Es Geloybte Aretz - a Germanwank
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The daughters aren't a problem since they don't inherit, and his wife retired to a monastic community in the Urals after the abdication. Alexi will be Czar for the term of his natural life, as is proper. His regency council is headed by Mikhail, who stands to succeed him should he die without male issue, and Mikhail is advised by Sergei and Nikolai.
The actual succession is not in question. The imperial family is safe. It's not a revolution, just a removal of a troublesome member.
Put in this context, it does feel more like a slap than a well-meaning joke, yes.
(also just a nitpick, but I believe the quote is actually from Schiller, not Shakespeare?)
Really. Possibly insulting I guess (my German isn't good enough to get the undertones, but I understand the sentence).
Interesting inversion of OTL. The colonial powers IOTL that commissioned black officers in the first place during this period used them almost exclusively in the colonies - the few Senegalese officers in the French tirailleurs were stationed in colonial postings, and Germany sent people like Martin-Paul Samba back to Kamerun after they graduated the military academy - and the big taboo was having black officers command white troops. Here, it seems that nobody batted an eye about Maherero commanding white soldiers - I assume that as a major, he even had white officers under him - but they won't allow him to stay on duty in the colonies because that might give his people ideas above their station. I can understand the thinking behind this - and it's certainly plausible for things to work out this way, given how few black officers there were at this point and how embryonic the policy toward them was - but a colonial administrator from OTL might look at the outcome with raised eyebrows.
I would also think that just because Berlin will never have the good Lieutenant Colonel be activated. Will not stop some semi-desperate Governor or official from activating him. And from my reading those guys were always hard up for talented officers.
Also a governor would have to be brain dead not to see the advantages that naming Fürst von Maherero to command one of the Askari regiments would bring. Talk about living proof of the rewards of loyalty. The new "African dream" in the flesh, serve loyally and you too can become an Oberst and von.
Also a governor would have to be brain dead not to see the advantages that naming Fürst von Maherero to command one of the Askari regiments would bring. Talk about living proof of the rewards of loyalty. The new "African dream" in the flesh, serve loyally and you too can become an Oberst and von.
It is, but everybody has assumed for donkey's years it's from the Schlegel/Tieck translation of Othello.
Definitely sarcastic, though in this case critical of the government's stance, not an insult to the good Major.
The German state is still struggling with this whole being a colonial power thing. Black officers were so rare IOTL that they were each sui generis, so the policies are made up on the go. In this case, the concern is with having a black officer in a colony that is mired in perpetual conflict (the Nama expulsion is a raw wound) and starved for white troops discovewr his loyalties lie with his nation rather than his sovereign. The Herero are Germany's sword arm in Südwest ITTL, and the general fact that they are a fairely prosperous and well-governed tribe is already making the administrators nervous. Not to mention that black men commanding whites is a problem in the colonies. Not so much in Europe, as long as there are no colonial troops around to see it.
And yes, Maherero commanded white troops. He was transferred to the guards cavalry and led raiding columns into the Russian hinterland.
The problem is, Maherero is in Südwest, which only has white Schutztruppe (very little) and native auxiliaries (mostly Herero light horse). The administration is already leery of depending on the Herero to the extent they do. They are going to honour promises made - grudgingly - but they will certainly not exacerbate the situation.
BTW, to clarify: Friedrich Maherero is a born noble according to the rules Wilhelm introduced. Minor chieftains are treated the equal of Freiherren, major chiefs (like Maherero's father) the equal of counts and native kings the equal of dukes. THe patent of nobility was the kind of compromise that Bismarck's empire ran on: It stipulated that Maherero's rank is indubitably equal to that of a German noble, never menmtioning why this needed to be said so forcefully. Actually granting ennoblement would have reinfporced the idea native titlews didn't really count while doing nothing would have opened Maherero to all kinds of discrimination. The word 'Fürst' was used as a general term for 'ruler', but one that clearly designated respect for nobility (as opposed to e.g. 'Herrscher' or 'Regent'). Neither Friedrich Maherero nor his father could claim the title, though Maherero senior would rank as a sovereign count (ahead of all German counts, but junior to all non-sovereign dukes).
The war is over. The less bad guys won. Nicholas II is happily dead.
Tyr Anazasi
Banned
There were black officers in the German army in the days before and in ww1. However, they were few (Alexander Duala-Bell for example).
Another story of another German officer in another time:
http://schwarzrotgold.tv/#videos
(Gaho Burihabwa)
Another story of another German officer in another time:
http://schwarzrotgold.tv/#videos
(Gaho Burihabwa)
Honestly integrate the African elite into the German rank system will likely have pretty interesting consequences down the road. It will make it much harder to discriminate against interracial marriages, but it will also mean that the African elites power will to some degree come from the German state, which will in worst case serve to weaken independence movement, but in the best serve to the local African elite will be integrated early in the colonial administration. The latter would make the colonies cheaper for Germany and also help the colonies to function better after they get independence.
Tyr Anazasi
Banned
It could also mean the German colonies could become full German states in the future, distant future.
I would say unlikely outside Südwest, but it could result in the former German colonies being more like the British Dominions than like the average Commonwealth country. Non-German countries which have adopted a degree of German-ness, and have gotten rid if the old ethnic and tribal identity to a kind of United national identity.
yboxman
Banned
Think that WOG made clear that wouldn't happen. Are there any examples, other than France in Algeria, and Portugal for dejure annexation of non-white majority colonies into the metropole?
I think that making a Sudwest a state, which implies self rule AND population size based participation in the politics of the metropole, would run into a coalition of vested interests within and without the colony which would oppose this unless the natives are almost completely disenfranchised (As was defacto, if not completely De Jure the case in Algeria and the Portugese colonies) , and it's hard to imagine a counter coalition (including the SPD) which would care enough about the issue to push it through.
I would love to see a TL which would make that happen, though (in a non Maleverse way. Not because that way isn't cool as heck but to maintain originality and plausability in a very different historical context).
Think a "princely state" type autonomy in various corners of Sudwest is the more likely scenario- which might, depressingly, cause all sorts of Transki / Baganda/ Princely state type problems when the semi-germanized/westernized native elites in the economic heartland of the colony finally take control and achieve independence in the 1970's/ 1980s. Especially if the colonial government has been using the federates from the "martial races" as colonial police, etc keeping everyone down and if the autonomous zones remain economically and socially backward compared to what Sudwest Africa has in the way of an economic heartland and urban centers.
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RavenMM
Banned
But how many people are living in Südwest around this time? some low hundred thousands? That could be few enough to make its incorparation easy. I think at least after uranium is found and used for nuclear technology, germany doesn't want to seperate for strategic reasons.
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