English Canada/French Carolina: A Timeline
- Thread starter Gabingston
- Start date
I'm sure there will rise some sort of opposition party in La Floride, especially since the NPP (I.E. Grandists) would likely be quite corrupt at times, judging from OTL's Huey Long and comparable figures like Juan Peron. Assuming La Floride eventually grants Blacks the vote, there'd likely be an Afro-Floridian party coming at some point. I'm imagining that La Floride would be a multi party system.
Yeah, a party for Afro-Floridians seems likely- maybe a National Freedom/Democratic Party? Or, if NPP accepts black suffrage early, they might get most of their votes, and be party in power forever?
Part 123: African Adventures Part 1
Part 123: African Adventures Part 1
Africa in this timeline is a much different place from our own. While IOTL almost all of the continent was subsumed into the various European colonial empires, TTL’s Africa has a much higher degree of native rule, with many different outcomes developing from that. I’ll start in the north and work my way south for this one, so let’s get going on North Africa.The most powerful country in North Africa was Egypt, which extended from the Mediterranean deep into Central Africa along the Nile, almost reaching the river’s source in Lake Nyanza. They’d previously been affiliated with the Ottoman Empire, but were now completely independent. During the middle of the 20th Century, Egypt was in the process of modernizing their military, infrastructure and economy. For example, the Alexandria-Khartoum railway was completed in 1947, and plans were made to expand the railroads further into the heart of the continent, going as far as Juba by the Mid 1960s. With that said, Egyptian rule was unpopular in areas like South Sudan and Eritrea, where they didn’t share the Arab and Islamic culture of the rest of Egypt, although Islamic missionaries had converted many of the pagans in the region, and with western guns flowing into the country, an armed insurgency in the Egyptian hinterland seemed to be a possibility.
The rest of North Africa was made up of the joint Cisalpine-Neapolitan colony of Libya, the Kingdom of Tunis, the Kingdom of Algiers and the Moroccan Sultanate. Starting in Libya, the discovery of oil made the Italians decide to entrench their rule in the region. The Italians expanded out of the coastal strip to subdue the Libyan interior during the 1930s and 1940s, relegating the native Arab Libyans to second-class status. With the native population of Libya being under a million at this time, the Italians were able to become a large minority in the colony quite quickly, being drawn in by the well-paying oil jobs. Tripoli, Misurata, Bengasi and Derna had become quite Italianized, and thousands of Italians were moving to the colony each year. Needless to say, the native Libyan Arabs weren’t happy about being subjugated under the Italian heel, and some Arabs went as far as attacking Italian settlers, which only made the Italians crack down on the Arabs even more. The Italians also expanded their control deep into the Sahara, gaining control over the various oases dotting the parched landscape of the desert. There were plans being discussed for how to establish self-rule for Libya, whether it be through splitting the colony into Cisalpine and Neapolitan sections or establishing a separate Libyan state, all while the prospect of an Arab revolt lingered. We’ll get back to Italian Libya in due time, but I’ve got to move on for now.
Moving west from Libya, we have the Maghreb region of North Africa, consisting of the aforementioned countries of Tunis, Algiers and Morocco. The French and Spanish had conquered the coastal regions of these countries during the Late 19th Century, but after the Second Global War, they were limited to just a few coastal cities each. However, that does not mean that the French and Spanish were done with North Africa, because you can bet your ass that they wanted the North African hinterland back. Knowing this, the German States (especially Prussia) began providing Morocco, Algiers (who didn’t even control their namesake city) and Tunis with military aid, giving them up to date weapons and sending German advisors in to train the troops. While the Germans weren’t willing to formally commit to any sort of alliance (knowing that intervening in a French-Maghrebi war would lead to the Third Global War, a prospect that both the Latin Bloc and Mitteleuropa seeked to avoid), they wanted to make the French and Spanish think twice about invading North Africa. Seeing these improvements in the Maghrebi militaries, the Spanish and French bit their tongues and refrained from going to war in North Africa, while holding on to their port cities. Other than that, the three Maghrebi states were undertaking many of the same economic and military reforms as Egypt, building new, modern infrastructure and inviting in foreign investment. Their ties to the German states went beyond the military to economic ties, as German businesses opened up new operations in the Maghreb.
