Inkdrop — Roleplayer Guild

Well, I hammered out a rough NS.

Name: Afrikaanis Major
Form of government:Classic Monarchy
Leader: King Munashe Obama
Brief History: This large nation taking up a good portion of the upper-middle section of Africa was once a pride empire spanning much of Africa and even part of Italy and the Iberian Peninsula. It was that way for about two centuries, but it did not last. A massive civil war erupted, after many long years of disrespecting natives and even enslaving them. That civil war did not in itself tear the nation to pieces, but outside invaders finished off the already weakened state. One of those nations took a large chunk of Afrikaanis Major, the one chunk that incidentally had intense oil fields, and turned it into a colony. The empire broke apart like a meteorite, and was never to regain her former glory. 

Afrikaanis Major was a colony for about a hundred years before World War Two broke out. Relatively untouched by World War One, she was in a prime position to help out her mother nation. The wealth from her oilfields had only shown itself recently, due to the oncoming age of machines. It had nonetheless turned the country into a modern wonderland. Electricity, indoor plumbing, automobiles, paved roads… it was an absolute gem of the desert. The many huge refineries and rigs around the country pumped out a Mississippi River worth of oil. That, coupled with the already impressive navy bolstered by her motherland’s navy, meant that AM was a major boost to her mother country during the First World War and was set to do the same in World War Two. However, there was something different about this war. She had been harried by zeppelins in World War One, but those usually either drifted off course due to wind or were turned into fireballs by intense antiaircraft fire. 

This time, giant metal bomb trucks, unaffected by wind, much tougher against AAA, and in much greater numbers, bombed the daylight out of Afrikaanis Major. Her developing air force fought as hard as they could with their excellently trained pilots, but they rarely had the top of the line aircraft other nations did. Even as the war reached the middling years, they still used Gladiator IIs and Mark IIB Hurricanes. Despite her highly developed state, Afrikaanis Major lacked the facilities or knowledge to design and build aircraft, plus they were forbidden to do so by their motherland. The Gladiator was an obsolete biplane with the novel modern touch of an enclosed canopy. The Hurricane was a good aircraft, but they were old designs, and they were showing their age. The Afrikaanis Major Air Corps (AMAC) was helped greatly by the arrival of P-39 K-1 Airacobras scrounged from across the world in the middling years. Technically, she was not allowed to do that, but her motherland was too occupied to care. These aircraft, while sub-par in design and difficult to fly, were at least modern and fast. Plus, they all came with a thirty-seven millimeter cannon in the nose. This weapon proved to be rather effective against the bombers that so badly harassed the little African nation. 

Afrikaanis never faced a land invasion. A few commando raids did cause issues along the Mediterranean coast, but there was nothing major. A few volunteer divisions fought in other lands, and usually were slaughtered because they were thrown into the worst battles. It was good that there were no land threats to AM herself, because the Afrikaanis Major Land Corps (AMLC, often pronounced AM-LICK) had a small armored division and had been neglected like other parts of the Afrikaanis Major Armed Forces. Since Afrikaanis Major had never faced any real aerial or land-based threats during World War One, most armed divisions withered under severe neglect. The Afrikaanis Major Naval Corps (AMNC, often called AM-NICK) was the only division to get major support. As such, this short-ranged but powerful naval force was the only part not in need of major upgrading when the Second World War broke out. It was also why the AMLC was never fully utilized on their own soil. Afrikaanis Major is surrounded by either vast desert, unforgiving mountains, or a heavily guarded sea depending on where you are coming from. A major land invasion was considered suicidal. 

The air war, on the other hand, was a battle that continued on a fevered pitch from day one to V-day. The charred carcasses of various aircraft and their crews can still be found littering the desert. Bombs rained down and set off massive secondary explosions in the refineries, killing dozens and poisoning what little agricultural land there was with chemicals from ordnance, undetonated bombs and antiaircraft shells, and spilled oil. Some bombers, unable to find their targets, would instead drop their bombs on cities. Thousands of civilians died, and the metropolises were turned into wastelands. The flow of oil was kept going, but at great human, environmental, and financial cost. The AMAC (A-MACK) lost many pilots and many machines to the never ending furball over the oilfields. They never did get any good, modern aircraft from their motherland. The best they got was second-hand P-63C Kingcobras, about a year from the end of the war, which were an updated and “improved” version of their P-39s. They still were not great but at this point the nations that harried Afrikaanis Major were being weakened by other forces.The last major air battle occurred on New Year’s Day of the last year. With four lost P-63s, two downed P-39s, a blown up oil rig with two dead workers, and five Afrikaanian pilots dead, the enemy raids… stopped coming. The primitive radar warning system never again picked up an enemy formation.

Afrikaanis Major received word of the Allied victory a few months later. King Obama asked for financial assistance from the motherland, since Afrikaanis Major was absolutely ruined at this point. The refineries were disasters waiting to happen, with many jury-rigged and hastily repaired systems just waiting for a chance to explode or spew flaming liquid. There were intense fires in the oil fields. Many cities were cratered and had broken utilities from bombs. She was in dire straights, but her motherland never answered. A month or two later, several ships arrived in the capital’s port and dumped off a shipment of Mark XIV Spitfires, A-36A Invaders, and A-24B Banshees, plus a letter from the Queen saying that Afrikaanis was now a sovereign nation all on her own. The Spitfires were not numerous enough to cover all seven squadrons, but were able to replace the Kingcobras in five of them. The A-24s  and A-36s, while having some age on them, were far superior to the prehistoric and ineffective Hurricanes still making up the AMAC’s attack wings. A few treats arrived for the ground forces as well. New guns and other pieces of equipment came, with plans and details on how to build them, and a small handful of new Comet tanks. 

Afrikaanis Major had a situation that was not desirable in the slightest. She was suddenly a sovereign nation with positively wrecked infrastructure and a devastated populace. She had no plan for this. The government scrambled to make something of this situation. Even as the refineries constantly caught fire and/or exploded due to their hasty repairs and crews struggled to extinguish the burning fields of oil, the black stuff was exported to everyone and used to fuel massive repair efforts. These are still ongoing. This money was also used to upgrade the M4 Shermans still serving as the primary battle tank in the AMLC to M4-FL-10s. These were Shermans with improved engines and the turret of a French tank mounted in place of the standard affair. Afrikaanis Major is still struggling. Her agricultural sector is totally gone, and is expected to be that way for many years to come. Many are dead, many are homeless, and many more are wounded or disabled. 

Now this little nation must push forward into a new era and rise from her own oil-soaked ashes.

Advantages: Technology Leader
Oil Rich
Command Economy
Culture of Conformity
Friendly Geography

Disadvantages: Food Insecure (x2)
Hostile Neighbors
Devastated by War
Entrenched Traditions
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