What British territory(ies ) would have been worth trading for Deutsche OstAfrika-Tanganyika?

What British territory(ies ) would have been worth trading for Deutsche OstAfrika-Tanganyika?

  • a) Nigeria

    Votes: 4 19.0%
  • b) Gold Coast

    Votes: 4 19.0%
  • c) Southern New Guinea

    Votes: 10 47.6%
  • d) British Borneo

    Votes: 3 14.3%
  • e) British Somaliland

    Votes: 4 19.0%
  • f) Kenya

    Votes: 1 4.8%
  • g) Only much smaller territories (Sierra Leone, Gambia, Gilbert or Phoenix islands)

    Votes: 7 33.3%

  • Total voters
    21

raharris1973

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....prior to WWI.

Britain desired German Tanganyika to link its African colonies from the Cape to Cairo in a contiguous territorial block. Once WWI started, British officials started to call it a desirable acquisition in late 1914 or early 1915, and ultimately Britain conquered the territory and received a mandate over it post war. The territory had a perceived strategic value for the British Empire, even though the vision of an actual Cape-to-Cairo railroad was never realized.

Prior to the outbreak of WWI, if either the Germans or the British broached the subject of Germany ceding Tanganyika to Britain as part of a territorial exchange, was there any British territory that was sufficiently dispensable to Britain, for Britain to offer it to Germany in exchange. Would any of the territories Britain might have considered offering been considered sufficiently valuable for the Germans to say yes to a swap?
 
Considering that Nigeria, the Gold Coast and Kenya were the only British colonies to make any money, while German East Africa ran a net loss, I doubt Britain would be stupid enough to exchange any of them for it. Also Kenya's sort of necessary for the Cape-Cairo railway to be feasible, since its way easier to build there than in Uganda.
 
How badly does Britain want Tanganyika? That's going to affect the price they're willing to pay and what colonies would be seen as worth trading for it. I voted for Southern New Guinea simply because it wasn't economically important and contiguity - Germany already owning Northern New Guinea means that they're not inserted into any new areas.


The territory had a perceived strategic value for the British Empire, even though the vision of an actual Cape-to-Cairo railroad was never realized.
IIRC that was a pet idea of Cecil Rhodes than any official one, being a prestige project with little real economic justification - hence why it never occured. I suppose the easiest justification for the British government wanting Tanganyika is that he manages to have the ear of enough politicians.

Of course it would have been much easier if the British government had backed William McKinnon in the late 1870s.
 

raharris1973

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Considering that Nigeria, the Gold Coast and Kenya were the only British colonies to make any money,

Were they really? I always hear differing lists of the "only ones to make money". So much probably depends on what particular year you are asking about. For example, I've heard that Malaya and Palestine were the only colonies to make money.

Also Kenya's sort of necessary for the Cape-Cairo railway to be feasible, since its way easier to build there than in Uganda.

Why is Kenya easier than Uganda? Is Kenya more savanna and Uganda more forest?
 

raharris1973

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I voted for Southern New Guinea simply because it wasn't economically important and contiguity - Germany already owning Northern New Guinea means that they're not inserted into any new areas.

Good point, although Australia may get livid.

I suppose the easiest justification for the British government wanting Tanganyika is that he manages to have the ear of enough politicians.

It is not unknown for things like that to happen.

Of course it would have been much easier if the British government had backed William McKinnon in the late 1870s.

So was MacKinnon an advocate of British expansion in East Africa, before Karl Peters even became active on behalf of Germany?
 
Why is Kenya easier than Uganda? Is Kenya more savanna and Uganda more forest?
Kenya has the coastal lowlands, which are fairly arid and an unpleasant climate to build a railway. Uganda is more highlands with lots of unpleasant topography to build a railway. However if I recall correctly the break point from horrid semi-desert to horrid hills is actually in Kenya. Read up on the Uganda Railway and you’ll get a good idea what would be involved in that mythical Cairo-cape build.

Personally I can’t see it ever happening unless the British Empire was either vastly richer or in desperate need of a really REALLY big and fatal gulag.
 
Turning over Southern New Guinea will provoke a minor crisis with Australia.
Australia- and previous to federation, Queensland- absolutely had a complex about German encroachment into the islands on its northern approaches, to the point that Queensland had actually gone ahead and annexed New Guinea in 1883 without Colonial Office approval.

British withdrawal from the area, in violation of the assurances its given the colonies, will absolutely inflame tensions. Labor Senator Henry Higgins complained during the South African War that 'while the Lion is engage in South Africa, the [Russian] Bear and the [German] Eagle are at play in the Pacific.'*

The row won't have huge consequences in the short term, save that in the event of a European war Parliament might wait a few days to declare war on its own, but in the long run it will accelerate the growing divide between Australia and the UK.


* I'm quoting from memory, since I don't have my thesis handy.
 
So was Mackinnon an advocate of British expansion in East Africa, before Karl Peters even became active on behalf of Germany?
He was a Scottish businessman who started a successful shipping company in the Indian Odean region and became on good terms with Sultan if Zanzibar. Barghash bin Said being worried about Khedival Egypts expansionary moves south and eastwards offered him a 70-year lease for the customs collection and administration of Zanj, his mainland territories, in the late 1870s. The Sultanate only really controlled the coastal strip from the Rovuma river up to the Tana river but it claimed authority inland as far as the Great Lakes – roughly covering what is nowadays Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. Mackinnon went to the British government about gaining a Royal Charter to establish a chartered company to take up the offer of the lease but whilst initially receptive one of the senior politicians, I forget who, started to get worried that if the Company collapsed the government would have to shoulder the costs of taking over and quietly blocked it. It wasn't a wholly unfounded fear as about a decade later, after the Berlin Conference of 1884-85, Mackinnon was able to gain a Charter for the Imperial British East Africa Company which administered Kenya and Uganda for a while before running into financial trouble.
 
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