Subject: AH Challenge: Inverted Countries; Congo and Botswana Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 01:51:05 GMT From: Byzantine Organization: Excite@Home - The Leader in Broadband http://home.com/faster Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if With and POD no earlier than 1800, have 2001 Congo (the former Zaire) a unified country with a history of stability, strong economic growth, high literacy (by African standards) and a history of democratic government. Turn Botswana into a war-torn kleptocratic nightmare. Subject: Re: AH Challenge: Inverted Countries; Congo and Botswana Date: 18 Aug 2001 02:58:43 GMT From: ixoraclexi@aol.com (IXOracleXI) Organization: AOL http://www.aol.com Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 I think that really, only if Lettow Vorbeck had siezed the nation and made it one of the German Imperial colonies that some type of "slavage" work might be done. If that's the case, even then, old wounds die hard. The French could try to sieze it too, which might establish it as something nearing a livable standard. No promises. Subject: Re: AH Challenge: Inverted Countries; Congo and Botswana Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2001 00:06:26 -0300 From: Randy McDonald Organization: Posted via Supernews, http://www.supernews.com Newsgroups: soc.history.what-if References: 1 Byzantine wrote: > > With and POD no earlier than 1800, have 2001 Congo (the former Zaire) a > unified country with a history of stability, strong economic growth, > high literacy (by African standards) and a history of democratic > government. Turn Botswana into a war-torn kleptocratic nightmare. There are reasons that Botswana is a success while Congo is not, not least of which is a benign colonial history, relative ethnic homogeneity of a small and concentrated population, sophisticated yet decentralized decision-making structures, and proximity to a quasi-First World economy. You can't introduce those factors to Congo. -- Randy McDonald Charlottetown PEI Canada