French Westafrica in WWI CP Victory
- Thread starter Berus
- Start date
I don't really see a handover taking place. Where in the world would Germany get the manpower to garrison West Africa? They'll push to expand their gains elsewhere, probably picking up a few more Pacific island coaling stations.
Revolutionary Todyo
Banned
Depends on Europe really. If Mitteleuropa is full achieved then the colonies would be second preference.
Kameroon, French Central Africa, the Congo and German East Africa are all vital to the Mittelafrika idea. The rest are really just a waste of money.
You are joking right?
Kameroon, French Central Africa, the Congo and German East Africa are all vital to the Mittelafrika idea. The rest are really just a waste of money.
You are joking right?
Tsao
Banned
Unrealistic and unviable. Why would they want it? What would they gain in West Africa, besides a new territory to garrison? AH and the Ottoman Empire were not exactly shining models of stability and prosperity.
Who says AH would have broken apart in WWI cp Victory ?? They could still make another ausgleich with the czechs, or maybe reform into a Federalized Monarchy, there were never really Independeny movements, most just wanted more autonomy and equality. I don't know much about the Ottoman Empire though.
Tsao
Banned
I never said they would; just pointing out that Austro-Hungarian West Africa is unviable and undesirable.
The Ottomans never had any trouble with their arabian subjects. the arab revolt was not a national awakening like their European territory's were but more the result of various arabian house leaders getting power hungry. There was even Arabian groups that supported the Ottomans. if the british never interviewed the revolts would have never happened.
Anaxagoras
Banned
The Germans would have taken Belgian and French territory in Central Africa, to be sure. But I think West Africa would have been left in French hands.
Morocco would probably have become independent again with a German security guarantee.
I'd say the most Germany can get in Africa in a victorious Central Powers Scenario is French and Belgian Congo and French Central Africa. Perhaps renewed Moroccan independence. Oh, and the return of their colonies. Maybe a few bits of Angola or Mozambique if they feel like it. They aren't going to be getting any colonial concessions from Britain since they're highly unlikely to be in a position to make Britain hand anything over (the Royal Navy puts a massive dent in any plans to retake their African colonies, and the only other possibility would be an Imperial Sea Lion) and they won't have the manpower to keep half of French Africa down while also dealing with the swathes of Europe they have presumably sliced Brest-Litovsk like from France and Russia. Overall keeping Leopold's massive vanity project and a few chunks of French Africa should be plenty for them to be getting on with. Going into West Africa just opens a new can of worms that Germany would rather keep shut
Emperor-of-New-Zealand
Kicked
Britain would not give away anything. So long as they have the navy, they can't really 'lose'.
Germany will eye Morocco, Kongo, Nigeria, and French Equitorial Africa first and foremost in an African situation, along with French Indochina for strategic reasons. More important will be the European situation - they will want Luxembourg, the chunk of Belgium east of the Meuse, and perhaps making the Meuse the western border of Germany itself. I think they will place a higher priority on the balance of Lorraine, Luxembourg, eastern Belgium, and their customs schemes in Europe than *anything* in Africa.
Note - barring an early victory in 1914 or a devastating breakthrough in 1917/1918, I think the best chance for peace in the West is a status quo antebellum or one in which Germany keeps Luxembourg and gives back everything else in the West. The East is a wild card. What are the conditions of victory you have in mind that Germany can ask for these chunks of Africa?
Note - barring an early victory in 1914 or a devastating breakthrough in 1917/1918, I think the best chance for peace in the West is a status quo antebellum or one in which Germany keeps Luxembourg and gives back everything else in the West. The East is a wild card. What are the conditions of victory you have in mind that Germany can ask for these chunks of Africa?
If they get anything overseas, it's surely more likely to be from Italy - Eritrea and Somaliland. Libya will probably go back to the Turks.
As for France, if they lose you probably get a Caillaux government trying to minimise French losses by cosying up to the Germans and collaborating with them against Britain. The French Congo is lost, as is Longwy-Briey in Europe, but otherwise they may not lose too much, esp if Britain continues the war and Germany wants French co-opertaion.
The problem is that AH don't have a navy to support/protect colonies and what he get will probably be simple a drain of resources and frankly except in case of a very quick victory A-H has other problem to resolve like try to mantain unity as the devastation of the war and the rising nationalism don't bode well for the future of the empire aka yes the more probable future for the empire is death.
They want it, ok no problem they will be a drain of resource for them as they were for us...they will probably beg us to take them back after a couple of year or be absorbed by the British the moment A-H fall
According to Gordon Brook Shepherd (The Last Habsburg) in the course of his 1917 peace feelers Emperor Karl offered to cede the Trentino to Italy in exchange for one of her colonies, saying, in blissful ignorance of the troubles of the second half of the century "A negro is better value than an irridentist". So he at least wasn't totally uninterested in colonies.