Selective Colonialism

[Ptolemaios]

With a POD after 1945, is there any way to keep colonies like present-day Sierra Leone, Brunei and the Republic of Kongo, with a low population and massive amounts of resources, within the European empires while still having decolonisation happen in the others?

 

[Baconheimer]

That would nto work, because people in the conolys would want to be independent like thier kext door neighbors.

 

[sum sine regno]

Yes, if you can get enough loyal settlers, or have a Guyanne situation where the natives want to remain part of the country.

 

[Iori]

Sierra Leone IIRC was more a Protectorate than colony, Brunei was always a Protectorate, having been independen for centuries and which Congo?

 

[HJ Tulp]

That would nto work, because people in the conolys would want to be independent like thier kext door neighbors.

Actually there are ALOT of examples of regions that wanted to stay within the 'empires' in one way or the other.

 

[theman from the ministery]

That would nto work, because people in the conolys would want to be independent like thier kext door neighbors.

While a good general rule there are exceptions, Malta, French Guiana and (IIRC) Hong Kong all are exceptions to the rule. In the UK for example it had a lot more to do with whether Colony was making a profit of a loss

 

[pompejus]

With a POD after 1945, is there any way to keep colonies like present-day Sierra Leone, Brunei and the Republic of Kongo, with a low population and massive amounts of resources, within the European empires while still having decolonisation happen in the others?

There always are some colonies that wouldn't mind remaining part of the colonizing country. For the Netherlands Surinam would be the obvious example. I also think that Dutch New Guinea could have remained part of the Netherlands with a different decolonisation. For other countries there are no doubt other examples. Look mainly at smaller colonies, mainly islands in the Carribean or Pacific.

 

[Monty Burns]

Not long ago there was a post that described a development that led to Angola - or at least large parts of it - to remain Portuguese.

One major problem is that the motherlands didn't invest sufficiently in the colonies, didn't want to invest any further, and didn't want to accept the former colonial subjects as full citizens. Otherwise substantial parts of the former colonies could have been kept.

---

I agree that islands are the most likely. I'd add to that "outpost" colonies, such as Spanish Sahara, Djibouti, Aden, the gulf emirates, Brunei, Goa, Guayana, Suriname, Belize, Mosquito, Spanish Morocco.

 

[Simon]

There always are some colonies that wouldn't mind remaining part of the colonizing country. For the Netherlands Suriname would be the obvious example. I also think that Dutch New Guinea could have remained part of the Netherlands with a different decolonisation. For other countries there are no doubt other examples. Look mainly at smaller colonies, mainly islands in the Caribbean or Pacific.

Hell, back in 2000 when the British intervened in Sierra Leone to help see off the RUF during the civil war there were apparently widespread calls from the locals for them to recolonise the country at least in the short to mid-term to sort the place out and in some cases become a full colony again. The British were somewhat bemused by it all. Now granted that's after the whole country has gone pear shaped so it's a bit of a special case but it shows at least that people will often swap political freedoms for better living conditions.