Speaking of Germans, Austria-Bavaria had acquired French Mauritania and Spanish Rio De Oro after the Second Global War. This was Austria-Bavaria’s only overseas colony, so it received full attention as a base for the Austro-Bavarian navy. The main settlements at Weißekappe and Dakla had become by the 1960s quite comfortable towns, with the extreme heat of the Sahara Desert being moderated by both of them being located on peninsulas jutting out into the sea. The native population numbered about 750,000 in the Austro-Bavarian Mauritanian colony as of 1950, growing to 1.25 Million by 1970, while the German settler population numbered around 40,000, mainly in the two aforementioned main settlements. The Germans lived a modern, western lifestyle, while most of the natives still lived in their traditional, often nomadic herding lifestyle, although many were starting to migrate to the urban areas of the colony. With a German population in the tens of thousands, the Austro-Bavarians made Weißekappe and Dakla a new overseas territory, granting them a seat in the parliament and making it part of Austria-Bavaria proper, while the rest of the Mauritanian colony retained its old status, with debates over what should be done with the colony continuing to the end of this update in the 1970s.
Moving south across the Sahara, we arrive in West Africa. West Africa climatically was a large transitional zone from the desert to the savanna and then jungle. As for the political situation in this part of Africa, there was a divide between the European colonies that comprised most of the West African coast, and the native states in the interior. The coastal European colonies only stretched 100-200 miles inland, where they then bumped up against the native states of the Sahel. The native leadership found European military technology to be quite useful, buying firearms en masse from the coastal Europeans. The Sokoto Caliphate, for example, created a massive empire across what is IOTL most of Nigeria, plus some neighboring regions, rapidly Islamizing the region. This played out in other areas of the West African interior, with greater political consolidation forming out of the wars of expansion and conquest. Along the coast, European colonies invited missionaries to preach the gospel, leading to a rapid Christianization of coastal West Africa. Independent coastal states like Dahomey, Benin and the Aro Confederacy became increasingly Christianized, in part in order to gain the favor of the western powers who could serve as a counterbalance to the Islamic expansion to their north, although this was in a very syncretic form. However, tribal and ethnic loyalties in West Africa were oftentimes more important than loyalty to any one state, so keeping everyone in line was an important task for West African leadership, Islamic, Christian or Pagan.
Economically, West African states were starting to introduce more modern technology. For example, modern infrastructure was beginning to be built in the interior, as new roads and railroads were built, in large part for the purposes of centralizing the countries of the region. Electrification was making its way into the interior, and new agriculture techniques led to the population of the region beginning to skyrocket. Meanwhile, oil was discovered around the Niger River Delta, within both Benin and the Aro Confederacy, so these states now had a whole new product to sell to the west. While these countries were still poor, there was a ton of potential for these two countries, assuming they don’t succumb to the resource curse.
As for decolonization, well, it varied. The islands of Fernando Po and Annobón were under the control of Spain, and due to their small populations (a sizable portion of which was culturally Hispanicized), the islands were directly annexed into Spain in 1960, being given a status similar to the Canaries. Similarly, the Cape Verde archipelago and the islands of São Tomé and Principe were Portuguese colonies, and they were integrated into Portugal proper in 1958 and 1961 respectively. As for the mainland colonies, their relationship with their European overlords changed starting in the 1960s. In 1967, the British created the State of Lagos as a self-governing realm of the empire, doing the same with Sierra Leone in 1969 and Gambia in 1975. France was similar, releasing Ivory Coast as an independent realm in 1968, Senegal in 1972 and Conakry in 1974. The Dutch split off the Gold Coast as an independent country in 1973, with the Danish Gold Coast joining the new country the following year. Portugal, in their tradition of holding onto colonies longer than everyone else, released Bissau as an independent state in 1977.
I was originally going to make this one update spanning the entire continent, but as I was writing, I realized that this should be split into two updates, so Part 2 will cover the rest of Africa. I’ll get going on that update soon enough, but for the time being, I’d like to bid you guys adieu from Africa.
France was on the winning side in the First Global War in the 1860s and 1870s. Also, France gets the Suez Canal, colonizes part of Australia and keeps their colonies in Southern India. I'd say that France isn't getting smacked down in every single war.
