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It's always nice to see a chapter, I'm glad you found your taste for writing again

I'm not sure if I can be convinced to see Portugal give up Southern Mozambique in that bargain, it was always the better developed and wealthier part. Just a thought though
 

Deleted member 109224

Good update!

Where is the boundary between German Southwest Africa and the Cape Colony? It looks like Walvis Bay is German here but Luderitz is British. This looks further south than the OTL 22nd Parallel that was, for a time, the north border of Bechuanaland.

Did OP make that pink map?

Is the southernmost portion of Angola part of German Southwest Africa? It looks like Namibe and Tombua are German. Is the border the 15th Parallel from the Atlantic to the Cubango River?

Will Italy still get Somaliland, or will the Germans scoop up that area instead?
 
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Good update!

Where is the boundary between German Southwest Africa and the Cape Colony? It looks like Walvis Bay is German here but Luderitz is British. This looks further south than the OTL 22nd Parallel that was, for a time, the north border of Bechuanaland.

Did OP make that pink map?

Is the southernmost portion of Angola part of German Southwest Africa? It looks like Namibe and Tombua are German. Is the border the 15th Parallel from the Atlantic to the Cubango River?

Will Italy still get Somaliland, or will the Germans scoop up that area instead?

Thanks so much! I really appreciate it.

So yeah, thanks to the different Anglo-German Agreement of 1890 in this TL, German South-West Africa has slightly different borders. Its Southern border with the Cape Colony is set at the 24th Parallel (South) , and as such you have rightly guessed that Walfischbucht (Walvis Bay) is in the German region, whilst OTL Luderitz (instead called Molteno, after the Cape Colony PM) is in the British region. It is also has a more straightened border with Bechuanaland (IRL Botswana).

Yes I did make that map, taking an old document outlining the OTL Pink Map, and then tweaking it to that which you see. The old squiggly text was a nightmare to paint around on pshop!

You are almost there. The northern border of German South-West Africa with Portuguese Angola is set at the 16th Parallel (South), until it indeed meets the Cubango River which it then follows as OTL into the Caprivi strip. Namibe and Tombua both remain in the Portuguese zone, though much closer to the new border. Just as an aside, the reasons for this change are ever so slightly different demarcation agreements, owing to German Namibia getting punched upwards a few hundred miles. They’re not discussed, since they only have very minor impacts on the TL.

Will be discussed in a future chapter. Thanks to German Wituland remaining a thing, the old sultanates of Somalia are going to end up split into German and Italian portions.
 

Deleted member 109224

So German Mogadishu and Hobyo, Italian Majerteen? Neat.

Majerteen actually signed a treaty with the British OTL but London didn't ratify, worrying that that it'd prompt other powers to gobble up Somali Sultanates. Might Britain and Germany just box Italy out instead?


Britain has Rwanda and the area due east, but Germany has Burundi correct?

Will Southwest Africa become German majority?

I'm looking forward to seeing how things go for Ethiopia.
 
Well, this a rather interesting Timeline and a most unusual take to Germany way to a seemingly truly modernization and unification...
Also, and speculating, I'd think that rather than any Alt Fachoda or colonial interests clash that would lead to another European war, but instead 'd seems that ITTL France would suffer from some of leaderships and strategic troubles than OTL Germany in a more or less similar situation...
But, ITTL Boulangist France, as OTL Imperial Germany, with Austria-Hungary, though, that here due to her Russian allies Balkan interests, which, I'd think that TTL would force to France aside to be more involved there, if not increasingly left lacking of options, (by the strategic situation) but take the side and back to the Russian strategic interests and goals there...
 
Good update on this one and it's easy to see why Britain's rather on edge right now. France on the ascendancy and allied to their major rival, Germany humbled and the Empire potentially threatened by this new power. Granted, Salisbury seems to be taking the matter in hand coolly, but I can imagine the pressure's going to mount from both ends.
 
