Talk:Mittelafrika

Babel Fish Translation of German Entry
The figuration of the colony "German central Africa" was one at the most persistent pursued German war goal in the First World War. A central goal of the German colonial policy was as closed a colonial empire as possible in Central Africa by land bridges between the colonies East Africa, southwest Africa and Cameroon. In the GermanBritish negotiations for the allocation of the Portuguese and Belgian Africa possessions there were first concrete plans. In July 1913 the partners agreed on the requirement of Germany on Angola, except the border area to Nordrhodesien, as well as on Sao Tomé and Principe, while England stressed Mozambique up to the Lugenda. A suggestion of the undersecretary of state of the office for realm colonial William Heinrich Solf on cutting the Belgian Congo, with Katanga and the extreme northeast at England, the region north the Congo at France, as well as a broad connection between Angola and German East Africa to the realm, failed in the long run because of the British resistance. Requirements against indebted Portugal to intersperse, appeared evenly much easier, than against economically prosperierende Belgium. A further suggestion of Solf, which sketched a concrete central Africa project in August and September 1914, was the "distribution of the African colonies of France, Belgium and Portugal", which finally included realm chancellors Bethmann Hollweg into its September program. The new closed centralAfrican colonial empire of Germany should cover the following areas: Angola, the north half of Mozambique, the Belgian Congo, south with the copper pits Katangas as most valuable einzelobjekt, French equatorial Africa up to the height of the Chad lake, Dahomé and the area the Niger elbow to Timbuktu. This project of the creation of a "connected centralAfrican colonial empire" remained, in some ranges still strongly extended, from now on in principle a component of the official German war goals. In the spring 1918 Solf even the demands of the German colonial association agrees. After these demands should become German: the "river basins Senegal and the Niger and south from these to the sea" (thus with Nigeria), apart from the old demands in Central Africa; - the rule by the cape Verde up to the Oranje in the west, Nordrhodesien, north Mozambique, Uganda, Kenya, Madagascar, the Comoros and Djibouti in the east. At bases for the preservation of the future world realm the admiral staff demanded the Azores, Dakar with Senegambien in May 1917 as hinterland (in another place also Cape Verdian and Kanari islands as well as larva Irish Republican Army), Valona or the right to use for Cattaro or Alexandrette, Réunion, Osttimor, Neukaledonien, Yap and Tahiti. Altogether the "central Africa project" and the stuetzpunktprogramm in the German war goal politics played however only a subordinated role, believed one nevertheless, it by a victory in Europe as to be reached automatically. On the other hand the goal central Africa in the further run the war of liberally gesinnten politicians more and more than spare and a diverson goal for the nation, away by wild demands for annex ion in Europe, used. Colonies were for Germany rather Aufputz and expression its (world)Macht. the German concepts for a closed central Africa expected the visible proof of the German weltmacht from their implementation and counted that central Africa would attain the meaning for Germany, the India for England had. But heavy industry and banks had already before the war little interest in "colonial empires, which lay in the moon", shown and pushed on the European expansion.59.167.14.237 07:49, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

Map
The German Wikipedia has a map which should be uploaded to Commons. Punkmorten 18:14, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

The map in German Wikipedia differs significantly from what I suspect is the narrower definition I've come across. I suppose I could use my limited grasp of German and my little German dictionary to translate from the German Wikipedia, but I think the article would be better served by someone with a more proficient grasp of the language. TwoFingerPushUp 02:03, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

The African Queen
This is the political background to The African Queen, is it not? --Wetman 06:39, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

The historical context section of that article is quite illustrative. As mentioned in the first paragraph of that section, the film and novel's focus on Britain's offensive war into German East Africa reflects the British geostrategic desire to create an uninterrupted vertical line of colonies from Egypt to South Africa. It's an interesting corollary to Germany's Mittelafrika in that it reveals the other side's aims and why German and British colonial aims in Africa were physically mutually exclusive. TwoFingerPushUp 08:29, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Image
I added a picture of my own devising, is it accurate? Obviously remove if not, but at least it's something. HawkerTyphoon 07:14, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, this is probably the main issue with this article as the exact area the German leadership saw as attainable and which parts of it it was prepared to concede fluctuated. The same problem of any foreign policy which doesn't materialise even in a limited sense. I have no objections to the map. Anyone with a stronger opinion on it though should feel free to register their position. TwoFingerPushUp 08:29, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

That's a map with modern political boundaries (for example, Walvisbaai isn't exempted and Kamerun doesn't look quite right). Since the focus is on the period around World War I, a map reflecting the political boundaries of the time would be more suitable. 59.167.14.237 14:30, 21 May 2007 (UTC)

The African borders in this map would be okay if Walvisbaai were added. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/de/Imperial4.PNG 121.44.37.59 05:08, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

External links modified (February 2018)
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