A few questions:
First, how do you guys see Portuguese Africa gaining independence? ITTL, Portugal achieves her Pink Map dreams, and Portuguese Africa stretches across Angola, Southern Zambia, Zimbabwe, Southern Malawi and Mozambique (plus Guinea-Bissau in West Africa), much larger than OTL's Portuguese Africa. With Portugal being a rather small country controlling an area many times her size, I have a hard time seeing Portugal controlling it much longer, especially with Africa’s population explosion.
However, there’s one more thing that deserves mentioning, that being Brazil. Portugal is by this point playing second fiddle within their own empire, as the crown has moved to the much larger and more populous Brazil. I’d imagine that Angola and maybe Guinea-Bissau would be much more Brazilian than Portuguese, considering the historical ties between Brazil and Angola (especially the massive amount of slaves that were shipped from Angola to Brazil). Brazil had a population of 93 Million in OTL’s 1970, and I don’t see much of a reason for it to be different ITTL (if anything it might be higher than OTL, considering the wave of immigration TTL had from Southern Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, although if Brazil is more developed that would mean that the birth rate would drop earlier, although I’m guessing it’d be well above replacement at this point in the TL regardless). In case of a long, protracted colonial war in Southern Africa, Brazil would be able to supply huge amounts of men to be sent to Africa, and that might make it an overall equilibrium. Of course, Portugal could always make Angola and Mozambique (and maybe an interior country between the two) new nations within the greater Lusophone Commonwealth, which would be an option that could satisfy both sides.
Second, what happens in South Africa? TTL’s South Africa controls all of OTL’s South Africa sans Kwazulu-Natal and the part of the Eastern Cape province east of the Great Fish River, plus Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia. In the last update on South Africa, I estimated the demographic breakdown between Blacks and non-Blacks in South Africa to be about 50/50. Notice that I said the division between Black/non-Black, not White/non-White. This is because I’m not sure what the fate of the Cape Coloured population would be ITTL compared to our own. IOTL, the Cape Coloreds remained a separate ethnic group, and upon the implementation of Apartheid became second class, albeit above the native Africans. ITTL, South Africa sees large scale immigration from Europe during the 19th and Early-Mid 20th Centuries (especially once gold and diamonds were found), and with the influx of newcomers, it’s possible that the Afrikaners feel less demographically insecure, thus encouraging the South African government to encourage intermarriage between Whites and Coloureds, gradually diluting the non-White ancestry, ending up with a White population that has a noticeable portion of non-European ancestry, similar to White Brazilians or Argentines. Then again, there is a strong xenophobic streak within Afrikaner culture, so intermarriage may still be frowned upon (possibly even intermarriage between Afrikaners and later European immigrants, especially those that aren’t Calvinists). I expect there to be a deal of ethnic tension in TTL’s South Africa, not just between Blacks and Whites, but even between different segments of the White population (whether between the Cape Region and the Highveld or between Afrikaners and Uitlanders).
Speaking of ethnic tension, the White-dominated South Africa is going to face a big demographic crisis. It’s no secret that things like urbanization and education significantly reduce the birth rate, and that’s no different ITTL (although maybe not to the same extent as IOTL, due to my hunch that this TL will all in all be more conservative and religious than our own, and that pronatalist policies won’t have been tainted by the Nazis). The White South African fertility rate will in all likelihood decline to somewhere in the high 1’s or low 2’s (replacement level in developed countries is 2.1 children per woman). Meanwhile, the Black birthrate in South Africa will in all likelihood remain much higher (as it was during the later Apartheid years IOTL), tipping the demographic balance of power in their favor. As of 1930, the ratio of Blacks to non-Blacks in South Africa was about 50/50, but I’d expect South Africa to be majority black later on in time, setting up the possibility of a “revenge of the cradle” situation. This would put increasing pressure on TTL’s Apartheid equivalent (which I’m pretty sure would still exist, albeit possibly not as harsh), either to double down or to reform. A split might even be possible, whether a peaceful division or a Yugoslavia-esque collapse. I could see the South African government engaging in population control on the Black population in order to forcibly lower the birth rate, ranging from promoting birth control (while simultaneously discouraging Whites from using it) to… more unpleasant things. Admittedly South Africa is something I may rework when I make my Maps & Graphics TL after this TL reaches the present (likely sometime in 2022), so I’d like to hear your suggestions for what Southern Africa will be like ITTL (I already know what I’m doing for British Natal, which is why I left it out of the equation). I should hopefully have the update out soon, and until then, have a good one.
