African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 487: Chapter 165 Discussion

Lieford’s pessimism ultimately boils down to money issues. The homeland only siphons wealth from Mozambique, so Mozambique could never invest in local development like East Africa does. Without money, Portugal’s homeland also cannot provide Mozambique with other favorable support to reduce colonial costs, thus blocking all paths of creating revenue and reducing expenditures.

The East African naval exercise made the new Governor of Mozambique somewhat recognize reality, while the British Natal colony’s attitude towards the East African exercise was merely ”noted,” neither cold nor warm.

The East African navy does indeed pose some threat, but this threat doesn’t frighten the British. In 1877, the United Kingdom had nearly more than 180 main battleships, making the East African navy appear like an ant in front of the British Royal Navy.

Of course, this ant still poses some level of threat in the Western Indian Ocean region because the Royal Navy is a global force and cannot concentrate in one place to crush this ant.

”What are the Germans trying to do? Are they demonstrating? If they dare to play like this in India, Cape Town, and the Red Sea, I’d admire them. But conducting such a meaningless exercise in Natal shows too much regard for us. Even if they switched to Cape Town, it might make the Germans understand what truly constitutes the world’s number one navy.”

In essence, the Natal colony is just a small colony centered around Durban Port and pales in comparison to large colonies like Cape Town. Thus, in the eyes of the Natal Governor, East Africa’s actions are dismissive, like two people fighting, yet someone running to the other person’s house to threaten their children.

The purpose of East Africa is not simply to show strength; more importantly, it is to express an attitude externally that East Africa is different from other regional countries. Colonizers aren’t foolish; they also select targets carefully. Otherwise, it would be embarrassing to crash into a hard wall unexpectedly—a common occurrence worldwide.

The East African navy serves as the best window to showcase East Africa’s mental state and national governance. A well-developed navy indicates that the self-government’s organizational ability isn’t too weak, and countries with strong organizational capabilities are generally the toughest nuts for colonizers to crack.

Regarding the land, the East African army should not spread itself thin. Frankly speaking, the East African army in Europe would also be considered a second or third-tier strong army, at most slightly inferior to the major powers’ armies. Frightening the surrounding forces would not be advisable.

Overall, the East African naval exercise does hold some effect, at least allowing the British to recognize that East Africa has a seemingly strong fleet. Without a major effort, attempting to colonize East Africa would be an arduous task. However, the British are most wary about which side is East Africa really on?

After more than half a year of investigation, Benjamin obtained relatively comprehensive information, and the British government gained a clearer understanding of the size of the East African colony.

”From the Somali Desert in the northeast to the Namib Desert in southwestern Africa, you could just draw a diagonal line across the continent toward the equatorial region. This diagonal line region is already clearly the territory of the East African Kingdom, and this is almost the territorial formation of the East African Kingdom. With the two Portuguese colonies on both sides, it just confirms that the East African territory is diagonal, so estimating the area of this diagonal region, we believe East African territory is at least around seven million square kilometers. My God! The sheer size is frightening, only a few countries in the world are larger than East Africa.”

Benjamin: ”Large area doesn’t mean usefulness. Australia has deserts, Canada has ice fields, Brazil has rainforests, so ultimately, it’s about the effective territory. What do you consider the effective territory of East Africa?”

”Prime Minister, this is hard to describe, but it can be confirmed that the vast majority of Southwest Africa is worthless desert area, and the northeastern region of East Africa is also a considerable desert region, these two regions alone are about more than two million square kilometers. Just like Brazil, there should be rainforests, but the specific size is hard to analyze. However, one thing is certain: Africa’s development scale should not be large. If Africa were to be fully developed like America, it might take over a hundred years.”

”Thinking this way is incorrect. America’s development faced human resource constraints, leading to over a hundred years of Black slave trade. But Africa is different; it is originally the homeland of Black slaves. I mean, what if the East Africans use Black people to develop Africa?”

”That’s wishful thinking. If Black people were that useful, it wouldn’t be the Germans getting this advantage. You really should communicate more with Black ethnic groups. I’m sure that, apart from a few exceptional cases, most Black people are notoriously foolish, making them incapable of doing anything right. Plus, they’re not as reliable as machines; machines don’t riot, but Black people do. I believe the Black people within East Africa are the same, they are very likely to resist East African colonization just like Native Americans.”

You might say Native Americans are inferior in battle, but their determination to resist invasion is admirable. Unfortunately, Native Americans lacked a unified core force to oppose despicable white colonizers.

It took the United States over a hundred years to massacre Native Americans, so if the East African Kingdom wants to expand colonization in East Africa, it will similarly encounter Black resisters.

However, what he didn’t realize is that there are not many Black people in East Africa, or rather, the number of Germans in East Africa is too high, completely breaking down the resistance of Black people in front of East Africa. Thus, the status of Black people in East Africa is that of slaves obtained by non-trade means.

Of course, no matter how big Africa’s area is, the strength of a country isn’t determined by size alone, especially for immigrant nations. Brazil and Argentina, with such good natural conditions, still ended up in such poor states, so the Benjamin government doesn’t believe East Africa’s national strength will surpass those of American countries.

As for the United States as an exception, it’s not something East Africa could emulate, the title ”Land of Destiny” does hold some truth. But even then, it took the U.S. a century to develop into one of the great powers, so the Benjamin government doesn’t believe East Africa has this potential either.

Therefore, East Africa itself is not worth too much focus, instead, it’s whether East Africa is supported by the German and Austrian governments behind it. If both countries are uninterested in overseas colonies, Benjamin himself wouldn’t believe it for a second.

”The Heixinggen royal family, like the Prussian royal family, also belongs to the Hohenzollern family, and the relationship between the two is very close, much like the relationship with Romania’s Sigmaringen. I even believe that aside from Germany, the countries led by the other Hohenzollern family members are potentially premeditated efforts to form a network of national relations through family ties, so East Africa is definitely allied with Germany.”

”Mardos, your idea doesn’t hold water because our intelligence investigation shows that East Africa is clearly closer to the Austria-Hungary Empire, especially with the alliance treaty signed between the two. This indicates that East Africa chose the Austria-Hungary Empire over Germany in selecting its camp. The same is true economically; East Africa’s main trade partner is the Austria-Hungary Empire, as seen from the destinations of merchant ships.”

Benjamin: ”East Africa is a very special presence; perhaps it is neither a German nor an Austrian colony, which is not impossible.”

Previously, the British understanding of East Africa was that the country might have been orchestrated by Prussia, after all, the last name Hohenzollern explains a lot. However, East Africa’s subsequent actions were not like that; instead, East Africa grew closer to the Austria-Hungary Empire.