a swathe across South Central Africa and making it basically an Ethiopia-like situation under a Kongoese Empire (and one of the mineral-rich countries on Earth).

But of course the Portugese didn't help and the other powers had no respect for the fledging Black Christian Kingdom and so it never happened.
 
As I recall it, the civil war was the result of the kingdom losing a war with the Portuguese in a disastrous battle where the king of Kongo was killed and a goodly hunk of the nobility was killed with him. Stop the defeat or make it less disastrous and the kingdom probably holds together, at least for a while, though I doubt that it spreads Africa. Maybe regionally.

Interesting sidenote: There are rumors that the Portuguese brought in American Indian allies to some of their battles in the region, which, given the disease environment, had to be problematic.
 
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