Africa

Africa is the world's second-largest and second most-populous continent, after Asia. At about 30,221,532 km² (11,668,545 mi²) including adjacent islands, it covers 6.0% of the Earth's total surface area, and 20.4% of the total land area. The continent is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the northeast, the Indian Ocean to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west.

Africa is widely regarded in the scientific community to be the origin of humans and the Hominidae tree.

Africa straddles the equator and encompasses numerous climate areas; it is the only continent to stretch from the northern temperate to southern temperate zones. Because of the lack of natural regular precipitation and irrigation as well as glaciers or mountain aquifer systems, there is no natural moderating effect on the climate except near the coasts.

Africa in In the Presence of Mine Enemies
Africa was divided up by the Greater German Reich and its allies after they emerged victorious from the Second World War. Germany occupied the former British, French and Belgian colonies, giving it domination over the majority of the continent. Italy, Portugal and Spain retained their pre-war colonies.

The Reich and Italy inflicted genocide on the native black and Arab populations on a scale similar to the destruction of the Jews in Europe and North America, the Slavs in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, and the Arabs in the Middle East. What saved Black Africans and Arabs from utter extinction was the Reich's need for a local workforce.

The only independent country in Africa was the Union of South Africa which was ruled by white South Africans and was an ally of the Reich.

At least in their early stages, the reforms of Heinz Buckliger made little or no difference in the harsh life of surviving Africans.

Africa in Southern Victory
Africa was carved up by the European powers in the late 19th century.

During the 20th century, the Great War put a huge strain on the manpower of both the empires of England and France. To answer this problem, both empires recruited the natives of their African colonies to fight in the trenches of Europe. Of all the Africans to fight in the Great War, France's African Troops proved the most successful.

After the war, defeated Belgium ceded the Congo to Germany linking German territories across central Africa from west to east. In spite of these newly won territories, Britain was still considered the major power on the continent.

Africa in "The Last Article"
By 1947, Africa was the target of the Greater German Reich's conquest as the Nazis started backing the Vichy French in a war for control of Africa against the American backed Free French. The Vichy French had the upper hand in the conflict.

Africa in The Two Georges
By the end of the 20th Century, the bulk of continental Africa was dominated by the Franco-Spanish Holy Alliance, with a few colonies belonging to the British Empire and the Portuguese Empire.

Africa in In High Places
In an alternate where the Great Black Deaths killed most of the population of Europe, the northern part of Africa was dominated by Muslim, Arabic-speaking kingdoms which were similar culturally to those of southern Europe. Further south there were Black-skinned Muslim tribes and kingdoms, culturally different from the Arab ones in spite of their common religion. Black slaves sometimes ended up in Arab kingdoms. There were some such slaves among those bought by the rogue crosstimers and taken to slave-worked estate in another timeline. One of them, Musa ibn Ibrahim, encountered Jacques, a former denizen of the Kingdom of Versailles. Despite Islam's chary view of the Second Revelation of Henri, Musa and Jacques eventually became friends.

China's Zheng He had visited Africa in the 1410s, but China had never bothered to return to Africa.

Africa in Worldwar
Africa had been carved up by the various powers of Europe. During World War II, war came when Italy entered the war, although the majority of action was limited to the Northern half of the continent.

When the Race arrived in June of 1942, they quickly conquered the whole of Africa, forcing all European powers out. The only significant human attack against Race forces here was when the German Kriegsmarine detonated a nuclear weapon in Alexandria.

When peace was declared in 1944, all the European empires who had holdings in Africa either had been conquered themselves or weren't able to build their own atomic bomb, thus they were forced to recognise their former colonies as Race territory, leaving the Race in charge of the entire continent. Despite this, a small insurgency persisted throughout the years.

When the Colonization Fleet arrived in 1962, it would establish colonies throughout the continent, but its main focus was North Africa, due to its large desert area and high temperature. Their capital on Tosev 3 was located in Cairo, Egypt, on the African continent.

In South Africa, the Race was supported by a black population tired of the systematic racism of white minority rule and grateful that the Race had halted the development of apartheid. (This approach worked well in Poland, and to an extent in the Middle East.) White racists in the US are known to have called the Race-ruled South Africa "a nigger paradise".