The Pink Map triumphant; or, Portuguese Mozambiangola

Has anyone done a "Pink Map" TL? Brief googling doesn't show it.

N.B., not talking about the gay dating application. This Pink Map:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Map

Short version: in 1889-90, the Portuguese made a short-lived attempt to link their two large African colonies together. Hey, start in Mozambique, go up the Zambezi River until you reach the headwaters -- a mere 2,000 kilometers or so -- and you're practically in Angola. It wasn't a completely insane idea.

Except, of course, for the British. The Brits weren't about to see their dreams of expansion cut off by a bunch of Iberians who were, really, no better than wogs themselves. They sent an ultimatum to the Portuguese: give up their Pink Map claims or the British would blockade their colony of Mozambique -- with the strong inference that blockade would quickly move to occupation and annexation. The Portuguese had to back down, and the British were free to move north into what's now Zimbabwe and Zambia.

Okay, so. Let's say the Portuguese are a little quicker off the mark, and are able to make their claim stick. (It's a handwave -- the British would have resisted even if the Portuguese claim had been much stronger -- but let's go with it.) The Portuguese eventually claim a supercolony consisting of Mozambique, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe -- a massive area of southern Africa roughly half the size of the continental United States, stretching from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and firmly blocking Britain's path of northward expansion.

In this TL there are no Rhodesias. The Portuguese may or may not get Katanga Province of Congo; the British very nearly snagged it OTL. (But let's say not; simpler.) Eventually a railway will be built, but it will run east-west across the continent instead of OTL's north-south line running from South Africa up through Zimbabwe and Zambia to the border with Congo. Knock-ons... is there still a Boer War? Probably.

It's hard to imagine Portugal governing such a stupendously immense colony, comfortably larger than even the Belgian Congo. OTOH, it's only about twice as big as the colonies they had OTL. And this terrain was pretty sparsely settled, back in the late 19th and early 20th -- Zambia, an area larger than Texas, had only two or three million inhabitants, and Zimbabwe around the same. So maybe.

How does this evolve through the 20th century? And what happens at independence?


Doug M.
 
In spite of getting the demanded territories, the Portuguese monarchy is still and the end of the track and a Republic is announced in 05.10.1910 as it actually happened.
After participating in the 1st WW on the side of Great Britain and France the Portuguese 1st Republic finally falls and in 1926 the dictatorship of Estado Novo puts an end to the constant political infighting.
This TL Estado Novo is more radical than in our TL, being closer to the ideals of Fascism and Nazism than the political corporate structure set up by Oliveira Salazar in our TL (although he still becomes Finance Minister in this TL and manages the miracle of economic rejuvenation of Portugal).
In the 1930’s, having brought the economy back on track, the Estado Novo promotes huge public works on much needed infrastructure, both in mainland Portugal and its African colonies, special in Austral Portuguese Africa.
Also, they encourage mass migration to their African colonies , looking to transform them into more European realities. Slowly the indigenous populations are pushed into smaller and smaller areas, future known as Reservas, while the European white settlers get the best agricultural lands (its the beginning of the segregation policy in Portuguese African colonies). The example is soon adopted by the Union of South Africa, their British Dominion neighbour.
During the Spanish civil war, in spite of supporting the Nationalists, the Portuguese government is also aware that is has the chance of significantly weakening their century old bellicose neighbour. So through a series of political, diplomatic and covert support to both sides of the civil war and the encouragement of Galician nationalism they are able to influence the outcome of the conflict. Eventually Portuguese troops occupy Galiza at the “request” of the local authorities to protect the region from the vicious fighting that is destroying Spain. Eventually the conflict comes to a stalemate and a peace conference is held in Lisbon where a peace agreement is reached. As result the Basque Country and Catalonia (including the Balearic Islands) became independent from Spain, Galiza is integrated in Portugal as an autonomous region and the remainder Spanish territory is divided between the Spanish Republic (North) and the new Kingdom of Spain (South).
 
Portugal will not sacrifice its long standing alliance with Britain just to link Angola to Mozambique. Post-1900 expansion is totally ASB. Pre-1800 will be a viable option to create a Brazil-colony analogue in Africa. Another is Portugal is in the revolution in the early 1910 the causes the monarchy to be overthrown.
 
The Pink Map was widely accepted by every other power at the Berlin Conference and nearly caused an international crisis. The other issue was the ancient Anglo-Portuguese alliance which both the Pink Map and the British expansionists would have jeapordised.

I don't know where you got the idea that the Iberians were as bad as "wogs"; in the eyes of Europe they were as white as anyone else. Race/ethnicity played no part at all in Britain's decision to go north.

Also, where are you getting your info about that specific ultimatum? Google is unhelpful :p.

Really though, it wasn't Britain that wanted to expand as such. It was more the pressure that Cecil Rhodes and the South Africa Company were putting on the government.

Basically, I don't see a way Portugal can get thew Pink Map unless you butterfly away Rhodes and have the British colonial movement focus on some other piece of land. Perhaps even if S. Africa became independent in the latter 19th Century or early 20th Century Portugal could buy the territory? In my mind, the Pink Map is really a lost cause.
 
White as anyone else: not hardly. The British were appalled by the "loose morals" of Portuguese colonialists (viz., sometimes marrying their native mistresses and giving their half-caste children near equality to whites), and conspired to split their colonies with Germany.

(That's a WI I've never seen: the negotiations with Germany, which OTL were secret and lasted intermittently from 1898 to 1913, reach a successful conclusion. German Mozambique and British Angola!)

Rhodes was certainly the point man, but there was broad popular support (whipped on by the newspapers) for shoving the Portuguese out of the way.

Some guy did a masters dissertation on the Pink Map crisis a while back. Part of it is available online if you dig a bit.


Doug M.
 

yourworstnightmare

Banned
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Actually the British were seriously plotting to force Portugal to put their Colonial Empire under LoN supervision (e.g. mandates) during the inter- war era and perhaps even force them to give up Angola to Weimar Germany.
 
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