Es Geloybte Aretz - a Germanwank

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I think at least after uranium is found and used for nuclear technology, germany doesn't want to seperate for strategic reasons.
Given that, iOTL, the first Uranium mine wasn't started until 1976 suggests that Nambian mines aren't that big a thing, or maybe that easy to find. In any case, I doubt that's going to matter very much when independence movements happen.
 
Südwest are the colony, which will be the most interesting, it's the only German colony which saw significant European settlement, which will happen here too, and likely in greater number. But at the same time the local chieftain and their families have now been social integrated into the German power structure, which makes minority rule close to impossible. But because Germany gave adopted this model for Südwest, they will likely adopt it in the rest of the colonies.
 

Tyr Anazasi

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An apardheid regime won't happen. The questions is, if the black elite, and that may not necessarily be the existing one, can be "transformed" to black Germans. And from there the middle class and so on.
 
An apardheid regime won't happen. The questions is, if the black elite, and that may not necessarily be the existing one, can be "transformed" to black Germans. And from there the middle class and so on.

I think it's possible in Südwest but not in the other colonies. Of course transforming the local Africans into Black German won't necessary keep it from gaining independence, but it do so in the same manner as Brazil and Australia did from their motherlands.
 

RavenMM

Banned
Given that, iOTL, the first Uranium mine wasn't started until 1976 suggests that Nambian mines aren't that big a thing, or maybe that easy to find. In any case, I doubt that's going to matter very much when independence movements happen.
Uranium was already found in 1928 according to this wiki article. It really depends on how big the need for uranium is, I think.
 
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.

Sadly, the German government isn't that smart. The model they have in mind is that of the Indian princely states or the USA's Indian reservations, self-governing native entities whose elites are bound by ties of fealty to the emperor. The degree to which natives will be allowed to integrate into the colony's management will be determined locally, but even in the best cases (Togo, Kiatschou), it will be limited and restrictive. Südwest will not have any black administrators for generations to come. Even Wilhelm, who "felt pride of race stir within him whenever he saw a negro wearing trousers" (TTL's Tucholsky), was not a proponent of opening colonial service careers to natives.

It could also mean the German colonies could become full German states in the future, distant future.

By the time this would be considered, it would no longer be feasible or wanted. But the Germans will come up with a Commonwealth-like association that some will join more happily than others.

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.

This is going to be less of a problem in Südwest than it will ultimately be in Ostafrika. Südwest will remain an extraction economy heavily dependent on ranching and mining, two things that the Herero actually will do competitively. Togo's plantation economy will be better at creating urban centres and rural peripheries, but the contrast between Ostafrika's coastal cities (dominated by Arab elites and Germanophone migrant workers and surrounded by cash-cropping farmers) and its tribal hinterland will be a serious liability for the future.

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.

Not a lot. But incorporation is not on the table, and won't be for quite some time. The Germans will happily consider the uranium mines a strategic asset, but they have their own uranium in Saxony and Thuringia that will last them for a while.

Südwest are the colony, which will be the most interesting, it's the only German colony which saw significant European settlement, which will happen here too, and likely in greater number. But at the same time the local chieftain and their families have now been social integrated into the German power structure, which makes minority rule close to impossible. But because Germany gave adopted this model for Südwest, they will likely adopt it in the rest of the colonies.

There is very little appetite for a standardised model in the Kolonialministerium. Certainly not the Südwest one, which they consider horrific for all manner of reasons (from the messiness of the Nama expulsion to the dangerous privileges granted the Herero). If anything, the Germans will come to see Togo as the model colony and try to run Südwest as an odd one out, a variation on the theme of South Africa.

Haven't the British taken control of the Südwestafrika diamond mines?

No, they have merely persuaded the Germans to allow prospectors from British colonies to take part in the mining. Technically, these men are subject to German law and required to sell their stones to the Mineralgesellschaft at fixed prices, but in reality, there is no way to control the diamond fields (most prospecting is done by literally picking up diamonds from the desert at this point). A lot gets smuggled out to South Africa, where the prices are better and they get paid in Sterling. The most galling thing to the German public is that Englishmen and Boers are getting rich while Germans are serving in uniform, unable to join in the rush.
 
Vitebsk, 05 October 1908


Dr Gadebusch’s uniform was well past what even the lenient standards of the medical service permitted, but one look at the face of his medical officer told Colonel Laue not to press the matter.


“Deaths?” he asked, his voice subdued with worry.


“Three more so far.” The doctor said. That made seven. “But there are ten more cases I don’t expect will live. With the rest – many of them will lose their eyesight. Some may be paralysed. I’m doing what I can.“


Laue took a deep breath before speaking. “Hauptmann Kühne,” he turned to the senior Feldgendarmerie officer present, “is there any way this could have been a genuine accident?”


The captain shrugged, his face showing abject resignation. “It is possible.” He conceded. “Methanol poisoning happens. The stuff on the black market here is often vile. According to what I hear from local hospitals, people die from drinking it almost daily. It could have been a bad batch.”


“Impossible!” Captain Händlmaier interjected. “I was told it was deliberately poisoned!”


Dr Gadebusch nodded. “From the symptoms, methanol poisoning alone does not explain it. We are trying to analyse the bottles the field police confiscated, but … facilities are limited. We must take care of the men first of all. I suspect the vodka was laced with rat poison. There are reports that the Patriotic Union did that kind of thing to their own people during the war.”


“Their own people?” the colonel enquired.


“Technical alcohol, Sir.” Hauptmann Kühne explained. “It is practically impossible to keep soldiers from drinking alcohol, even if it’s needed for other applications. Adding methanol or strychnine is an effective discouragement, I guess.”


“So, somebody sold technical alcohol to my men?”


