African Entrepreneurship Record

In March 1871, Leopold II told his cabinet members: "Belgium is small and lacks resources. At the same time, we are caught between big powers. If we Belgians want to gain a foothold in this era, we must You must have your own vast colony!”

King Leopold II of Belgium had a dream of becoming a great country since he was a child, but the size of Belgium made it difficult to realize his idea, so Leopold II believed that Belgium's way out lay in the colonies.

In 1872, East Africa achieved an unprecedented victory in South Africa. This news made Leopold II, who had been paying attention to Africa since he came to power, completely unable to sit still.

Leopold II: "Kingdom of East Africa! Who among you knows about it?"

Um? The ministers looked at each other in confusion. No one knew the specific situation of the East African Kingdom. Even if everyone knew the name, they had only heard of it.

Looking at these ministers, Leopold II said with hatred: "I have always emphasized that our future in Belgium lies in the colonies, but you just turned a deaf ear to my words."

"Your Majesty, it's not that we don't care about this matter, it's just that colonization is extremely expensive. If it's not that kind of rich colony, there is no value in occupying it."

Leopold II: "This sentence is fart! Any land has its value, but only wise people can discover it. The only two people in the world who are as wise as me are the Hohenzollern Blacks." Prince Constantine of Hingen.”

"I have detailed information about the East African Kingdom here. This is the data I have investigated through many parties. Starting in 1865, the Hechingen royal family began to colonize East Africa. By this year, the land area of ​​the East African Kingdom in Africa is likely to be several million square meters. The army of the East African Kingdom can be seen from Somalia to South Africa, as well as central and western Africa, for about kilometers.”

Leopold II had long had ambitions for Africa, so in 1865, after he came to the throne, he began to send expeditions to investigate the overall situation in Africa.

"What does this mean? It means that Hechingen, a small German country with no autonomy and a population of only tens of thousands, took just eight years to become a superpower with millions of square kilometers of land today."

“The population of the East African Kingdom’s Mombasa Port alone is larger than that of the Prince of Hechingen. According to data from March this year, more than 100 ships enter and leave the Mombasa Port every day, and most of them are ocean-going ships.”

This data is true, because currently there are only two ports in East Africa, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, which are responsible for East Africa’s bulk cargo exports. In addition, the two ports are originally located on traditional waterways, so the scale of import and export is relatively large.

However, Ernst really could not imagine that Leopold II would send people to Mombasa to observe the developments in East Africa.

"You don't know the Kingdom of East Africa, so you should know the Bank of Hechingen, right?"

"Why has the Bank of Hechingen developed into the leading bank in Germany in just a few years? I think the resources of the East African Kingdom have provided a huge boost to the Hechingen royal family. Africa represents a huge wealth that has not yet been divided. A small country like the Principality of Hechingen can take such a big share of the pie in Africa. Our size in Belgium is hundreds of times that of the Principality of Hechingen, and we should acquire a huge area of ​​land in Africa."

This sentence is somewhat inappropriate. East Africa did play a role in the rapid development of the Bank of Hechingen, but it was not as big as the contribution described by Leopold II. The main reason was that Ernst made the right bets every time. It was only after the Second Schleswig War, the Austro-Prussian War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Italian-Austrian War and the European and American railway economic craze that the Bank of Hechingen became the largest bank in Germany. Generally speaking, It rose with the help of war wealth, and the East African Kingdom itself did not provide much help to the Bank of Hechingen.

"So we need to take action now in Africa, otherwise we will end up eating scraps from the backs of East African kingdoms."

Originally, Leopold II was a relatively cautious person. After all, it was not easy to acquire a colony as large as the Congo from many great powers in his previous life. Without extraordinary means, such an achievement would not have been possible.

When Leopold II conquered Africa in his previous life, it happened that European countries also turned their attention to the African continent. Belgium entered the country quite late and only started taking actual actions in 1876.

Now with the stimulus from the East African Kingdom, Leopold II could no longer hold it in any longer, especially the fact that the East African Kingdom forced the Cape Town Colony to compromise in South Africa, which completely became a trigger.

Cape Town is a colony of the British. East Africa has only been developing for less than ten years and has the ability to compromise an old colony like Cape Town. It is really legendary.

The matter of the Cape Colony's compromise had already been handled in cold storage by the Cape Colony. After all, it was too embarrassing, but it could not be hidden from Leopold II, who had been keeping an eye on the trends in East Africa.

Leopold II knew something about East Africa, and he paid special attention to Archduke Ferdinand (Maximiliano I).

Princess Charlotte, the wife of Archduke Ferdinand, is the sister of Leopold II. When Archduke Ferdinand encountered difficulties in Mexico, Charlotte sought help from various European countries, and naturally she would not let go of her mother country, Belgium. , she also asked her brother Leopold II for help.

Leopold II had just ascended the throne not long ago, and Belgium was only a small country, so how could it have the ability to intervene in Mexico, which was thousands of miles away. According to the size of the two countries, Mexico's intervention in Belgium was about the same.

Therefore, Leopold II was out of sight and out of mind, and sent his sister to find trouble with the Habsburgs. After all, Emperor Franz was more effective than the monarch of a small country like himself.

As a result, due to the Austro-Prussian War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was unable to interfere in the political situation of Mexico. Even sending people to find Archduke Ferdinand was of no avail. The main reason was that Archduke Ferdinand himself did not want to return to Austria in disgrace.

The original Archduke Ferdinand was a stubborn donkey, and he wanted to imitate Emperor Chongzhen and die a generous death, but Ernst used brutal methods to fish him directly to Africa, and he was depressed for a period of time.

Leopold II naturally knew the inside story. When his sister happily told him the news that Archduke Ferdinand was not dead, he thought it was the Habsburg family who took action, but he did not expect that it was his sister's son-in-law who took care of it. about this.

In addition, the royal family of Hechingen also followed the path of colonizing Africa, so this made Leopold II very interested in the East African colonies. It would be good to have the small country of Hechingen (compared to Belgium) to explore the way for himself. .

The results of this exploration were incredible. In just a few years, the Kingdom of East Africa developed from a small country in East Africa to a superpower with a land area of ​​several million square kilometers. Leopold II did not know the population, but according to the The cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, as well as the East African Army's actions in South Africa, Leopold II guessed should be about one million in size.

Leopold II did not doubt the East African Kingdom's ability to recruit immigrants. He specifically investigated this. After all, the Prince of Hechingen was a small town in Europe with a population of about 10,000 people. How could the Royal Family of Hechingen colonize without a population? Africa?

Then, Leopold II sent people to observe the two East African window cities of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, and then concluded that a large number of Germans and Far Easterners were introduced.

The Germans are easy to explain. The German region has always been the region with the worst population outflow in Europe, so it is not surprising that East Africa can attract many Germans.

However, Belgium did not have as large a population as Germany, so Leopold II planned to learn from Ernst and also introduce Far Easterners to serve as his tools for colonizing Africa. There were many Far Easterners in the East African Army.

After all, the East African Kingdom has already given the answer, so you can just copy it. Use barbarians to control barbarians. It is most appropriate to use Far Easterners to suppress black people. Belgium can just sit back and enjoy its achievements.

Thinking of this, Leopold II said: "What the Prince of Hechingen can do, we in Belgium should do it even more. Look at how rich the Royal Family of Hechingen is now? How is our population in Belgium?" There are more than three million people, and the level of industry and agriculture is not bad in Europe. The Prince of Hechingen is just a small vassal state under Prussia, so we must also learn from the East African Kingdom and create a second country in Africa. Belgium, please hurry up and come up with a plan for me, time is running out."