PC/WI: The Mandates for the German colonies are given to America

In order to force America into the international community, particularly the emergent LoN, what if the German colonies were transferred to American control. While Congress might not like it, the prospect of adding to their Pacific colonial empire if not the new territories in Africa should appeal massively to the American public.
 
Shouldn't this go in post-1900?

Anyway, if this happens, most of them will go the way of the Philippines and gain independence by no later than the late 1940's.
 
Japan is MAD

The Japanese would be livid! I suspect they wouldn't evacuate them and hand them over. They may well open fire on American forces coming over to take control of them. If the Americans do get them, it's only because the Japanese really upset the British--or didn't even enter the war in the first place. This is a new war begging to be fought...
 
JAPAN STRONK!

Though perhaps OP is suggesting something regarding the mandates that went to Australia and the UK instead?
 
JAPAN STRONK!

Though perhaps OP is suggesting something regarding the mandates that went to Australia and the UK instead?

There's not really much hope there either. Britain felt the need to reward her dominions in order to keep them close to her, thus Australian New Guinea, New Zealand getting the stuff south of the equator, South Africa getting Namibia. There weren't any conveniently nearby for Canada, while Britain kept Tanjaika and is unlikely to give that up.

About the only option I can think of is giving the Americans German Samoa, and that seems a little on the small side considering what is wanted by the OP.
 
The important factor is of course that America just plain didn't want that responsibility.
Colonies don't instantly make your country better and richer, usually quite the opposite. The US was happy with retreating into isolationism and it couldn't really be made to take on the mandates; that other countries wanted the responsibility too...
 
I've often wondered if it mightn't have been better for Japan if they'd managed to persuade (say) Sweden to take over the mandates in the Pacific, The islands had no intrinsic value, but were seen as defensive outposts, but surely it would have been more useful to 'neutralise' them so neither side could use them - it would have made the American offensive that much harder.
 
I doubt this scenario would appeal at all to the American public. America began regretting its expansion outside the Western Hemisphere fairly quickly after the Spanish-American War.

The Japanese are very unlikely to give up the Pacific territories it occupies, and the other Pacific territories will be given to Australia. Out of all those possessions, probably only Western Samoa would be given because the US already occupies some of Somoa already.

So that leaves the German colonies in Africa. If there is any place the US does not want to be involved it, it would be Africa. The US was reluctant to be involved with Liberia. Plus some of those African territories will probably be kept by the British (Namibia for South Africa, and Tanganyika to provide a land link from Cairo to Capetown).

So this isn't very realistic.

But simply to play the game, what would a US administration actually be like (at least for Togo and Cameroon)? First, unlike the British and French, the US would probably intend to administer things so that the colony becomes independent. It would probably be a cross between how the Philippines developed and how the Marines ran Haiti.

On the plus side, the US would probably invest in infrastructure in the colonies using whatever revenues the colonies generated. I don't think much would be spent from the general revenue of the US though. Commercial agriculture would be developed, probably with strong investment by US businesses. Some kind of basic education would be set up, but probably concentrating on vocational training. Some kind of liberal arts and professional training would need to be done though since that would be needed for an elite to take over.

On the negative side, the US administrators would be very racist, and would probably use labor conscription for much of the infrastructure building. The African mandates would lack most of the educated elite and instititutions that even Haiti had.

African-Americans would likely be very interested in the development of these African mandates. This would create the conditions for long term association between the US and the Mandates. Since much of the slave trade came from West Africa, such ties would likely be emphasized. This wouldn't have much impact for the first few decades, and might lead to some interesting results after the 1960s.

There would probably be legislation passed quite early guaranteeing independence of the mandates - the US would want to get rid of them as soon as possible, which would still be understood to mean several decades.

Assuming WWII still happens, the mandates would see massive investment to both provide raw materials for the war effort, and for port and airfield infrastructure to support the war.

Decolonization would proceed better for these Mandates than for the European powers simply because the US would have no interest in remaining, and this would be very clear to the indigenous peoples. Formally the mandates would transition to a UN Trust Territory. Internally, there would probably be negotiation between the new indigenous elites and the US as to how the transfer would occur. The most likely scenario would be internal matters totally turned over over to the natives with some US supervisory role in the 1950s, and control over external/foreign policy and military matters done in the 1960s. Full independence would be made before 1970.

