Africa
From Turtledove
Africa is widely regarded in the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae tree.
Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Because of the lack of natural regular precipitation and irrigation as well as glaciers or mountain aquifer systems, there is no natural moderating effect on the climate except near the coasts.
Contents |
[edit] Africa in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Africa was divided up by the Greater German Reich and its allies. As of 2010, Germany occupied the former British, French and Belgian colonies while Italy, Portugal and Spain retained their pre-war colonies and may have expanded them.
The Reich and Italy inflicted genocide on the native black and Arab populations on a scale similar to the destruction of the Jews in Europe and North America, the Slavs in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and the Arabs in the Middle East. What saved Black Africans and Arabs from utter extinction was not any remorse or humanitarian considerations (at least, no Nazi expressed such feelings openly) but pure economic calculations: it was little use to boast that the Reich constituted the largest empire in human history, if it depopulated these territories to the point where there was no one to work in the exploitation of their natural resources. Moreover, Germany faced steep economic competition from its former military ally Japan, which made highly effective use of "The oceans of cheap Chinese labor" at its disposal.
The only independent country in Africa was the Union of South Africa which was ruled by white South Africans and was an ally of the Reich. Non-Aryan South Africans, precisely because of being subject to a home-grown racist regime with its own well-established racial criteria, were exposed to "no more" than continuing Apartheid.
[edit] Africa in Southern Victory
Africa was carved up by the European powers in the late 19th century. During the Great War, natives of Africa were summoned to fight in the trenches of Europe. After the war, defeated Belgium ceded the Congo to Germany linking German territories across central Africa from west to east.
[edit] Africa in Worldwar
Africa was quickly conquered by the Race's Conquest Fleet. The Race would establish colonies throughout the continent, but its main focus was North Africa, due to its large desert area and high temperature. Their capital on Tosev 3 was located in Cairo, Egypt, on the African continent.
In South Africa, the Race was supported by the black population, tired of the Apartheid system. (This approach worked well in Poland, and to an extent in the Middle East.)
[edit] Africa in The Two Georges
After resolving a major crisis in the late 1700's, retaining and greatly extending their territory in North America, and adding the vast protectorates of the Ottoman Empire and China to their lucrative rule over India, the British tacitly assented to their Franco-Spanish rivals taking up, during the 19th Century, the bulk of the African continent. This diverted the Holy Alliance’s main energy away from areas which the British considered more vital, and averted any further major war between them after the 1840's when the British captured the northern part of Nueva España and fixed the border of the North American Union on the line of the Rio Grande River.
Thus, the vast Franco-Spanish African territories constituted a solid block extending from the Mediterranean Sea all the way southwards to the border of British South Africa - to which should be added Angola and Mozambique, colonies of Portugal which was in effect a Franco-Spanish satellite. Rule over most of Africa, added to the older possessions of South and Central America via its Spanish component, provided the main basis for the Franco-Spanish Holy Alliance to be counted among the world's three big powers.
Aside from South Africa, direct British rule in Africa was restricted to relatively narrow strips along the continent's Western and Eastern shores. Collectively, these were known as the African Possessions. In addition, the Ottoman African provinces of Egypt, Sudan and Cyrenaica had British residents overseeing the Ottoman governors. Ethiopia was a special case, a protectorate subject administratively to British India rather than directly to London, and with the native Royal Family keeping a considerable amount of autonomy.
