African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 725: Pre-war calculations

  March 7, 1888.

 After all preparations have been made, the Three Kingdoms Alliance is officially ready to start.

Count Roberts made the last deployment before the war started: "As soon as the war started, the two southern Portuguese brigades cooperated with the British army in the Natal colony and marched towards the port city of New Hamburg."

“The rest of the troops are mainly divided into two directions. With our two divisions as the main force, we attack central East Africa. One division and the Portuguese army are in the north along the Zambezi River to circulate with East Africa.”

“The remaining two divisions serve as reserves to support various battlefields at any time.”

 “As for the Boers…”

 As the representative of the Transvaal people, Davidson finally had a chance to intervene.

“Commander-in-Chief, our Boer Republic is an independent battlefield, so we can only provide support for the main battlefield. However, we will attract the troops from southern East Africa to the west as much as possible so that they cannot support the eastern battlefield.”

Even if the Transvaal wanted to support the eastern coastal areas, they could not do it. Like Mozambique, they were surrounded by East Africa on three sides, and the Drakensberg Mountains in the east cut off the Allied forces.

 This leaves the Boer Republic to support each other as an independent battlefield and the main eastern battlefield, as well as the Angolan colony.

The colony of Angola is even more special than other areas. Its location makes it impossible for the Allied General Command to incorporate it into its own command system.

 Hence, Angola and the Eastern Battlefield belong to the same level. The commander in chief is a Portuguese, and the corresponding soldiers are basically Portuguese with blacks.

However, Britain will provide naval support to Angola. East Africa's naval power in the South Atlantic is extremely weak, so only a few small warships can suppress East Africa's Atlantic Fleet.

East Africa does not care about this. The so-called Atlantic Fleet is just a coastal patrol based on the Southwest Africa region, which cannot play a big role at all. Moreover, the bad land of Southwest Africa is not afraid of being attacked by the enemy.

The desert is the best natural barrier. It is very difficult for East Africans to travel from Southwest Africa to the interior of East Africa. If they are even less familiar with the local area and even know nothing about it, it is possible to dive into Southwest Africa without the help of East Africa. Lost in the desert, it finally failed due to problems such as supply and water shortage.

Of course, the premise of all this is that East Africa can stabilize the western battlefield between East Africa and Angola. East Africa's western defense line is very loose, which makes the strategy in the west of East Africa more flexible than that in the east.

On the contrary, we cannot build the same strategic defense line in the west to the southeast and replace defense with offense.

Earl Roberts said to Davidson: "Of course, but you must not sit back and watch the fight between tigers. I think you also know how big the gap is with East Africa. Even if the three countries join forces, we may not have much advantage over East Africa. If it is because everyone If you fail to exert any effort and are defeated one by one, the consequences will be very serious."

Davison said calmly: "Of course, if we say that the people who have the deepest impression of East Africa's military strength must be us Boers, East Africa's powerful military strength is definitely second to none on the African continent."

The Transvaal people have experienced the process of national subjugation, so they have always paid the most attention to the strength of East Africa. On the contrary, the Portuguese have not yet seen the situation clearly.

Although there was the first East-Portuguese War, the Portuguese believed that it was because Portugal was not ready for the war. With the support of the British this time, not to mention subverting the East African Kingdom, it could at least inflict heavy damage on East Africa. After all, so far, No matter how you look at it, the Allies have a greater chance of winning. Earl Roberts had no doubt about the determination of the Boers to fight against East Africa. He said: "The results of this war also depend on each party's contribution. If the Boers want more, they must put more effort on the battlefield, not just With the restoration of the country, you can also gain more land, including the original Zulu Kingdom, which is now the port city of New Hamburg. I think the seaport must be very attractive to the Boers."

Anyway, the war has not yet begun, and there is no pressure on Earl Roberts to make generous promises before the war. If it were not to be too exaggerated, even the entire East Africa could be verbally promised to the Transvaal.

 The final division of the results of the war was still dominated by the British. At that time, whatever the British said was what they said, and the final power of interpretation rested with the British.

The words of Earl Roberts were not very convincing to Davidson, because now the Transvaal people were forced by East Africa and had no other choice. It would be best if they could expand their territory.

But Bougival has some intentions. Portugal's current goals can be divided into three levels: upper, middle and lower. The upper level is to restore the original areas of the two colonies while carving up part of the land in central East Africa and expanding the area of ​​the Portuguese colonies.

 The middle level is to regain the land that was taken away by East Africa last time and get a larger share of the reparations. War reparations for a big country like East Africa are also very considerable benefits. The bottom level is to ensure the security of the current colonies and no longer be cannibalized by East Africa.

Of these three goals, the first one is unrealistic, because Portugal will most likely not be able to get the central region of East Africa, which will allow the Portuguese colonies to be connected together, because this conflicts with the interests of the British.

The British are not here to do charity. They will most likely turn the wealthy areas of East Africa into their own colonies after the war, and central East Africa is the best location.

As for eastern East Africa, that area is not within the scope of the Allied forces' consideration. It is the land of Longxing in East Africa. Unless East Africa is subjugated, it cannot be ceded.

After all, if a country like East Africa could be directly destroyed, there would be no precedent since the Age of Discovery.

Of course, East Africa is large, just in terms of area, and actually has a large population, but population data is not easy to obtain.

According to the current British thinking, it is best to repeat the Paraguay War in South America and weaken all the forces in South Africa except Britain.

 In the eyes of countries around the world, East Africa should be the same type of country as Brazil, but Brazil is like a glass box. The whole world can see the mess in Brazil, but East Africa cannot see the inside, so a lot of data relies on guesswork.

However, one thing is certain, that is, the East African government must be cleaner than the Brazilian government. After all, judging from the military strength displayed by the two countries, East Africa is not a little bit stronger.

Although Brazil is independent, it is better than ordinary colonies and belongs to the economic colonies of various powerful countries. However, East Africa is an independent country with real autonomy.

 At this point, Japan is much stronger than Brazil. Japan has suffered no less humiliation than Brazil at the beginning, but Japan has been actively abolition of the unequal treaties signed during the shogunate era.

Brazil has never returned to the path of economic colonization. The most important thing is that the various forces in Brazil are mixed, and none of them can lead the country's direction and form a joint force. Otherwise, according to Brazil's basic conditions, it should not have developed to what it is today. Like this.

 (End of this chapter)