Chapter 456 Imperialism
July 23, 1875.
The ocean-going fleet consisting of seven East African warships arrived at the Lan Fang Republic and landed at Sanyangkou. Archduke Ferdinand said: "Among all the islands in the South Seas, this one is indeed well developed!"
Everywhere you look you see fertile fields, which resemble the agricultural scene of the coastal areas of East Africa. This breaks the newly formed stereotype of the South Seas that Archduke Ferdinand had formed when he came all the way from the Strait of Malacca.
The Strait of Malacca is indeed narrow, but along its coast are two large islands, the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, so the land is very vast. However, except for a few cities (which are actually rural areas in Ferdinand's eyes), both sides of the Strait of Malacca are basically uninhabited and covered with dense rainforests.
But the situation in the Lan Fang Republic was completely different. Originally, the East African fleet arrived at the northern city of the Lan Fang Republic, Bangxia. However, the capital of the Lan Fang Republic, Dongwanlu, was in the south, so the East African fleet went south along the coastline.
Along the way, Ferdinand finally saw for the first time the construction of a country ruled purely by Chinese. Lan Fang's agriculture and mining were very developed, especially the agricultural construction, which could be regarded as the most advanced level among the South Pacific islands. With this comparison, it seems that what Ernst said about the South Pacific natives being useless is indeed true.
In fact, this is proven by history. The Dutch in the original history knew the Lan Fang Republic best. Dutchman Gao Yan witnessed the last history of the Chinese companies in West Borneo: "The Chinese era in Borneo's history, and even the prosperous era of Borneo, are gone forever. The local gold mining industry has been replaced by large-scale modern enterprises of Europeans, but the mining industry that was prosperous in the Chinese era no longer exists; agriculture has also been hit hard by the large number of Chinese immigrants returning to the Far East."
Therefore, what Ernst said about the Lan Fang Republic representing the highest productivity in the Nanyang region was not nonsense. In fact, the Dutch annexation of the Lan Fang Republic was indeed a bad move.
What did the Lan Fang Republic rely on for its own development? It was fundamentally a human problem. After the Dutch drove out the Chinese, the Lan Fang Republic region never recovered. Currently, the Lan Fang Republic itself is being interfered with by the Dutch, and its so-called general is also a puppet controlled by the Dutch.
After the East African Fleet arrived at Sanyangkou, it obviously caused some commotion. The huge steel-built behemoth was quite shocking to the locals who had never seen an ironclad ship.
"Is that a ship?"
"warship!"
Dutch merchants doing business in the Sanyangkou area recognized the ironclad ship, and the more knowledgeable ones even recognized that the flag on the ironclad ship was the flag of the East African Kingdom.
"Why did the Germans suddenly come to Lanfang? What do they want to do?"
Archduke Ferdinand did not come for a "friendly" exchange. Under the "cordial" greetings of the East African Navy, the Chinese leader in Sanyangkou hurried over to pay a visit. He had to come because the other side's troops had already landed.
"Where are you from? What brings you to Lan Fang?"
Ferdinand felt a little confused as soon as the words opened, because he couldn't understand anything. He thought that since he knew some Chinese, he would be able to communicate with the other party, but it seems that he was overthinking!
When it comes to language learning, the Habsburg family dares to say they are the best and no one dares to say they are second. They were all forced to do so. If the Habsburg family did not know a few languages in the areas they ruled, they would not be worthy of being the rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Franz himself was able to skillfully use the eight languages of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In this regard, Archduke Ferdinand was no less impressive, and his experience was even more exciting than Franz himself. He had been to Europe, America, and Africa, so he knew more languages.
There were many Chinese in the East African Navy. Although they all spoke German, Archduke Ferdinand still learned Chinese. It only took him three months, and Ferdinand could communicate with Chinese sailors without using German. This was very helpful for him to control the navy. After all, the population of East Africa is complex, and people of some ethnic groups will communicate in their own language privately.
Fortunately, East Africa broke them up and separated them in advance, so that no language except German itself can challenge the dominance of German in East Africa.
The northern Chinese language that Ferdinand learned, or more accurately the "national language", is the current official elegant language of the Far East. However, the Lan Fang Republic speaks Hakka and Teochew, which is beyond the ability of Archduke Ferdinand.
Fortunately, there were many southerners among the East African sailors. They were recruited from Zhuhai and were good at swimming. It was the same as the mountain division recruiting soldiers from Guangxi. With the help of the translator, both sides could finally communicate normally.
"We are the Kingdom of East Africa..."
With the help of the translator, the Sanyangkou leader finally understood the East Africans' purpose, but this was beyond his authority.
