White Africa

Let us say in the year 1837 an Earthquake hits off the coast of the Red Sea, bringing a gas buildup to the surface. The death toll that follows is nothing like the world had ever seen before. Along the coast of Africa entire populations were wiped out in what has been logged into history as the Red Sea Plague. The Red Sea Plague quickly spread through Africa and the Arabian Peninsula leaving behind a wake of carnage. By the time the Plague ended in 1841, over 85% of the population of Africa had lost their lives. The remaining populations were scattered across the continent. The Arabs and part of the Ottoman Empire were also devestated, reducing the Arab's to 50% of their previous population. The Plague reached as far east as Persia and as far north as the coast of Spain and Sicily. A Belgian doctor discovered a vaccine for the Plague, keeping the virus from spreading into Europe, and probably across the Atlantic.

European Imperial powers had little regard for the dead Africans, moving quickly to divide Africa among themselves.

How does the European colonialization of Africa effect the continent, and the world? Does it become like North America and industrialized, exploiting the natural resources? What Imperial Power takes what part of the continent? Without native resistence how do the Colonials fair?

What about the Arabs and the Ottoman Empire, losing a significant portion of their population will be devestating. Do the Imperial powers get greedy and go after Europes "sick man".

How would this effect immigration to the Americas and Australia? Could we see an earlier Zionist movement with full blessing of the Ottoman Empire in Palestine?

Such a virus causing a 4 year epidemic without going global released from deep under the Red Sea is ASB, IMHO.

Let us say the epidimic does hit Europe but not as hard as it hit Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. I was thinking it went through Africa killing the natives due to a reaction in the genetic makeup of Africans; lets face they didnt have the best hygiene standards. However the further from the source, the weaker the virus, so around the Red Sea it is deadly, when you get further out into West and South Africa the virus is less deadly but still takes a heavy toll.

"lets face they didnt have the best hygiene standards."

Prove it. Just because they weren't European doesn't mean they didn't bathe or clean themselves, or cook their food (but then again, even the French aren't exactly well known for bathing everyday....)

This entire POD strikes me as truly ASB. Any virus that targets a particular group of people through genetics only shows that we have little knowledge of genetics. There is more genetic variation between any given different groups of chimpanzees than between the most widely separated human groups. And seeing as how, any disease that affects one group of chimps is more than likely to affect any other group, then any disease which could affect only one group of humans would be very limited indeed.(and probably would never exist). Also considering that genetic variation is greater among Africans than among other people throughout the world, then this virus is again unlikely to occur because somewhere in the continent there would be one or a number of groups that would be resistant (think HIV here). And if it could affect the majority of Africans, then we can say goodbye Europe.


At any rate you never even mentioned if it was a virus, bacterium or protozoan in your first post, the only thing mentioned was some gas..

Can I get anybody to stay on topic here? God help me! The Plague/virus doesnt matter, the point is there was massive death leaving an empty continent during the height of European Imperialism.

And yes they bath, however if you read the newspapers when there is a war the rivers become contaminated. Especially when bodies and blood start washing into the rivers.

"And yes they bath, however if you read the newspapers when there is a war the rivers become contaminated. Especially when bodies and blood start washing into the rivers."

Uhuh..and this has what bearing on the Africa of the 1800s might I ask ?Especially before the Europeans came in with nice new guns and eventually machine guns and started carving up territory ad hoc leaving behind the seeds of the some (not all) of the current conflicts? And in the Africa before there was the mass warfare of today? I do read the papers, but access to newspapers of 1850 and before are rather difficult especially with regards to articles on the interior of Africa.

"Can I get anybody to stay on topic here? God help me! The Plague/virus doesnt matter, the point is there was massive death leaving an empty continent during the height of European Imperialism."

Well you could, but if you present a POD which cannot hold any water then you should expect people to point that out. Now if the plague or whatever doesn't matter then you should say so from the get and probably have presented this as an AH Challenge so that people would come up with PODs for you.

Now about the topic of a White Africa, well...the Europeans probably wouldn't fair too well anyway until the late 1840s when they found that quinine can protect one against malaria. Even then there are a number of reasons why European colonization would be restricted to certain areas. The coast could be colonized as could all offshore islands. southern Africa's mediterranean climate would attract a number of Europeans, as would North Africa's coast. East Africa's savannahs could also be good areas to settle but I would expect the Europeans to avoid the heavily forested (and disease ridden) central and western Africa. The wonderful tsetse fly would also limit European settlement.

As for the former Ottoman empire, I would expect that area to be carved up fairly quickly.

Xen said:

Can I get anybody to stay on topic here? God help me! The Plague/virus doesnt matter, the point is there was massive death leaving an empty continent during the height of European Imperialism.

And yes they bath, however if you read the newspapers when there is a war the rivers become contaminated. Especially when bodies and blood start washing into the rivers.

Click to expand...

The height of European Imperialism in 1837?! Your a few, if not 30-50 years off.

Wait a minute, the gas boils up from the bottom of the Red Sea then causes a plague that somehow spreads over the usual natural barriers, like the Sahara, the Mediterranean, Bosphorus and other various deserts and oceans.

I think the deaths, in Africa will be limited to the east coast, the Sahara and Nubians deserts, not to mention the jungles of central Africa - and the Sud - are pretty formidable obstacles.