South Africa is a Tier IV nation. It is a fairly strong nation and arguably one the strongest nations in Africa 
along with 
Egypt, 
Nigeria, and the 
Democratic Republic of the Congo. South Africa contains large reserves of resources, however, it surprisingly lacks 
Oil, one of the most prevalent resources in-game.
Background[]
|
Before the colonial era, Southern Africa was inhabited by two main groups of people. The western portions of modern-day South Africa were inhabited by the Khoisan peoples, who were nomadic and had a combination of hunter-gather and cattle-herder society. Because of this, they oftentimes didn’t stick around in one area. To the east lay the Bantu people, who had expanded from East Africa to most of Sub-Saharan Africa. Though this period of history is less known, it is instrumental to understanding not just pre-colonial South Africa, but South Africa in general. The first Europeans to discover the Cape of Good Hope were the Portuguese. The Portuguese wanted to find a trade route to Asia by sailing around Africa, and they christened the cape they sailed before getting to Asia “The Cape of Good Hope” due to the fact that they got extremely wealthy afterwards. Some, however, called it “The Cape of Storms” due to its stormy nature. It would be the Dutch, however, who would first colonize the Cape. The Dutch East India Company intended to set up a rest station in the Cape for VOC (Dutch East India Company) ships en route to Asia. Foreign ships too can dock, but for a price. Cape Colony, however, would also see settlers from Europe farm her lands. These farmers, known as the Afrikaners or the Boers, weren’t just Dutch, but were also deriving from French, German, and other European ancestries. It would be the fall of the Netherlands to France in the Napoleonic Wars, however, when the British arrive not as just settlers, but as colonizers. Great Britain would seize Cape Colony to prevent Napoleon Bonaparte from gaining it. After Napoleon lost, however, Britain was given Cape Colony in perpetuity by the Dutch. Britain passed & enforced legislation that made English the sole legal language for Cape Colony, and this would lead to the Boers moving East and establishing their own Boer Republics of Transvaal, the Orange Free State, and Natal, though Natal would quickly be seized by the British. The United Kingdom would initially leave the Boer Republics alone, yet with the discovery of diamonds in the region, Britain would be more interested in the Boer Republics. The first Boer War would be a British disaster. Britain would then invade the last Bantu state in the region: Zululand. Though the Zulus would repel the British at the Battle of Isandlwana, the British would see a significant victory at the Battle of Rorke’s Drift. In the end, Britain would annex the Zulu Kingdom, and then fight another Boer War. Almost half a million British-Imperial soldiers fought the Boers, and Britain used concentration camps to weaken Boer guerrilla resistance. The British, however, would also end slavery in the region. Eventually, the Boer Republics would capitulate and become British colonies. The Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony, and Orange Free State Colony would unite into the Union of South Africa in 1910, and it would become a British Dominion. The Union of South Africa would soon join the Great War as a part of the allies. It would face German Namibia while having to deal with the Maritz Rebellion. By the end of the war, South Africa would gain a mandate over modern-day Namibia, though it would effectively be treated as South Africa’s fifth province. South Africa would also grow to feel further separate from Britain, and a new “Oranje, Blanje, and Blou” flag would replace the South Africa Red Ensign in 1928. The South Africans would gain de facto independence with the Statute of Westminster, which allowed South Africa to determine its own foreign policy. South Africa joined the Commonwealth of Nations, yet South Africa was divided on whether or not to help Britain in the Second World War. The United Party was pro-British and pro-Commonwealth, and wanted South Africa to help Britain. The National Party was pro-Afrikaner, and didn’t want to help Britain. Some even wanted to join the war against Britain and ally with Germany. In the end, the ruling United Party declared war on Germany and South Africa would play a key role in the North Africa Campaign and Battle of Britain. After the war, South Africa’s National Party would gain power, and would adopt a policy known as Apartheid. Though segregationist policies existed in the region ever since colonial rule, Apartheid was much more segregationist than anything before it. South Africa’s white minority restricted the black majority and other minorities from voting, moving throughout the country, and even using the same stairs as whites. This policy would initially be tolerated as the United States also had segregation laws and South Africa was anticommunist, yet eventually relations with the West would sour over Apartheid. South Africa would also attempt to move blacks to bantustans, or “homelands”. The National Party would also be strongly republican, and as a result of British disapproval of Apartheid and Afrikaners outpopulating the British, South Africa became a Republic and left the British Commonwealth in 1961. Apartheid would further isolate South Africa from its former allies. South Africa would fight a series of wars to defend the few allies it had. One example was the Rhodesian Bush War. Rhodesia was where Zimbabwe is today, and like South Africa, it would be a white-minority ruled nation. Rhodesia’s majority black population would revolt against the Rhodesian government, and the Soviet Union and People’s Republic of China would arm these rebels. The conflict between the Rhodesian government and the Communist backed ZAPU & ZANU would last from 1965 to 1980, and despite South Africa’s best efforts, international sanctions against Rhodesia would eventually result in a guerrilla victory. Another conflict that South Africa would intervene in was in Portuguese Africa. Portugal would covertly ally with South Africa and Rhodesia to suppress rebellions against their colonial rule in Angola and Mozambique (known as the Portuguese Colonial Wars), yet eventually Portugal would no longer be able to maintain their holdings in Africa. South Africa would try to intervene to place a friendly government in Angola, yet Cuba would fight against South Africa in the South African Border War, and South Africa would be forced to withdraw. Resistance to the Apartheid regime would increase in Namibia as a result of this. Near the end of Apartheid, South Africa would pursue nuclear weapons as it saw its allies fall to communist-backed black guerrillas. After the fall of the Soviet Union, however, international scrutiny would fall on South Africa with even greater intensity, and a reform-minded Frederick de Klerk would take office and, alongside a freedom-fighting Nelson Mandela, would bring down the Apartheid system and South Africa would become democratic in 1991. |
Base Statistics[]
Economy[]
South Africa has an income of $1,896,951, with a tax income of $1,004,369 and a resource income of $892,582, giving it a semi-large economy, usually it is recommended to increase resource income instead of tax income.
