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Blood, Iron and Africa, A Fascist South AfricAAR

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A price must be paid. Time to see what the bill for this new state is.
 
Wow. A bloody end for quite a number of the people history holds dear!

Now what will the Boers do with their new state? I think you're right (or de la Ray) about having an awesome responsiblity to govern the disparate territory.

Rensslaer
 
Just the deaths will make a huge change without the Boer south Africa. I wonder how this state will effect WWI and maybe Lord Halifax will be the British PM leading to some interesting results...
 
Extract from Year 12 History II, The 20th Century


From Independance to World War One, A History of The Union of South Africa​

As the 20th Century dawned, one of the most momentous and important events of the world stage was the defeat of the English forces in the Boer or Independance War. In both strength of arms and diplomacy the British were convincingly defeated, final casualties for the conflict which lasted only slightly over one year stand at around 23, 000 British dead and a further 32, 000 captured or wounded. The British army found itself woefully equiped to fight a war both against a well equipped and trained Boer army coupled with Boer guirilla fighters who in the first months of the war succeeded in completley rupturing the British chain of communication through the sabotage of railways and telegraph lines.

The first years of the Union of South Africa were peacefull, the transition from British to Boer rule was supprisingly smooth. Realising that many British citizens possessed the much needed skills to enhance the mining industry, the newly elected President of the National Volksraad or Parliament, Paul Kruger, granted equal rights for all British citizens. In addition many British corporations such as the massive company built by Cecil Rhodes were invited to remain in South Africa. Drawn by the potential for huge proffits from the booming gold and diamond industry, greed often outwieghed any sense of duty to ones nation, and these British companies would later provide both the expertise and the manpower to expand the Unions fledgling industrial base.

In the years leading up to the First World War, South Africa underwent a period of major industrial expansion. The fledgling government had offered free passage to any French, German or Dutch citizen wishing to immigrate to the new nation resulting in some two million arrivals between the years 1904 and 1914, nearly doubling the population of the country. South Africa was seen by many as a working mans paradise, work on the expanding mines was easy to come by and wages were good. In addition to the mines, other heavy industries were significantly enhanced, namley the railroad and armaments sectors. Railroads opened the vast epanses of the High Veld to new farmers, and in the space of only ten years the nation had become one of the primary producers of wheat and wool on the world market as immigrants poured in to take advantage of cheep land and government subsidies to new farmers.

By the outbreak of World War One, South Africa had been transformed from a collection of Boer Republics and British colonies into a prosperous and thriving young nation. Paul Kruger served as President untill his death in 1910, and following his death Field Marshal Louis Botha, the head of the Unions professional military (All men aged 18 and over were obliged to complete 8 months of military training followed by a further two weeks every year, however the regular army was composed completley of volunteers) was voted in as the second President of the Union on the 7th of September 1910. Despite his reputation as a ruthless leader during the Independence War Botha steered his nation away from what he saw as the growing stormclouds over Europe. He gradualy weaned his government off the grants and loans from Germany and the Neatherlands and despite numerious offers, declined to bring his nation into the Alliance which now formaly bound Germany, Austria, Italy and Holland.

Botha's isolationist policy would be shown to be prudent as Europe errupted into war following the assasination of the Austrian Arch-Duke Ferdinand by Serbian nationalists in August 1914. Germany and the Netherlands launched attacks into Belgium and France, inciting England to declair war on the Central Powers to honour a century old defensive alliance with the Belgians.
While initialy the war went well for Germany and her allies, the English naval blockaide of German ports slowly strangled the Empires economy. The Germans had also

While the European war slowly developed into a war of attrition in the trenches of France, in Africa the British made gains into German holdings. In a rare return to his former firebrand style, Botha moved South African troops into the German colony of Namibia, claiming South Africa would hold the territory untill the conclusion of hostilities before returning it to Germany. The British were understandably outraged, the South African government offered all German citizens and soldiers safe passage back to Europe or the opportunity to take up South African citizenship, the majority chose the latter, South Africa had effectivley doubled in size and brought a wealth of new resources under its control.

Germany had been counting on a second front being opened in Africa after courting the Ottoman Empire to join the Central Powers, however revolts in Palestine and Iraq prevented the Sick Man of Europe from entering into any formal alliance. Despite gains against the Russians, the war in Europe was to end in defeat for Germany and her allies. Peace was harsh for the defeated parties, Germany was stripped of her colonial holdings and despite Botha's assurances that South West Africa would be returned to Germany, the Treaty of Versailles officialy recognised the South African annexation of the territory.

Thus South Africa entered the inter war years as a rich and growing nation with a population numbering some 8 million citizens of European origin, and it would be during this period that both great prosperity and great changes came to the Union.
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not much involvment for south africa in ww1 except for claiming of Namibia...part of your sentence got cut off i think..
 
Iron-Chef said:
the Alliance which now formaly bound Germany, Austria, Italy and Holland.
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The Netherlands in the Central Alliance? Does that mean the Palembang oil fields became Japanese after WW1? I certainly can't see why the Japanese wouldn't have invaded the Dutch East Indies in this WW1, unless the British/ANZAC got there first.
 
Mmm, if I recall properly one of the reasons that started the Boer war was Boer fear of the influx on non-Boer settlers. Perhaps that might be one of the basis of those great changes. This little republic dodged one bullet, I doubt it can dodge a second.
 
