Chapter 398: Every Dog Gets Slapped Twice

Ernst did not know that Cape Town was already preparing to interfere in East Africa, and was ready to start with Germany. However, before the war, Ernst knew whether East Africa and Cape Town would reconcile. However, intervening in East Africa from Germany was just wishful thinking of the British.

The strategic goal of East Africa this time was to occupy some easily defended places with mountains and rivers as boundaries, and take over the mining areas in South Africa. There were British forces in many places along the mountains and rivers in South Africa, the most typical of which was the Griegoland Republic, but the Griegoland Republic was north of the Orange River.

If the Grigualan Republic was south of the Orange River, East Africa would probably not annex the Grigualan Republic. After all, it is difficult to defend and can easily become a bleeding sink.

The second is the border between the Zulu Kingdom and the Natal Colony. There is no obvious boundary here either. This is easy to understand. After all, the British used to think that they were the superior party and had no rivals in Africa, at least in South Africa. If they signed a border treaty with these indigenous people, regardless of whether these indigenous people were qualified, it would also hinder their expansion advantages.

As a result, the East African Kingdom is now like the United Kingdom, and East Africa does not care about this. From the colonial era to the present, East Africa has only signed a border treaty with Egypt.

First, Egypt has an important strategic location and a long history, and all the major powers are keeping a close eye on it. Second, the region bordering Egypt and East Africa is Sudan, which has a mainly desert climate, with only a little arable land in the Gezira Plain, which is not conducive to the advancement of troops. Third, Egypt itself is not weak.

At least East Africa believed that Egypt had the strength to sit at the negotiating table. However, even so, in the end Egypt was the losing party in the treaty signed with East Africa, and ceded some of Sudan’s “bad land” with oil to East Africa.

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The rest did not last long in Pretoria. Shortly after the 123rd Division supported Felix in the war against the Zulu Kingdom, the 514th Division, which had rested for a few days, was dispatched again. This time, the 514th Division's destination was the Kingdom of Basutoland, which was the Kingdom of Lesotho in the previous life.

In today's South Africa, it can be said that even a dog will be slapped twice by East Africa, and the Kingdom of Lesotho will have to bear the slap from East Africa.

The reason why East Africa beat Lesotho is quite simple. Lesotho is the country with the highest altitude on the South African plateau. It is also the water tower of South Africa. Many rivers in South Africa originate here, such as the Orange River, some tributaries of the Vaal River, and the Tugela River that flows into the Indian Ocean.

In the past, the Kingdom of Lesotho and South Africa had a well-known water diversion project, which was to divert water from Lesotho to solve the industrial water problem in Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa.

At the same time, the Kingdom of Basutoland happened to be the watershed between the Orange River and the Tugela River, so Ernst planned to swallow up the northern part of the Kingdom of Basutoland.

This would help East Africa build a defense line centered on the Kingdom of Lesotho, with the Tugela River, Fette River (a tributary of the Orange River), Mount Champagne, the Far River, and the Orange River as the backbone.

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Ernst called this line of defense the Southern Line of Defense, and the main defense target of the Southern Line of Defense was the Cape Town Colony.

East Africa has offended all the powers in South Africa, including the Boers, Swazis, Zulus, Basutolanders, Grigwarans (Boers), and the British.

However, East Africa must restrain its ambitions and not be too rough with Cape Town. So far, the contradiction between East Africa and Cape Town can only be considered a conflict. If it really takes action against Cape Town, it will not be a conflict but a declaration of war with Britain.

Although the Republic of Gregorian Primordial Republic was part of the Cape Colony, it was not important. Basutoland was also a British protectorate, but East Africa did not intend to wipe it off the map directly, but chose to keep half of it.

These two major conflict areas were subordinate areas of the Cape Colony, not the main body of Cape Town. Only the Natal Colony in the southeast was one of the core colonies.

The East African Kingdom's actions against these two regions are different from its actions against Cape Town. Cape Town is Britain's son, and these two are its grandsons. Moreover, Britain has no control over these two regions, and Cape Town is mainly responsible for their administration.