First, how do you guys see Portuguese Africa gaining independence? ITTL, Portugal achieves her Pink Map dreams, and Portuguese Africa stretches across Angola, Southern Zambia, Zimbabwe, Southern Malawi and Mozambique (plus Guinea-Bissau in West Africa), much larger than OTL's Portuguese Africa. With Portugal being a rather small country controlling an area many times her size, I have a hard time seeing Portugal controlling it much longer, especially with Africa’s population explosion.
However, there’s one more thing that deserves mentioning, that being Brazil. Portugal is by this point playing second fiddle within their own empire, as the crown has moved to the much larger and more populous Brazil. I’d imagine that Angola and maybe Guinea-Bissau would be much more Brazilian than Portuguese, considering the historical ties between Brazil and Angola (especially the massive amount of slaves that were shipped from Angola to Brazil). Brazil had a population of 93 Million in OTL’s 1970, and I don’t see much of a reason for it to be different ITTL (if anything it might be higher than OTL, considering the wave of immigration TTL had from Southern Europe in the 1920s and 1930s, although if Brazil is more developed that would mean that the birth rate would drop earlier, although I’m guessing it’d be well above replacement at this point in the TL regardless). In case of a long, protracted colonial war in Southern Africa, Brazil would be able to supply huge amounts of men to be sent to Africa, and that might make it an overall equilibrium. Of course, Portugal could always make Angola and Mozambique (and maybe an interior country between the two) new nations within the greater Lusophone Commonwealth, which would be an option that could satisfy both sides.
Second, what happens in South Africa? TTL’s South Africa controls all of OTL’s South Africa sans Kwazulu-Natal and the part of the Eastern Cape province east of the Great Fish River, plus Lesotho, Botswana and Namibia. In the last update on South Africa, I estimated the demographic breakdown between Blacks and non-Blacks in South Africa to be about 50/50. Notice that I said the division between Black/non-Black, not White/non-White. This is because I’m not sure what the fate of the Cape Coloured population would be ITTL compared to our own. IOTL, the Cape Coloreds remained a separate ethnic group, and upon the implementation of Apartheid became second class, albeit above the native Africans. ITTL, South Africa sees large scale immigration from Europe during the 19th and Early-Mid 20th Centuries (especially once gold and diamonds were found), and with the influx of newcomers, it’s possible that the Afrikaners feel less demographically insecure, thus encouraging the South African government to encourage intermarriage between Whites and Coloureds, gradually diluting the non-White ancestry, ending up with a White population that has a noticeable portion of non-European ancestry, similar to White Brazilians or Argentines. Then again, there is a strong xenophobic streak within Afrikaner culture, so intermarriage may still be frowned upon (possibly even intermarriage between Afrikaners and later European immigrants, especially those that aren’t Calvinists). I expect there to be a deal of ethnic tension in TTL’s South Africa, not just between Blacks and Whites, but even between different segments of the White population (whether between the Cape Region and the Highveld or between Afrikaners and Uitlanders).
