Zionist Uganda

[Kidblast]

By 1927 Kenay had a popualtion of 2,736,500, Uganda had a population of 3,157,100 and Tanzania 4,797,000.

Which gives them a combined popualtion of 10,690,600.

Add in Rwanda at 1,498,000 and we have 12,188,600.

This Dominion has a Jewish popualtion of 10.1 million by 1924.

Edit: I forgot to add in Zambia for 1,244,800 which takes us upto 13,432,600.

Second Edit: Also if Zambia is being added to East Africa then I imagine Malawi will have to be as well which add another 1,293,500.

Which takes us up to 14,725,600.

A sixty percent majority for the natives.

This Jewish homeland will before long have a majority of non ethnic Jews and most likely Christians.

Still, I think many natives would convert if they were allowed. That might tip the scales in favor of the Jews.

Whether or not they are allowed to convert is a different story.

Having the enfranchisement based on property would probably be more likely at first, since otherwise there would be natives who have never even seen white men before voting.

Probably something like the Eastern Cape's system before Apartheid.

 

[Darkling]

Still, I think many natives would convert if they were allowed. That might tip the scales in favor of the Jews.

Whether or not they are allowed to convert is a different story.

A fair number of them would already have been Christian though, Buganda-Uganda had already had a religious war between Protestants and Catholics 15 years before this colony is settled and 25 years before it comes into Jewish possession.

There had been Christian missionaries around the Nyasa Lake a half century before this Jewish Dominion is setup and about 70 years before they join the Jewish dominion.

I don’t recall off hand what missionary activities happened in Kenya but I imagine there was at least some infrastructure already there,. I’m not so sure about the Germans though (the British tended to go in for “improving” the natives whilst the Germans just preferred to force them to work and shoot them if they didn’t).

Having the enfranchisement based on property would probably be more likely at first, since otherwise there would be natives who have never even seen white men before voting.

Probably something like the Eastern Cape's system before Apartheid.

Exactly.

 

[Max Sinister]

In the long run, things might also develop as in Israel - where the Arab population is growing faster than the Jewish one.

 

[Glen]

Well, Uganda and Kenya weren't utterly empty lands like Palestine was at the turn of the last century. Something different was bound to happen.

Utterly empty? What are you talking about? That region has been continuously inhabited and a major crossroads for the past 9000 years!

 

[Glen]

Well, why not? There is a horrendously bad anti-semetic outbreak in Russia, and the Uganda Plan does its job-it gives the Jews of Russia a refuge. With millions of people flowing into Uganda, and no reason for the British to stop it (I mean, how many oil rich Arab states are going to be angry at that?), the settlements expand from Uganda, the Mau plateau, and coastal Kenya into a major democratic nation.

Its true that there would be less resistance from the British for Jewish settlement in Uganda.

I really do like where this is going, btw. While I disagree a bit to how you have L-V losing (actually, you could just say he got caught between the South Africans and the Jews, having to fight significant opposition on two fronts might be too much even for wily L-V), it actually would explain possibly his immigration. He won't become a general or hero that Hitler dare not touch, so he might have to get out of dodge quickly if he becomes too vociferous against Hitler (which he might).

Boy, imagine the South Africa/Uganda diamond pipeline. De Beers mines them and the Jews in Uganda cut them....

I like the idea of Uganda becoming an open immigration site for Jews fleeing Europe. That really will spike up the population.

However, it is simply unrealistic to believe almost all the Jews will get out in time. The poor will not, nor the old who are too settled to change, nor some who just can't cope with the changes.

So there will still be some Jews for Hitler to 'punish' for the war. Maybe only a few million total die in the genocide, rather than OTL 10-20 million?

That should be enough to really piss off the Israeli Expeditionary Force. Israeli Commandos versus Waffen SS in the last days of the War...way cool...

Oh yeah, and the Jews dropping a nuke on Hitler's bunker might not be a bad touch.

Being in Africa really does give them better access to uranium, and safe haven to develop it.

 

[Glen]

This Dominion doesn’t have the resources to create its own atomic weapon, at the very least they would need to go to the British for cooperation, if not turn the program over to them entirely.

It’s worth pointing out that most of the early work necessary for a bomb was done in Britain by British (and commonwealth) scientists so any commonwealth research into nuclear physics is probably going to be drawn there

As for Einstein’s letter, it was written by Szilárd, who came up with and pursued the idea of a chain reaction whilst in London (where he registered the idea with the admiralty so it could be protected under their secrecy laws) he would probably still follow this path but figuring out uranium for use in bombs by 1937 and getting a program going are a little out there.

Ah, but with a huge reservoir of nuclear physicists in a safe location away from the fighting, why not move the development program to Uganda, supported by the Empire. The Empire foots the bill, but the work gets finished in Uganda (or Israel). It will be a 'British/Jewish' bomb.

