The East African Federation is a sovereign state in East Africa. The aftermath of the Ethiopian wars of 1916-1919, the federation is a major regional power in Africa and the Indian ocean. Although officially a federation of seven territories, in reality president Swaleh Mwangi has consolidated much of the power into the hands of himself, agitating a program of modernisation and industrialisation.
History[]
Creation of a federation[]
After the victory of the liberalist European Association for Freedom in the great european war in 1909, the entirety of Africa was put under the administration of the ATA (African Temporary Administration), and full independence was granted to the East African countries one by one in 1911 and 1912: East Congo on January 9 1911, Uganda January 11 1911, Kenya and Tanzania on December 15 1911, and Burundi-Rwanda on May 5 1912.
In the first days of these nations, the biggest threat was, without a doubt, the Fascist Pan-Amharicist Great Ethiopian Empire to the north formed after the Abyssinian coup'd etat of 1912 which claimed territory as far aas Dar Es Salaam and was mobilising a military of 900,000 men; and to the south the Fascist Mutapa Empire(OTL Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Zambia) which seeked to reunite the entirety of southern and eastern Africa and controlled an enormous army with 500,000 men. Both of them were equiped with fine weapons: The Ethiopians, whose Second Republic was one of the biggest supporters of the liberals during the African theater of the war got a quarter of the equipment captured from the socialists; The Mutapans, meanwhile, utilised the industrial infrastructure in the area during the period where Southern Africa was used as a forwards base for the liberals to seize Africa from the Socialists. On the 17th of November of 1915, the two states signed a non-aggression pact that agreed to carve up the East African nations along 1 S, known as the Nazari-Adami pact. Half a year later, on the 25th of May 1916, the Mutapa Empire delivered an ultimatum to the Tanzanian, East Congolese and Rwanda-Burundian governments demanding Annexation. Half an hour later, the Ethiopians marched into Kenya and Uganda, declaring war two hours later. After the ultimatums were unanimously rejected, the Mutapa Empire declared war on all of the nations.
Meanwhile, in Europe, nobody intervened. At the time. the dominant ideology in Europe shared by the Liberals, and Conservatives was to let Africa find its own path without intervention form Europe, called "Africisolationism" resulting in the Europeans doing nothing to stop the Guinean civil war, Ghanan civil war, and Chad-Nigerien war.
The East African nations already saw that this may come, but the nations had extraordinarily weak armies: Kenya had 50000 men split between three divisions, Uganda 90000 men and nine divisions, East Congo 12000 men and one division, Tanzania 140000 men and ten divisions, Rwanda-Burundi 1200 men and one Battalion. The forces were extremely poorly equipped, as about only 30% men had guns, and the total number of cannons was no more than 40.
The forces of the Mutapa Empire and Ethiopia marched through the countries with little resistance. The biggest enemy of the Ethiopians and Mutapans were not the shabby forces of the East African nations, but rather the supply problems caused by the poor infrastructure of the area which was unable to supply the enormous armies of the two countries. Seeing defeat inevitable, the militaries of the Eat African countries mutinied and lost fighting strength faster than the advances of the Mutapans and Ethiopians. By the 11th of June, Nairobi and Mombasa fell and the Kenyan government surrenders. On the 13th of June, Dar Es Salaam falls. On the 16th of June, Bukavu falls, and East Congo surrenders. On the 21st of June, with the fall of Dodoma Tanzania surrenders. With this the Ugandan and Burundi-Rwandan governments gave in to the Ethiopians on the 22nd of June. By then, the Ethiopians and Mutapans already drew up a line where they would divide the new territories in the Treaty of Dar Es Salaam.
Treaty of Dar Es Salaam (East Congo is going to be an nominally independent puppet)
By then, everyone thought it was over. Not Swaleh Mwangi. Pan-African nationalist and leader of the 2nd Kenyan Division, Mwangi was one of the only commanders which managed to stage counteroffensives against the Ethiopians, showing bravery in the battle of Eldoret, where he defeated 10000 Ethiopians with 4000 men. However, the news of the treaty had hurt his patriotic heart, and his forces were encircled in Eldoret with orders from the Kenyan government to surrender. He refused the order and ordered all of his soldiers to prepare for one last struggle to break hold. Before the near-suicidal attempt to break through the lines of the enemy at the break of dawn, he gave a speech to his forces:
"Brothers-Today is the day. We are the torchbearers of the light of freedom and the emancipation of the African people, and so we will be guided by freedom's glorious sunrays as we defeat the devils seeking to destroy our lives. These sunrays will guide us forward!"
He walked out followed by every one of his warriors. And he let out the loudest "Hurra!" they have seen, and they just charged, shooting at whatever Ethiopian they see, dashing through the forts and barbed wire, and miraculously managed to get away from Eldoret with only 150 casualties of his 3000-men unit. They arrived in Kisumu on the 1st of July and met there three others which promised to fight to the bitter end: Ugandan socialist and Pan-Africanist Nakisti Woyana who gathered an militia three thousand strong in his hometown and fought alongside the Ugandan army for many days; Spanish missionary Diego Salvador Simon, who preached in Tanzania for three years and organised a 7000-strong militia to fight against the fascists, which he saw as "A great scourge of god"; and Alexander Mbasti, mayor of Nairobi which took control of two infantry divisions which were in anarchy after the defeat in the battle of Nairobi.
