Chapter 688 Patroller
Angola's border with East Africa.
Brnzino, a soldier of the Angolan colonial army's border patrol, has been mobilized to Angola from his homeland for three months.
Brnzino is a relatively passionate young man, and he joins the team of "defending the country" without hesitation, especially the two remaining large colonies of the kingdom, Angola and Mozambique, which face the threat of the rapidly rising barbaric country-East Africa.
Brnzino, along with the troops, was assigned to the border area between the Angola colony and the East African province of Letania.
The Portuguese are quite familiar with the country of East Africa, and Brenzino is no exception, because the most described country in Portuguese newspapers in the past few years was East Africa, which is currently Portugal's biggest threat.
In Portuguese newspaper propaganda, East Africa was naturally a barbaric country, an evil force ruled by the "tyrant" Constantine, with endless greed.
As the monarch of East Africa, Constantine is always on the sidelines. However, the construction achievements of East Africa will also fall on Constantine, the nominal ruler of the country. In particular, businessmen from various countries are interested in the cities of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam. Description of the city.
As the window for economic development in East Africa, these cities are the most dazzling "pearls" in East Africa. They are known as the twin stars of the Indian Ocean and are as famous as the Indian metropolis Mumbai.
As for sub-Saharan Africa, the only city that can be compared with East African cities is Cape Town. Other places with small white populations are not included in this range.
That's why Portuguese people go out in the morning to "sympathize" with the families of East Africans and express their "thank you".
If Portugal had expanded into South Africa more than 20 years earlier, there would have been no East African Kingdom! At that time, Portugal can establish a large colony comparable to Brazil.
The Portuguese imagination is still not bold enough. East Africa is now twice the size of Brazil, both in terms of population and area.
At that time, Portugal as a whole was in a period of decline. In fact, Portugal had been in decline for nearly a hundred years. However, Brazil's breakaway had an excessive impact on Portugal, and Portugal as a whole lost its spirit as a great country.
Previously, Portugal was the entire South African region (according to the current distribution of East African territory, East Africa is more appropriately called South Africa. However, due to the history of East African expansion, most countries in the world habitually call it East Africa. In fact, the Kingdom of East Africa is The official name is "Kingdom of Hechingen") is the most powerful, with a sphere of influence covering an area of more than one million square kilometers.
If Portugal had really paid attention to Africa before, it would have been able to build a huge colony similar to East Africa, dominating the entire southern part of the African continent, because in the 1950s and 1960s, quinine had already appeared, and the colonization of Africa was at an empty window. Expect.
They no longer dare to take risks and conquer like their pirate predecessors. This is also an important reason for the slow expansion of Portuguese colonies in Africa.
From the Portuguese point of view, the great wealth in East Africa was achieved entirely through the plunder of the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola.
However, the Portuguese were in a continuous decline in national fortunes and had no time to consider these issues. The Portuguese government had not made much progress in so many years, so it was difficult to solve all problems, let alone the development of colonies.
Developing colonies in Africa was actually not that difficult, especially for the former Portugal, because the two Portuguese colonies were almost connected together, with caravans passing through them. However, this process was interrupted by the expansion of East Africa. break.
Before Ernst colonized Africa, the only competitive area in sub-Saharan Africa was the coast of the Gulf of Guinea. As for Central and South Africa, basically no one cares about it. Apart from the Portuguese, there is only Cape Town, the southernmost transportation hub.
So as long as the Portuguese government at that time was willing to spend money, it could acquire a huge colony in Africa without any competitors.
As for the African natives, they may not be any better than the Indians, so the threat is not great. The only thing that needs attention is Zanzibar, which belongs to the Arab civilization. However, in the 1950s and 1960s, the Zanzibar Sultanate happened to be in a period of decline. Especially after the separation from the Oman Empire, its strength has already collapsed.
The Portuguese did not grasp this. In their hundreds of years of competition with the Arab civilization along the East African coast, they did not have an advantage. Therefore, they missed the opportunity in the 1960s and were defeated by East Africa first. Then East Africa attacked Zanzibar. The former overlord of the East African coastal region.
In any case, as long as East Africa develops better, the greater the stimulus will be to the Portuguese. After all, in the Portuguese's eyes, any achievements made in East Africa should originally belong to the Portuguese.
As for how East Africa developed, from the Portuguese's perspective, it was naturally a matter of plundering Africa's wealth. After all, a country with tens of millions of square kilometers would be sufficiently developed by selling minerals.
Brnzino also thought so, so after arriving in Angola from the mainland, Brenzino vowed to regain the lost land for his motherland.
However, after staying in Angola for a few months, Brenzino felt a little disappointed because the East Africa in front of him seemed different from what was advertised in Portuguese newspapers.
"This is the border area between us and East Africa. It doesn't look as exaggerated as they described before. It's still vast virgin forests and grasslands, and there's no trace of modernity at all!" Brunzino said to his companions in disappointment. .
"I have heard about the construction of the East African Kingdom before, but since I came to Angola, I really haven't seen any decent buildings and agricultural facilities on the opposite side. However, I heard that the population of East Africa is mainly concentrated in the east. Maybe what is said in China The rapid development refers to the place where the Mozambican colony borders East Africa, but this is not seen in Angola," explained Brenzino's comrade.
"So this is how our Kingdom of Portugal was defeated by an original German prince? The desolate scene across the street is completely different from East Africa, which has been described as a rich land in recent years!" Brunzino felt shamelessly deceived.
"Brnzino, the East Africans just haven't developed this place. If you go to the coast of the Indian Ocean or encounter an East African city, you won't say that. They are not the kind of barbarians who eat hair and drink blood. Instead, they are well-equipped and have a large number of people.
An important reason why southern Angola was annexed before was that thousands of East African Army troops came from the east to fight. I am one of those who experienced it. It can be said that the East African Army looks no different from regular European professional soldiers.
At that time, our Angolan colonial army looked no different from the militia. They did not even have uniform uniforms and lacked heavy weapons support.
The East Africans on the opposite side were equipped with machine guns and artillery, which was almost fatal to the Angola colony at that time.
Because we do not have the ability to face the attack of the East Africans. After all, Portugal had previously encountered indigenous people with stone spears and bows and arrows. It seemed that overnight they became more professional professional soldiers than our locals. "
At that time, there was a generational gap between Angola and Mozambique in East Africa. East Africa was directly one era ahead of the Portuguese colonies. If it were not for the intervention of the British, Angola and Mozambique would have basically died in one battle.
(End of this chapter)