Is France a first-rate economic and commercial power or does it remain, like IRL, a second-rate power?

And as far as China is concerned, i can clearly see France extending its influence to Yunnan and perhaps seizing the island of Hainan

It's great to see an update, I hope to see more often !
 
Columbia
COLUMBIA:

“All this will be our future history, to establish on earth the moral dignity and salvation of man - the immutable truth and beneficence of God. For this, America has been chosen".
~ John O’Sullivan, Circa 1845

800px-Benjamin_Harrison2C_head_and_shoulders_bw_photo2C_1896.png
The “Manifest Destiny” of the United States to march ever further westwards towards the coast had long been fulfilled. Alas, the Lone Republic [1] had now leaped across the great seas and oceans, and strode forth onto the Pacific and its peoples below. Though the American occupation of the German colonies in 1889 had proven wildly popular in the whipped up torrents of “yellow journalism” following the Samoa Incident [2] - their fate in the peace had now become a viciously divisive quandary. The lasting status of the newly-acquired Bismarck Archipelago, Marshall Islands, Samoan Islands, Northern Solomon Islands, and most particularly so-called Kaiser Wilhelmsland (New Guinea), questioned the very ideals of American expansionism and the Republic for which it stood.

An obvious crossroads in American territorial development, Democrats in Congress argued viciously against the annexations, regarding such “imperialism” as the very antithesis of the American ideal. Though the various island territories would prove less controversial, the vast territory of German New Guinea and its shared land borders with both British Papua and the Dutch East Indies alike, would swiftly become the veritable lynchpin of such oppositions. Notably, the miserly Democratic House Minority Leader, William S. Holman, demanded the territory either be outright returned to Germany, or sold immediately to another power such as Britain or France, lest America be drawn into an “imperial conquest and costly occupation”.

Congressional Republicans, led by Thomas Brackett Reed [3], though more broadly supportive towards the policy, similarly harboured such personal reservations. Even President Harrison expressed his private doubts, however as he would later relent, he was left with few viable alternatives...

“We could not give them back to Germany - that would be cowardly and dishonorable; nor could we turn them over to France or Britain - our commercial rivals in the Orient - that would be bad business and discreditable; and we certainly could not leave them to themselves - they were unfit for self-government - and would soon have savage bound anarchy and misrule”.
~ President Harrison, remarking for his memoirs.
Instead Harrison saw it as America’s god-given duty to educate the Papuans, and hence uplift them to Christian civilisation where they might later stand on their own two feet [4]. As such, the one and only course of action which he could advocate in good faith, was that of annexation, and to that most Republicans ultimately agreed. In the ensuing votes, the Republican-dominated Congress would narrowly pass the various resolutions, annexing all the newly occupied German colonies as Federal Territories.

map-of-new-guinea-and-new-caledonia-1884-papua-new-guinea-11.png
However such close divisions in Congress soon manifested themselves far more objectively. The 1890 Midterm elections spelled an inevitable doom for President Harrison and his faltering Republican administration. Whilst “rallying around the flag” in lieu of the conflict might have redeemed his polling at least somewhat in the final stages of the campaign, the election's outcome can only be described as a conclusive disaster for Harrison’s term in office. Losing almost 76 seats in the House, and 3 in the Senate [5], the Republicans had ceded total control over the nation’s legislative agenda to their Democratic rivals. It would be the culmination of a two-year long spluttering of his government - reeling from the ongoing fallout of the McKinley Tariff and its impact on consumer prices, the rising tensions between Republican Party grandees and Harrison’s more personal friends instead appointed to cabinet [6], successive corruption scandals, widespread controversies over the growing scale of the Federal government, and of course the disputes over the New Guinean annexation.

