Chapter 647 Preparation
Ernst also understood the current situation of the Orange people, which was quite bad. After all, the two sides had been fighting for more than a year, and the Orange Free State did not have any complicated terrain. It was basically flat and the territory was not large. The only mountainous land is still in the hands of East Africa, and it cannot deal with the British army like Afghanistan.
It is quite difficult to persist until now. Even for Ernst, the Orangemen have overfulfilled their tasks.
"Now that the Orangemen have become insignificant, the most they can do is make some small moves to cause some trouble for the British and Transvaal people, and then the British will be free," Ernst said.
"Your Highness, what instructions do you have?" Sweet asked after hearing what Ernst said.
"We can now identify countries and regions that are hostile or threatening to East Africa, mainly in the south, the Transvaal, the Portuguese, the British, and in the northeast, British Somaliland, the Sudanese region of Egypt, and now also Colonized by the British, these areas must increase supervision to prevent the British from making small moves. Your military should also prepare response plans at any time. The military has not fought for a long time. Let them move around and see if there are any long-distance transfers. The problem, especially this time is that railways and roads are much more developed than they were a few years ago."
Ernst is a very stable person, so even if there is only a one percent chance, he has to be careful.
Because he has replaced himself with the British, he will never let East Africa go. Now Britain still has grips and allies in Africa. If it does not contain East Africa at this time, there will be basically no chance in the future.
Confrontation with East Africa is nothing more than cheating. If Britain fails, the most it will do is sacrifice the Cape Town Colony, and this is the worst plan. Except for the United States, no country has ever made Britain lose a large territory. But if it succeeds, It would be quite cost-effective to split the southern part of East Africa.
This is the same as playing chess. You cannot focus on temporary gains and losses. The final result still depends on whether you win. If you can take away the south of East Africa (Rhodesia), then East Africa can only become Brazil and even the raw material for industrial development. They can't all come together.
At the same time, by capturing the south, East Africa's control over Southwest Africa will be destroyed, and Portugal will be able to recover its lost territory. In this way, half of East Africa's effective territory will be lost.
The British African colonies will be as prosperous as in the previous life, instead of competing with a bunch of countries to grab one-third of an acre in West Africa.
Moreover, the area controlled by East Africa now is very different from Africa in the previous life. East Africa's construction of Africa is even more exaggerated than that of many African countries in the 21st century.
Leave aside other regions, the eastern coast, as the window through which East Africa contacts the world, has undergone earth-shaking changes in its development in recent years.
The British ships are not blind. With the development speed of the East African coast, the inland cannot be too bad. After all, without inland development as an economic hinterland, the coastal development cannot be so good, because East Africa mainly relies on bulk commodity exports. A cargo of cargo could not be hidden from the British who guarded the Suez Canal. This even caused the East African route, which had declined since the opening of the Suez Canal, to start to pick up.
Of course, with the addition of East Africa, the Suez Canal has become busier, because the Atlantic coast of East Africa is basically a display, and almost all trade in North America and Europe passes through the Suez Canal.
The trade between South America and East Africa, except for the slave trade, is not frequent, and the commodity trade is even more so. After all, it is impossible for East Africa to export rubber, coffee and other tropical agricultural products to South America. Instead, they are competitors, and East Africa's Industrial products are also not very competitive in South America.
As for minerals, everyone mainly exports them. The industrial level of South America is not as good as that of East Africa. If you have so much minerals, you can't use them yourself. Instead, you can make money by exporting them to Europe and the United States.
All in all, East Africa today is significantly different from the traditional concept of Africa, especially in the context of West Africa.
Of course, other countries only saw East Africa eating meat, but did not see East Africa being beaten. East Africa's current achievements are inseparable from the efforts of every East African, including those slaves. Diseases are still rampant in West Africa, natural disasters occur frequently, and the colonists are violently fighting in West Africa, which embodies the word "chaos", which is very consistent with the world's perception of Africa.
But it cannot be said that there is no progress in West Africa. Although the colonists were bad, they did build many plantations in West Africa. Even if the plantations were reactionary and backward, they were still much more advanced than the previous indigenous systems. Of course, judging from the indigenous African systems That's certainly not the case from perspective.
The colonists in West Africa were much more ruthless than the people in East Africa, and they were a mixed bag of good and bad, with private armed forces running rampant, and they were entirely focused on economic interests.
Ernst remembered that one of the important reasons why Africans did not like to work in previous lives was that they were exploited too severely during the colonial era.
More work can stimulate people's enthusiasm, and the productivity of West African slaves is entirely based on the whipping and punishment of the colonists. Belgium did the most excessive things in the previous life. Of course, Ernst believes that the United States is not much better. After all, black people have teeth. The dentures made are no more "noble" than the Congolese blacks who had their hands chopped off.
Black people are used to being plundered by colonizers, so ordinary black people at the bottom have no motivation to work at all. No matter how much they produce, it has nothing to do with them.
Even after the independence of African countries, this situation will not change, because the independence of African countries is still different from that of Asia, and the colonists here left too many fallbacks when they evacuated.
For example, the ruling class was actually the hawk and dog of the colonizers. African society has not actually changed at all, except that the exploiters have changed from white to black.
Moreover, black rulers may not be as good as white people. White people are bad but not stupid, while many black rulers are bad and stupid. This makes it very easy for tyrants to appear in post-independence Africa.
No matter how much you say, the colonists have more experience in governing the country than the black people, and many black compradors still maintain the governance methods of the tribal era. Therefore, the industrial base left by the colonists in the colonial era is completely abandoned, and many countries are even worse than before independence. confusion.
The most typical example is South Africa. The black ruling class in South Africa are typically good and uneducated. They have learned the shortcomings of white people without teachers and have governed South Africa like that.
However, this is the case in many British colonies. This has to be said that one of the advantages of the British is that they are decisive. Taking the initiative to evacuate can lay mines in the colonies more calmly. Such independent areas are far less independent than armed struggle. of.
"There is no big mistake in being careful, especially between countries. We are always faced with uncertainty, and we do not have the ability to predict the future, so it is best to be fully prepared in advance so as not to be caught off guard."
Ernst himself used to like to be a gambler anyway, but now he doesn't need to be careful at all times. All East Africa can do now is to keep making moves, wait for the situation to change, and then fix things and allow East Africa to completely settle down.
As for greater ambitions, I have given up the idea. After all, it is still a bit far away to consider now. It is better to develop the industry in East Africa.
(End of this chapter)