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
by their own Frenchmen, and sent ahead by their own superpower. In many places they were met with collaboration, if not cheers, in others it was not so simple. The Force Publique, newly republican, did not negotiate. Within months, the UPC was pushed from Yaoundé into the borders and highlands, replaced swiftly with one of the many Commonwealth governments that now comprised the United States of Latin Africa.
None of this was popular with the Congolese soldiers, not the occupation, and much less the ongoing campaigns against 'banditry'. But, what really got to them was something different. In Brazzaville, a soldier could sit in a Cafe, order a cup of coffee, and simply be served - even by a white waiter. In Léopoldville this was essentially unthinkable. It was a simple fact - these people had more rights than them. Many more could vote than in the Congo, many more could travel freely than in the Congo, black men occupied many if not most of the key roles, something alien to the Congo. Here, the Congolese saw independence, and at home, well, they were not so sure.
Nationalist sentiments exploded in the Congo, the brutality of the state's response only further driving their furor. What little political rights had been loosened became clamped, that is, until the explosion. When an ABAKO assembly was declared illegal, and, despite the efforts of its leaders, proceeded anyway, the rally was suppressed violently. Kasa Vubu, imprisoned, was now the very face of the nation, the face of a new era of nationalists who now came to the stage. For a full year the state attempted to repress dissidents and raise collaborators, but each strategy subverted the other. Leaders like Bolikango and Bolya distanced themselves from the government, as repression of dissidents found only more and more targets.
And then it ended, as riots in Leopoldville inspired strikes in Elisabethville. The old Congolese political system shattered to pieces, a new, reformist coalition ushered to power over its corpse. The old political parties, increasingly identified as the 'white parties', found room for compromise or perished. A broadened electorate and renewed elections cemented the shift - as the Congo became governed by the Kartel de la Réforme and its very first African Prime Minister - Jean Bolikango.
Reform, and Africanization, have been slow to progress, even years out from Bolikango's ascendancy. The KdR succeeded in navigating the Congo out of its last political crisis, but its defective four years of governance have drawn to question whether it can do any more than that. Nationalists foment at its edges, their once assured allegiance increasingly drawn into question. Whereas, the European minority remains fractured over the new political conditions in the Congo, picket fences and neighborhood walls carry graffiti decrying 'les traîtres' underlining the far more serious contentions deep within the Congo's state.
https://preview.redd.it/4015rev0g3ff1.png?width=1896&format=png&auto=webp&s=e64604cc57a55d09998529922446c11db3957685
Blood comes to the capital...
Further abreast of the Congo and its struggles are its very own sister states - the Kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi. Bound by one of the last treaties to mention 'the United Nations', the now-republican Force Publique of the then-independent Congo guards the very same positions they took up after the countries were taken from Germany. Indeed, these are among the furthest outposts of the OFN, host to an array of listening systems, observation posts, and defense plans that begin with retreat. Burundi is a small island of calm amidst a sea of change. Governed by a clade of its young chiefs, educated in the West and in many ways attached to the OFN. To many in Burundi, the presence of the Americans liberates the country from the domination of Security politics, and offers yet another vector of stability within the careful ethnic and social balance at play in the
None of this was popular with the Congolese soldiers, not the occupation, and much less the ongoing campaigns against 'banditry'. But, what really got to them was something different. In Brazzaville, a soldier could sit in a Cafe, order a cup of coffee, and simply be served - even by a white waiter. In Léopoldville this was essentially unthinkable. It was a simple fact - these people had more rights than them. Many more could vote than in the Congo, many more could travel freely than in the Congo, black men occupied many if not most of the key roles, something alien to the Congo. Here, the Congolese saw independence, and at home, well, they were not so sure.
Nationalist sentiments exploded in the Congo, the brutality of the state's response only further driving their furor. What little political rights had been loosened became clamped, that is, until the explosion. When an ABAKO assembly was declared illegal, and, despite the efforts of its leaders, proceeded anyway, the rally was suppressed violently. Kasa Vubu, imprisoned, was now the very face of the nation, the face of a new era of nationalists who now came to the stage. For a full year the state attempted to repress dissidents and raise collaborators, but each strategy subverted the other. Leaders like Bolikango and Bolya distanced themselves from the government, as repression of dissidents found only more and more targets.
And then it ended, as riots in Leopoldville inspired strikes in Elisabethville. The old Congolese political system shattered to pieces, a new, reformist coalition ushered to power over its corpse. The old political parties, increasingly identified as the 'white parties', found room for compromise or perished. A broadened electorate and renewed elections cemented the shift - as the Congo became governed by the Kartel de la Réforme and its very first African Prime Minister - Jean Bolikango.
Reform, and Africanization, have been slow to progress, even years out from Bolikango's ascendancy. The KdR succeeded in navigating the Congo out of its last political crisis, but its defective four years of governance have drawn to question whether it can do any more than that. Nationalists foment at its edges, their once assured allegiance increasingly drawn into question. Whereas, the European minority remains fractured over the new political conditions in the Congo, picket fences and neighborhood walls carry graffiti decrying 'les traîtres' underlining the far more serious contentions deep within the Congo's state.
https://preview.redd.it/4015rev0g3ff1.png?width=1896&format=png&auto=webp&s=e64604cc57a55d09998529922446c11db3957685
Blood comes to the capital...
Further abreast of the Congo and its struggles are its very own sister states - the Kingdoms of Rwanda and Burundi. Bound by one of the last treaties to mention 'the United Nations', the now-republican Force Publique of the then-independent Congo guards the very same positions they took up after the countries were taken from Germany. Indeed, these are among the furthest outposts of the OFN, host to an array of listening systems, observation posts, and defense plans that begin with retreat. Burundi is a small island of calm amidst a sea of change. Governed by a clade of its young chiefs, educated in the West and in many ways attached to the OFN. To many in Burundi, the presence of the Americans liberates the country from the domination of Security politics, and offers yet another vector of stability within the careful ethnic and social balance at play in the