"Your Excellency Archduke Ferdinand, this is not something that a small local official like me can decide. Wait for me to inform the Grand Commander first and then he will make the decision."
"Since you can't make the decision, there's no need to talk. We will go to Dongwanlu in person to negotiate with your monarch!" said Archduke Ferdinand.
"this……"
However, looking at the murderous army behind Archduke Ferdinand and the oppressive ships and powerful guns, the leader of Sanyangkou swallowed his words back.
Although Dongwanlu, the capital of the Lan Fang Republic, is located deeper inland than Sanyangkou, it is actually not far from the seaside, so it took Archduke Ferdinand two days to reach the capital of the Lan Fang Republic.
In the 19th century, the population of the Lan Fang Republic was about one million, of which the Chinese alone numbered about half a million. This was the result of the number of miners being reduced by half after the gold mines were exhausted. However, most of the Chinese miners went to the Kingdom of Sarawak.
Therefore, the Republic of Lan Fang was not sparsely populated. In fact, its population was more dense than many areas in East Africa. Pontianak (city) alone had a population of about 200,000 to 300,000. Dongwanlu, as the political center of Lan Fang, had a population of over 10,000.
Although the Lan Fang Republic currently maintains its status as an independent country, it unilaterally claims to be a vassal state of the Qing Dynasty. In fact, it has to pay a portion of taxes to the Dutch as protection fees. Its general governor Liu Asheng is also the product of the struggle and compromise between the Chinese and the Dutch. It can be regarded as a semi-puppet regime.
The Lan Fang Republic was actually quite chaotic. There were people like Liu Asheng who colluded with the Dutch, while others insisted on fighting the Dutch.
This is not important to East Africa. The purpose of the East African Navy this time is to force the Liu family to completely open the borders of the Lan Fang Republic. As long as the Dongwanlu government signs the agreement, the East African business organization will immediately launch an economic invasion of the Lan Fang Republic.
In fact, East Africa has economic trade with the Lanfang Republic, which is not surprising, because the Lanfang Republic also has British and American business. However, East Africa's trade with the Lanfang Republic mainly relies on Zanzibar merchants, but this time they are on the scene themselves.
Dongwanlu has two intersecting streets that are a quarter mile long and very wide. The houses on the streets are neat and beautiful, but there are as few people as an American town after cholera. The houses are empty, which is the result of the exhaustion of local mineral development.
So when Archduke Ferdinand led his army into Dongwanlu, the Dongwanlu government was actually completely unable to stop it.
The entire Dongwanlu population was just over 10,000, and Ferdinand brought more than 2,000 troops ashore, so the Dongwanlu government had no confidence in resistance at all.
The Chinese forces along the way did not dare to resist because no one knew what these outsiders were doing. As long as they did not threaten their own interests, no one would take the lead.
Of course, the Dutch are a different story. Over the years, the Dutch have accumulated a good reputation in the Lan Fang Republic, and everyone knows that it is targeting them.
On the contrary, they were not familiar with the East African army, which was a mixture of yellow and white. In addition, the East African navy was well-equipped and dressed in uniform, and was obviously a regular army. It was completely different from the Dutch who were dressed like semi-bandits (mercenaries), and it was obvious at first glance that they were not someone to be trifled with.
Archduke Ferdinand arrived at Dongwanlu without any obstruction. After meeting the so-called Grand General in Dongwanlu, he directly took out the wish list of East Africa: "Sir Liu Asheng, these are all the requirements of our East African Kingdom. If your country accepts our friendship, then we in East Africa are willing to have friendly exchanges with your country."
With the muzzle of a gun pointed at his head, this general who was called a "traitor" by the local Chinese war faction, signed the friendly trade agreement with trembling hands without even looking at it carefully.
The main reason was that there seemed to be no other way but to sign, and the East African Kingdom did not directly ask Lan Fang to pay tribute like the Dutch did, so it was still acceptable.
The East African Kingdom does not need to be greedy for that little bit of money for the time being. In order to occupy this place for a long time, it should focus on trade, recruiting armed forces, immigration, and investment. It should first cultivate local pro-East African forces and swallow up this fragmented country in the future.
The politics of the Lan Fang Republic was so weird. In addition to the Lan Fang Company, there were other Chinese companies, but the Lan Fang Company was the strongest, equivalent to the "hegemon", and could convince the people.
This so-called "negotiation" is actually a threat of force and intimidation, which is completely different from what East Africa has done in Africa and Europe.
In Africa, there is no need for intimidation in East Africa. People have always been straightforward and disobedient natives can be suppressed directly without even the right to negotiate.
Therefore, during this "friendly visit" to the Lan Fang Republic, East Africa showed its ordinary colonial face for the first time and indulged in its "imperialism".
(End of this chapter)
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