The Rise of the European Emperor

In fact, there is not only a large amount of gold in the city of Zvongombe, but also a lot of copper ore, piled up like mountains. After all, Zimbabwe is not only rich in gold, but also copper.

It's just that the Kalanga people don't know how to smelt copper. The reason why there is gold is because most of the gold mines are simple gold with few compounds. Otherwise, Mutapa Kingdom would not get so much gold.

As for copper mines, although the Kalanga people don't know how to smelt them, their former trading partners, Arab merchants, do. They took the copper ore back and handed it over to professional craftsmen to smelt it into copper, which was very profitable.

It's just that the number of mules brought by Cortez's expeditionary force this time is insufficient, and they will be able to carry away the gold that is mainly sand, and they will no longer be able to take away the mountains of copper ore. Therefore, to get copper mines or something, you can only wait for the next time.

And once the news of the rich gold and copper mines in the Mutapa Kingdom came back to the mainland, Cortez believed that he would not be able to escape as a noble title. If you're lucky, you might be able to get into the baron. After all, he opened up the colonial route and seized so much gold...

By the time they got back to Fort New Spain at the mouth of the Save River, Gonzalez was already back. Hearing that Cortez sent troops without authorization, Gonzalez was furious and planned to order Cortez to be arrested.

But when Cortez came back, he not only brought back the exact news of Zimbabwe, the country of gold, and the specific marching route, but also brought back so much gold. In this way, Gonzalez is not easy to accuse the other party of anything.

Then, Gonzalez sent a clipper to the country to report to the Spanish court the specific results of Cortez's operation. At the same time, it also objectively reported the fact that Cortes sent troops without authorization. As for the final judgment of the Spanish court, it has nothing to do with him...

In Fort New Spain, Cortez began to report the information he had obtained this time—most of these were provided by the captured prophet elder.

At this time, the Mutapa Kingdom had the Zambezi River on its northern border. The northeast border is probably in the Tete area of ​​Mozambique later. To the east of Tete is the control area of ​​the Swahili people who are mixed with Arabs and blacks.

Many of these Swahili knew Arabic and were the best intermediaries between Arab merchants and the kingdom of Mutapa. In many cases, Swahili also worked for Arab merchants, earning commissions.

As for the southern border of the Mutapa Kingdom, it can even reach near the Linda River. However, the southern border is unstable. Sometimes there are tribes willing to join the Mutapa Kingdom, and sometimes they will voluntarily leave. However, the Mutapa Kingdom doesn't care either, they only care about the tribes that own the gold mines. The extortion of gold sand from small tribes that own gold mines is the most important source of finance for the Mutapa Kingdom, and it is also the most important source of trade between the Mutapa Kingdom and Arab merchants, more important than ivory and copper ore.

However, according to Cortez, the information provided by Marin was wrong. Because, in the Mutapa Kingdom at this time, the main commercial route was not along the Save River, but along the Zambezi River...

Going up the Save River, you can only find the Great Zimbabwe Stone City, which has been abandoned for decades. Only by going up the Zambezi River can we find Zvongombe, the capital of the present Mutapa Kingdom.

Moreover, most of the Arab merchants and Swahili people moved along the Zambezi River and connected with the Mutapa Kingdom.

If you want to drive out the Arab merchants,

To monopolize the benefits of the gold and copper mines of the Mutapa Kingdom, Spain must send troops to occupy the Zambezi Estuary and cut off the Arab trade routes.

It is a pity that the Zambezi River is a stepped river. There are two places in the river with huge waterfalls, which divide the Zambezi River into three sections. Otherwise, the Spanish merchant ships could go directly up the river and arrive at Zvongombe to do business.

After much deliberation, Governor Gonzalez decided that the Spaniards would still take the old route when entering the interior. However, it will ask the country to send a fleet to block the mouth of the Zambezi River to prevent Arab businessmen from robbing business.

The reason for this is that if Spain should go back up the Zambezi River to find the Kingdom of Timber, it would have to start from scratch again, and God knows how long it would take, so it would be better to use the route that has been opened up now.

Of course, on the other side of the Zambezi River, another group of people can also be sent to go up the river, and also use the method of elephant herd transportation to clear the way. When the road on the Zambezi River is opened, the trade route on the Save River can be considered abandoned. But before that, the Spaniards could rely on this road and invade the Zimbabwe region.

...

"So, Governor, what should we do next?" Cortez asked. Although it was the Clippers who sent the letter, it still took more than a year to go back and forth to the mainland. Therefore, next, Cortez has to listen to Governor Gonzalez.

Gonzales thought for a while and said:

"According to the elder, most of the gold in the Mutapa Kingdom is exchanged with Arab merchants for goods such as cloth, glass, and ironware. In this case, we might as well replace the Arab merchants and assume the role of traders..."

Cortez was immediately dissatisfied:

"Why should we trade with them? Isn't it good to directly send troops to occupy? In this way, you can get all the gold without spending any money!" This is a typical invader thinking, and it is also the current mainstream colonial thinking.

However, Governor Gonzalez thinks otherwise:

"Stupid! I know how to fight all day long! Think about it, the recent situation of the Mutapa Kingdom is scattered all over the country. Such a large territory is bigger than Spain. If we eliminate the Mutapa Kingdom, then we must personally To manage those gold mines. Think about it, how many troops do we need for such a large territory?"

"If it was the big gold mine that was concentrated in Stone City in the past, we can just grab it. However, the gold mines in the Mutapa Kingdom today are too scattered, inconvenient to manage, and the management cost is too high."

"Rather than that, we might as well keep the Mutapa Kingdom and let them manage the black tribes to continue mining the gold mines. Then we exchange the gold with worthless cloth, glass and iron. In this way, we can save a lot management costs of..."

It can be said that the thinking of Governor Gonzalez is close to the colonial management philosophy of the 19th century. This is also the lesson learned by the European colonists two or three hundred years ago. Because, if you go to battle in person, you need a large number of troops, and you need to invest in mining gold mines yourself. The cost is huge, so it's better to support a puppet regime to mine gold for yourself...

However, this is also Gonzalez's vision. What will happen in the end depends on how the Spanish court decides.

However, the letter sent by Gonzalez’s second clipper ship to the country pointed out that if the full occupation method is adopted, Spain may need to send an army of more than 10,000 people to maintain the rule of a territory as large as the Mutapa Kingdom , to protect so many recent situations. At the same time, you have to spend money to invest in gold mines. And by controlling the Mutapa Kingdom, it is only necessary to maintain the current army of two to three thousand people...