Chapter 275 Southern Boundary
Hearing what Barkhausen said, Vincent had to calm down. Thinking about it now, he realized that he had really lost out. He should have included the land on the other side of the river into his farm. At that time, he thought that there were no people on the west side anyway, so he would develop it when the farm had enough manpower. As a result, this so-called "East African Kingdom" took advantage of the opportunity.
As for the Khoisan and other indigenous people living on the west bank of the Limpopo River, they are not considered "people" in the Transvaal Republic. The labor force on the Boer farms is mostly composed of black slaves. Although slaves are also used in East Africa, there is no explicit regulation in East Africa. In the official documents of East Africa, the indigenous people are laborers of "unknown nationality", and this is indeed the case. Most of the African indigenous people have no concept of the country. They only remember which tribe they once belonged to.
Slaves existed in both East Africa and the Transvaal Republic, but they were used differently. In order to rule, ordinary people in East Africa still had to work, but the Boers were different. With slaves, who would farm on their own? The same was true for Vincent's farm. The white people just had to control the force and suppress the slaves at any time.
"Well, Barkhausen, since the people on the opposite side are Germans, they are not here to attack our Transvaal Republic!" After calming down, Vincent began to worry.
"Well, boss, I'm afraid it's hard to say, but according to them, as long as we don't cross the border, that is, don't cross the river, they won't cause us any trouble."
"Is that so? That's good." Vincent breathed a sigh of relief. Vincent was mainly afraid that these Germans were like the British and wanted to kill all the Boers.
In fact, the Boers at this time were very afraid of Britain, otherwise they would not have fled directly from the Cape Colony and crossed the Orange River and the Drakensberg Mountains to rebuild their country.
In 1834, the British promulgated a regulation in Cape Town to abolish slavery, which had a great impact on the Boers, whose main business was slave farms. In order to avoid the high pressure of the British policy, the Boers left the Cape Town colony and migrated deep into the interior of South Africa.
This is also the reason why the Boers, although they came later than the Portuguese in Mozambique, were able to penetrate deep into the interior of Africa. To put it bluntly, they were forced to do so by the British.
The British only used policy pressure to make the Boers willingly leave the Cape Colony. In the final analysis, they were still cowards.
Later, in the Battle of Bronxhorst, 77 of the 247 British soldiers were killed and 157 were wounded, while only 2 of the Boer militia were killed and 4 were wounded. This war directly led to the Boers seeing the strengths and weaknesses of the British colonists. The Boers began to dare to confront the British directly, which led to the outbreak of the Second Boer War.
To be honest, if the East African Kingdom was not called this name but a colony of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Boers would probably be afraid too.
In fact, the East African Kingdom posed a far greater threat to the Boers than the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a great power, it was not as successful overseas as the Hechingen royal family. Even the time when it established diplomatic relations with the major powers in the Far East was almost the same as that of East Africa. Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's ambassador to the Far East also served as the ambassador to Japan and Siam, and their offices were both located in Tokyo, Japan.
However, the Boers were not aware of this, and if Barkhausen had not been a German, Vincent might have mistaken the East African Army that suddenly appeared for British people.
"Boss, it's better to inform the government about this. Don't even think about relying on our own strength. I'm afraid the entire Transvaal Republic will find it difficult to cope with the cavalry on the opposite side, not to mention that they say there are tens of thousands of troops on the other side of the river." Buckhausen reminded.
What Buckhausen said was not an exaggeration at all. Just looking at the uniform uniforms and weapons of the East African Kingdom Army, it was obvious that it was a standing army, while the standing army of the Transvaal Republic had only a few thousand people in total.
The population of the entire Transvaal Republic was only over 200,000, and together with other Boer countries, it was only close to 400,000, while the number of troops heading south from East Africa alone reached 30,000.
Of course, the data cannot be calculated in this way. Although the Boers have a small army, ordinary people also carry guns. For example, on Vincent's farm, all white men are issued guns. These are the source of militia in times of war. As for the combat effectiveness of the militia, the British have already given the answer.
This is also the reason why Ernst did not intend to take action against the Boers. If the Boers and East Africa started a guerrilla war, not only would they fail to obtain the land in South Africa, but they might also disrupt Zimbabwe and Botswana under the control of East Africa.
The Transvaal Republic is vast and sparsely populated. The Boers all have horses, so in a blink of an eye, they might be gone without a trace. So if we want to take action against the Boers, we have to learn from the British and send more people.
Of course, this person is referring to armed immigrants, not just the British army. Every stronghold opened up by the immigrants will erode their living space, and eventually it will not be a problem to deal with the Boers.
As for the Second Boer War, the 450,000 troops sent by the British were large enough to outnumber the Boers, but the military expenditure alone was an astronomical figure, and only the wealthy British could afford it.
"What you said makes sense. Since we can encounter the army of the East African Kingdom here, there must be more in the north. So the tens of thousands of troops mentioned by these East African Germans are very likely to exist." Vincent analyzed.
The Limpopo River is more than a thousand kilometers long. Excluding the Portuguese colonial section, there is still nearly six or seven hundred kilometers. If the East African Kingdom deploys defenses along the Limpopo River, more people should be deployed in the north because they are very close to the source of the Limpopo River.
(Photo: Vincent Farm - location in red letters)
Soon, Vincent reported to the government the news of the appearance of the East African Army on the west bank of the Crocodile River (Limpopo River).
Not only Vincent, but also other Boers whose farms were close to the Limpopo River, this strange force, the Kingdom of East Africa, entered the eyes of the Transvaal Republic for the first time.
The Transvaal Republic could only analyze the information of this new force through the few words reported by the reporter, and the conclusion was very pessimistic. The number of troops heading south from East Africa alone made the Transvaal Republic's top leaders dare not act rashly. The good news was that East Africa was not interested in the Transvaal Republic at present.
The garrison of the Limpopo River in East Africa has been basically completed. The total number of troops stationed on the front line of the Limpopo River is more than 15,000, and more than 10,000 are on the border with Mozambique.
With the help of the army, East Africa completely blocked any possibility of the Portuguese and Boers continuing to expand into the interior of Africa unless they declared war on the East African Kingdom.
As to whether they will declare war on East Africa beyond their capabilities, it is hard to say, especially Mozambique, which has no clear geographical boundaries with East Africa and the possibility of conflict between the two sides in the future is very high.
(End of this chapter)
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