Katanga
| |
| National motto: Peace, Freedom, Justice | |
| Language: | Swahili, Tshiluba |
| Cities: | |
| Capital: | Lubumbashi |
| Other: | Tshombeville |
| King: | Almea I |
| Toisag: | Moise Tshombe |
| Area: | Good question |
| Population: | approximately 5 million |
| Currency: | 1 puno=12 siraloj=140 phingoj |
| Organizations: | League of Nations |
Katanga is a country in the region of Africa commonly referred to as Middle Africa.
Geography
Katanga is a landlocked and very mountainous country. It does, however, border Lake Tanganyika, and Moise Tshombe has developed a navy to protect the nation from attack across the lake. It is a popular tourist destination, but one of the poorest and least-developed countries in the world. It relies heavily on foreign aid. It is covered by mountains, forests and lakes. There is not much farming here, and most people live in the capital, Rheonia, or in Tshombeville, working in tertiary industry.
Borders
It is bordered on the west by Kongo, on the east by Chinese East Africa across Lake Tanganyika, on the north by the Native States of Africa, and on the northeast by Kasai.
Area
Katanga covers the area covered *here* by the Katanga province of the Democratic Republic of Congo in the real world.
History
Prior to Chinese rule, the province was controlled by the tribes of the Luba and Lunda regions, until the 14th century, when Zheng He claimed the area for China. The Chinese government never actually imposed direct rule on the region and it was ruled by various local chiefs, formally Chinese vassals (as Katanga was of little economic interest and the Chinese colonies were mainly on the coastline). The region was in disarray. Other powers, such as the Dalmatians, the Batavians and the British attempted to establish their settlements in parts of the area, starting various international conflicts with China and with each other.
Attempt at independence
In the 19th century, a trader from Maasai attempted to make himself the High King of Katanga, supported by the Boer states and by the Batavians. He was killed in 1891 trying to take over and Katanga remained an elective monarchy into the early twentieth century.
GWII
Ethiopian expansion seriously hit Katanga prior to GWII. Ethiopia had just come out of a war over the Dalmatian colonies in 1942, and was looking at a new sphere of influence - Katanga, Kasai and the NSA. On August 1, 1942, Ethiopia and China signed the secret Treaty of Mogadishu, which, unfortunately, gave Katanga "undeterminated and depending on the future developments in that nation". Pro-Ethiopianism was coming to a head, and it seemed as though this would be hard to solve between 1943 and 1944. By the end of 1944, the state was essentially Chinese. The Ethiopians set up the African Alliance, which essentially meant that from May 1945 it would support "Freedom from China" rebels, whose real concern was mainly Ethiopian domination. On October 30, the Chinese could handle this no more and the Chinese unilaterially annexed Katanga and entered the Allied side of the war.
Recent History
In 1945, during the GWII the Chinese chose Moise Tshombe to be the regional governing leader. During the downfall of China, Emperor Pu Yi of China left most of the work of ruling the region to Tshombe, who led the country into debt with an ambitious road-building scheme which ultimately failed.
China was seen as a problem again, and no one knew what to do. People realised that the Ethiopians and the Chinese were more or less the same, that both really wanted to take control of Katanga. This created problems and the KLO, one of the African Alliance's rebel militias, broke away from Chinese control.
There was then a lot of unrest among the people and, in early 1946, a rebel millitia called the Katanga Liberation Organisation, bombed the Lubumbashi Imperial Palace. There was much anarchy in the collapse of China, and China could not control the interior of Katanga through CEA. No one was really in control.
After CEA was sorted out, Katanga achieved an independence of sorts. In other words, there was nothing except a written certificate from the League of Nations saying that Katanga was a free state. A civil war followed between the KLO, other rebel millitias, Ethiopian groups, CEA, and Tshombe.
This caused so much trouble that the League of Nations asked the Cambrian government to restore order, setting up a Cambrian-style government in 1965. The Chinese withdrew from the region and the Cambrians set up a puppet-king, King Almea I, as king. The new government also had a senate with upper and lower houses, a Tosaig. Cambrian was an official language and, of course, there was a king, a descendant of the pre-GWII line.
Moise Tshombe was dissapointed by the new system and, in 1980, he ran in the senate elections as leader of the Katanga African National Union party. He saw the new system as a betrayal of the old ways, saw Katanga as essentially a Cambrian colony, and wished to return to the original system. Many people were sympathetic with him and, in 1983, he was elected Tosaig of Katanga.
He himself resents the title and wants to get rid of it. The League of Nations has accused him of rigging elections and of gerrymandering and, since 1993, the KANU has been the only party in Katanga, with opponents boycotting elections.
