Chapter 87: Rebellion in the Northwest

Lately, the Karawi Kingdom has been having a hard time.

With the influx of a large number of tribes and refugees from the east into the territory of the Karawi Kingdom, the public security in the Karawi Kingdom can be said to be deteriorating.

As a slave kingdom, the Karaweik Kingdom had relatively poor organizational capabilities and lacked various strict laws and systems.

Most of the East Bantu tribes that were expelled from East African colonists made a living by hunting and had extremely good physical fitness.

Compared with the Callaoui Kingdom, which had developed to a certain stage in Africa, the impact of the Bantu exodus on the Callaoui Kingdom was no different from the impact that ancient Rome had on the invasion of the Germanic barbarians.

These Bantu people, organized into tribes, led by their chiefs, killed, burned, looted, and ruled the mountains as kings in the Karawi Kingdom.

The eastern part of the Karawi Kingdom soon fell into chaos.

The nobles of the Karavi Kingdom were naturally very angry. They didn't know what these barbarians were crazy about and kept coming westward.

Also in trouble was the Kingdom of Burundi, which was affected by the "purge" movement in the East African colonies. As the two gateways to the eight northwestern countries, Burundi and Karawi were naturally the first to be hit.

The invasion of a large number of Bantu tribes caused serious troubles to the two countries. The worst thing was that countries such as Rwanda and Buganda, seeing the misfortune of their neighboring countries, also became restless and frequently provoked incidents on the border.

Adhering to the principle that if you are unkind, I will be unjust, the Kingdom of Karawi and Burundi will go all out.

Since it is impossible to control so many Bantu tribes, just ignore them and use force to drive them to the west and north, so that the countries to the west and north can also feel the pain of the two countries.

So after consultation between the kings and nobles of the two countries, a separate road was drawn within the country, allowing the Bantu tribes to go west and north.

As for those who want to stay, to be honest, it is very difficult under the current circumstances. After all, there are endless Bantu tribes coming from behind, and it is impossible to occupy the land ahead without the strength.

Countries like Karawi and Burundi are countries after all. They can still survive on their own land and with the help of the terrain due to their size. The Bantu tribes that migrated westwards were not a united group, but a group of scattered sand.

Unless they unite as one, it is possible to directly destroy these two countries, but this is obviously impossible. We are all chiefs, why should we listen to you!

The methods used by the Karawi Kingdom and the Burundi Kingdom were still very effective. After using both soft and hard tactics, a large number of Bantu tribes continued to move north or west.

They had previously wanted to take advantage of the situation to rob the Buganda Kingdom, and the Igala Kingdom and the Rwanda Kingdom were instantly dumbfounded.

The continuous influx of migrating troops directly destroyed the local order. Even the Kingdom of Nkole, which did not participate, suffered an unexpected disaster, and its southeastern part fell into chaos.

Among the eight northwestern countries, only the Turou Kingdom and the Gitala Kingdom, which were located deep in the rear, were not affected for the time being. However, seeing the tragic situation of the six southeastern countries, the two countries strengthened their military presence on the border overnight to prevent attacks from the Eastern Bantu tribes.

The East Bantu tribes, who were beaten into a pulp by the colonists' hot weapons in the East African colonies, found in the eight northwestern countries the feeling of galloping freely on the vast grasslands of East Africa.

The eight northwestern countries had entered the primitive farming era and had learned to live a settled life. Compared with the Eastern Bantu tribes, they did not have to fight with wild beasts on the grasslands, nor did they have to sleep in the open air and could migrate at any time.

Therefore, the physical fitness of the people of the eight northwestern countries is far inferior to that of the eastern Bantu tribes.

The advantage of the eight northwestern countries lies in their more advanced social structure, which allows them to support a larger population and organize more manpower and troops.

However, after the barbarian invasion, these advantages were instantly offset by the East Bantu tribes, and a large number of East Bantu people poured into the territories of various countries.

This caused its ruling system to malfunction, with the local and central governments being divided by the large and small tribes of the Eastern Bantu people.

After losing the jurisdiction of the central government, the local areas naturally became larger, and the centralized kingdom that they had established with great difficulty instantly returned to the era of tribal disputes.