Neroon said:
The Netherlands in the Central Alliance? Does that mean the Palembang oil fields became Japanese after WW1? I certainly can't see why the Japanese wouldn't have invaded the Dutch East Indies in this WW1, unless the British/ANZAC got there first.
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Yeah has anything happened to Holland's colonies?

Also I suppose bringing non-Boers in isn't too bad for their ideology at least since most of them are Dutch and German- not a terribly alien influx.
 
What I'm wondering is the proportion of European colonials (I am counting the Boers as this) as compared to the indigenous African population. How many Africans are there in the Union?
 
The Netherlands in the Central Alliance? Does that mean the Palembang oil fields became Japanese after WW1? I certainly can't see why the Japanese wouldn't have invaded the Dutch East Indies in this WW1, unless the British/ANZAC got there first.
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Fearing a Japanese base of influence at such a close range, the Australian government successfuly lobbied at the Treaty of Versailles to allow the Dutch to retain their Colonies in the East Indies, with the exception of West Papua, which together with the confiscated German holidngs on the island and the area already under an Australian mandate became the first Australian colony, Papua New Guinea

I wonder if the occupation of Namibia will have a bad influence on German-South African relations.
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It was either have the colony occupied by an enemy or a "friend", the Germans were in no possition to re-occupy and administer the colony after the end of the war and thus it was granted to South Africa

What I'm wondering is the proportion of European colonials (I am counting the Boers as this) as compared to the indigenous African population. How many Africans are there in the Union?
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There are roughly 3 times as many native Africans as white Europeans, as the European population stands at around 7 million by the end of WWI, the native population may be calculated to stand at around 21 million. However no census is taken as they are not regarded as citizens of the Union, thus numbers may be significantly higher or lower than this estimate.

so now SA is now its historical size
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Saves me unnecisary modding :D
 
Extract from Year 12 History II, The 20th Century

The Roaring 20's​

South Africa emerged from the troubled years of the first world war as with a stable industrial base and a rapidly growing population. Unlike many other developing nations such as Australia, The Union did not have to contend with the logistical nightmare of recovering from a conflict on the scale of the Great War. Indeed it may be argued that the war had an overrall possitive effect for on the nation. For one, the territory of the Union was greatly expanded after the annexation of German South West Africa following the Treaty of Versailles. While largley desert, the territory also brought a further 5000 skilled farmers and miners, former German settlers who had accepted the offer of South African citizenship following the annexation, and new mineral resources, including wealthy diamond mines.

It would be the massive mineral wealth of the Union that would fuel its massive growth throughout the years of the "Roaring 20's" In the victorious nations the new phenomenon of comercialism drove up the price of gold, silver and diamonds to record levels. The United States of America alone would purchase an estimated 70% of the gold mined in the Union over the 10 year period of presperity from 1919 to 1929 to fuel an insatiable demand for jewelry. Diamonds and copper, also resources found in abundance recorded huge sales during this period as expanding industries demanded raw materials pushing the Gross Domestic Product of the Union passed that of both Australia and Canada combined by the year 1925.

The Government under Lois Botha reinvested heavily in infrastructure and industry, attempting to model the industrialisation of the new nation on the great success that had been Japan earlier that century. Unemployment was non-existant and new migrants from Germany in the post war years were welcomed with open arms as factories fell well short of their required staff. The dark underside of this apparent success story was the terrible mistreatment of the Black residence of the Union. Regarded as an under-class and not counted on any official census, many Blacks were forced to work for miniscule wages in the mines, factories and expanding roads and railways.

In the years after the war, the South African government was able to entice many German companies to open significant research and production centres in and around the growing cities of Pretoria and Cape Town. In 1923 the under a secret pact brokered by the foriegn minister and another Independance War veteran Koos De la Rey, Krupp, Daimler-Benz, Junkers and Mauser Works all opened extensive facilities inside South Africa where they were given the task of aiding in the modernisation of the Unions military and given the opportunity to experiment on weapons banned inside Germany following the Treaty of Versailles.

By the year of the Wall Street Crash, 1929, the Union had emerged as a beakon of success on the African continent. The Government programs of the 20's had irrigated and put under farms thousands of acres of African bush and vastly expanded the industrial base of the nation. The population had further expanded from some 7 million white settlers at the end of the First World War to just under 11 million by 1929, comparible to the population of Canada in the same time period.

The Wall Street Crash however heralded the end of the huge prosperity of the 20's, with 70% of their gold market suddenly evaporated overnight, Botha (who was now serving his fourth 4 year term as President) faced a massive crisis. However the government had amassed significant cash reserves over the good years despite massive spending and so unemployment was negligable compaired to other nations as the nationaly owned mines and factories continued to employ the working population. At its highest unemployment reached a mere 10 percent, while in nations such as the US this climbed as high as 40 percent. However with little or no market for diamonds and gold, the Union found itself now sitting on a huge stockpile of natural resources as the mines continued to function at near full capacity in the years untill 1933.

However, it would be the rising of a new power in Europe that would herald troubled times ahead of the Union. Storm clouds were once again gathering over Germany and as in the past, the histories of the two nations were to be innexorably linked.
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hmm....hitler is to gain influence in south africa...well of course it says it in the title, facist south africa :p so will those german companies be tech teams in south africa?
 
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