Without a guerilla war, slightly delayed independence from OTL, and earlier efforts made to make the mandates self-governing, they'd probably be one of the better governed African countries, but that is not saying much. Both Liberia and Philippines went downhill under strongmen, and it's entirely possible that this can happen as well. But it's possible that those countries could avoid those problems, and simply by avoiding the worst would position themselves as some of the leading countries of Africa by our time.

However, if racist attitudes of the initial administrators really poison American relations with the mandates' population, then the handover would be much more difficult. But with no mulatto population to favor, I think American racism would be contained in ways to limit the damage it could do internally by dividing the native population against itself.
 
There's not really much hope there either. Britain felt the need to reward her dominions in order to keep them close to her, thus Australian New Guinea, New Zealand getting the stuff south of the equator, South Africa getting Namibia. There weren't any conveniently nearby for Canada, while Britain kept Tanjaika and is unlikely to give that up.

About the only option I can think of is giving the Americans German Samoa, and that seems a little on the small side considering what is wanted by the OP.

But by the end of the war NZ had been in control for 4 years or so and I imagine we would be rather pissed off, to be frank, if it got given to the US. Although I don't imagine that would be a deal breaker for London
 
No way the USA will want anything to do with Africa...period. Since the USa already has Guam, taking the rest of the Marianas might be acceptable to the Navy, and population was small. Give the Japanese the rest, German Samoa also goes to the USA otherwise as OTL.

Japan would live with this, they still get a shield of bases that expands further, and are still astride the US route to the PI.
 
There's not really much hope there either. Britain felt the need to reward her dominions in order to keep them close to her, thus Australian New Guinea, New Zealand getting the stuff south of the equator, South Africa getting Namibia. There weren't any conveniently nearby for Canada, while Britain kept Tanjaika and is unlikely to give that up.

About the only option I can think of is giving the Americans German Samoa, and that seems a little on the small side considering what is wanted by the OP.
Well, Wilson publicly announced that the United States was not after territory so it might need to be on the down low, such as those jointly administered islands northeast of French Polynesia being made solely American, the US getting that treaty port they wanted in China, and the expansion of Liberia to their past declared borders (such as how the French and British did for the Italians.)
 
I've often wondered if it mightn't have been better for Japan if they'd managed to persuade (say) Sweden to take over the mandates in the Pacific, The islands had no intrinsic value, but were seen as defensive outposts, but surely it would have been more useful to 'neutralise' them so neither side could use them - it would have made the American offensive that much harder.
Nah, the Japanese were on the Finnish side for that Aaland dispute because of the issues of island hopping and having the right to islands they had small islands near, even if they were closer to another country and did not think themselves Japanese.
 

NothingNow

Banned
JAPAN STRONK!

Though perhaps OP is suggesting something regarding the mandates that went to Australia and the UK instead?

Yeah, that'd piss off the Japanese and British pretty badly. Not to mention the French, and Belgians. And as the US did the fighting to gain exactly none of these it'd be insane to even suggest it to the other powers, who have held the vast majority of these territories for roughly four years on armistice day, or five from to the start of the mandates, with East Africa being the only notable exception.

Of the mandates, Western Samoa or Nauru would be the only ones the US might actually be interested in, while loosing the South Pacific Mandate and Tsingtao would be major insults to the Japanese, who seriously developed the former in the 20's and 30's IOTL, and were already angry enough at the US to begin with.

The Pacific mandates would get interesting later on, since if the US actually gained them, they might be organized in with the other possessions (as class C mandates are pretty much wide open for that sort of thing.) Probably leading to Samoa being re-unified, and the territories maybe being organized into American Polynesia (Samoa+Hawaii,) American Micronesia and American New Guinea.

Maybe American Micronesia might become a state, as collectively the various islands have some ~400-500k people now, which would be more than enough, while Guam and Truk lagoon are just too nice to give up.
 

BlondieBC

Banned
The USA wanted one Island group. Yap. It connected the Cable from the USA to the PI. We were quite upset we did not get it. I suspect if we got Yap Island, it would be like Guam. Still with the USA.
 
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