However this is not to write off Harrison’s Presidency in its entirety. Certainly he made many great achievements, especially so earlier on in his term. Harrison’s administration strengthened antitrust laws, enacted new consumer rights and protections, appointed four justices to the Supreme Court, and enormously strengthened the US Naval fleet [7]. Furthermore, despite its many valid criticisms, the McKinley Tariff and its revenues, helped balance the federal budget, and produced large surpluses for many years to come. And of course, Harrison’s territorial expansion of the United States, not just overseas, but also via the admission of six new states to the Union [8], helped further secure American primacy in North America, and more broadly on the global stage.

Nonetheless, these achievements would not prove enough to save his presidency for a second term, come the presidential election of 1892. Grover Cleveland, his Democratic rival, predecessor and eventual successor, successfully exploited ongoing public anger at Harrison’s flailing policies. In particular, Cleveland lambasted Harrison’s mismanagement of tariffs, arguing the almost 50% levies under the
McKinley regime had crippled the pockets of hard working Americans and fueled excessive levels of spending in the so-called “billion dollar Congress” [9]. Cleveland further rebuked Harrison’s monetary policies, enacted largely through the Sherman Silver Purchase Act - arguing they had abjectly failed to tackle the worsening global deflation crisis and rapidly depleted the nation’s gold supply. Lastly Cleveland levied fresh assaults on Harrison’s territorial policy, in the wake of American involvement in the February 1891 Hawaiian Coup. Exploited by various American sugar magnates in the wake of the death of King Kalākaua, the subsequent failed attempt by Harrison to annex the new Republic, had even further humiliated his position in Congress, and emphasised the dominance of the anti-expansionists in American politics for at least the next decade to come [10].

As such, the results of the 1892 election later that year, came as little surprise to many. Grover Cleveland ultimately carried 25 states to win 302 electoral college votes, against Harrison’s 112, and third party populist, James Weaver's, 30 [11]. The election continued the precedent of somewhat ineffectual single-term Presidents in the latter half of the 19th-Century, and marked the first time an American President had served a second non-consecutive term. Cleveland’s electoral triumph however, would soon prove not quite the victory first imagined, but rather the most wicked of poisoned chalices….



[1] A common term used to refer to the United States in the modern-day of this TL. A very broad evolution of the earlier phrase referring solely to Texas, it came to be used as a reflection of America’s isolationism and global neutrality.
[2] See “Revanche: The Second Franco-German War, Part III” for more details on the Samoa Incident and the American occupation of the German colonial empire in the Pacific.
[3] In OTL, Thomas Brackett Reed resigned as Republican Speaker of the House, in a similar crisis after the American annexation of the Philippines in 1898. As such I feel it’s in character for him to privately oppose the annexation of German New Guinea, albeit not be as vocal in doing so thanks to its much much smaller population and relative importance.
[4] See President McKinley’s response to the Philippines after the Spanish-American War, broadly the same approach in this TL just on a smaller scale and a decade earlier.
[5] In OTL, the Republicans lost 93 seats in the House and 4 seats in the Senate. Thanks to the temporary but ill-fated boost from the Samoa Incident and its aftermath, I think it’s entirely plausible in this TL Republican losses would be ever so slightly less (76 and 3 lost instead).
[6] Basically Harrison had pissed off the Republican Party establishment early on, by picking a bunch of people for cabinet based on whether they were from his home state of Indiana, undertook similar military service to him, or were also members of the Presbyterian Church.
[7] The US Navy is expanded even more so than OTL in this time period, thanks to need to now patrol even more Pacific island territories and waters.
[8] North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming were all admitted as states during his Presidency as OTL.
[9] A fairly amusing figure now, but at the time the “Billion dollar Congress” was seen as a stinging rebuke of the excess of the Federal Government.
[10] A slight change in this TL. As a result of America snaffling more Pacific territories in 1890, the Hawaiian coup occurs two years earlier than OTL in 1891. This is as a result of the opportunity of the sudden death of King Kalākaua, the belief that America would need Hawaii as a station to supply its new Pacific territories, and the idea that Harrison would quickly annex them as he did the German colonies. However, having lost the 1890 Midterms and control of Congress, Harrison tries and fails.
[11] Exactly the same outcome as OTL, only Cleveland also wins Ohio and Montana, and Weaver picks up Nebraska. This is a slightly worse result for Harrison as a result of the recent Hawaii failed annexation humiliation, and more divisions in Congress.
 