Speaking of ethnic tension, the White-dominated South Africa is going to face a big demographic crisis. It’s no secret that things like urbanization and education significantly reduce the birth rate, and that’s no different ITTL (although maybe not to the same extent as IOTL, due to my hunch that this TL will all in all be more conservative and religious than our own, and that pronatalist policies won’t have been tainted by the Nazis). The White South African fertility rate will in all likelihood decline to somewhere in the high 1’s or low 2’s (replacement level in developed countries is 2.1 children per woman). Meanwhile, the Black birthrate in South Africa will in all likelihood remain much higher (as it was during the later Apartheid years IOTL), tipping the demographic balance of power in their favor. As of 1930, the ratio of Blacks to non-Blacks in South Africa was about 50/50, but I’d expect South Africa to be majority black later on in time, setting up the possibility of a “revenge of the cradle” situation. This would put increasing pressure on TTL’s Apartheid equivalent (which I’m pretty sure would still exist, albeit possibly not as harsh), either to double down or to reform. A split might even be possible, whether a peaceful division or a Yugoslavia-esque collapse. I could see the South African government engaging in population control on the Black population in order to forcibly lower the birth rate, ranging from promoting birth control (while simultaneously discouraging Whites from using it) to… more unpleasant things. Admittedly South Africa is something I may rework when I make my Maps & Graphics TL after this TL reaches the present (likely sometime in 2022), so I’d like to hear your suggestions for what Southern Africa will be like ITTL (I already know what I’m doing for British Natal, which is why I left it out of the equation). I should hopefully have the update out soon, and until then, have a good one.
Part 124: African Adventures Part 2
Part 124: African Adventures Part 2
Africa is a huge place, stretching 4,500 miles on both the North-South and East-West axes. It’s so large that the update I planned had to be split in two, and since I’ve already gotten through Part 1, here is part two.North and West Africa were covered in the previous update, so we’ll start this update in East Africa. East Africa has had a long history of foreign influence, and not just European. In fact, the largest country in the region was the Zanzibar Sultanate, who were descended from the Omanis. They’d used their slave trading networks to expand their control from the coast into the interior after the advent of anti-malarial medicine, and they were the premier power in Eastern Africa, reaching as far as Lake Nyanza and Lake Tanganyika. Zanzibar was split between a rather connected coastal region (especially the city of Zanzibar proper) and a backwater interior. The peculiar institution was still hanging on in Zanzibar into the latter half of the 20th Century, as while the Indian Ocean Slave Trade had in large part dried up, the domestic slave market was still going strong, in spite of growing international pressure against the practice. The other major East African power was Ethiopia, who controlled OTL’s Ethiopia plus a bit of northern Kenya. Through their alliance with France, Ethiopia was modernizing its government (becoming a Constitutional Monarchy), military (improving its equipment and bringing in French advisors for training) and infrastructure (building modern roads and railroads), although they still had a long way to go.
Other than that, there were the Somali states on the Horn of Africa and the Bantu states around the African Great Lakes, which were beginning to modernize off of the influence of the Egyptians and Zanzibarians, converting to Islam in the process. European colonization in the region was very limited, as the only two were French Djibouti and Berbera and the Prussian Comoros. France decided to split their two colonies, directly annexing the Djibouti segment in 1977 while transferring Berbera to Ethiopian control in order to give their ally a coastline, while Prussia integrated the Comoros into the country proper in 1980.
Central Africa was in large part undeveloped, with much of it being taken up by the Congo Rainforest, which isn’t exactly the best place to build a civilization. Still, there were polities in the region, whether it be on the coast like the Prussian Equatorial Colony or the native states of Lunda, Ngoyo, Luba, Kazembe and Loango. Unlike in East Africa where Islam was now the dominant religion, German and Portuguese missionaries had Christianized most of Central Africa, with the exception of the Sultanate of Utetera, which had been established by Afro-Arab slave trader Tippu Tip in the 19th Century, and had thus adopted Islam as its primary religion. Prussian control stretched from the Bight of Biafra in the north to the Congo River in the south, and was mainly limited to coastal ports and some resource deposits the Prussians were interested in. The discovery of oil in particular intrigued the Prussians, and made them more committed to keeping their Equatorial colony. However, with growing demands for self-governance or independence in the colony, the Prussians decided to grant the Equatorial colony self-governance as the State of Equatoria in 1976. Meanwhile, the native states in the region began to incorporate more of the nearby tribes into their realms, and as with so many other native African states, were incorporating more western and modern elements into their governance and militaries.
Finally, we’ve got Southern Africa, the most European influenced area of the continent and the one that I’ll probably have the most material on. Aside from the island of Madagascar, which was under the control of the Merina Kingdom, all of Southern Africa was either under European rule or European influenced, whether it be through the Portuguese, French, British or Dutch-descended South Africans.