 

[David bar Elias]

Thank you all very much for the critism. I'll go back and try to sort the problems out before I put it in the TL sections......

 

[David bar Elias]

Since several major flaws were pointed out, I've decided to start again:

1905:

The Seventh Zionist Congress votes to accept the British Uganda Plan (due to even worse anti-semitism in Russia after the end of the Russo-Japanese War). Several armed expeditionary forces are organized, with British approval, to scout out the site for a major settlement on the Mau Plateau (due to the presence of lions and the Massai).

An armed expedition arrives on the Mau Plateau. Ground is broken for what will one day become the city of New Akko. Accompanying the expedition are the first 50 colonists (mostly Russian and Polish Jews). Skirmishes with the Massai are common, although many of the lions killed before they can become much of a threat.

A second group of 300 Russian Jews arrives in Kampala, Uganda. Another armed expedition accompanies them. In Basel, the Jewish Territorialist Organization (ITO) is founded to recruit more colonists. As the pogroms in Russia see no signs of ebbing, many recuits are found. By the beginning of 1906, some 12,000 Jews have immigrated to both Kampala and New Akko.

1906:

The first Orthodox synagogues are completed in both Kampala and New Akko. At this time, the British authorities under Dr. David Bruce in Uganda are attempting to deal with an outbreak of sleeping sickness, a disease spread by the tetse fly. The outbreak of this disease sends many of the new settlers to New Akko instead.

The Massai attempt to overwealm New Akko several times, but are defeated by the armed members of the expeditionary force. Finally, later in the year, the citizens of New Akko and the Massai reach an agreement to forstall more violence. The settlers recognize the rights of the Massai to use a large portion of the Mau Plateau for their cattle grazing, while the Massai agree to recognize the establishment of several mid-sized kibbutzim (communal farms), which don't interfere with the Massai, as well as to recognize the Jewish holdings in the 5,000 square acres. The Jews also agree to trade with the Massai....things such as tools. This represents a major breakthrough for the Jews, and serves as the basis for dealing with the natives in the future.

Immigration ships from Eastern Europe arrive at the port of Mombassa. Wagons, escorted by ITO-funded guards, the nucleus of the future Jewish Defence League. The completion of the Kampala-Mombassa Line will help ease transportation difficulties greatly. Many Jewish immigrants simply stay in and around Mombassa in this early period of time.

1907:

The first great year of immigration. Some 500,000 Russian and Eastern European Jews immigrate to both Uganda and Kenya. In addition to New Akko and Kampala, sizable Jewish communities have been established in Mombassa, Kenya, and in Jinja, Entebbe, Masaka, and Port Bell, Uganda. Many shetls in Eastern Europe simply move together to East Africa. This year also sees another 450,000 Jews immigrate to the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa.

The influx of new colonists is not without its problems. Many Bantu tribes in Uganda are hostile to the new colonists. The appease this anger, many Jews (especially those from the urban centers of the Russian Empire) begin opening schools for the native children. While not religious like the Christian missionary schools, some ideas do rub off. Roads, such as Herzl Road (linking Masaka and Jinja) begin to sping up. The Kampala-Mombassa Line is jump started by the influx of willing labor. It's completion will alow for much more rapid colonization of the surrounding coutryside.

Things are further complicated by the presence of Christian missionaries, many of whom resent the large Jewish presence. Tensions between tribes that have converted to Catholism and Protestant faiths causes outbreaks of violence in northern Uganda. Many Jews stay in the south part of the colony, hugging Lake Victoria.

The British are appreciative, for the most part, of having such a loyal group of colonists, who now outnumber all of the other whites in Uganda combined.

In addition to schools, Jewish doctors open clinics that treat both Jew and African alike. This helps to ebb the sleeping sickness.

In late 1907, Kampala is renamed Tel Aviv ("hill of spring"). The name originates with Nahum Sokolow, the Secretary General of the World Zionist Congress (now a resident of this city). It symbolizes the Jewish dream of renewal and protection in a dangerous world.....

 

[David bar Elias]

1908-1909:

The major new development this year is the foundation of the Jewish Defence Forces (JDF). Founded by Joseph Trumpledor (who now lives in New Akko instead of Palestine in TTL), the JDF is formed to protect the lives of Jewish property, which had come under attack from the Christian tribes in Uganda. Armed with British weapons, and JDF begins patrolling the outskirts of the Uganda and Kenya settlements.

The JDF faces its first real baptism of fire that same year. In reaction to the growing number of Jewish colonists, the Central-Sudanic (also known as the Nilo-Hamitic) peoples of northern Uganda begin a revolt against the British. Centered mostly around the towns of Gulu, Lira, and Soroti, the fighters cause quite a bit of trouble, until late 1908, when Trumpledor leads the JDF into northern Uganda. Bribing several tribes into helping him, Trumpledor crushes the main rebel force at the Battle of Gulu on November 21, 1908. The grateful British authorities allow Trumpledor to build a massive fortification-Fort Maccabee-in the town of Gulu.

