Challenge: No Scramble for Africa

With a POD after 1871 and the formation of the German Empire, have there be no appreciable increase in European territorial acquisitions in Africa by 1900.

Is this possible? What POD's are required? If there is no Scramble for Africa, what effects does this have on history to 1900?
 

Germaniac

Donor
Well someone is going to go into africa. The Scramble for Africa was bound to happen or at least the predestined world British empire will take over everything as some anglophiles would like you to believe
 
Well someone is going to go into africa. The Scramble for Africa was bound to happen or at least the predestined world British empire will take over everything as some anglophiles would like you to believe

The British were actually slow to the African party compared with the French, being much more interested in informal empire and holdings in Asia. It was only after the High Imperialism meme turned and the rise of protected markets in America and Germany that Britain paniced and began grabbing what it could in Africa.

The opportunity for imperialism in much more valuble at the time Asia or the Americas would very much slow the exploitation of Africa if say the US/Ottomans/China collapse in the 19th century. If you can delay it long enough so that attitudes toward the morality and profitability of direct colonies change you could avoid the scramble.

Alternative possibility is a surviving Napoleonic Empire - the effort to maintain control in Europe will preclude colonial adventures, whilst the British would either be under the yoke or too busy with Asian adventures to bother with Africa outside the Cape and/or Egypt.
 
This is an interesting questions, and it sould be part of the serene pantheon of AH memes.

Seriously, High Imperialism is a weird thing. There was no palpable trigger for starting it, it did not create much more wealth for the colonial powers, it hardly improved their military situation to "own" vast empty grass lands in addition to a valuable coastal city; although it gave opportunity to get at loggerheads, the main conflicts were created in Europe itself or could at least have been triggered there alone.

In short, it did not make sense.

So it has to be explained as a fashion. I can see three main reasons why this fashion trend has become so popular:

1. Aggression by the underdog. A defeated nation, like France after the Franco-Prussian War, seek other fields to prove its greatness.
Later, the rising power Germany tried to prove being on par with Britain and France by pushing into the colonial business.

2. Thoroughness. Doing things completely and to the end was considered a general task, in technology as well as in politics. The era was especially good at codifying laws and rules for international relations - thinking this to the end, you will have to know which toll office to inform about an issue on the Congo river.

3. Neurosis for military shocks. This time, especially Britain.
Britain built roughly half of its Empire out of the fear that someone could cut their traffic lines to India.

So, I guess you would need to suave these three items a bit ... good luck.
 
Maybe the Europeans are exposed to new diseases their immune systems can't handle. Like in the new world, but in reverse. The legend of the plague ridden Africa(below the Sahara at least) could keep the Europeans away. Of course this would probably stop the slave trade from ever happening, which would be a great side effect.
 

Makty

Banned
This is an interesting questions, and it sould be part of the serene pantheon of AH memes.

Seriously, High Imperialism is a weird thing. There was no palpable trigger for starting it, it did not create much more wealth for the colonial powers, it hardly improved their military situation to "own" vast empty grass lands in addition to a valuable coastal city; although it gave opportunity to get at loggerheads, the main conflicts were created in Europe itself or could at least have been triggered there alone.

In short, it did not make sense.

So it has to be explained as a fashion. I can see three main reasons why this fashion trend has become so popular:

1. Aggression by the underdog. A defeated nation, like France after the Franco-Prussian War, seek other fields to prove its greatness.
Later, the rising power Germany tried to prove being on par with Britain and France by pushing into the colonial business.

2. Thoroughness. Doing things completely and to the end was considered a general task, in technology as well as in politics. The era was especially good at codifying laws and rules for international relations - thinking this to the end, you will have to know which toll office to inform about an issue on the Congo river.

3. Neurosis for military shocks. This time, especially Britain.
Britain built roughly half of its Empire out of the fear that someone could cut their traffic lines to India.

So, I guess you would need to suave these three items a bit ... good luck.


This.
What did the British earn from conquering the Zulu? Cattle? :D
 
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