First, the Portuguese. The Portuguese had established trading posts in Luanda and the Island of Mozambique during the 16th Century, and had gradually expanded across the interior of Africa to stretch from coast to coast. This was only solidified by the construction of the Trans-African Railway from Luanda to Chiveve, which allowed Portuguese rule to be felt far away from the coasts. For example, the settlement of Mosiatunha, built adjacent to the giant waterfalls of the same name on the Zambezi River grew as the main Portuguese colonial city in the interior of Africa. Portugal was still a country providing a lot of emigration well into the 20th Century, and while the majority went to Brazil, a sizable minority went to Portuguese Africa. By 1970, there were around a million Portuguese living in Africa, along with a sizable population of non-Portuguese Europeans and Brazilians (who were a major presence in Angola). While many Portuguese lived in coastal cities, there were a sizable number who went into the interior. Much of the interior of Southern Africa is on a set of plateaus and highlands, which gives this otherwise Tropical or Subtropical region a temperate climate habitable for Europeans, unlike the tropical lowlands where, due to lacking natural immunity to tropical diseases, they die like flies (or at least they did before quinine). As a result, there was substantial Portuguese settlement in the interior highlands of their colony, and while Portuguese settlers were a small minority of the total population in the region, they were obviously the ones favored by the colonial administration. When it came to Portugal’s policy towards the natives under their control, it was a bit… unique. Theoretically, anyone residing in the colonies could become full citizens regardless of ethnic background, as long as they were sufficiently Lusitanized. The thing is, very few native Africans met this criteria, which meant that the vast majority of native Africans, and thus the vast majority of the population had no representation (Europeans and Mixed-Race people combined were only around 5% of the population). Many natives still lived in their traditional tribal ways, with Portuguese influence limited mostly to Catholic missionaries and the occasional visit from soldiers or administrators. Many native Africans, however, were moving into the big urban centers of Portuguese Africa, mostly settling in shantytowns and slums on the outskirts of the city. This naturally led to urban Africans being quite dissatisfied with the colonial regime, with protests and riots occurring here and there. Within the Luso-Brazilian Empire, debates on how to handle the African situation raged, with the hard right taking a position in favor of full crackdown on dissent, while the extreme left wanted to end the empire and give full independence. A long, protracted colonial war in Africa was likely unwinnable for the Portuguese, even with help from the much larger Brazil, as it was simply too large to prevent guerilla warfare from being successful. Thus, the Luso-Brazilian crown and pro-independence figures reached an agreement. Portuguese Southern Africa would be split in three - Angola in the west, Zambezia in the middle and Mozambique in the west. The Luso-Brazilian protectorates of Kongo and Mbunda were also made independent. While this didn’t satisfy the most fervently pro-independence figures within Portuguese Africa and it was a disappointment to the Portuguese right, it was a solution that was palatable to both sides of the issue.
A few hundred miles east of Madagascar lay the Mascarene Islands, a volcanic archipelago consisting of three main islands as well as some smaller banks and atolls, all belonging to France. The three main islands, from east to west, were Île Bourbon, Île Française and Île Rodrigues, with the first two being far larger and more populated than the latter. With this islands being mainly French (or French Creole) speaking and with a large ethnic French population living in the islands, it was decided that the islands should be made into a new overseas province of France. Thus, in 1954, the province of Mascareigne was officially declared as an integral part of France, with the provincial capital placed in Port Louis on Île Française. While it was initially inconvenient for Mascarenian politicians to travel to Metropolitan France, but the advent of long haul air travel in the 1960s fixed this issue, as travel between the two was reduced from 1-2 weeks to half a day. Mascareigne also became a convenient stopover point for flights going from Europe to the Antipodes (especially flights between France and Terre-Bourbon), and an easy place for Frenchmen (and the Parangs of mixed French-Indian heritage) leaving the newly-independent Deccan to settle down (Djibouti also being a place for emigres to move to).
In the Merina Kingdom of Madagascar, they liked to move it move it were early African adopters of Western concepts. They’d both converted to Christianity and become a constitutional monarchy in the Late 19th Century, and throughout the first half of the 20th Century, they’d gone about refining their new modus operandi. The Merina government recruited advisors to reform their military into a modern, professional force. The first railroads were constructed in the Early 20th Century, with more being built across the island in the following decades. Merina Madagascar by 1970 was still a poor country, but it was a poor country with growing potential.