It's later revealed that a few nefarious Christian missionaries secretly encouraged the revolt. Ironically, the end result of this revolt is that missionary activity is curbed by the colonial government of Uganda (now completely dominated by the Jewish immigrants).

Another two million Jews from Eastern, southern, and central Europe immigrate to both Kenya and Uganda from 1908 to 1909. Situated mostly in the Mau Plateau, coastal Kenya (especially around Mombassa), and southern Uganda, the Jews bring about many changes in Britain's East African territories.

For one, Yiddish, along with Swahilli, is becoming the language of trade in both Kenya and Uganda. The Tel Aviv-Fort Maccabee Railway is completed in mid-1909, facilitating greater travel. The Jews continue to reach out to the natives of both Kenya and Uganda, especially in north Uganda. Schools, hospitals, universities, sewage treatment, urban renewal, and agricultural advancements are comming to East Africa.

The British colonials tend to look down at the Jewish effort to improve the lives of the African residents (in OTL, the British tended to learn Swahili rather than teach English). But if they really want to bother......

Meanwhile, the ITO is now working on recruiting more and more skilled Jews from Western Europe to immigrate to East Africa. Most of this new immigration comes from France and Great Britain herself. The French Jews still have sour memories of the Dreyfuss Affair, after all.

By June 1, 1909, some 2.7 million Jews now call Kenya and Uganda home. In Britain, there is talk of granting both Kenya and Uganda dominion status as the Dominion of East Africa, due to the higher percentage of white immigrants than in OTL.

Inspired by the succeses of the Jewish colonies in East Africa, the colonial governments of Upper and Lower Rhodesia invite the Jews to form settlements in those two British colonies. Some 77,000 Jews take this opportunity, mostly younger and more adventurous Jews. They take their idealistic notions with them when dealing with the natives.

Although this whole thing began as a temporary program to house Russian Jews, East Africa is now one of the major focal points of Jewish life. Why go to the swamp-ridden and barren land of Palestine when there are thriving cities, shetls, settlements, and kibbutzim in the verdant lands of East Africa?......

 

[Darkling]

Ah, but with a huge reservoir of nuclear physicists in a safe location away from the fighting, why not move the development program to Uganda, supported by the Empire. The Empire foots the bill, but the work gets finished in Uganda (or Israel). It will be a 'British/Jewish' bomb.

It depends whether Israel has the infrastructure for this project, the British discussed setting up the bomb project (when Britain was still planning on having their own program) in Canada but it was determined the necessary infrastructure wasn't there, if Canada can't manage it then I have my doubts about Israel.

Either way as you say it would still require British involvement (the Israel PM might bring the project to Britain's attention so they could certainly get in on the action), perhaps it would be the Israeli PM raising the issue, a true commonwealth science team inventing the bomb (in OTL the British team was focused around an Australian who was mentored by a Kiwi, so here we have Australians, British, an Irishman possibly and some nominally Israeli citizens), built in Britain with uranium form Canada and Africa and tested in Australia.

It would certainly be a good advertisement for Imperial cooperation.

 

[David bar Elias]

Israel's proximity to the Belgian Congo's Uranium certainly doesn't hurt either.....

 

[Glen]

It depends whether Israel has the infrastructure for this project, the British discussed setting up the bomb project (when Britain was still planning on having their own program) in Canada but it was determined the necessary infrastructure wasn't there, if Canada can't manage it then I have my doubts about Israel.

Either way as you say it would still require British involvement (the Israel PM might bring the project to Britain's attention so they could certainly get in on the action), perhaps it would be the Israeli PM raising the issue, a true commonwealth science team inventing the bomb (in OTL the British team was focused around an Australian who was mentored by a Kiwi, so here we have Australians, British, an Irishman possibly and some nominally Israeli citizens), built in Britain with uranium form Canada and Africa and tested in Australia.

It would certainly be a good advertisement for Imperial cooperation.

What you need is excellent optics, a good energy source (hydroelectric), and scientific laboratories. If the Jews hop to it, they could have most of it in place by the late 1930s.

 

[David bar Elias]

1910:

A huge year for Africa, as Great Britain grants dominion status to both South Africa (as the Union of South Africa), and East Africa (Kenya and Uganda, now home to almost 3 million Jews). The Jews prove to be excellent agents for the British when dealing with the natives, as they tend to be the only whites that the natives trust. East Africa's capital will be the city of Nairobi. Another one million immigrants, mostly from Russia and Poland, settle in East Africa this year. Africa is being advertised effectively by the ITO as a paradise. They've even inspired many of the old Zionist settlers of Palestine (those left over from the Aliyahs) to settle in East Africa.

