African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1262: Chapter 271: Fearsome Reputation

For example, in the previous life, Pakistan’s Gwadar Port, Myanmar’s Kyaukpyu Port, Cambodia’s Funan Canal, etc., were all to ensure energy security, national defense strategic security, and smooth trade.

This is actually a helpless choice. After all, if Singapore were in East Africa’s hands, East Africa would obviously not need to settle for Phuket Island.

This time, General Kolitz personally leads the Fourth Fleet under the East African Indian Ocean Fleet to Phuket Island, indicating East Africa’s level of importance towards Phuket Island.

The Fourth Fleet is a main sub-fleet under the East African Indian Ocean Fleet, very powerful, equipped with four battleships, with a home port at Lamu Port, which is a northern east coast military port actively constructed by East Africa last century.

However, with East Africa’s plans for the naval base on Phuket Island, the Fourth Fleet’s home port will be relocated to Phuket Port on Phuket Island in the future.

The Indian Ocean Fleet highly emphasizes Phuket Island, being the most robust among East Africa’s three major fleets, though it lacks overseas bases, having only added the Beibu Gulf Naval Base over the decades, which lacks excellent ports, so it can only host some secondary main vessels.

The Persian Gulf does not lack excellent ports, but they have long been occupied by the British, such as the British Bahrain Naval Base, etc.

Meanwhile, Phuket Island has great harbors on one side and is situated in the Eastern Indian Ocean region never ventured by the Indian Ocean Fleet, hence gaining much attention.

Contrarily, East Africa’s weakest Pacific Fleet is the one among the three major fleets with no lack of ports and islands, covering over half of the Pacific region, and East Africa has the most colonies in the Pacific, especially after inheriting Germany’s colonies, adding a bunch of archipelagos and islands into East Africa.

And with the establishment of the Kra Strait Territory, the Pacific Fleet also gets a share and plans to set up a base at Songkla on the Kra Strait Territory’s east coast to monitor the entire Gulf of Siam waters.

However, the Pacific Fleet does not emphasize Songkla too much, as the Gulf of Siam is close to the Pacific Fleet’s home port location at Lan Fang Overseas Province’s Kundian Port.

Songkla Port was also one of the royal Siam naval bases in the previous life, and the main issue with the Pacific Fleet is not a lack of bases but a lack of ships and funds, so it’s understandable why the Pacific Fleet doesn’t pay much attention to Songkla.

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Patani.

When the East African and Siam government negotiations leaked, it stirred a great uproar in the Patani region.

Villages and towns across Patani were discussing the current situation, and it can be said everyone was anxious.

”Have you heard? Bangkok sold us to the East Africans, and Patani will become East Africa’s colony in the future.”

”Damn, if that’s the case, we need to be careful because East Africans’ ruthlessness and terror are already famous in the South Sea Region.”

”I remember after East Kalimantan fell into East Africa’s hands, East Africa carried out a bloodbath against the Arabian Sect forces there. If we get occupied by East Africans here, we might follow in East Kalimantan people’s footsteps.”

”Not only that, when East Africa occupied Kundian and other places, they also conducted large-scale massacres, and now Kundian doesn’t have a single native.”

”And Mindanao Island, the Arabian Sect believers there also suffered slaughter, and East Africa has a noticeable bias against the Arabian Sect.”

Patani’s populace cannot afford to be frightened, as it’s a typical Arabian Sect distribution area, and considering East Africa’s attitude towards the Arabian Sect, Siam’s government selling them to East Africa is clearly not good news.

”Did Bangkok just abandon us like this? They shouldn’t easily give Patani to East Africa!” Someone questioned.

”What do you know, looking at Siam’s history over the years, it’s a history of humiliation, whether it be the French or the British arriving, Siam’s government surrenders promptly, they even gave up the fertile land of Cambodia, so Patani being sold out is totally reasonable.”

”Once, the southern part of Patani was already sold to the British by Bangkok. Now East Africans occupying the entire Patani is evidently not a major problem.”

Patani was partitioned by the British long before WWI, and just a few years ago in 1909, less than eight years have passed, so naturally, Patani’s populace doesn’t trust Siam’s government.

”We should go to the Governor’s Mansion to inquire, hoping the Siamese government gives us a satisfactory answer.”

Now, the Patani Arabian populace most opposed to Siamese rule finally appreciates Siam’s government, since Siam’s governance has always been relatively peaceful; of course, this is only based on comparison with other countries.

For instance, the Siam government’s anti-Chinese movement before didn’t cause large-scale slaughter, only leading to minor conflicts, and frankly, from the Siam government’s nationalistic perspective, restricting Far East Empire cultural spread and infiltration isn’t inherently wrong.

In fact, any country, especially one like Siam with a certain history and cultural heritage, naturally hopes its culture thrives.

Thus, Arabian Sect believers in Patani are actually fairly fortunate, because if they faced Western religious extremists extremely hostile to Arabian Sect believers, they might have already been massacred.

Unfortunately, East Africa is clearly part of the Western ”civilization,” and its attitude towards South Sea Region Arabian Sect believers is even worse than East Africa’s past treatment of native Black people, since mass purposeful slaughters of native Blacks are quite rare in East Africa.

However, this isn’t the real ”truth,” and there are deeper reasons why East Africa is ruthless towards South Sea Region Arabian Sect believers.

After all, if East Africa holds prejudice against the Arabian Sect, that’s certainly the case, but prejudice doesn’t equate to hatred.

At least East Africa maintains fairly good relations with the Middle East’s Ottoman Empire, Oman, Persia, and some Arabian Sect forces in Central Asia.

The real reason East Africa is merciless towards South Sea Region Arabian Sect believers and wields the sword is actually to ”make room.”

East Africa’s ”Rhine people” concept has arisen in recent years, as forcibly integrating into German or other civilizations seems mismatched, so cultivating their own obviously reassures East Africa more.

While the South Sea Region’s land is clearly not the ”Land of No Master,” as claimed by East Africans, and the Arabian Sect maintains significant influence here.

Therefore, to seize the land from the Arabian Sect people’s hands and eliminate future troubles, learning from the United States’ attitude towards Native Americans is the best choice.

Of course, East Africa doing this to the South Sea Region’s Arabian Sect also ties heavily with the international environment, as Western world as heretics have a millennia-long historical feud with Arabian Sect countries.

This means East Africa’s severe actions against these Arabian Sect could minimize negative publicity, akin to the Western world’s previous indulgence towards Jews.

During the Age of Exploration, many European navigators were church-funded, and many priests voluntarily went overseas to evangelize, easily clashing with old foes, the Arabian Sect. Nowadays, for instance, the Philippines has turned into a Christian domain, and without harsh actions from the Spaniards, no one would believe it happened.

As the East African Navy heads to Siam to take over the Kra Strait Territory and Phuket Island.

Chaos erupts within the Kra Strait Territory, with the Siam government and population largely shifting north domestically, while Arabian Sect individuals with means flee south to British colonies.

For instance, many in Patani choose to seek refuge with relatives in the southern British Patani region.

The fundamental reason for this mass exodus from the Kra Strait Territory is the massacre in East Kalimantan caused by East Africa in recent years.

Since East Kalimantan borders a British colony, many fled to British Sarawak, Brunei, and other colonies, and it was these refugees that spread East Africa’s notorious reputation throughout the South Sea Region, even reaching foreign Arabian Sect distribution areas like the Middle East, India, and beyond.