What's with this random province of Polish-Croatian(?) Germans in Galicia
https://redd.it/1mzgiex
@tnomod
https://redd.it/1mzgiex
@tnomod
Where would Egor Letov (Soviet punk musician) be in tno considering he was born in Omsk
https://redd.it/1n5vssu
@tnomod
https://redd.it/1n5vssu
@tnomod
Development Diary XXXI: Débrouillez-Vous - Part 2/4
# Congo, Rwanda and Burundi:
https://preview.redd.it/7lhvejpch2ff1.png?width=1131&format=png&auto=webp&s=f7779bc7228df00509c0d80ddac2693e442baa9f
The Congo had spent the war years operating increasingly independently of its legal possessor, now housed in London. The colonial gendarme organized with Allied assistance, followed Allied war plans in East Africa, and shipped raw material with Allied escort to fill Allied orders. Belgium had not disappeared, but it was ever so distant. But, in the first week of Operation Sealion, it simply ceased to exist. Crushed under the rubble of Eaton Square, the Congo was left unpossessed, with a state now largely incapable of legal action.
While paralysis gripped British holdings, the Americans acted swiftly to keep the Congo functioning. 5 weeks is all it took for the creatively named 'État du Congo' to creatively legislate its sovereignty. Although plainly intended as a temporary measure, it long outlasted the war that had spawned it. As Belgian intellectuals arrived on American shores, they and their 'Congo Question' would rub closely with the renewed martyrs of the New Deal. After De Gaulle's rebellion was ejected across the river, the question only became more prescient. Finally, in 1948, Dwight Eisenhower campaigned on the Congo Question, under the influence of men like Spaak and Ryckmans, aiming to redefine the US's strained relationship with the world.
The Model Republic it was titled, the standard by which the whole world would be judged. Cut from the same cloth as the OFN, dressed in the dazzling colors of internationalist liberalism. A defiant corner of Europe's other continent. Old WPAmen stamped a million papers with such phrasing, citizens committees raised funds to send Belgians to Léopoldville, American government and church schools ran the length of its rivers. A founding member of the OFN, crowds would say as Eisenhower opined for 'his little Congo'. However, the realities of the young République du Congo were complicated. The Model Republic, the great corporatocracy, a parliament governed by circles, parties politely worn by the simple interests which composed them. Where the US had the PWA or NLRB, Congo had the Société Générale du Congo, a parastatal unparalleled, composed from the remains of the Belgian institution. Education governed by the Church, Labor governed by its paymasters, all in collaboration. Freedom of movement, of business, of franchise - each were carefully constrained, ordered behind 'certificates' with exams designed for bias. 'Preparation,' it was termed, so that the nation was ready for its freedom.
The economy was ordered in the image of America's New Deal, as a long list of economic packages came to define the relationship between the US and the Congo in the terms of sovereign debt and investment. Under Belgian stewardship the Congo's central economic corridors all drove south, into Angola or Rhodesia, for the Americans, this had to change. The Congo was dotted with public works - bridges, rail expansions, and river ports - each of them intended to redirect the economy towards Matadi, the Congo's key Atlantic port. However, despite these attempts, the Benguela railway, leading to Lobito, in Angola, remains the larger economic thoroughfare. Complicated further, by its ownership - Tanganyika Concessions Limited, one of the very few European companies to still conduct business directly with OFN member nations. Tanks, as it's called, maintains at least parts of its 89-year charter in Katanga, granted in the times of the Free State. As civil government approaches daily life in the rest of the Congo, in Katanga it remains distant, as the CSK, the UMHK and other holdings and siblings of the Société Générale dominate its economy and political life.
For years these affairs continued, loosened ever so slightly, ever so rarely. It was the French State's evacuation of Equatorial Africa that spurned the next great change. Nearly as soon as the French had left, the Congolese had arrived, spearheaded
# Congo, Rwanda and Burundi:
https://preview.redd.it/7lhvejpch2ff1.png?width=1131&format=png&auto=webp&s=f7779bc7228df00509c0d80ddac2693e442baa9f
The Congo had spent the war years operating increasingly independently of its legal possessor, now housed in London. The colonial gendarme organized with Allied assistance, followed Allied war plans in East Africa, and shipped raw material with Allied escort to fill Allied orders. Belgium had not disappeared, but it was ever so distant. But, in the first week of Operation Sealion, it simply ceased to exist. Crushed under the rubble of Eaton Square, the Congo was left unpossessed, with a state now largely incapable of legal action.
While paralysis gripped British holdings, the Americans acted swiftly to keep the Congo functioning. 5 weeks is all it took for the creatively named 'État du Congo' to creatively legislate its sovereignty. Although plainly intended as a temporary measure, it long outlasted the war that had spawned it. As Belgian intellectuals arrived on American shores, they and their 'Congo Question' would rub closely with the renewed martyrs of the New Deal. After De Gaulle's rebellion was ejected across the river, the question only became more prescient. Finally, in 1948, Dwight Eisenhower campaigned on the Congo Question, under the influence of men like Spaak and Ryckmans, aiming to redefine the US's strained relationship with the world.
The Model Republic it was titled, the standard by which the whole world would be judged. Cut from the same cloth as the OFN, dressed in the dazzling colors of internationalist liberalism. A defiant corner of Europe's other continent. Old WPAmen stamped a million papers with such phrasing, citizens committees raised funds to send Belgians to Léopoldville, American government and church schools ran the length of its rivers. A founding member of the OFN, crowds would say as Eisenhower opined for 'his little Congo'. However, the realities of the young République du Congo were complicated. The Model Republic, the great corporatocracy, a parliament governed by circles, parties politely worn by the simple interests which composed them. Where the US had the PWA or NLRB, Congo had the Société Générale du Congo, a parastatal unparalleled, composed from the remains of the Belgian institution. Education governed by the Church, Labor governed by its paymasters, all in collaboration. Freedom of movement, of business, of franchise - each were carefully constrained, ordered behind 'certificates' with exams designed for bias. 'Preparation,' it was termed, so that the nation was ready for its freedom.
The economy was ordered in the image of America's New Deal, as a long list of economic packages came to define the relationship between the US and the Congo in the terms of sovereign debt and investment. Under Belgian stewardship the Congo's central economic corridors all drove south, into Angola or Rhodesia, for the Americans, this had to change. The Congo was dotted with public works - bridges, rail expansions, and river ports - each of them intended to redirect the economy towards Matadi, the Congo's key Atlantic port. However, despite these attempts, the Benguela railway, leading to Lobito, in Angola, remains the larger economic thoroughfare. Complicated further, by its ownership - Tanganyika Concessions Limited, one of the very few European companies to still conduct business directly with OFN member nations. Tanks, as it's called, maintains at least parts of its 89-year charter in Katanga, granted in the times of the Free State. As civil government approaches daily life in the rest of the Congo, in Katanga it remains distant, as the CSK, the UMHK and other holdings and siblings of the Société Générale dominate its economy and political life.
For years these affairs continued, loosened ever so slightly, ever so rarely. It was the French State's evacuation of Equatorial Africa that spurned the next great change. Nearly as soon as the French had left, the Congolese had arrived, spearheaded