In Uganda, a concerted effort is made to eradicate the tetse fly, by draining the swamps and brackish water that permeates many areas of the former colony. This also ends up eradicating malaria from the area as well (as happened with yellow feaver in Panama and Cuba in OTL). This helps to ease remaining tensions with the northern tribes, who appreciate the Jewish outreach to them.

Chaim Wietzman has now settled in the Jewish settlement of Herzlberg (just outside of Mombassa). He starts the Wietzman School of Agriculture (now the Wietzman Institute of Technology), which is open to Jews, Africans, and Asians alike. Mombassa, now a major Indian Ocean trading port, is home to some of the first light industry in East Africa, as Jewish industrialists begin employing Asians and Blacks in textile factories, creating the nexus of a highly skilled workforce.

Marc Chagall has now settled in New Jerusalem. His paintings from now on combine African and Jewish styles with great liberty.

Meanwhile, another 100,000 Jews, mostly spillovers from the old Ugandan colonies, immigrate to Upper and Lower Rhodesia. Their presence eases tensions with the natives, to the delight of the British colonial agents. Many come due to the overcrowding that the new Russian and Polish immigrants are causing.

Joseph Trumpledor enlarges the JDF, and reorganizes it. The JDF sees its first African recruits, drawn mainly from the recently converted Bantus of Uganda, where the Jewish investment in their well-being is starting to pay off. [It should be noted that while the Jewish faith has strong adversity to conversions, they don't try to stop gentiles from converting on their own]. The British are shocked by the idea of blacks serving in the same regiments as whites, but Trumpledor states that the JDF is religiously bound to accept all qualified Jewish applicants, wherever they may be from. Cavalry sqadrons are added, and Trumpledor keeps his men drilled constantly, to be on the watch for native uprisings (which, due to the positive Jewish interactions, have not happened). Still, it never hurts to be prepared.....

Overall East African policies towards Africans is more modeled on South Africa's system, with enfrancisement comming with property holdings (and in the case of the Jews, education as well). This policy will liberalize quite a lot over the next couple of decades....

Nairobi's name is changed to New Jerusalem, after an influx of some 300,000 new Polish Jews tips the scales in favor of a Jewish majority. This move symbolizes the new faith that the Jews have in their new homeland. It also shows just how much of a backwater Palestine has become. Many former Palestinian settlers are immigrating to East Africa, after all.

The New Jerusalem-Mombassa-Tel Aviv Railway is completed, allowing for a booming trade economy. The Massai continue to roam with their cattle heards unabated, and have largely kept their word of the bargain. They've even allowed the Jews to purchase another 3,500 acres on the Mau plateau, in exchange for more of the well-made tools, and that well made cattle feed from Chaim Weitzman's laborotories [he was a major botonist in OTL, and takes this even further in TTL].......

 

[David bar Elias]

I hope I've made my TL more palatable.....

 

[Darkling]

What you need is excellent optics, a good energy source (hydroelectric), and scientific laboratories. If the Jews hop to it, they could have most of it in place by the late 1930s.

And a considerable amount of cash and the appropriate electric and manufacturing industries.

As for electricity, Oakridge consumed 1/7th of all the electrical power in the US, if Israel and the US had roughly the same per capita power then it would take all of Israel’s power plus some more.

 

[Glen]

Hydroelectric dynamos at Victoria Falls?

 

[ComradeFlyer]

what about the Haredim and people like the Gush Emunim?

while i can see the secular Jews going to Uganda, i don't think that you'd convince the ultra-orthodox Jews that make up the Haredim and the Gush Emunim settler movements to give up their hope for Israel in Palestine. The Gush Emunim especially, believe that occupying the land of Israel is the first step in redemption on the road to a Torah based society.

That is something Uganda cannot offer.

 

[David bar Elias]

Well, they're the ones who stay in Palestine, while the secularists move on to East Africa.....

 

[Darkling]

Hydroelectric dynamos at Victoria Falls?

Which adds time and money to the project and it takes us back to Canada being abandoned, it isn't exactly a place which lacks hydroelectric potential but the British determined that it was better to stick with Britain because Canada didn't have the necessary infrastructure, if it had been easy to build the necessary infrastructure they would most likely have gone with it.

Israel’s electrical industry is going to be around ¼ the size of Britain’s (this is assuming Israel actually builds one up to the same per capita level as Britain which seems unlikely given they are only a few decades off the boat) and their electricity generating ability will be roughly the same, Israel fails to be suitable for the same reasons Canada did.

 

[Max Sinister]

One moment. I thought it was the more orthodox Jews who didn't want to settle in Palestine because they believed they're only supposed to go there after Moshiach has come?