African Entrepreneurship Record

December 30, 1869.

Maputo.

"This is the news sent back by Yaris, the president of the Kazembe Chamber of Commerce. The Germans have appeared in the Kingdom of Kazembe, and they are still stationed there. They probably have no plans to leave." said the Governor of Mozambique.

"Mr. Governor, the Germans are expanding rapidly in the interior of Africa. I think we should contact the Angola colony to jointly curb the development of the Germans."

"Yes, if the Kingdom of Kazembe is occupied by the Germans, the land passage between us and Angola will be cut off by the Germans."

"However, Angola may not necessarily act with us unless we convince the kingdom. But there is a very fatal problem here. How do we invest our troops inland? The British have evil intentions towards us. This year, the British will directly send troops Entering the Dragua Bend in Mozambique, if it weren't for our powerful artillery fire, the British would not have fled."

"It's really a wolf in front and a tiger behind. If Germany is a wolf, the British are tigers. The Germans fight every day and have always been strong on land. The British can directly attack our ports with warships."

Unlike a large number of inland cities in East Africa that were planned and built in advance, the core of Mozambique is the cities and ports along the coast.

Therefore, it is difficult to say who poses a greater threat to Mozambique, the East Africans or the British. On land, the East Africans are definitely larger, and the two places are directly bordered. However, in recent years, East Africa has been relatively peaceful along the Rufuma River, and the two colonies have not been able to get along well. Fairly peaceful.

“Everyone, the Germans are developing too fast in Africa. If they are allowed to develop like this, sooner or later Mozambique will be under great threat.

You know, the Germans have only been in East Africa for more than three years. At first, they were just a small parasite under the Sultanate of Zanzibar. Now they have not only eliminated the Sultanate of Zanzibar, but even expanded their sphere of influence to the interior of Africa. How terrible is this?

Take a look at this map. Here is the mouth of the Rufuma River, here is Lake Malawi, and here is the Kingdom of Kazembe. These three points are connected in a line to semi-encircle us.

And I won’t go into details about how long this line is, but it shows that the area of ​​land occupied by the Germans was very large. "

"Mr. Kelton, I don't agree with you. It's good for the Germans to penetrate deep into the interior, but how can they gain a foothold! Although the capital of Kazembe was occupied by the Germans, the chiefs and tribes under him still exist. We also had Attempts to expand inland were met with stubborn resistance from the natives and gave up.

So it would be good for the Germans to at most support a few puppets in the interior to rule on their behalf. And Mr. Kelton, look at the line you drew, the distance is not that long.

If the Germans follow this pattern and expand inland, we should be lucky. It looks like a long snake, which is convenient for defeating them one by one. Look here, this is the Kingdom of Malawi, which is stuck in the middle of the German land. From here we An attack will prevent the Germans from looking at each other.

Our Mozambique colony has always developed Mozambique in an orderly manner. After so many years of rule, it has become very stable. The Germans came late, but they are not popular. Their local rule must not be solid. If we and the Germans If there is a conflict between people, as long as the local indigenous people of East Africa are instigated, East Africa will be instantly filled with chaos. "

“Instead of talking about the threat from the Germans, let’s talk about the threat from the British, the Germans just had the potential to do us harm, and the British already acted.

This year the British have begun to test us. Fortunately, we have enough artillery to prevent the British from succeeding. "

"Furthermore, the British have the Cape Town Colony in the south, which is actually not too far away from us. The so-called Zulu Kingdom in the middle cannot act as a buffer at all, and if the British borrow the passage, they probably won't refuse."

"In this way, the British can pose a threat to us from the sea or land, and they have already begun to take action. The British are the country we should be most wary of."

"On the surface, the kingdom has a good relationship with the United Kingdom, but once it reaches the colony, everything is muddled. The British have been persistent in their evil intentions over the years."

"The Germans have to be on guard. At least the three kingdoms in the west. We should give them some support to allow them to withstand the pressure from East Africa."

"No, we can only support the Kingdom of Malawi. The Kingdom of Malawi is the buffer country between us and East Africa. The two countries in the south are our future expansion directions. Supporting them is equivalent to cutting off our own retreat."

"That's right, Chrisis, can you think first before you speak? The Germans can't reach there. Instead, we have been penetrating there over the years, so you'd better read it first when you speak next time. Look at the map, and don’t be so clever as to invent the so-called German threat theory, as that will only let everyone here know that you went out today without any brains.”

The congressman's words made everyone burst into laughter, and Crisis, who supported aid to the western countries, wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it.

"Okay, be quiet." The Portuguese Governor of Mozambique, who had been listening to everyone's discussion, spoke.

“I have just listened to the suggestions of everyone here, and after careful analysis, I still feel that the threat from the British is greater than that from the Germans. The most important thing is that the Germans do not have a strong navy. In this regard, the Kingdom of Portugal has an advantage.

In the inland areas, we are temporarily unable to expand, but we can negotiate with the Germans first. The most important thing is to beware of the British. Otherwise, if we really conflict with the Germans, the British will definitely attack us from the sea in the end, so there is no harm in East Africa. We must stay calm before our core interests.

Moreover, we have not learned enough about East Africa in the past two years, so that the sudden appearance of the East African army in Kazembe was reported by the Kazembe Chamber of Commerce. We can use this negotiation as an excuse to inspect the development of East Africa and get a feel for it. The strength of the Qing Germans. "

"Mr. Governor, the most important thing in this negotiation is to let East Africa protect our interests in the Kazembe region. It is best to bring the Kingdom of Malawi into the conversation. To be honest, the southern part of the Kingdom of Malawi is still in our own hands. It’s better inside.”

"You are right. The Kingdom of Malawi should have entered the garbage heap of history long ago. We can discuss with East Africa to divide the Kingdom of Malawi."

As soon as they heard that it was profitable, everyone immediately changed their faces. One second they were East Africa's biggest thorn in the side, but now they have become an accomplice who can share the spoils.

And the party that originally said it would support the Kingdom of Malawi has now shut up. If East Africa is easy to talk to, wouldn't it be a win-win situation for everyone to divide Malawi directly? This is much better than directly confronting East Africa.

Unconsciously, the theme of the meeting deviated from the original discussion of East Africa and the British threat to a discussion of how to carve up the Kingdom of Malawi with East Africa.