We have two countries to go, and the first one I’ll cover is Natal. Growing out of a British refueling stop, Natal became a full-on British colony over the course of the 19th Century, before becoming the Dominion of Natal in 1936. Natal was about 75% Black African (mainly of Zulu, Xhosa or Swazi extraction), with White (mainly British) and Indian minorities making up about 1/8th of the population each. For the first few decades of its existence, Natal was dominated by the White British minority, with Blacks only being able to hold land in designated Tribal areas and not able to vote in national elections. Indians were given more opportunities than Blacks outside of tribal areas (they could own businesses and small amounts of land), but they too got the short end of the stick. This all changed starting in the late 1950s, when the British Empire went to war in India. Natal naturally joined in on fighting for the Empire, but only having White Natalian troops fighting wouldn’t be much. Thus, the Natalian government made a radical decision: any Black or Indian man who fights in India will be granted the right to vote and to hold property (or larger property in the case of the Indians). Soon enough, thousands of Black and Indian men were enlisting to fight, if only to be able to get a fair shake in life. After the war ended, the 1963 elections were the first where a substantial number of Black and Indian Natalians could vote, both of them electing ethnic parties into the Natalian Parliament en masse. With thousands of Black Natalians having fought in India, this meant that an armed rebellion was now a possibility, it became clear that more reforms would be needed to keep Natalia together. Thus, proposals to reform Natal floated around for a few years and were debated in parliament before, in the Early 1970s, an agreement was reached.
Natal was to become a decentralized confederation, with four regions comprising the country. These would correspond with ethnic boundaries, with the ethnically Swazi areas becoming Swaziland (or Eswatini), the Zulu areas becoming Zululand (or KwaZulu), Xhosa areas becoming Xhosaland (or isiXhosa) and the rest of the country became the province of Natal, not to be confused with the country itself, which had a very mixed population. Each of the four provinces were given large amounts of autonomy so that they could handle their own internal affairs and priorities, while they’d share a common currency, defense and national government. The Swazi, Zulu and Xhosa had their own ethnic monarchs, who were made into subnational monarchs of their own provinces, while the British monarch would remain the national head of state. On a national level, Swazi, Zulu and Xhosa were made official languages in addition to English, and ethnic discrimination in public services and professions was prohibited, although they couldn’t gather enough votes to outlaw private discrimination. While segments of each ethnic group weren’t pleased, it was enough to keep the peace in Natal and for the country to continue into the future. Across the border in South Africa, many of these same questions and issues would appear, but that’s a story for another day. Yup, what I originally intended to be one update is becoming a three parter, stay tuned for that one. Until then, have a good day, and even though I’m two days late, have a Happy Thanksgiving!
As of late November 2021, the EC/FC timeline has reached the 1970s. This means that we are only half a century from the timeline’s conclusion. EC/FC proper will likely reach its conclusion sometime in 2022, which begs the question of what comes next. Well, first of all, just because I’m done with the actual timeline doesn’t mean that the EC/FC universe is done, spoiler alert. However, I’m also thinking of what timeline I’m going to do next after this one is done. For a while, I’ve had three different ideas for timelines pop up in my head. My main interest in writing timelines is the Age of Exploration and Colonization, since it can produce a world that is both recognizable (a lot of the modern day countries existed in some form back then) and yet very different, and all three of these timelines revolve around that in one way or another. I’ve already got some ideas for the direction of each of these timelines, and I could flesh it out further from there (with you guys’ help, of course). So, without further ado, let me present unto thee my ideas for the next timeline:
1. No Pilgrims
The Pilgrims and Puritans who settled in the American Northeast in the Early-Mid 17th Century have had an incredibly influential impact on the history of North America. Their colony in the Massachusetts Bay was the first permanent English colony in the modern-day Northeastern U.S., which paved the way for the entire east coast of the U.S. to fall under English (and later British) rule. However, the existence and survival of the Pilgrim/Puritan colony in the Northeast was by no means bound to happen. In this timeline, I’d look at what could’ve happened had the Plymouth colony either failed or just never existed in the first place, and thus the American North never exists.
