Consequences of German Congo?

So instead of Leopold getting this incredibly valuable colony for his own personal fortune WI Germany received it instead?
 
So instead of Leopold getting this incredibly valuable colony for his own personal fortune WI Germany received it instead?

Well the kaisers got that mittleafrika he wanted. Cameroon, Congo and East Africa.

Hmmm, during WW1 Entente forces get stuck in Vietnam style guerrilla warfare when trying to take the congo.

Then it gets divided up by UK and France after the war.
 
Couldn't you see WWI butterflied away? If the Germans are more interested in protecting their colonies it maybe that they aren't willing to risk a war with Britain and France.
 
Couldn't you see WWI butterflied away? If the Germans are more interested in protecting their colonies it maybe that they aren't willing to risk a war with Britain and France.

Nah, Germany created the Triple Alliance in 1882 as a defence against France, they were really pissed off by the Franco-Prussian war and that embaressing defeat in 1871. Meanwhile the Berlin conference happened in 1884. The seeds of the Great War were sown a decade before, I don't think they could have avoided it.

However this German Central Africa could affect what way that key British support went. Maybe it boosts German industry and is coveted by the British? Or maybe they're worried about the possibility of an African front in very hostile terrain and the affects it would have on the war in Europe?
 

NothingNow

Banned
Good lord, Just Imagine what VonLettow-Vorbeck could do with all that!:D:eek:
Expect Him to do even better then he did IOTL. He might manage to conquer the French Congo and Northern Rhodesia or something like that.

Now this will throughly fuck up TTL's Cape-to-Cairo railway.

Expect Germany to industrialize the Crap out of Katanga and Ost Afrika. Especially if they're planing for TTL's WWI.
 

Vitruvius

Donor
I wonder how this would affect negotiations to end the 2nd Moroccan/Agadir Crisis. IIRC the original German demands were for the majority of the French Congo but what they got with NeuKamerun was substantially less, essentially just access to the river. But if the Germans already have the the other side of the Congo would they really need/want the French Congo or would they seek compensation elsewhere? I almost wonder if they would go after Ugangi-Shari or maybe Upper Volta/part of Dahomey. I'd also wager the Germans would have less interest in the Caprivi strip so maybe they ask for something else when negotiating Heligoland-Zanzibar.
Another question is how this affects the Portuguese colonies. Since the Cape-Cairo line is definitively blocked do the British give in on the Pink Map or is possession or Rhodesia and Nyasaland even more important?
One possibility might be less agressive gunboat diplomacy from the Germans at Tangier and Agadir (since they already have secured a pretty nice colonial empire) that doesn't alienate everyone and isolate them. If they could instead isolate the French maybe with the Fashoda incident they could walk away with some of OTL French Equitorial Africa. I'd love to see a German Mittelafrika that stretches from the Kameruns to Tanganyika and from Katanga to Chad. I can only imagine what Lettow-Vorbeck would do with that.
 
I'd say the differences of German Congo would be minor.

Would German foreign policy change with a larger colonial empire? Probably not. Even with German congo, the German colonial Empire would be significantly smaller than the British or French. Still room for inferiority complex. Congo has only a minimal coastline - no reason to alter the fleet building program altogether and hence no chance for better German-British relations. On the other side, the rich Katanga provinces in this TTL would be German - even less acceptable to the British than these territories being Belgian.

And finally, during WW1, Lettow-Vorbeck would have more ressources, true. But after all, he didn't make that much of a difference anyway even though his successes were impressive. To make a difference in Africa, the Germans would need still more of Mittelafrika - and more than one Lettow-Vorbeck.
 

NothingNow

Banned
IOn the other side, the rich Katanga provinces in this TTL would be German - even less acceptable to the British than these territories being Belgian.


And finally, during WW1, Lettow-Vorbeck would have more ressources, true. But after all, he didn't make that much of a difference anyway even though his successes were impressive. To make a difference in Africa, the Germans would need still more of Mittelafrika - and more than one Lettow-Vorbeck.
Von Lettow held down about a quarter of a million troops in East Africa that could have gone on to Europe. They might have seriously Affected the War Effort.
 
Well think of all the Belgian troops that would be stationed in Belgium instead of Congo. I mean the Belgians could become expansionist if they really wanted to and maybe join the Germans in hopes of getting a colony from the French after the war ends. However as to Lettow-Vorbeck, who knows if they would leave Mittelafrika to such an unknown. Vorbeck could very well just be apart of a Generals staff. The Mittelafrikan Front would be such a big scramble and so many would die. Imagine an Invasion of South Africa? Well actually tahts probaly unrealistic....
 
Well think of all the Belgian troops that would be stationed in Belgium instead of Congo. I mean the Belgians could become expansionist if they really wanted to and maybe join the Germans in hopes of getting a colony from the French after the war ends. However as to Lettow-Vorbeck, who knows if they would leave Mittelafrika to such an unknown. Vorbeck could very well just be apart of a Generals staff. The Mittelafrikan Front would be such a big scramble and so many would die. Imagine an Invasion of South Africa? Well actually tahts probaly unrealistic....

Maybe, but what about support for the Boer sepratists? And also, South West Africam front? Maybe Mittelafrika could really change things.
 
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