“Or to the bar they were drinking at.” Kühne cautioned. “That’s what the owner claims, anyway. He says he had no idea anything was wrong, and that seems plausible enough. He called the ambulance once the first patron collapsed on him, after all.”


“So it was whoever sold it to him!” Händlmaier shouted. “Why isn’t the bastard in a cell yet?”


Kühne sighed. It was hard to make infantry officers understand how policing worked. “The proprietor gave us a name, but it’s probably not real. Black market business is done by gangs who use nicknames, and they are very hard to penetrate. Certainly, nobody is going to tell a German soldier asking after this guy where he is.”


“Stop asking nicely, then!” Händlmaier’s face flushed with frustrated anger. “I just lost a third of my company in peacetime! We have to find the culprits. I owe it to their families!”


Doctor Gadebusch raised his hand soothingly. “Herr Hauptmann, it is still likely that most will survive. We are seeing success with controlled doses of ethanol and strict seclusion. The strychnine dosage appears to have been low.”


The colonel nodded, resolving the matter in his head. “Very good, doctor.” He said. “Keep doing everything you can. As to the publican – what’s his name, Mikailovich?”


“It’s Yuri Mikhailovich Restov, Sir.” Kühne said. “A licensed distributor of distilled liquor. We haven’t had any problems beside the usual so far.”


“Right!” Colonel Laue waved away the interjection. “Hauptmann Kühne, you have three days to find the guilty party. Otherwise, I’ll hang him in cathedral square.”


The Feldgendarm bristled. “Sir, we have no evidence to sustain a verdict! Even if he is guilty of black marketeering, that is a civil offense,. He will have to be turned over to the Russian authorities.”


“Bah, Russian authorities?” Händlmaier waved dismissively. “They’ll give him a goddamned medal for poisoning us ‘cockroaches’! You know that’s what they call us, right!?”


“Gentlemen,” the colonel interrupted the dispute, “more than 80 German soldiers are in hospital. Many of them are dead, or will be very soon. The locals must see justice to be done. If you can find the guilty party, I will happily accept that, but if not – this Restov sold the stuff, he will have to face the music.” Kühne looked down. “But I am not unreasonable. What will you need to do your – Sherlock Homes thing?”


“More reliable Interpreters.” Kühne explained. “We don’t have the equipment for anything fancy like dactyloscopy, but we can do oldfashioned police work if we talk to the locals.”


“Interpreters?” Colonel Laue rolled his eyes. Whoever had thought of putting epaulets on a lawyer? “What about a unicorn while you’re at it?” He sighed. “I can probably detail some of the Polish troops. Will that work?”


Kühne considered the idea. The Poles mostly spoke Russian, even the way the locals did, which was rather different from what he himself had learned in language school. And they scared people. Threatening recalcitrant officials with quartering polish troops in their neighbourhood had turned out to be a good way of making them very cooperative very quickly.


“It should work, Sir. I will have to keep them on a short leash, but it should yield results quickly.”


“Do as you see fit.” The colonel waved dismissively. “Nobody’s going to say boo if a few Russians get damaged. Right, dismissed. Thank you for your good work, doctor. And Kühne: Find the bastards! I want to see them hang!”
 
Isn't Vitebsk part of Lithuania, not Poland according to the post war arrangement?

No, the new border runs roughly along the Dvina and Beresina. Vitebsk is one of the Russian rail hubs that the Germans occupied under the terms of the armistice. They're learning just how much fun occupation duty can be.
 
No, the new border runs roughly along the Dvina and Beresina. Vitebsk is one of the Russian rail hubs that the Germans occupied under the terms of the armistice. They're learning just how much fun occupation duty can be.
Meh, they should still know from France in the 1870's. Things really aren't that much different, I'd presume, just on a vastly larger scale.
 
No, the new border runs roughly along the Dvina and Beresina. Vitebsk is one of the Russian rail hubs that the Germans occupied under the terms of the armistice. They're learning just how much fun occupation duty can be.

I mean--I still dunno how good of an idea a Beresina border is here. Between the Jews and the Belarusians, are Poles even a majority in the new state?
 
I mean--I still dunno how good of an idea a Beresina border is here. Between the Jews and the Belarusians, are Poles even a majority in the new state?

I think one should stop thinking of jews as a separate nation. Jews are for a large part feeling as Austrians, Germans, Frenchmen - especially if they are halfway educated, prosperous and well treated... Well those are probably a little tricky, but with the jewish troops fighting FOR Germany (and Poland) jews should gradually be treated better compared to OTL. Jews will hold NO love for russia, so in territories with a nominally "russian" majority the jews will swing the balance in Polands favor.

Or is there a jewish state coming online ;) :D
 
I think one should stop thinking of jews as a separate nation. Jews are for a large part feeling as Austrians, Germans, Frenchmen - especially if they are halfway educated, prosperous and well treated... Well those are probably a little tricky, but with the jewish troops fighting FOR Germany (and Poland) jews should gradually be treated better compared to OTL. Jews will hold NO love for russia, so in territories with a nominally "russian" majority the jews will swing the balance in Polands favor.

Or is there a jewish state coming online ;) :D

That may well be, but the point remains nonetheless, the events of the war have served to make the European Jews more distinct as a nation from the rest of Europe, not less--martial success in the war, and ethnic and religious conflict, has in Germany and Poland both contributed to an upsurge in Jewish nationalism. I expect they will be on balance pro-Polish, but, importantly, not "[Catholic] Polish" Polish. This, of course, is accentuated by how under Polish law, Jews will be under the administration of a different corpus of social laws than Catholic Poles.

Yes, it did. But I don't know the details anymore.

Dreyfus was released shortly before the war began in June 1906, under the Clemenceau government. Other than that, he has not been mentioned.
 
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