The East Bantu people were like fish in water in the eight northwestern countries. They used to play military competition with animals on the East African grasslands. However, the animals in East Africa would not play a one-on-many game with them. All the animals on the grasslands traveled in large groups. Even lions traveled in groups, so they were really difficult to deal with.

Now they only need to rob the resources of the eight northwestern countries to survive. The eight northwestern countries have been engaged in farming all year round, and the stored food goes directly into the stomachs of the Eastern Bantu people.

This proves the old saying: If my neighbor stores grain, I store guns, and my neighbor is my granary.

The local nobles of the eight northwestern countries naturally could not bear to see their property being eaten and taken away by these barbarians, so they organized armies and fought against the Eastern Bantu tribes.

The two sides fought fiercely and blood flowed everywhere. The population of the northwest Great Lakes region was slowly depleted in this war.

The East African colonial government, as the initiator, was very satisfied with the immediate results. As colonizers, they naturally had endless greed for the fertile land.

Unfortunately, the area where the eight northwestern countries are located is basically the place with the best water and soil conditions in the whole of East Africa, and is most suitable for agricultural development.

The vast area of ​​the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) has directly changed the local climate, making it an area with abundant rainfall.

Its terrain is relatively high, located in the transition zone from mountains to plateau basins. It may not be considered a good place in the temperate zone, but it is the most suitable place for human habitation in the tropics.

If we exclude the East African region north of Sudan and Kenya (the area affected by the Ethiopian Plateau and the Sahara Desert), and only count the tropical savannah climate region of East Africa, the eight northwestern countries will have more than half of the population in this area.

(In the 21st century, Uganda had a population of more than 47 million, Burundi had a population of more than 12 million, and Rwanda had a population of more than 13 million. The total population was about 80 million. The entire East African Community had a population of about 130 million, which was equivalent to the eight northwestern countries plus the East African colonies.)

Moreover, as the largest lake in East Africa, the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) itself was worthy of action by the East African colonial government.

This is a large lake with an area of ​​nearly 70,000 square kilometers. There is no need to say much about the preciousness of fresh water resources. Rivers and lake shores are always indispensable in human habitable areas.

The rivers in East Africa are rather poor. Their water volume and length cannot be compared with those world-class rivers.

As for the White Nile, it is not a river unique to East Africa. Sudan and Egypt in its lower reaches are strictly speaking in North Africa.

The unique topography of East Africa has created considerable freshwater lake resources. Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika) and Lake Malawi were both born along the Great Rift Valley of East Africa and are among the largest lakes in the world.

The Great Lake (Lake Victoria) is also located in a plateau basin between two fault zones of the Great Rift Valley of East Africa.

There is a series of smaller lakes in the eight northwestern countries. To say they are small depends on who they are compared with. After all, with the first three as good examples, these smaller lakes cannot be ranked in the first tier in East Africa.

Among them, Lake Friedrich (Lake Albert) covers an area of ​​more than 5,000 square kilometers, while Qinghai Lake, the largest lake in the Qing Dynasty, is only more than 4,000 square kilometers.

You know, Qinghai Lake is still a saltwater lake, and its value cannot be compared with Lake Frederick, which is a freshwater lake.

As for the world's great lakes that appear in groups like those in East Africa, only the five Great Lakes in North America can suppress them. As for saltwater lakes such as the Caspian Sea and the Aral Sea, they are not within the scope of comparison.

(To put East Africa’s water resources in context, Lake Victoria has about the same amount of freshwater as China, at around 2.8 trillion cubic meters, while Lake Malawi has 7.7 trillion cubic meters and Lake Tanganyika has 18.9 trillion cubic meters.)

The rainfall in East Africa is only between North China and Jiangnan in the Far East, which is not considered abundant.

However, with such a terrifying amount of fresh water resources as a backup, it will be easier to deal with water crises in the future.

The East African colonies may not have the ability to distribute these water resources to various parts of East Africa through large-scale water conservancy projects, but they can migrate more people along the coast so that they will not be affected by insufficient rainfall in severe years.

Therefore, it was the established policy of the East African colonies to take over the three great lakes in East Africa and the land along their coasts. The east and south shores of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) had already fallen into their hands. The east shore of Lake Solon (Lake Tanganyika) was all in the hands of the East African colonies. Only Lake Malawi would be more difficult to resolve in the future, as its southern part involved the Portuguese colonies.

(End of this chapter)