Effective Colonial Warfare

WEU led to NATO, ECSC led to the EEC which led to the EU. It's a bit of a semantic argument to say that NATO preceeded the EU, of course it did, but the ECSC was formalised 13 months after NATO, in much the same international climate.

But that is all a tangent. The point I was trying to make was the Alliance system the Brits tried to set up using their colonies and clients could be an evolutionary substitute for empire in the modern world.
 
WEU led to NATO, ECSC led to the EEC which led to the EU. It's a bit of a semantic argument to say that NATO preceeded the EU, of course it did, but the ECSC was formalised 13 months after NATO, in much the same international climate.

But that is all a tangent. The point I was trying to make was the Alliance system the Brits tried to set up using their colonies and clients could be an evolutionary substitute for empire in the modern world.

Let's bury it. Just got caught up in the usual pedantics. :)
 
If the Brits, French, and Israelis don't get backstabbed by the US over the Suez, I think the British presence in the Middle East will stay stronger.

(IIRC they stuck around until the 1970s in OTL, with their involvement in the Dhofar War and deterring an Iraqi grab at Kuwait)
 
Though too few people have responded to this thread, this is a serious issue. If the French had granted full political rights to the Muslims in Algeria, it's quite likely that the Tricolore would still to this day fly over Algiers. If they'd done that during WWI, they'd had had up to a million more men of military age to conscript, and their sacrifice might well have made those changes stick. Senegal is another French colony that could have remained in the French Union, as their contribution on the Western Front was quite significant. The Senegalais were considered as elite troops, and they often spearheaded French offensives along with Morrocan forces. These two are also places where French rule was well implanted. IIRC, the first president of Senegal was a member of the Académie Française...

As for Britain, I see no reason why a little more investment in Newfoundland, butterflying away the lost of Dominion status in 1934, wouldn't keep them in the British camp. Elsewhere, I see them being able to keep control of East Africa, the CAF, and Ceylon with some policy corrections. If they and the French can pull out the Suez mission without Isreali involvement and make it stick, I'd imagine that the Trucial States, Oman, and Aden would also probably remain under the British umbrella for security reason if nothing else.

As for Portugal, if Salazar comes to power, you'd need him to be more flexible on colonial policy to placate the independance movements in the colonies, a Portuguese Union so to speak. That seems a stretch, though, given how little capital Portugal could provide for colonial development.

The Dutch might have held onto Suriname and Irian Jaya, but that would have been more out of coincidence than concerted effort. By the 19th century the Dutch weren't in the colonial expansion business anymore, except for consolidating their hold on the DEI.

Belgium has no hope whatsoever of holding onto the Congo, so they're out at the beginning. It's a fluke of history, IMHO, that they even have any colonial territory.

Spain doesn't have any colonies by 1900 that are even worth holding on to, so even if they keep them, so what?

Anyway, there's my two-cents. Being that they're American, they're worth even less than they would have a few years ago! :)
 
Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica and Bahamas - the list goes on.

The white dominions should be treated as a separate issue- they were very different from the rest of the Empire.

Seriously without India there's no point to much of the rest of the British Empire. Besides India, Malaya, Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements, much of the rest of the Empire wasn't even particularly profitable- it consisted of territories that were in Britain's possession simply as relics of previous eras (like the Caribbean sugar islands- wildly profitable in the 17th C but not so in the 20th), as outposts designed to secure shipping routes or serve as coaling stations for the 19th C RN or simply claimed in order to prevent anyone else claiming them or to prevent any ther power from potentially cutting the route to India (as with much of Africa).

Without India most of the other colonies were merely a liability.
 
The Dutch might have held onto Suriname and Irian Jaya, but that would have been more out of coincidence than concerted effort. By the 19th century the Dutch weren't in the colonial expansion business anymore, except for consolidating their hold on the DEI.

I agree with this Surinam was more or less forced by the Dutch government to become independent (there is a reason that half its population moved to the Netherlands just before independence). If Surninam didn´t became independent they would quickly realise that money from the Hague is very useful, just like the Dutch Antilles realise. Very few people there want their independence.

Dutch New Guinea could end up the same, if Indonesia didn´t manage to annex it. How to do that I am not sure, but the USA is probably the key to that. I doubt that Indonesia would try to annex it if the USA opposes it. The USA could oppose it because the New Guineans aren´t etnically Indonesian or because the population doesn´t want to become part of Indonesia (there are still Papuas in the Netherlands angree at the Dutch government, because of that).

The Netherlands winning the Indonesian war of independence is also an interesting scenario. I don´t know much about that war (eventhough my grandfather fought in it). As far as I know, the Netherlands was sort of winning that war, but lost because of the international pressure (just like the USA was sort of winning the Vietnam war). I am not certain if winning the war is even possible, pacifying Indonesia is probably the best that can happen, with rebellions cropping up very often. In the end the Dutch probably get rid of Indonesia because it is more trouble than it is worth. Indonesia might look different in such scenario, being (partly) balkanised, possibly with an independent Atjeh, (south) Maluku Islands, Papua etc.
 
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