The Cape Colony can actually be regarded as an independent country. Although it was part of the British Empire, it had a certain degree of autonomy. Its main power organ was the Cape Town National Assembly, which was composed of local people, but the head was the Queen of England. The actual chief executive was the British South African Commissioner who also served as the Governor of Cape Town, Henry Barclay. In addition, the United Kingdom had troops stationed in Cape Town, so it could now firmly control South Africa.

This configuration is actually similar to that of Australia, and slightly worse than that of Canada, because in 1867 the British Parliament passed the British North America Act, making Canada a British dominion that is close to an independent sovereign state.

In fact, if the East African Kingdom had not intervened, the white people in the Cape Colony would have been able to gain autonomy this year, and then set up a cabinet responsible to the parliament to achieve true autonomy.

Now, the white people in Cape Town have to reconsider the necessity of their previous struggle for autonomy. Obtaining autonomy itself means that the white people in Cape Town want more rights while reducing obligations. They rely on the importance of the Cape Colony to force Britain to make concessions.

However, after the arrival of the enemy East Africa, the conflicts among the white people in Cape Town shifted from the conflicts between central London and Cape Town to the conflicts between Cape Town and East Africa.

Without the protection of the British Empire, how could the Cape Colony resist the militarily stronger East African kingdom? Therefore, the white local forces in the Cape Colony now need to bow to London, which may not be a bad thing for the British government.

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The war between the East African Kingdom and the Zulu Kingdom was carried out almost simultaneously with Lesotho. The Zulu Kingdom was the most difficult place to fight, but the situation improved greatly after the East African cavalry division joined the battle.

In the open areas, the Cavalry Division could capture the Zulu Kingdom at any time, but the Zulu Kingdom could not escape the pursuit of the East African Mountain Division if it wanted to withdraw to the complex terrain.

This was a big headache for the Zulu Kingdom. The reason why the Zulu Kingdom could fight the Boers back and forth was largely due to the terrain advantage.

However, the soldiers of the East African Mountain Division all came from mountainous areas, which allowed them to move quickly in the Drakensberg Mountains, even giving them an advantage over the Zulus living here.

The Zulu Kingdom actually arrived here only a few decades ago and established the kingdom. Before that, the Khoisan people lived here. The whole of South Africa used to be the territory of the Khoisan people. Now the Khoisan people are mainly distributed in Cape Town and the East African Kingdom, as well as Namibia in the previous life. There are only about a hundred thousand people left.

The Khoisan people belong to an independent population with a yellowish skin color. Because the Bantu people moved south (including the Zulus), the Khoisan people in eastern South Africa today are mixed-race (their maternal line is Khoisan), so their skin color is darker than the indigenous people of the Dutch East Indies.

It can be said that on the land of South Africa today, except for the Khoisan people, everyone else is an invader, and the Zulus are no exception. In fact, the history of the Zulus in South Africa is almost the same period as that of the Boers.

In addition, the Zulus are also a nomadic people, and they don’t often go to the mountains, so their understanding of the terrain is just so-so.

The Zulus who were surrounded by the East African Army had to continue fleeing to the more complex mountainous areas. Although the East African Mountain Division was difficult to deal with, the cavalry units were even more difficult to deal with, and it was basically a dead end on the plains.

On June 8, 1872, the last rebellious Zulu army was forced into the Champagne Hill on the left side of the Tugela River Valley by the East African Army, but the East African Army continued to pursue until the remnants of the Zulu Kingdom entered the Natal Colony from the Champagne Hill, and the Zulu Kingdom was destroyed.

On June 12, 1872, the East Africans raided Maseru, the capital of the Kingdom of Basutoland (Lesotho) (located on the south side of the Tugela River Valley). The Kingdom of Basutoland was forced to move its capital to Guting on the south side of the Orange River Valley. The Kingdom of Basutoland asked the British for help.

On June 14, 1872, the Transvaal Republic's government-in-exile arrived in Cape Town, and Pretorius the Younger sought to restore the country.

(End of this chapter)