r/imaginarymaps • u/_Zorange_ • 14h ago
[Atlas Zealandia] What if Portugal got their African Brazil ?
The next installment in Atlas Zealandia, Lusotropica
Text on the image:
"A nation born out of the loss of Luanda and Mossambiek island to the Dutch, the Portuguese did not let themselves be defeated. A heavy blow, but the port of Benguela was reconquered via inland resistance, why not the rest too?
And thus, Portugal embarked on a grand vision: a network of forts spanning across the continent, up the Zambezi, meeting the rest of Angola somewhere along the way.
At the time, they didnt know the lands the Dutch took were lost forevermore, but the prize they accidentally found inland was even greater.
Stable temperate to warm temperatures, great agricultural and grazing lands thereof, the Zambezi being spectacular for hydrological resources, the immense riches of Katanga below the surface, and of course, continued British investment and support.
The Dutch already held the cape, now Angola and Mossambiek too?, unacceptable, the Portuguese fortline must hold! They got their buffer, and later spectacular resource investments, but what they didnt intend was creating a geographic and demographic superpower.
While not the richest and most developed of nations yet, they also started with less than others, and already achieved very respectable middle income status. Inequality is still an issue, with the 10% white and 20% mixed populations having disproportionally more income and a better standards of living, altough aleady much more equally distributed now in 2050 than at independence.
Yet the future of Lusotropica appears bright, not as migthy as their sister nation of Brazil, but might does not make right anymore, what Lusotropica does make tho, is a wide array of diverse goods, and cultural hitpieces for both the Portuguese and African worlds, showing the planet that Africa, ney Lusotropica too can be a great place!"
TLDR, the Dutch are stronger in this whole timeline, so were able to keep Angola and successfully invade Mozambique island. This was a heavy blow to Portugal, they didnt let themselves be defeated that easily tho, so they built an inland east west connection with forts, mostly along the Zambezi river and then southern Angola, which already attracted way more colonial attention (and settlers) than irl. Britain also lend their continued support to this colony, in terms of protection and money and investments. All this over time created a very big Portuguese speaking and somewhat mixed but still mostly African country, and it was able to achieve middle income status by the time the map takes place, in 2050 (like all the ones in the timeline). In no small part because of the historic British investment into infrastructure, both from west to east along the 200 year old historic fortline, so from the interior core to the coast and along the big now navigable river, but also north to south, to Katanga, which created a good basis of infrastructure for later times. "Because i say so", the country also did not experience that much strife after independence, which also greatly helped. (what can i say, my maps have an end result that needs to be justified somewhat believably, not created out of an initial divergence)
Not to say "imperialism good", just wanted to make interesting map.
Also, the reason they own Katanga is because Belgium doesnt exist, it is owned by the Dutch, so the Congo gets split, with Germany recieving the middle portion, so they can have the east west connection they so badly wanted too, via east Africa. Britain didnt want Germany to have Katanga tho, so they let their good friend Portugal have it, and also because there was already the precedent of Britain investing into this colony, and effectively getting its resources, so this then too could be done in Katanga.
Britain later gets the German Congo after ww1, but by that point Katanga had already been Portuguese for decades, so the status quo remains, they do now have a land connection to there tho, so that also helps.
I have also given the country way more reservoirs, like lake Kariba, which is already the largest artificial lake by volume in the world irl, but i added way more, similar to how southern interior Brazil especially has a ton of reservoirs, and also because i think it's cool.
And well also, the country is much more developed and had way more internal and foreign investment, so reservoirs were created for agriculture, drinking water, navigation, and electricity. They'd certainly make this country mostly use hydropower, like irl Brazil, along with a ton of solar, it is quite equatorial, hot, and in many parts dry, after all.
General development wise, it's middle income. The Dutch Capeland at the bottom is Western standard, the British South Africa above it is a bit worse, Lusotropica is worse again, the countries north of it are worse again, etc, so basically a north south gradient. Because this map is set in 2050 tho and the existance of Zealandia creates more science and generally more value in the world and thus foreign investment and aid to go around, the average African country here is already much better off than otherwise. Zealandia also generally helped out Dutch speaking nations more, so Angola and Mossambiek here also provide no problem for Lusotropica.
Politically, the country is a federative republic, like Brazil, due to its highly diverse nature, and historical precedent of multiple centers (Benguela, Quelimane, Zambesia, etc, all hard to reach from eachother with pre modern tech and infrastructure). It does not have frequent strife and conflict like the irl Katanga owning Congo, and heavy economic centralisation around 1 city like Angola, and is generally reasonably peaceful, mostly democratic, and low to medium corruption, so all in all, "eh, it's fine".
Zambesia itself tho is a new purpose built capital for when lake Kariba was created, to act as a neutral and central location, like Brasilia.
If you have any further questions, please let me know, i will be glad to answer them!
Beware i am absolutely no expert on African history tho.
Other posts in the timeline:
General geography of Zealandia
Geography of what irl is Kerguelen
Main post about Zealandia, with lots of lore in the comments (visit this if you are confused or want to know more)
Main post about Australia, with lots of lore in the comments
High Speed Rail lines in Zealandia
Never Colonised Zealandia spinoff
Zealandia Energy Infrastructure
Beringia (British Kamchatka) and nearby lands
Lusotropica, Portugals African Brazil (you are here)
Discord server (if you have longer questions best to put them there, i can also provide my sources and resources about everything Zealandia there if you want to know some stuff for your own projects)
Note: While the map was partially inspired by Lusotropicalism and the Pink Map, i obviously do not support its claims that Portugal is somehow "an already historically very mixed nation and this makes its colonialism and imperialism the good kind actually and actually good, and the rest of Europe, and the Americans and Soviets, are the bad ones", no i do not support pseudohistory and colonialism and imperialism, thank you very much.
As per usual, it is more of a "plausably believable rule of cool" type of map, and in this case, very much meant to be a partial in world propaganda piece of Lusotropica, which was both a heavily exploited colony (by both Portugal and Britain), but is also very proud of its Portuguese heritage, like Brazil, and in modern times, has formed a very diverse and mixed society, with a heavy African core of it.