Resources[]
South Africa has quite a number of useful resources, having massive amounts of chromium, copper, diamonds, gold, and a sizeable amount of tungsten. Despite having all these resources, it lacks oil, a common and essential resource.
 Chromium
|
+21.1 |
|---|---|
 Copper
|
+4.43 |
 Diamond
|
+17.82 |
 Gold
|
+15.52 |
 Iron
|
+8.85 |
 Phosphate
|
+1.11 |
 Titanium
|
+7.21 |
 Tungsten
|
+3.33 |
Military[]
South Africa starts with 120,000 Home Guard, all stationed on Johannesburg. This is easily enough to invade your weak neighbors, so you won't have to worry about your manpower pool draining. It is strongly advised you get tanks, but do not feel pressured to do so as infantry works perfectly fine in the flat terrain of sub-Saharan Africa.
South Africa starts with a manpower cap of 445,911 and a manpower gain of +1,543, giving it a lot of potential when cities are upgraded and Recruitment Centers are built.
| Disarmed [1% RP] |
Volunteer [2% RP] |
Limited [5% RP] |
Extensive [10% RP] |
Required [25% RP] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Cities[]
South Africa has 66 cities. Before the city update, both Cape town and Bloemfontein were squares instead of cylinders, meaning that they were a capital, but only Bloemfontein was considered the real capital.
Threats[]
- Any african nation trying to form the
African Union. (RARE) - United Kingdom will want you for their Colonial Empire. (EXTREMELY RARE)
- Brazil, United States, etc. will want you for your resources. (UNCOMMON)
Politics[]
Ideology[]
South Africa's starting ideology is non-aligned. The best ideology to change to for South Africa is Communism, as it expands your resource, factory output and your manpower output. Using your nation's rich resources and Communism will allow you to create an incredible economy.
Formables[]
South Africa can form the following formables:
Releaseables[]
South Africa has four releasables:
Strategy[]
WARNING: It is recommended that you do not follow strategies word for word, since some unexpected things may happen which are outside the strategy. You may also need to do things not mentioned in the strategy, such as researching further in the research tree, doing multiple things at the same time, etc.
Starting Moves[]
First off it is highly recommended to begin by justifying conquest wars 
Lesotho and 
Madagascar, switching government spending and research spending to their highest, researching the first two technologies on the research tree and making two Electronic Factories and begin trading to other countries by selling 3-5 
Electronic to multiple countries depending on size.
Establishing a Resource Monopoly[]
Once the justifications are done proceed and justify conquest wars on 
Sierra Leone and 
Eswatini, then proceed and declare war on Lesotho and send your starter unit to conquer it now, make another 120 thousand troops.
Once you are done conquering Lesotho and have a total of 240 thousand troops, declare war on Madagascar, while we wait for those troops to arrive on Madagascar it is recommended to make 240 thousand more troops. Once they arrive on there use AI Luring to eliminate their troops, once the troops are eliminated split your unit in half and proceed to auto capture the rest.
Once your troops have captured the only city in Madagascar with Titanium you will have enough resources to make 
Steel, which can make 
Motor Part, which can make 
Consumer Goods once you buy Phosphate from other nations, by this time you will also be able to change into Socialism which will increase your factory output.
By now, the justification on Sierra Leone should be completed, proceed and declare war on them and Eswatini and 1 half of the 240 thousand regiment to one country and the other half to the other country, proceed to capture both countries, while you are capturing them justify war on 
Namibia and 
Botswana.
Once done you should have a resource monopoly.
Forming the South African Union[]
Now that you have a resource monopoly it is time to form the 
South African Union which will give you a stability bonus on top of giving you core cities in the South African region.
Now it is recommended to first justify war on 
Zimbabwe and bring back the 360 thousand troops from Madagascar and Sierra Leone then position them near Namibia then proceed to declare war on them, both Namibia and Botswana, and proceed to use AI Luring to capture them both.
Once you are done position your troops near Zimbabwe then declare war and conquer them with AI Luring. Once this is done you should now have the ability to form the South African Union
Trivia[]
- In real life, South Africa has 3 capitals: Pretoria—the administrative capital, Cape town—the legislative, and Bloemfontein—the judicial.
- In game, however, the judicial capital is used.
