Germany takes Gabon as part of the 1871 settlement with France

If Germany took Gabon from France in 1871, which is most likely:

  • a) Germany loses control, unable to suppress a local rebellion that occurs during power transition

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • b) France takes it back through a colonial/naval war or intrigue over the next decade

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • c) Germany successfully takes over the French position

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • d) This gives Germany a sufficient start to claim a German Congo land bridge to East Africa

    Votes: 5 38.5%
  • e) No German Congo; Gabon substitutes for another OTL African colony (Namibia?)

    Votes: 2 15.4%
  • f) No German Congo; Gabon is just one small addition to OTL's acquisitions

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • Total voters
    13

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
Germany takes a colony off of France, which the French had brought up. Germany takes just one colony- not as a replacement for Alsace-Lorraine as the French were hoping, but rather in return for a partial reduction in the indemnity or a retrocession of a few small villages/districts/towns in Lorraine.
Bismarck (or Germany's) key principle is they will take something, but nothing that is too close for comfort for Britain or the United States (ruling out Caribbean islands, enclaves in India, the African bulge or the African horn).

So let's say it's the French colony of Gabon.

How do things go from there?

a) Germany loses control, unable to suppress a local rebellion that occurs during power transition

b) France takes it back through a colonial/naval war or intrigue over the next decade

c) Germany successfully takes over the French position

d) This gives Germany a sufficient start to claim a German Congo land bridge to East Africa

e) No German Congo; Gabon substitutes for another OTL African colony (Namibia?)

f) No German Congo; Gabon is just one small addition to OTL's acquisitions
 

BlondieBC

Banned
Germany should be able to hold the coast, all it will be interested in. African colonies often had shockingly small numbers of Whites (100s to low 1000s). It should fire up the pro-colonial forces in Germany. Germany will be more active in race for Africa, but I think we have massive butterflies here so the map will be a lot different.
 
I think Germany will just have one more addition to the colonies that it would have later. Probably neater border with France and Germany in that area of Africa.
 

raharris1973

Gone Fishin'
Donor
Monthly Donor
Germany should be able to hold the coast, all it will be interested in. African colonies often had shockingly small numbers of Whites (100s to low 1000s). It should fire up the pro-colonial forces in Germany. Germany will be more active in race for Africa, but I think we have massive butterflies here so the map will be a lot different.

I agree. I would go further to say that with an early-mover advantage compared to OTL, Germany has a chance here to get a presence on the East African coast and get a territorial corridor through the Congo between the coasts of narrower southern hemisphere Africa.

Leopold probably picks someplace else as his playground, maybe Kamerun or Ivory Coast.

Germany may have one or more additional colonies besides the Gabon-Congo-Tanganyika complex, but probably will not get *all* their other African colonies because the German head start I think will encourage the British, French, Portuguese and others to also speed up their expansion plans, and places like Southwest Africa are close to existing outposts like the Cape Colony, while it would not take much for French trading posts in Dahomey to overtake what became German Togoland or for British posts in southern Nigeria to expand towards Kamerun.
 
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