Flag of the Republic of the Union of South Africa

History

• August 5, 1985 A Soviet submarine launches an unprovoked cruise missile attack on strategic harbor facilities in South Africa. The government of President P.W. Botha, angry over continuing Western sanctions, reluctantly declares war on the Warsaw Pact, taking co-belligerent status with NATO, giving the alliance only grudging cooperation. Botha takes advantage of the situation by launching attacks on bases of the African National Congress , Angola, and Mozambique.

• October 18, 1985 After receiving word that the Warsaw Pact has launches a nuclear attack on NATO forces, President P.W. Botha of South Africa orders limited nuclear strikes against hostile bases in Mozambique and Angola. Shortly after, Soviet nuclear weapons detonate over Cape Town and Praetoria. Botha, who had evacuated the South African capital as a precaution, sets up a new seat of government in Durban.

• 1987-1994 The First Zulu War is fought between South Africa and the Kingdom of the Zulus. The Zulus rise against the South Africans. The South African government expends most of its pre-1985 armaments early in the conflict. Even after an arms purchase agreement with the Roman Empire in 1990, the small manpower reserves of the White South Africans leads to an attritional battle that the government forces cannot sustain. Forced by the need to buy arms for cash from the Romans, the South Africans keep their gold mines open by forced labor, which by 1991 evolves into legalized slavery.

• October 9, 1994 The Treaty of Rome is signed between the Republic of South Africa and the Kingdom of the Zulus, recognizing the Zulus as an independent state and ending the First Zulu War.

• September 17, 1997 Argentina declares war on South Africa, attempting to gain control of the trade route around the Cape of Good Hope and the output of the South Africa gold fields. As South Africa’s tiny navy has been totally neglected by necessity since 1985, the Argentines concentrate on commerce raiding and outright banditry along South Africa’s coastline. The war continues for decades, a continual drain on South Africa’s trade and technology. The Romans do nothing to help their South African clients, knowing full well that they will get the output of the South African mines either directly or from Argentina. The piracy keeps arms prices high and constantly reinforces demand and at the same time keeps the South Africans from being able to become independent from the Roman arms industry.

• November 22, 2012 The H.M.S. Enterprise enters Port Elizabeth harbor in South Africa, opening the first diplomatic relations between the British North American Colonies and the South African government. Relations are strained by the obviously slave-based economy there.

• May 7, 2023 The South African government loses a major battle to a Xhosa-Zulu allied army at Ladysmith. The South Africans are pinned into an enclave around the gold fields, ports, and the Cape Province. The South Africans send a message to both the Portland government and the Roman Empire begging for aid.

• September 14, 2023 A UKA naval force reaches Durban, South Africa with a brigade of UKA Marines, under the command of Vice Admiral Thomas Bargeson. The South Africans are offered aid if they agree to abolish slavery and extend full civil rights to all inhabitants. Facing defeat and probable annihilation, they agree.

• September 23, 2023 UKA forces defeat the Argentine blockade of the South African ports, opening them to free trade for the first time in two decades.

• October 11, 2023 The South Africans adopt a new, liberal constitution with universal franchise. The government remains White dominated, as most former Black South Africans now live outside the shrunken borders of the Republic.

• December 30, 2023 The South African Parliament votes to join the UKA Commonwealth as a Class I member.

With acknowledgement to Cromett.