Chapter 408 The Executioner is on the Line
In March 1871, Leopold II told his cabinet members: "Belgium is small in size and lacks resources. At the same time, we are caught between big powers. If we Belgians want to gain a foothold in this era, we must have a vast colony of our own!”
King Leopold II of Belgium had a dream of becoming a great country since he was a child, but Belgium’s size made it difficult to fulfill his dream! idea, so Leopold II believed that Belgium’s way out lay in the colonies.
In 1872, East Africa achieved an unprecedented victory in South Africa. This news made Leopold II, who had been paying attention to Africa since he came to power, completely unable to sit still.
Leopold II: "The Kingdom of East Africa! Who among you knows about it?"
Um? The ministers looked at each other in confusion. No one knew the specific situation of the East African Kingdom. Even if everyone knew the name, they had only heard of it.
Looking at these ministers, Leopold II said with hatred: "I have always emphasized that our future of Belgium lies in the colonies, but you just turned a deaf ear to my words."
"Your Majesty, it's not that we don't care about this matter, it's just that colonization is extremely expensive. If it's not that kind of rich colony, there is little value in occupying it."
Leopold II : "This sentence is just fart! Any land has its existence value, but only wise people can discover it. The only person in the world who is as wise as me is Prince Constantine of Hohenzollern Hechingen . ”
“I have detailed information about the East African Kingdom here. This is the data I have obtained through many investigations. Starting in 1865, the Hechingen royal family began to colonize East Africa. By this year, the East African Kingdom’s territory in Africa The area is likely to be around several million square kilometers, and the army of the East African Kingdom can be seen from Somalia to South Africa, as well as central and western Africa.”
Leopold II had long had ambitions for Africa, so in 1865, after he came to the throne, he began to send expeditions to investigate the overall situation in Africa.
“What does this mean? It means that Hechingen, a small German country with no autonomy and a population of only tens of thousands, took only eight years to become a country with millions of square kilometers of land today. Superpower. ”
“The population of the East African Kingdom’s Mombasa Port alone exceeds that of the Prince of Hechingen. According to data from March this year, more than 100 ships enter and exit the Mombasa Port every day. And mainly ocean-going ships.”
This data is true, because there are currently only two ports in East Africa, Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, which are responsible for East Africa’s bulk cargo exports, and the two ports are originally located in traditional locations. On the waterway, the scale of import and export is relatively large.
But Ernst really couldn't imagine that Leopold II would send people to Mombasa to monitor the development of East Africa.
"You don't know the Kingdom of East Africa, then you should know the Bank of Hechingen, right?"
"Why has the Bank of Hechingen developed into the leading bank in Germany in just a few years? I think the Kingdom of East Africa resources for the royal family of Hechingen Africa has provided huge help. Africa represents a huge wealth that has not yet been divided. A small country like the Principality of Hechingen can get such a big share of Africa. Our Belgium is hundreds of times the size of the Principality of Hechingen. , and should acquire a huge area of land in Africa.”< br>
This sentence is somewhat inappropriate. East Africa did play a role in the rapid development of the Bank of Hechingen, but it was not as large as the contribution described by Leopold II. It was mainly due to Ernst I made the right bet every time, especially the second time on Schlesow The Georgian War, the Austro-Prussian War, the Franco-Prussian War, the Italian-Austrian War and the European and American railway economic mania have completely established the status of the Hechingen Bank as the largest bank in Germany. Generally speaking, it relied on war wealth to rise. The East African Kingdom itself The help to Hechingen Bank is not too great.
“So we should take action in Africa now, otherwise we will only be able to eat scraps from the back of the East African Kingdom.”
Originally, Leopold II was a more cautious person After all, it is indeed not easy for people to acquire a colony as large as the Congo from many foreign powers in the previous life. Without extraordinary means, such an achievement cannot be achieved.
