African Entrepreneurship Record

The Spanish government’s attitude towards the Spanish-American conflict is unknown to East Africa, but this does not prevent East Africa from selling various war preparations and munitions to Spain in advance.

In fact, the arms trade between East Africa and Spain began as early as after the South African war. After the South African war, East African military products, especially army equipment, attracted the attention of many countries.

And Spain is among them because a large part of the Spanish army’s weapon procurement comes from Germany, and the East African army’s equipment is of the same origin with Germany, which facilitated East Africa.

Before the South African war, the quality of East African weapons might have caused Spain some doubts, but after the South African war, those doubts disappeared.

From after the South African war to the present, East Africa has exported more than 20,000 rifles and over a hundred machine guns to Spain. The performance of machine guns in South Africa was undoubtedly outstanding, thus attracting considerable attention.

”Mr. Cruise, this is the M1895c tropical jungle rifle produced by East Africa. It’s also part of the Mauser rifle series, but our East African military research and development team has made region-specific improvements to it according to tropical jungle temperature and humidity, making it more suitable for shooting in hot and humid areas,” said Manske, an East African weapons salesman to his old friend Cruise.

Since 1886, Spain had begun to equip itself with Mauser rifles. The Mauser rifle used by Spain is the M1893 type, which is a model made in Germany for export, specially designed for Spain. East Africa also has the production qualification. However, the Mauser rifles used by the East African Defense Army have detailed differences from those of Germany or its export models, primarily to adapt to the climate and terrain characteristics of East Africa, as well as the requirements of the East African Defense Army.

In the previous life during the Spanish-American War, the M1893 Mauser rifle used by Spain performed excellently to such an extent that after the Spanish-American War, the United States, having suffered losses, later developed the M1903 Springfield rifle, which was actually designed under the authorization of the Mauser rifle factory with the Mauser M1898 rifle as its prototype.

Therefore, the Mauser rifles now in the Spanish armament are destined to shine in the war, and East Africa naturally wants to get involved to test the performance of its weaponry.

Moreover, due to the South African war, the Mauser rifles used by the East African Defense Army already have their battle achievements, which has also accelerated the Spanish government’s determination to replace their rifles with Mausers, introducing them on a larger scale into their army than in history.

So, now if Spain wants to meet the needs of the war, it can only do so through Germany or East Africa, the two major countries in the world that use and produce Mauser series rifles.

In the previous life, Spain ordered as many as over 500,000 M1893 Mauser rifles, and continued to use them until 1928. It wasn’t until 1916 that their domestic Mauser rifles officially rolled off the production line, so now Spain’s Mauser rifles mainly rely on imports, which gives East Africa’s defense industry export opportunities.

”Since 1890, Spain has been one of our partners. After all, the quality of East African Mauser rifles is not inferior to the German ones. However, the M1893 Mauser rifles you use may be good for your local environment. After all, Spain has a Mediterranean climate, hot and dry in summer and mild and rainy in winter. But Cuba and the Philippines have a tropical rainforest climate, humid and hot weather with plenty of jungles. In such conditions, the shooting environment is different from your home country.”

”Take the jungle environment itself as an example. It’s different from conventional field environments because of heavy rains and fog, coupled with dense trees. Shooting conditions are naturally limited, so enhancing firepower is more important than range and accuracy. Consider this, in the full view of a tropical jungle filled with trees, how far can your bullet fly?”

Cruise nodded and said: ”You have a point. But when it comes to understanding the local environment, we’re more familiar than the Americans. Even if a land battle occurs, large-scale battles are unlikely to happen in the jungle.”

After all, neither Spain nor the United States is like Vietnam, whose local people move freely in the jungle. Their colonial focus is on coastal and already developed areas.

Manske understood this well and said: ”Don’t speak too absolutely. Could it be that if Spain loses ports and other areas in a war, you’d give them up! Moreover, it’s not just the Americans; suppressing the colonies is also a big head. Those local indigenous people are a part you urgently need to combat, and this can’t avoid jungle warfare.”

Now, uprisings among local people in the Philippines and Cuba are emerging one after another. The fundamental reason is Spain’s excessive exploitation. Of course, there is also the influence of the Americans behind it. They have imposed economic sanctions specifically against Spain, with the most typical example being the increase of tariffs on Cuba’s sugar industry. This has exacerbated economic difficulties in Cuba and other areas, and the changing economic situation has intensified local resistance.

Of course, there are also differences in Cuba and the Philippines. The local resistance forces are actually the local Spaniards, just like the American independence in the past. They are dissatisfied with the central government’s local taxation, and in the context of an economic downturn, such contradictions are further intensified.

The armed unrest in the colonies is also one of the important reasons for Spain’s failure in the war, costing Spain a lot of effort. With internal and external collaboration, Spain had no chances of winning.

Of course, the situation in Cuba is not under East Africa’s control. East Africa is more concerned with the fate of the Philippines, so in helping Spain suppress the indigenous people of the Philippines, East Africa is quite enthusiastic.

”It might have been easy for your army to deal with the local indigenous people in the past, but it’s different now with the support of the Americans behind them. No one knows what weapons might appear in the jungle,” Manske said with implicit meaning.

Cruise also said with a heavy expression: ”Indeed, the colonial rebels are indeed a key problem. If it weren’t for them causing trouble behind the government, the Americans couldn’t threaten Spain so easily.”

In Cruise’s view, these indigenous people or some comprador forces in Spain are typical of biting the hand that feeds them. Spain might have been excessive, but the Americans coming would be just a change of soup, not medicine.

”So what do you think of this rifle? Would you like to purchase it? You should know that part of our army has already equipped this rifle, especially in the western region.”

Manske continued to persuade: ”The M1895c rifle, originating from the M1888c tropical jungle rifle, has participated in the fight against Portugal, tested in the South African war. At that time, our most elite 331 Mountain Division was equipped with this rifle, fighting from Angola’s tropical rainforest to Maputo in the southeast, achieving remarkable military exploits; the excellent performance of this rifle was proven in war,”

”And the M1895c tropical jungle rifle is a new generation of tropical jungle combat rifle we’ve developed over five years based on the M1888c rifle. Simply put, it surpasses its predecessor. In the western part of East Africa, especially in tropical rainforest regions, stationed troops mainly use this rifle.”

Manske emphasized their war records, although the achievements of the M1895c rifle mainly inherited those of the 1888 model. The two are in an inherited and developed relationship. The East African armaments department improved it based on its pros and cons in actual combat, leading to even better performance than before.

At this time, Cruise was somewhat tempted. He said to Manske, ”We can first order 500 to test the effects. If they perform well, we will expand the scale.”

Manske shook his head and said: ”Five hundred is still too few. How about this? I take you to see the practical effects in a simulated terrain, and you can then determine the procurement quantity.”

No matter how much is said, it would be better to have Cruise and the Spaniards try it out directly. As weapons procurement personnel, Cruise and his team are quite knowledgeable about firearms, and Manske is confident that this East African rifle will achieve excellent results in their hands.