African Entrepreneurship Records

  Chapter 218 Wrong meeting

   December 30, 1869.

   Maputo.

   "This is the news sent back by Yaristo, the chairman of the Kazenbe Chamber of Commerce. The Germans have appeared in the Kazenbe Kingdom, and they are still stationed there. They should not plan to leave." The governor of Mozambique said.

   "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 Kazenbe Kingdom is occupied by the Germans, the land passage between us and Angola will be cut off by the Germans."

"However, Angola may not act with us. It is possible unless the kingdom is persuaded. But here is a very fatal problem. How do we put our troops into the interior? The British have something wrong with us. This year, the British directly dispatched the army Entering the De La Gua Bend in Mozambique, if it were not for our powerful artillery fire, the British would not have fled."

   "It's really a wolf before a tiger. If Germany is a wolf, the British are tigers. The Germans fight every day. They have never been weak on land, and the British can directly attack our ports with warships."

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

Therefore, it is hard to say who is the greater threat to Mozambique, East Africa or the British. East Africans must be bigger on land, and the two places directly border each other. However, in recent years, East Africa has been relatively peaceful along the Ruvuma River. Fairly peaceful.

   "Everyone, the Germans are developing too fast in Africa. If they are allowed to develop like this, Mozambique will be greatly threatened sooner or later.

You know, the Germans have only been in East Africa for more than three years. At the beginning, they were just a little bit of parasitism 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 Ruvuma River, here is Lake Malawi, and here is the Kingdom of Kazenbe, these three points are connected into a line that just half surrounds us.

   And how long this line is, I won’t go into details, which shows that the land area occupied by the Germans is very large. "

"Mr. Kelton, I don't agree with you. It's good for the Germans to go deep into the interior, but how can they gain a foothold! Although Kazenbe is occupied by the Germans, the chiefs and tribes under him still exist. Back then we also It tried to expand inland, but it was not given up by the stubborn resistance of the natives.

  So it would be good for the Germans to at most support a few puppets in the interior to rule instead of them, and Mr. Kelton, you can see that the line you drew is not an ordinary long distance.

If the Germans expand inland according to this pattern, we should be fortunate instead. It looks like a long snake, which is convenient for each to break through. Look here, this is the Kingdom of Malawi, which happens to be stuck in the middle of the German land. From here An attack can make the Germans unable to look at each other from head to tail.

However, our Mozambique colony has always developed Mozambique in an orderly manner. After so many years of rule, it has become very stable. In the event of a conflict between people, as long as the natives in East Africa are instigated, it will definitely lead to the smoke of war in East Africa in an instant. "

   "Instead of discussing the threat of the Germans, it is better to talk about the threat of the British. The Germans are only likely to harm us, and the British have already acted.

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

   "And Britain has a colony of Cape Town in the south, which is actually not too far away from us. The so-called Zulu Kingdom in the middle can't play a buffer role at all, and if the British borrow the way, 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 started to act. 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 when it arrives in the colonies, it's a mess. The British have been ruthless all these years."

   "The Germans can't help but be on guard. At least the three kingdoms in the west, we should give them some support so that they can withstand the pressure of East Africa."

   "No, just 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 direction. Giving them support is equivalent to cutting off our own retreat."

"That's right, Chrissy, can you use your brain before you speak, the Germans can't reach there, but we have been infiltrating there over the years, so next time you speak, you'd better read it first Look at the map, don't pretend to be clever and make up the so-called German threat theory, that will only let everyone here know that you have no brains when you go out today."

  The congressman’s words made everyone laugh, and Chrissy, who supported aid to the western countries, wanted to find a crack in the ground.

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

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

In the inland area, 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 we will really conflict with the Germans. The British will definitely attack us from the sea in the end, so there is no infringement in East Africa. Before our core interests, we must first remain calm.

Moreover, we don't know enough about East Africa in the past two years, so that the sudden appearance of the East African army in Kazengbe was the news from the Kazengbe 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 Kazenbe region. It is best to bring the Kingdom of Malawi into the discussion. To be honest, the southern part of the Kingdom of Malawi is still in our own hands. It's better here."

   "That's right. The Kingdom of Malawi should have entered the garbage dump of history long ago. We can discuss with East Africa to carve up the Kingdom of Malawi."

  As soon as they heard that it was profitable, everyone immediately changed their attitudes. A second ago, they were a serious problem in East Africa, but now they have become accomplices who can share the spoils.

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

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

  (end of this chapter)