Afrikaner Volkstaat
The Afrikaner Volkstaat is a Boer ethno-state that rises up against the Union of South Africa, before forming the Afrika-Schild alongside the three African Reichskommissariats when the South African War erupts.
History[edit | edit source]
During the Napoleonic Era, what had previously been the Dutch Cape Colony was seized by the Royal Navy to prevent it from falling under French hegemony. After Napoleon Bonaparte was finally defeated in 1815, the British Empire refused to cede control over the colony back to the Netherlands.
Much of Cape Colony's large population of Dutch settlers resented living under British rule, especially those on the Cape's frontier, known as the "Boers". The 1834 abolition of chattel slavery by parliament in the Cape Colony, compounded disdain over British rule triggering the mass migration of Boers from the colony into the African interior in an what later became known as the Great Trek.
The Boer migrants eventually established the Orange Free State and South African Republic. In 1881, the independence of these states was confirmed following their victory over the British Empire in the brief First Boer War. Following the discovery of massive gold and mineral deposits in Boer territory, war with the British broke out again in 1899. By 1902, Great Britain conquered both Boer Republics, overcoming stubborn Boer resistance through the use of a scorched earth policy and forcing Boer civilians into concentration camps.
Despite this, their pride of being Boers continued, supporting greater Boer Nationalism through memorials of the Great Trek.
After the Second Boer War, a degree of reconciliation developed between the Afrikaners and British, facilitating the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, under the leadership of former Boer Commandos such as Louis Botha and Jan Smuts. South African Union Defence Force troops, including thousands of Afrikaners, served in the British forces during World War I.
Nonetheless, many Boers remembered the brutal tactics used by Britain in the Second Boer War and remained resentful of British rule, even in the looser form of Dominion status.
Setting the Stones.[edit | edit source]
During the Second World War, the Boers, with many having German sympathies, became subject to scrutiny. Some went to extent of planning acts of sabotage and strikes to cripple the national economy. These actions, accompanied with fear from colonial authorities would see the Boers in internment camps. As a result, the National Party would be cracked down on during the war for its Nazi sympathies along with the Ossewabrandwag (Ox-Wagon Sentinel) organisation.
Following the fall of Britain in the Second World War, South Africa found itself in an extremely delicate position. The Boers were still dissatisfied with their “oppression” of the governing Anglo minority and the internment camps. The Reich took notice of this, putting pressure on the release of interned Boers whilst also supplying fascist Boer paramilitaries and supporting Albert Hertzog’s National Party, seeing itself regain it's strength and quickly became the main opposition against the Anglo United Party. Their extensive calls for White Minority rule brings them often at loggerheads with the African National Congress.
Although nominally aligned with the Reichkommissariats in Africa, as both the Boer nationalists and Hans Hüttig are hardline racists and share many beliefs, the Boers aren't particularly keen with being lorded over by Germans, and the two are merely allies of convenience.