Silberküste
Colony of the Silberküste Kolonie der Silberküste | |||||||||
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| 1876-1950 | |||||||||
 Flag
 Coat of arms
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Anthem: Was ist des Ostischen Vaterland? (official) Heia Safaria (unofficial) | |||||||||
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| Status | Weranian self-governing colony | ||||||||
| Capital | Adalbertstadt | ||||||||
| Common languages | Weranic (official) Watuajua, Sisulu, Kulo | ||||||||
| Government | Constitutional monarchy | ||||||||
| Monarch | |||||||||
• 1976-1913 (first) | Adalbert | ||||||||
• 1944-1950 (last) | Otto X | ||||||||
| Minister-President | |||||||||
• 1892-1896 | Horst von Ritter Hatzfeldt (first) | ||||||||
• 1944-1950 | Josef Dittmann (last) | ||||||||
| Legislature | State Diet | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
• Creation of the colony | 14 June 1876 | ||||||||
• Self-governing status | 11 November 1892 | ||||||||
| 18 April 1950 | |||||||||
| Population | |||||||||
• 1902 | 1,205,764 | ||||||||
| Currency | Reichmark | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Maucha | ||||||||
The Colony of the Silberküste (Weranic: Kolonie der Silberküste) commonly known simply as Silberküste (Silver Coast) was a self-governing colony of the Weranian Empire that existed from 1876 to the independence of the Democratic Republic of Maucha on the 18 April 1950. From the 11 November 1892 to its dissolution it was a self-governing colony that exercised significant autonomy within the Weranic Empire.
Formed after Emperor Adalbert granted the Weranian East Bahian Company permission to annex the coast of East Bahia that had been dominated by the Njinji-Sisulo Kingdom, Watuajuan Confederacy, and smaller Kulo tribal kingdoms in 1872. The trading outposts set up OBK were merged into the new colony known as the Silberküste due to the large amount of silver that was being extracted there with the Weranian government also promoting a policy of settler colonialism to the colony. A large amount of Weranian - predominantly poor farmers - emigrated to the colony where they often brought large areas of land from the colonial government at low prices leading to persistent cases of "land clearings" with native tribes driven from ancestral homelands. This led between the 1880's-1890's the Watuajua Wars a series of revolts by Watuajuan people resistant to Weranic rule in the region. This white population called themselves as the dietsmen.
In 1892 Werania passed the Law of Silberküste Self-Government which officially re-organised Silberküste as a self-governing colony with its own elected Landtag. The landtag could only be elected by property-owning male dietsmen, with the franchise expanded over time to include all white males by 1914. The colony received significant investment from the metropole with the white settler elite emphasising their "civilising mission" for the natives. This was most clear in the creation of the askari in 1901, who quickly were regarded as the most elite of the Weranian colonial troops. During the Great Collapse a huge wave of Weranic settlers emigrated to the colony bolstering its population and creating a settler colonialist nationalist identity implementing more stringent polices of segregation.
During the Great War the colony came under Gaullican occupation, albeit the role of askari defending the colony was heavily emphasised in Weranian propaganda. In the post-war period a third wave of settlers came to colony that led to more land clearing operations. Under the white supremacist government of the Union Party segregation measures under Reinhardt von Hauenstein increased. In 1940 protests across the country by the United Mauchan Front resulted in a harsh crackdown which sparked the UTF to start an insurgency that became the Mauchan War for Independence that would span for ten years.
The well-trained Silberküste colonial regiments were decimated after making askari troops defected to the rebels who received support from Kirenia and later Shangea against the colonial government who were often accused of war crimes. The war was a consistent source of frustration for the Weranian government especially as von Hauenstein was regarded as a hardliner by colonial standards and committed to a strategy of total war.
In 1948 von Hauenstein was killed by rebel forces who had began to militarily become more powerful. His successor, Josef Dittmann, was more moderate and negotiated with rebel leaders surrounding the independence of the country as a multiethnic state. In 1950 following the Kirenian-Weranian War increasing pressure came on Werania to give independence to the colony. In April the Treaty of Siegberg was signed formally giving Maucha independence with one man, one vote, dissolving the colony. Although the initial constitution gave the white minority a favorable position socialist policies combined with the creation of the United Bahian Republic led to the dietsmen population to emigrate.