How are the economists trying to explain this? Will there be a Great Depression ITTL, now that Germany seems to be paving the way for fiat currency earlier than RL?
Depends on which economists. ITTL, the Anglosphere is dominated by what we would call Neoclassical economists who basically keep saying "exceptionasl circumstances are allowing this unsustainable structure to continue as of yet". The idea they are developing is basically that the German state is able to force acceptance of its currency through strong institutions and military dominance (one reason so many people from there imagine Wilhelmione Germany as an oppressive place). Meanwhile, the Germans have their own economic school, the Historische Schule, and as far as they are concerned it makes perfect sense. Money is whatever the government says is money. Their focus (and therefore that of the German government) is on public trust. As long as people will believe the money they receive is going to be accepted for all public dues and taxes, they will consider it valuable. This is the one compact that the state must not break.
I don't think we will see less funding, OTL post-German Empire funding mostly came from non-German Lutheran states, these will still use money on missionering and a German not suffering from OTL post-War slump will still have private missioneiring societies seekling converts in Tanganyika. As for Islam why I can see the benefits to people in Dar Es Saalam to convert, but for a inland farmer there's almost no benefits. This is why the spread of Islam in Africa after 1878 was mostly among tribal groups, which already had significant Islamic influence. The Hausa and other Sahel people are very good example of this spread. But animist group without Islamic elites mostly converted to Christianity even in colonies, where Muslim groups was favoured over Christians (like Nigeria).
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At last with a Zanzibar not part of the mianland, this could very very well turn into a African Singapore.
That is - awesome. Can I make it canon? Much better and more plausible than what I had in mind.
I would think the Joachimsthal Uranium would be available to Germany ?
Yes, but that will not matter for some time. The uranium deposits in Joachimsthal are huge, but not very good: the uranium content is low, the location somewhat awkward. When the colonial governmentb invests in the mine, the expectation is that Germany, a leading nation in atomic research, should be independent of foreign suppliers even for its rising needs. At that point, the expectation is that the country will want a few hundred kilograms of the stuff a year. That is more than they are getting out of the pitchblende from Thuringia, and it's very expensive, sort of like gold or platinum mining.
At that point, the German government's crash programme discovers the uranium deposits in the Siebengebirge, which are among the world's most accessible and best quality, and right in the stomping ground of the world's most developed mining and chemical industry (it's one of those things you'd call ASB if I'd invested it - one reason the Soviets were able to rev up their nuclear programme so fast IOTL). Joachimsthal is immediately uncompetitive and will remain so until the 1960s, when nuclear power and a global arms race create demand for industrial quantities of uranium. Now, the domestic deposits are too small, and Südwest becomes a key element of Germany's nuclkear industry. But that is two decades too late for the investors.
If the settlers really want to stay in Africa, they might just keep some small/best areas in the colonies (independence in independence short of).
View attachment 408561
Potential white settlement areas in africa from
https://www.alternatehistory.com/fo...ntial-for-more-white-settlement.247941/page-2
I don't think that is feasible because it presupposes the idea that the colonial powers will leave Africa at some point. It might work, but it isn't the future they have in mind for the continent and thus not something they would do. There will be white settler areas ITTL, more so than IOTL, but not created as post-independence states by design
If you want Europe in Africa to survive, prevent race from becoming an issue in the first place. The South African Union must not be allowed to form. She invalidates the Cape Cairo railroad.
I did not quote the Gandhi editorial for nothing: if Canada was won in Silesia, India was lost in the Transvaal.
I don't think that is plausible with TTL being about as racist as OTL. If you'd suggest Apartheid as a policy to just about anyone in colonial government, they'd have all kinds of practical objections (it's expensive and complicated), but no problem with the idea as such.
