Chapter 920: Conspiracy for Mindanao
In fact, the territory of East Africa has shrunk to a certain extent due to negotiations with France. For example, part of the land in eastern Antananarivo that was occupied by East Africa. East Africa returned part of the land after negotiations between the two countries. To France.
After all, this is a business without capital. The benefits that East Africa gained when France invaded the Kingdom of Immerina are far greater than these, so in essence, France lost money. France could have obtained the entire territory of the Kingdom of Immerina. , but because East Africa did not realize it.
Of course, returning part of the land of the Kingdom of Imerina is not important to East Africa. Most of the other areas acquired by East Africa are mountain ranges and areas that can form passes, which makes East Africa in Strategically suppressed the French colony of Madagascar.
Of course, if this part of the land had not been returned, the territory of East Africa would have steadily exceeded 13 million square kilometers, instead of just being in its infancy like it is now.
However, East Africa should not be too greedy. Now East Africa is already the second largest country in the world by area, and 13 million square kilometers is just the mainland. If you include Lan Fang Overseas Province, it will be more than that. This is not included. Other Colonies in East Africa.
……
“This administrative division is relatively reasonable, but it will take a long process to implement. We will first divide the non-disputed areas, such as Orange and Southwest Africa, into Regions set up provinces. As for disputed areas such as the Great Lakes Province The transition must be slow.”
After all, the Great Lakes Province needs to negotiate with the original Plateau Province and the Western Great Lakes Province, or even Bujumbura becomes independent and becomes the new provincial capital of Solon Province. This is also unfair to the original Western Great Lakes Province. Yes, after all, the resources of the former Western Great Lakes Province are concentrated in Bujumbura, the provincial capital.
Of course, Plateau Province suffered the most. It not only lost its western territory and became the main body of New Solon Province, but also ceded the richer Mwanza City in the north. Dodoma City completely realized the provincial status. One family is the only one in the country, but this is obviously not what the Plateau Provincial Government wants.
Therefore, the original provinces must do a good job in handover work, involving various aspects such as industry, resources, population, etc. Provinces in remote areas are easier to solve. After all, it is a completely blank piece of paper, so there will be no too strong disputes.
"By 1900, there were still nearly three years, and this work could almost be completed. This basically means that the political landscape of East Africa would be basically stable after 1900. On this basis, After 1900, the expansion of East Africa shifted from the African continent to overseas colonies, especially the Nanyang region. "
Ernst was still obsessed with Nanyang. After all, compared with exerting political influence in East Africa in other directions, Nanyang was more important. Regions are the easiest.
According to the geographical location of East Africa, under normal circumstances, West Africa and North Africa should be the priority. However, the competition between these two regions is too fierce. Before the decline of European countries such as Britain and France, Ernst was basically not very interested. Be optimistic about the local situation.
Thinking of this, if nothing unexpected happens, the Spanish-American War should break out next year, and East Africa should also take action in advance.
After the meeting, Ernst called in Foreign Secretary Hermann and Director of the Defense Security Service Walsden.
Ernst asked: "Walsten, how are our current preparations in the Philippines?"
"Your Royal Highness, the progress is going smoothly. We have disguised our personnel as nationalities. personnel, one by one, into Mindanao. Currently, we have enough core personnel on the island. There are more than 2,000 people, and the number of peripheral personnel is about 8,000, but it may be difficult to determine the situation. "
In Walsden's words, it is just a difficulty, which is conservative. In fact, Mindanao's status in the Philippines is quite low, similar to a "wild land". Even in the previous life, the population of Mindanao was nearly half less than that of Luzon. Now, the population of the entire Philippines is only about five to six million, which is not even comparable to the Abyssinian Empire. It was not until the mid-19th century that the population of the Philippines exceeded 20 million.
This is already the result of the Spanish's efforts to "feed". At the beginning of the 19th century, the population of the Philippines was only over one million. At the beginning of Spanish colonization, the population of the Philippines would only be even lower. Therefore, although colony is not a complimentary term, in this era The improvement in productivity and medical and health standards in backward areas is visible to the naked eye, otherwise the colonies would not have doubled their population. Of course, there are exceptions in some colonies where people are not living, such as the Belgian Congo colony next to East Africa. .
“According to our statistics, the current population of Mindanao is about three to four hundred thousand. The main population of the Philippines is mainly concentrated in Luzon and other islands. Therefore, although we only have more than 8,000 people in Mindanao, we want to Controlling Mindanao is risky, but the chances of winning are still very high.”
The figures given by the National Defense and Security Administration are not very inaccurate, which can also show the desolation of Mindanao. Even though Ernst often said that East Africa is sparsely populated, but Looking throughout East Africa, the population of Southwest Africa and the Congo rainforest is smaller than that of Mindanao.
Of course, from the perspective of population density, Mindanao far exceeds Southwest Africa and the Congo rainforest. After all, Southwest Africa covers an area of more than 800,000 square kilometers, the Congo rainforest exceeds one million square kilometers, and Mindanao It’s less than 100,000 square kilometers.
In the previous life, the population explosion in Mindanao began in the late 1930s. Before that, Mindanao was equivalent to the ancient penal colony of various Far Eastern countries, or Siberia in Tsarist Russia, to the Philippines. Until 1939, when the Philippine government advocated After immigration, the population of Mindanao increased significantly and exceeded 20 million in the 21st century.
More than 20 million compared with the current 300,000 to 400,000, it can also be seen that the tropical rainforest climate was indeed a "green desert" before the industrial revolution. Let alone development, even survival was quite difficult.
Of course, this is also the reason why Ernst had the idea of Mindanao. If the population was large, who would want this place? The Abyssinian Empire and the Kingdom of Imerina are examples of this.
As Ernst and Walsden, the old spy, were talking to each other, Hermann, the Foreign Secretary next to him, broke into a cold sweat.
"His Royal Highness, are you planning to have a conflict with the Kingdom of Spain? This is an issue of interfering with the sovereignty of other countries, and Spain is not a small or weak country. Doing this may cause a diplomatic accident." Herman was standing aside. Asked aloud.
Walsden did not speak. In fact, the crown prince’s ambitions for Mindanao were long-planned. East Africa’s infiltration into the local area had already begun before the South African War. Since he became the director of the National Defense Security Agency, , Mindanao and Kauai Island in Hawaii are outside the National Defense Security Agency. This is the focus of Europe, the United States and Japan. However, Kauai Island has become an East African territory, and now Mindanao is missing.
Ernst: "The Nanyang region is the key area for East Africa's future overseas layout, so it is reasonable for us to make some preparations in advance. After all, the Nanyang region has been divided up, so if we want to gain a foothold here, we must take some special measures. "
Herman: "But the opportunity for the Northern Hawaiian Kingdom to take advantage of the right time, place and people was probably only once. We also took advantage of the fact that the Kingdom of Hawaii was an independent country at that time. Even a little later, the United States People control the entire Kingdom of Hawaii, but we obviously do not have such conditions in the Philippines. After all, the Philippines is one of Spain's important colonies, completely different from Hawaii. If we do this, I am afraid that it will anger the Spanish government."
Enns. Of course, Te did not mean to offend Spain. After all, East Africa has offended many countries. Britain, Portugal, and Japan are countries whose strength cannot be underestimated in the world. The other countries that were wiped out by East Africa did not even have the opportunity to hate East Africa.
As for how to obtain Mindanao from Spain, Ernst naturally wanted to repeat the successful experience of the previous Northern Hawaiian Kingdom, letting the United States act as the villain and East Africa take advantage of it. Of course, Herman and others naturally Don't understand the point, after all they are not Ernst.
(End of this chapter)