They, meeting together with a combined force of 20000 men, together decided to declare themselves the "United Council of the East African Federation" on the 3rd of July, the national day of the EAF, and declared the Treaty of Dar Es Salaam as "Illegal and deceitful." They, along with Mbasti's wife Tanya Alshuti, drafted a constitution, designed a flag and even created a national anthem. The forces were also reorganised and trained.
However, the Ethiopians and Mutapans did not to the slightest degree are abut this new government, based on the clear fact that it was immensely weaker. A total force of 40000 Ethiopians were sent to clear the pocket of resistance.
The War of liberation[]
The Ethiopians sieged the city of Kisumu and blockaded lake Victoria with three gunboats. The initial attacks on the city was met with stiff resistance of the East African Nationalists: the East Africans fought with courage unseen in any of the Ethiopian units and the Ethiopians suffered heavy causualties with over 5000 dead in one day, leading to the Ethiopian commander decidng to starve off the city and construct trenches and fortifications around it to prevent any breakthrough.
On the 23rd of July, food and ammunition supplies had ran low in the city of Kisumu. Diego Salvador decided to lead an elite unit of 500 men and attack the lines of the Ethiopians. The attack was a success, as it managed to make a roughly 2km breakthrough, but was unimportant on the bigger viewpoint as Ethiopian reinforcements came soon and pushed them back. However, the soldiers managed to take with them lots of much-needed ammunition, machine guns and rations as they retreated.
On the 29th of July, thinking that the city had ran out of supplies, the Ethiopians launched a human wave offensive of 20000 men against the positions of the East African nationalists. The Ethiopian assumption was not exactly correct but mostly true; Ammunition was at low levels, food could only be consumed for 10-15 days at the current rate and most machine guns and artillery have rendered unusable. The Nationalist soldiers put up a stiff and brave resistance, but they were severely outnumbered and large breakthroughs happened nearly everywhere. The leaders of the nationalists already retreated to the city centre's buildings and prepared to fight to the last man. Just then, the Ethiopians began to retreat. Why was that?
it was the Sudanese. Sudan got its independence in 1911 and held a modest-sized army. The Ethiopians, seeing that the war in East Africa was over, began to then fabriate a claim of several areas of Sudan which they claimed was part of the Ethiopian ancestral land. However, it was still not feasible at the time, as most Ethiopian soldiers were still garrisoning and establishing order in the new territories. Sudan, meanwhile, already positioned its entire army on the border with Ethiopia since the start of the war due to pre-existing fears, and now that the Ethiopians were fabricating claims, the Sudanese decided to do a pre-emptive strike. The Sudanese had a special elite unit, the 108th Paratroopers which served in the European war, and on the night of July 28 they parachuted into Addis Ababa while Sudanese forces pushed into Ethiopia everywhere. The paratroopers quickly overran the small garrison left in Addis Ababa, and by 1:30 of July 29 they had managed to capture the God-Emperor of Ethiopia, which was forced to speak on radio calling for the nation to surrender, and the city of Addis Ababa itself.
When the commanders of the Ethiopian army in East Africa heard these news, they did not know what to do. On one side, the Ethiopian army in East Africa could still defeat the Sudanese. However, the Ethiopian state had largely been mbuilt on the God-Emperor-s cult of personality, and with the order given by him (at gunpoint) to "disband and put down arms" many genarals decide either to follow his orders or to commit suicide because they felt they could not live without the god0-Emperor. the forces, now mostly disbanded or without leaders, quickly disintegrated. In Kisumu, the Ethiopian commander, a strong believer of Pan-Amharicism, snd a wild follower of the god-emperor, decided that the radio was a sign the a rebellion had erupted in Ethiopia and he should immideately go and protect the emperor. He ordered an orderly retreat and a return to the old fortifications.
Seeing the sitiuation, most people in the Federation's forces were awestruck by the situation to the point they did nothing for a good ten minutes. The commanders were also in disbelief. Just ten seconds earlier, they al believed they would lose their lives in a few minutes; and now, the Ethiopians were retreating. None of the commanders dared to launch a further offensive on the basis that everyone thought it was a trap. However, Djambu Woza-Make, a soldier in the federation's forces, was already escaping a few minutes ago because he thought defeat was certain. Just has he was passing through the lines in a rain of bullets, the Ethiopians began retreating. He did not care at first and kept running, but soon when he arrived at the Ethiopian trenches and found there wasn nobody there the retreat was, contrary to the order, NOT orderly and very slow), but there was a ton of rations. There was Chocolate, Steak, and Beer. As he was snatching them into his bag to eat later, two shabby Ethiopian soldiers came into the fort. When they saw the EAF soldier their plundering the rations form the shelves, they thought that the EAF forces had already moved into the Trenches and they were now sandwiched between the EAF forces in the trenches and the EAF forces in Kisumu. They were so scared they did not move until Woza-Make managed to shoot both of them dead. The gunshots horrified the retreating Ethiopian main force for the same reason, who shouted," people! There are people in the trenches! We lost! Run!". By then, the soldiers form the EAF had began to push from their lines and charged towards the Ethiopians, which were already horrified and running towards everywhere