When Leopold II conquered Africa in his previous life, it happened that European countries also turned their attention to the African continent. Belgium entered the country quite late and only started taking actual actions in 1876. Now with the stimulus from the East African Kingdom, Leopold II could no longer hold it in any longer, especially the fact that the East African Kingdom forced the Cape Town Colony to compromise in South Africa, which completely became a trigger.
Cape Town is a colony of the British. East Africa has only been developing for less than ten years and has the ability to compromise an old colony like Cape Town. It is really legendary.
The matter of the Cape Colony's compromise had already been handled in cold storage by the Cape Colony. After all, it was too embarrassing, but it could not be hidden from Leopold II, who had been keeping an eye on the trends in East Africa.
Leopold II knew something about East Africa, and he paid special attention to Archduke Ferdinand (Maximiliano I).
Princess Charlotte, the wife of Archduke Ferdinand, was the sister of Leopold II. When Archduke Ferdinand encountered difficulties in Mexico, Charlotte sought help from various European countries, and naturally she would not let go of her mother country, Belgium. , she also asked her brother Leopold II for help.
Leopold II had just ascended the throne not long ago, and Belgium was only a small country, so how could it have the ability to intervene in Mexico, which was thousands of miles away. According to the size of the two countries, Mexico's intervention in Belgium was about the same.
So Leopold II was out of sight and out of mind, and sent his sister to find trouble with the Habsburgs. After all, Emperor Franz was more effective than the monarch of a small country like himself.
As a result, due to the Austro-Prussian War, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was unable to interfere in the political situation of Mexico. Even sending people to capture Archduke Ferdinand was of no avail. The main reason was that Archduke Ferdinand himself did not want to return to Austria in disgrace. .
The original Archduke Ferdinand was a stubborn donkey, and he wanted to imitate Emperor Chongzhen and die a generous death, but Ernst used brutal means to fish him directly to Africa, and he was depressed for a while.
Leopold II naturally knew the inside story. When his sister happily told him the news that Archduke Ferdinand was not dead, he thought it was the Habsburg family who took action, but he did not expect that it was his sister's son-in-law who took care of it. about this.
In addition, the royal family of Hechingen also followed the path of colonizing Africa, so this made Leopold II very interested in the East African colonies. The small country of Hechingen (compared to Belgium) was It’s not a bad idea to explore the path yourself.
The result of this exploration was incredible. In just a few years, the Kingdom of East Africa developed from a small country in East Africa to a superpower with a land area of millions of square kilometers. What is the population of Leopold II? Shi didn't know, but based on the actions of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam and the East African Army in South Africa, Leopold II guessed that it should be about one million in size.
Leopold II did not doubt the East African Kingdom’s ability to recruit immigrants. He specifically investigated this. After all, the Principality of Hechingen is a small town with a population of about 10,000 in Europe. There is no such population. How did the royal family of Hechingen colonize Africa?
Then, Leopold II sent people to observe the two East African window cities of Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, and then concluded that a large number of Germans and Far Easterners were introduced.
The Germans are easy to explain. The German region has always been the region with the worst population outflow in Europe, so it is not surprising that East Africa can attract many Germans.
However, Belgium did not have as large a population as Germany, so Leopold II planned to learn from Ernst and also introduce Far Easterners to serve as his tools for colonizing Africa. There were many Far Easterners in the East African Army.
After all, the East African Kingdom has already given the answer, so just copy it yourself. Use barbarians to fight barbarians. It is most appropriate to use Far Easterners to suppress black people. Belgium can just sit back and enjoy its achievements.
Thinking of this, Leopold II said: "What the Prince of Hechingen can do, we in Belgium should do it even more. Look at how rich the Royal Family of Hechingen is now. After all, Belgium has a population of more than three million, and its industrial and agricultural level is not bad in Europe. , and the Princely Kingdom of Hechingen is just a small vassal state under Prussia, so we must also learn from the East African Kingdom and create a second Belgium in Africa. Now you must come up with a plan as soon as possible. "
(End of this chapter)