20th Century (Louisiana Revolution)

Era of Exploration (1900 - 1912)
The 1900s began with both a dark threat of war looming on the horizon and a bright new future for African-European and African-North American relations. The Africa initiatives put forward by Louis II and continued by Francois I drew the generally isolated Africa closer to world affairs, and the Americans and Europeans followed their example. By 1905, innovation and industrialization were even more rampant than during the Industrial Revolution and new weapons, goods, services, building materials, etc. were being created and manufactured globally using new goods gained African countries such as the Kingdom of Kongo and the Oyo Empire. Even the Ottomans were moving toward exploration with the union between them and Darfur in 1874.

Great Kingdoms War
The Great Kingdoms War came when conflicting interests between the Zulu Kingdom and the German Empire began to manifest themselves throughout a series of diplomatic failures and misunderstandings at the hands of Wilhelm II. Wilhelm II wanted to colonize Madagascar and take advantage of its abundance of vanilla, and began going to war with the native peoples of the island. The Zulus also wanted the resources of Madagascar and had been at war with them for a few days when the Germans invaded as well without warning. The Zulus mistook this for an aggressive act on their people, and cut off diplomatic ties with the German Empire. Eventually, Zulu-German tensions rose to such high levels that a war broke out following the destruction of a German naval ship off the coast of Madagascar.

Following the sinking of the German ship, war was formally declared by both sides, and Germany established the satellite Kingdom of Madagascar on the southern end of the island as a foothold to fight the war. Of course, the Zulus were much less technologically advanced then Germany, which was a major factor in the length of the war. After a few years of fighting it became apparent that Germany was unable to sustain a war of this magnitude so far from home, and Australia, which had similar (yet not entirely identical) goals for conquering Madagascar, and they joined the battle on the side of the Germans in 1906, which led to a significant setback for the Zulus, as the Australians were much closer to Madagascar and could transport troops there more easily. At the same time, the Indonesians declared war on Australia and Germany simply for an excuse to attack their hated southern neighbor, and destroyed much of the Australian navy in the Raid of 1907, showcasing the military might of Indonesia. This again turned what should have been a short conflict into a much longer war.

Indonesia then, using tactics reminiscent of the German Drive to Paris in European War II, invaded Australia and forced their surrender as early as 1909. On Madagascar itself, however, the fight now settled into a stalemate, as conflicts of the 1800s often did. Neither side had a clear advantage, as the Germans were outnumbered, but the Zulus had much inferior technology. Eventually, the puppet state of German Madagascar began to fall to repeated attacks on the government by locals and Zulu guerilla attacks, leading to the dissolution and disbandment of the Kingdom of Madagascar in 1911, followed by a German surrender in 1912 after the outbreak of the Great War, and the Zulus were then able to conquer Madagascar and set up a territorial government.

The Trade Battle
Meanwhile, throughout the western half of Africa, the Kingdom of Kongo, Xhosa Empire, and Oyo Empire began competing for the European and American markets. Kongo offered exotic materials, spices, ivory, and other goods that were not abundant elsewhere, while the Oyo Empire offered diamonds and other precious metals. At the same time, Louisiana began colonizing disorganized territories of the African west coast along the Niger River and western Sahara Desert in 1907, where they found an even larger abundance of diamonds and other resources, and they themselves began selling them to other countries, jetting their economy ahead of much of Europe, nearly surpassing Great Britain. They used this money to develop industries, create infrastructure, build the military, and finance public works projects in order to spur the economy further, which worked seamlessly.

In Europe, however, certain things were changing rapidly. Franco-German relations hit an all-time high during the Great Kingdoms War, since Napoleon IV saw great potential in the German ownership of Madagascar. He supplied the Germans with weapons, normalized trade relations, began getting rid of fortifications along the border, and encouraged travel between the two countries, repairing decades of damage in just a few short years. He also pardoned what remained of German war reparations, a huge leap forward for the two countries. Britain on the other hand sought to trade with the diamond rich Xhosa Empire, which worked very well for them, keeping them just ahead of Louisiana, and giving the two nations a relative monopoly on the European diamond trade.

Italy, Portugal, Spain, Vienna, Russia, and the newly founded Balkan States, formed the Mediterranean Union in 1903, and closed their markets to other European countries, agreeing to only trade with one another. This led to a bit of hardship initially, but worked out favorably in the end once their respective economies adjusted to the change. The Russians had, by this time, become massive trading partners with Louisiana, and opened their markets back up to them in 1909, with the condition that Louisiana also trade with the other union members. Japan opened trade with Russia in a similar fashion in 1910, followed by Louisiana and New Spain.