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[5] In OTL, the Republicans lost 93 seats in the House and 4 seats in the Senate. Thanks to the temporary but ill-fated boost from the Samoa Incident and its aftermath, I think it’s entirely plausible in this TL Republican losses would be ever so slightly less (76 and 3 lost instead).
Out of curiosity, what's the place where the Republicans held the State Legislatures enough to keep a Senate seat? I'm assuming New York, since a 4 seat swing to the State Assembly would have let the Republicans keep the majority and deliver William Evarts a 2nd term. Not a bad thing altogether, Evarts was a renowned orator, while his OTL replacement in 1891 had nothing really going for him besides his long-time rivalry with Grover Cleveland. (As a note: he was also the primary mind behind the Judiciary Act of 1891, which created the modern-day US Court of Appeals system, and so is one of the fathers of the modern American judiciary, for good or ill)
 
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with the anglo-portuguese agreement seemingly in favor of both sides, i believe the portuguese monarchy will survive
 

Deleted member 109224

So America has North New Guinea, the North Solomon Islands, the Marshall Islands, all of Samoa ... but not Hawaii.
That's interesting. I don't think that sort of situation can last though - Pearl Harbor is too important to the United States.

Slight correction need with respect to note 5. OTL the Democrats gained 4 seats in the Senate in 1892 but the Republicans lost 10 seats. The Populist Party and the Silver Republican Party each picked up a seat and 4 seats were left vacant.
 
Just to say I've updated the 1890 map of Europe (this took a while lol...), will have another chapter ("Mission Civilisatrice") maybe next week depending on how work IRL is going.
 
Just to say I've updated the 1890 map of Europe (this took a while lol...), will have another chapter ("Mission Civilisatrice") maybe next week depending on how work IRL is going.
beautiful map can't wait to see what happens next
 
Just finished reading this, the start of Boulanger's career at the helm of France reminded me a fair bit of Mussolini's... if ol' Benito had been competent, at least. :p
 
Boulanger basically creating a military run state does not bode well whether France wins or loses the next war.

His military reforms and all are positive, sensible and will butterfly OTL French military failures during this period, but that is the only nice thing I can say lol.

The way he runs France could lead to the military ending up a state within a state; and if they win the next war, it will create a reactionary kind of order (especially given the alliance with Russia) if they dont; or suffer from a "wounded victory" even; that could lead to a more extreme nationalist ideology taking root getting propped up by the miltiary behind the scenes; this is not good; it will lead to much the same problems of OTL "Prussian militarism."

Germany getting defeated seems bad short term but good long term as it will shake sense into Germany now that they have been humbled, especially the young Kaiser will be changed and perhaps scale back his ambitions will Germany getting beaten very early in his reign
 
The way he runs France could lead to the military ending up a state within a state; and if they win the next war, it will create a reactionary kind of order (especially given the alliance with Russia) if they dont; or suffer from a "wounded victory" even; that could lead to a more extreme nationalist ideology taking root getting propped up by the miltiary behind the scenes; this is not good; it will lead to much the same problems of OTL "Prussian militarism."
"Where some states posses an army, [The French Army] posses a state"

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Kono France Da!​
Just finished reading this, the start of Boulanger's career at the helm of France reminded me a fair bit of Mussolini's... if ol' Benito had been competent, at least.
Though I'm wondering how the monarchy's restoration affects politics here. To have more legitimacy he should have the King formally revive the old title of Grand Constable of France: a title/rank which the old Kings of France used to give to the heads of their army. This would created some sense of political continuity with some of France's old traditions and would appeal to the French right/traditionalists as a whole.

I wonder what sort of policies Boulanger will adopt in terms of the French colonial Empire.
 
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