African Entrepreneurship Record

In reality, under the current circumstances, East Africa’s war potential has not been fully realized, as East Africa has a sufficient number of reserves that can support the battlefield at any time.

The mindset of the East African government can be understood as both maintaining normal production activities and social order, while also ensuring the final victory in the war.

As long as the frontline does not face any unfavorable situations for East Africa, the East African government does not need to expand the scale of the war. Of course, if the war can be ended sooner, it is undoubtedly the result that East Africa desires. However, East Africa is currently on the defensive, aiming to exhaust the enemy’s time, energy, manpower, morale, ammunition, equipment, and more.

The fundamental reason driving the General Staff to behave in this manner is that East Africa is actually at an advantageous position in the war. Currently, the war seems like the Allies are advancing triumphantly, even achieving significant advantages on some fronts.

However, surrounding these areas are colonies and not the homeland. The Boer Republic is an exception, but it’s small in scale and a purely agricultural and pastoral country.

Therefore, all of the Allies’ weapons and equipment need to be transported from the homeland to the colonies before being replenished to the local troops, whereas in East Africa, the defense industry is in the rear, capable of providing powerful reinforcement to the frontlines at any time.

Once the Allies’ offensive momentum weakens, East Africa will move to a counterattack status, and this situation will only occur if the Allies face serious problems with manpower and supplies.

Ernst said, ”If we withstand the first wave of pressure, it means we have gained an advantage in this war. Of course, this advantage is not a reason for our troops to become arrogant. Do not underestimate the British war capabilities. As the world’s foremost power, the outcome of the South African War essentially depends on the British government’s level of commitment.”

”Currently, it seems the enemy still has significant war potential. The frontline enemy troops maintain a high level of aggressiveness in their offensive. Simultaneously, having been prepared for years, the enemy’s material reserves are also quite abundant. So, we can see that the enemy is far from being in a weakened state, so our overall strategy remains focused on attrition, continuously bleeding the Allies.”

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Britain, Portugal, and the Boers have all suffered losses at the hands of East Africa, so their attitude towards the war is not just perfunctory, but rather fully prepared. Of course, they also underestimated East Africa’s war capabilities.

The current state of the war in East Africa has not met the psychological expectations of the Allied nations, especially the British Army.

Allied Commander-in-Chief Count Roberts frowned as he looked at the battle reports, dissatisfied with the Allies’ performance.

”The results reported by each unit are filled with ’victories’, yet apart from the direction of the Natal colonial area, none have achieved my strategic objectives. If there are so many victories, then why hasn’t the enemy’s defensive line changed at all?”

Apart from the Natal colonial troops breaking the Tugela River defenses under Rost’s command, other areas have seen little change, which leaves Count Roberts quite dissatisfied.

Of course, the Portuguese colony of Angola achieved some success, already breaking into East African territory, but the Angolan colonial troops are entirely under Portuguese command and not within the command of Count Roberts, the Allied Commander-in-Chief.

To Roberts’ confusion, a subordinate responded, ”The East Africans have built solid defensive fortifications on the borders, and East Africa’s weapons and equipment have exceeded our estimates. Given East Africa’s current firepower, it might not even lag behind in Europe. So, the reason the war hasn’t met expectations is due to our insufficient intelligence on East Africa.”

Count Roberts stated, ”We must understand one thing. We didn’t come to South Africa to fight a war of attrition. Once we’re bogged down in attrition, it means our objectives have failed from the start.”

”East Africa is a rather closed-off country, which is the real reason our nation has conflicts with East Africa. Simply based on East Africa’s area, it is nearly a vast nation with a multimillion-acre size. This vast country’s minerals, population, industry, agriculture, and market exclude the British, ultimately a contest over interests. But East Africa’s closed nature has resulted in difficulties developing our intelligence operations in East Africa. The war is essentially a final test of East Africa’s national power, but it seems that the East Africans have responded to the war with exceptional strength.”

Count Roberts essentially articulated one of the main reasons for this war. For any nation, war is not a good option and is usually the last resort when all other measures have failed.

But now East Africa has withstood the war pressure, indicating East Africa’s comprehensive national power far exceeds what other countries estimated. In terms of the current scale of the war, if Brazil were in their place, it’s likely Brazil would have already crumbled.

However, once warfare has started, it cannot be easily ended, especially from the perspective of the British Army. Such a large-scale war is a rare opportunity, so the Army intends to keep it going, even if it conflicts with British interests.

Moreover, although the war’s trajectory has deviated from Count Roberts’ expectations, it hasn’t entirely gone out of control. It’s merely a matter of considering East Africa as a rival akin to Tsarist Russia, adjusting one’s mindset appropriately.

Before coming to South Africa, Count Roberts was dismissive since the world knows little about East Africa. Even though East Africa is an independent country, people instinctively categorize it as a ”colony.”

Much like Brazil, which, although nominally independent, has its economy controlled by foreign capital, and this is also the effect that Britain hopes to achieve in East Africa. At the very least, it should reach a condition similar to that of Tsarist Russia.

Tsarist Russia is considered an industrial giant but highly dependent on Western capital, with economic lifelines controlled by foreign interests. Naturally, compared to a country like Brazil, Tsarist Russia has much greater autonomy. Some aspects of the national economy, although not very developed, are controlled by its own hands.

Compared to these, East Africa is absolutely peculiar. East Africa has a high degree of nationalization and has rapidly established a comprehensive framework for the national economy. Despite many issues, its overall growth is swift, essentially aligning with the current world trend of monopolistic corporate development.

So, in dealing with such a tough nut as East Africa, Count Roberts must adjust his mindset. This is something the British and Portuguese armies need as well. He said, ”Now we need more troops, more weapons, and equipment. The war cannot be ended hastily. I do not believe that East Africa, a country with merely a few decades of history, can withstand the military pressure from two great powers simultaneously simply on the strength of its own national power.”

”Of course, we should also take East Africa seriously as an adversary. East Africa’s performance has shown us that this country is completely different from any enemies we’ve fought before. Our understanding of this opponent is far from sufficient.”

”East Africa’s military strength should not be underestimated. Their military industry is likely closely linked with the German regions, with various new types of equipment appearing on the battlefield, as well as firepower not lagging behind Europe. This indicates that East Africans are equally adept at learning. They’re not just a secluded nation in Africa but rather possess a broad vision, which is particularly evident in military matters.”

”This also means that our war strategies against East Africa must be adjusted. We should not view East Africa as a colonial country but rather as an opponent that is on par with European military powers.”