2. Kalmar Union Survives
Between 1397 and 1523, Scandinavia was (with the exception of some brief interruptions) under a common monarch, which became known as the Kalmar Union (named for the city in which the personal union was formed). However, this union fell apart, and Scandinavia was to remain divided. With that said, my timeline would be about if the Kalmar Union survived, and the effects it would have both in Europe and elsewhere (expect quite a sizable colonial empire). I myself am of majority Scandinavian heritage, so I naturally have an interest in the region, and this could serve as a good compensation for me scrapping the Scandinavian New Zealand idea from EC/FC (at least in what I have planned to come next.
3. No Columbus
And now, for the big daddy of all Age of Exploration POD’s. The voyage of Christopher Columbus is one of the most important events in history, as it permanently connected the two halves of the world. What followed was the complete transformation of the Americas, as the two continents (or one giant continent if you speak a Romance language) became completely unrecognizable in just a few hundred years, if less. However, ITTL, Columbus would either have his offer rejected by the Spanish crown or never returns from his first voyage (he was sailing across the Atlantic from August to October, the height of hurricane season, so let’s say he sinks in a hurricane). While this would by no means prevent the finding of the Americas, no Columbus would mean that, even if much of the Americas are colonized, the New World would be completely different.
So, with these three options laid out in front of you, what do you guys think? Which one looks the most interesting. I’ll consider doing a poll on which one of these you’d like to see most at some time in the future. I’ll get the South Africa update done soon enough, and until then, have a good day.
1. No Pilgrims
The Pilgrims and Puritans who settled in the American Northeast in the Early-Mid 17th Century have had an incredibly influential impact on the history of North America. Their colony in the Massachusetts Bay was the first permanent English colony in the modern-day Northeastern U.S., which paved the way for the entire east coast of the U.S. to fall under English (and later British) rule. However, the existence and survival of the Pilgrim/Puritan colony in the Northeast was by no means bound to happen. In this timeline, I’d look at what could’ve happened had the Plymouth colony either failed or just never existed in the first place, and thus the American North never exists.
2. Kalmar Union Survives
Between 1397 and 1523, Scandinavia was (with the exception of some brief interruptions) under a common monarch, which became known as the Kalmar Union (named for the city in which the personal union was formed). However, this union fell apart, and Scandinavia was to remain divided. With that said, my timeline would be about if the Kalmar Union survived, and the effects it would have both in Europe and elsewhere (expect quite a sizable colonial empire). I myself am of majority Scandinavian heritage, so I naturally have an interest in the region, and this could serve as a good compensation for me scrapping the Scandinavian New Zealand idea from EC/FC (at least in what I have planned to come next.
3. No Columbus
And now, for the big daddy of all Age of Exploration POD’s. The voyage of Christopher Columbus is one of the most important events in history, as it permanently connected the two halves of the world. What followed was the complete transformation of the Americas, as the two continents (or one giant continent if you speak a Romance language) became completely unrecognizable in just a few hundred years, if less. However, ITTL, Columbus would either have his offer rejected by the Spanish crown or never returns from his first voyage (he was sailing across the Atlantic from August to October, the height of hurricane season, so let’s say he sinks in a hurricane). While this would by no means prevent the finding of the Americas, no Columbus would mean that, even if much of the Americas are colonized, the New World would be completely different.
So, with these three options laid out in front of you, what do you guys think? Which one looks the most interesting. I’ll consider doing a poll on which one of these you’d like to see most at some time in the future. I’ll get the South Africa update done soon enough, and until then, have a good day.
I'll go with Option 1. For the Pilgrims, they were originally granted permission to settle between 38 and 41 degrees North, where the Plymouth and London companies overlapped (which was considered to be the northern part of Virginia at the time). I think their intended destination was near the mouth of the Hudson River. If they had landed there as intended, this has some great ramifications not only for the English, but the Dutch, Swedish, and possibly French too.
Well, I've had some... other ideas as to where the Puritans could settle
Deleted member 2186
Second that, i always want to see the Kalmar Union Survive as they could be a major power.
Deleted member 147978
And I'll follow pursuit.If I ever get banned from or otherwise leave this website, this is where I'm going.