African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 817: Chapter 121: Asking for the Moon

The British prisoners were the basis for East Africa’s negotiation strength, and when Herman played this card, it had the greatest impact on those present, especially on colonial powers like the UK and France. Naturally, the UK was on the defensive, while the French were gloating.

In the colonial wars of the 19th century, colonizers often needed only a small force to achieve significant gains.

For instance, before East Africa, the total number of Portuguese troops in Angola and Mozambique was less than ten thousand.

Most striking was the 18th-century conquest of India by the British East India Company, which used less than a thousand local troops along with about two thousand mercenaries to achieve dominance over India. Even by the 19th century, the total number of British troops stationed in India did not exceed ten thousand.

The British effectively replicated the conquest model of Wang Xuance from the Tang Dynasty over India. Although the British had few troops, they constructed a large number of puppet armies, mostly composed of Indians.

More recent was the 1850s war between England, France, and the Far East Empire, with a total force of only more than five thousand six hundred.

However, the Far East Empire’s war had a great deal of unpredictability. First, the Far East Empire did not have sea power at the time, and the capital was close to the coast.

Before the British invasion, the Far East Empire had only one trade port in Guangzhou, namely ”one port for trade,” which was significantly different from East Africa, which initially also had only one trade port in Dar es Salaam City. However, East Africa itself had poor natural geography and lacked good harbors.

Only after East Africa carried out changes on multiple coastal bays did the current pattern of coastal cities emerge, including Bajamojo and Mombasa as typical examples.

Before East Africa, both places were genuine wastelands, with Bajamojo having a population of only a few hundred (historically, Bajamojo’s population was about a thousand around 1880), and Mombasa was slightly better but remained merely a small town under Zanzibar’s Sultanate, as it was far from the core area of Zanzibar Sultanate (Zanzibar Island and the surrounding area of Dar es Salaam City).

European colonizers often needed only a few regiments to easily capture a country and large regions, but East Africa evidently broke this ”common knowledge.”

In reality, the UK had already ”overestimated” East Africa as much as possible before the war. First was East Africa’s navy strength, which was at the forefront globally, and then its weaponry and equipment were basically on par with European standards, so prior to the war against East Africa, the British Prime Minister, Cecil, treated the East African war with ”maximum” seriousness.

And the facts proved that they severely underestimated East Africa’s war potential, as tens of thousands of British troops being captured was almost the greatest humiliation the British Army faced since the 19th century.

Of course, Britain could make the resolve to mobilize so many troops to invade East Africa in one go because of East Africa’s rapid economic development. Although East Africa was ”closed,” the economic situation in the coastal areas was visibly prosperous, accompanied by booming trade, the density of ships on East African routes, and control over the Suez Canal and Malacca Strait allowed the UK to obtain significant data on East Africa’s imports and exports, so the essence of the South African war was still driven by interests.

And Herman then continued to make outrageous demands: ”Currently, we have over 270,000 British and Indian prisoners, and considering their maintenance in terms of food and other needs while in East Africa, as well as compensating the economic losses and military expenditures of East Africa, the UK should compensate our country with eighty-two million British Pounds.”

Upon Herman’s words, the entire room was in an uproar. Not only Britain but also Austria-Hungary, Germany, and France were all taken aback.

One must know that the entire Franco-Prussian War saw France compensate Prussia with ”only” five billion Francs, which was about two hundred million British Pounds at that time.

But here, East Africa demanded eighty-two million British Pounds from the UK in one go, nearly equal to half of the Franco-Prussian War’s war reparations, and almost equivalent to the UK’s annual fiscal revenue. In 1888, Britain’s total annual fiscal revenue was about ninety million British Pounds.

And this was far from over; while everyone was still shocked, East Africa continued with its high demands, and Herman did not forget about Portugal, spreading the demands equally: ”Portugal should also compensate our country with forty-eight million British Pounds, which already considers Portugal’s financial difficulties and soldiers’ combat capabilities as special concessions; otherwise, if Portuguese soldiers were calculated at the same single price as British soldiers, this number would triple.”

This statement not only accelerated the heartbeat of the Portuguese representative but also deeply humiliated them, as East Africa specifically pointed out Portugal’s weak combat power.

”Count Herman, you East Africans are being too excessive. Even if all of Angola and Mozambique were bundled and sold, they wouldn’t be worth forty million Reals (Portuguese currency), let alone British Pounds,” the Portuguese representative asked before Salisbury could speak.

With a harmless smile, Herman said, ”Mr. Gers, please don’t rush. Our calculations naturally have a rationale. This time, we’ve captured over 120,000 Portuguese soldiers in total, and if we calculate one Portuguese soldier at a third of a British soldier, or fifty British Pounds, that’s six million British Pounds, and this is only the ransom for Portuguese soldiers. We’ve also captured more than 300,000 Portuguese auxiliary troops, and merely the costs incurred by them in the past few months would be astronomical even if we discounted it by half.

Moreover, the destruction by Portuguese soldiers to our three provinces in the west and center was almost catastrophic, displacing over one million residents, and nearly all infrastructure was destroyed. Meanwhile, we must also compensate and offer pensions to the Heixinggen warriors who sacrificed to defend the homeland. So, are forty-eight million British Pounds too much? In reality, our Heixinggen Kingdom has suffered severe losses. If not for considering Portugal’s economic level and the less destructive power of Portuguese soldiers compared to the British Army, you should be the ones paying the main part of the compensation.”

According to Herman, even Portugal’s compensation was insufficient. Of course, the numbers cannot be calculated this way. First is the so-called population of over one million that Herman mentioned, which is a fabricated number out of thin air. If it refers to Black people, it is somewhat reasonable, but clearly, Black people cannot be considered part of the East African population.

Next, East Africa has virtually no development in the west, so the alleged severe damage to infrastructure is a nonexistent situation, as most areas in the west didn’t have any ”hair” to begin with.

Finally, regarding the calculation of the Portuguese army, would Portugal treat more than 300,000 Black auxiliary troops as ”people”? Clearly not, much less pay ransom for these Black people.

So what can be monetized is actually the 120,000 Portuguese home troops, and a six million British Pound ransom is sufficient for East Africa to break even. Given the economic condition of Portugal, even producing six million British Pounds would be difficult, and the forty-eight million British Pounds demanded by East Africa is only roughly tripling the number by including Blacks as Portuguese.

Six million British Pounds is undoubtedly significant, but by struggling slightly, Portugal could bear it, whereas forty-eight million British Pounds would directly threaten the very existence of the Portuguese government.

There is no doubt that if Portugal accepted this number, it would not recover for the next fifty years and would ultimately become a third-rate country in Europe.

France, with its vast wealth, has always relied on its reserves, whereas Portugal had limited domestic territory and a small population. If Portugal had to compensate according to this amount, each Portuguese citizen would bear about fifteen British Pounds in debt, whereas most British workers’ monthly wages had not exceeded ten British Pounds, and economically worse-off Portuguese could neither eat nor drink nor pay off East Africa’s debt for at least two or three months. Moreover, the average wage in Portugal barely suffices to support a family, so the Portuguese government would undoubtedly reject East Africa’s conditions.