Chapter 470: Orange's Journey to England
East Africa's behavior made Cape Town very upset, but now it has no way to face this giant East Africa on its own. However, Cape Town does not need to be sad. East Africa is not targeting Cape Town intentionally. In fact, the Portuguese in Angola also feel frightened.
The province of Letania is far from Walvis Bay, with a vast desert area in between. However, the climate conditions in the area where Namibia and Angola meet to the west of the province of Letania are quite good! This can be seen from the map of Namibia. Basically, the important rivers in Namibia are distributed in the north.
Although these rivers are also mainly seasonal, the plateau area in the northern region is quite large and the precipitation can barely reach 500 mm.
Although there are plateaus in the southern region, there are also mountains. These mountains are the reason why it is inconvenient for East Africa to invade Namibia directly from the east.
Just imagine, after finally crossing the Kalahari Desert, you end up encountering endless mountains. After crossing the mountains and plateaus, you end up encountering desert again. This kind of despair cannot be overcome by willpower alone, so East Africa adopted a land and sea approach when colonizing Namibia.
The plateau area west of the Lethania Province, known as the Ovamboland region in Namibia in the past, is the country's most important agricultural area, where self-sufficient food crops such as millet, sorghum, and potatoes can be grown, and 30% of the country's population lives there.
To illustrate how important this region is to Namibia, Namibia's food self-sufficiency rate is only about 20%, and most of this 20% food self-sufficiency rate is contributed by Ovamboland.
It is no wonder that the Portuguese do not like Namibia. This land is indeed a real bad land, but this is only considering the cost of colonization.
The value of Namibia to East Africa is different. The importance of the ocean is self-evident. If Namibia is captured, East Africa will immediately become a country with two oceans.
As for Namibia's harsh climate, it is not a problem for East Africa. East Africa itself has enough arable land for agriculture and does not need additional land. Just like the original positioning of the South African region, there is no need to vigorously develop the planting industry.
April 1877.
At the same time, East Africa is planning the Congo rainforest area. The Ubangi River River Force has been established to conduct regular patrols on the Congo River and the Ubangi River. This also indicates that East Africa will completely incorporate the Congo Basin east of the Ubangi River into its territory.
East Africa as a whole is in an offensive state in the west, and with the blessing of railways, East Africa's transportation capacity has been greatly improved, especially the western section of the Central Railway, which goes straight to the Angolan colony and comes to an abrupt end in the inland, forming the feeling of a broken railway.
As for why the western section of the Central Railway was built like this, it can be said that it is obvious to everyone that it is one of the manifestations of the plot to colonize Angola.
…
May 1877.
Bloemfontein.
Persuaded by the British, the Orange Free State held a final vote on whether to join the Cape Colony.
"The voting results are 1,308 votes in favor, 230 votes against, and 415 abstentions. I declare that from today on, the Orange Free State will be dissolved and automatically join Cape Town."
President Brand personally dissolved the last Boer republic, and the South African region completely changed from a three-party force to a two-tiger confrontation.
In fact, President Brand was also helpless. He personally hoped that the Orange Free State Republic would continue to be preserved, but if he really did so, he was afraid that a civil war might break out in the Orange Free State the next day. Therefore, in Brand's eyes, merging with the Cape Town Colony was a poison pill that had to be swallowed.
Apart from the Boers, the only remaining force in South Africa was the Kingdom of Lesotho. However, the Kingdom of Lesotho was taken advantage of by the British at the beginning of the year and declared to be extinct. This was in line with the character of the British. After all, the Kingdom of Lesotho, which had been crippled by East Africa, had no value at all. With the incorporation of the Orange Free State into Cape Town, Britain initially unified southern South Africa.
In the Orange Free State, the votes against it represented a desire not to go along with the British. Perhaps East Africa was not a good thing, but Britain was definitely a bad species. As for those who abstained, most of them did not want to get involved in the dispute between the British and the Germans. In their opinion, the Orange Free State should remain neutral.
These people are generally natives of the Orange Free State, but the opposition and the abstentionists are weak. More Boers, especially those who were driven to the Orange Free State by East Africa, hate East Africa to the core. Driven by their emotions, most people in the Orange Free State also harbor hatred towards East Africa.
Under the British's deception, the Orange Free State threw itself into the arms of the British Cape Colony without hesitation and became a part of the Cape Colony.
In this situation of being surrounded by wolves in front and tigers behind, it is obvious that Britain is more deterrent than East Africa. Moreover, the Orange Free State is quite aware of what East Africa did in the Transvaal Republic before, and they are also afraid of following in the footsteps of the Transvaal Republic.
British Cape Town envoy Ryan said: "The Boers have made the right choice. From today on, you are all my brothers. We will work together to defend the peaceful order in South Africa."
The British also spent a lot of money to win over the Boers. In order to reach an agreement with the Boers, the British generously stated that they could split the Orange River diamond mines with the Boers in a 50-50 split. Of course, due to the pressure of national defense, they would temporarily manage it to maintain military expenditures, and then return that part to the Boers after three years.
At the same time, the British also promised to forgive the previous debts between the two countries. This was very important for Orange. The Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic were of similar size and their fiscal revenues were basically in deficit, so they borrowed a lot of money from the British. After all, it was impossible for the Boers to borrow money from the Zulus and other indigenous peoples.
As for the Boers, Governor Henry Barclay of Cape Town also offered a price, promising that the Boers would have equal status with British citizens, that Britain would respect the rights of the Boers, and that the private property of the Boers would be sacred and inviolable.
Of course, if Ernst knew about the British promises to the Boers, he would definitely sneer at them. As the saying goes, a dog will always eat shit, and the same goes for the British promises.
Moreover, the British deception this time was almost the same as in the previous life. They did not even offer any substantial benefits. They just shouted slogans and took advantage of the anti-East African sentiment of the Transvaal Republic immigrants in the Orange Free State to bring the Orange Free State into their sphere of influence.
This was almost inevitable. The Transvaal Republic originally had a larger population than the Orange Free State. After they were driven out of East Africa, a large number of Transvaal people poured into the Orange Free State. They quickly gained the right to speak in the Orange Free State by virtue of their population advantage. Coupled with the support from the British behind the scenes, the original power of the Boers in the Orange Free State was hollowed out.
In this regard, East Africa can be said to have dug a hole for itself. However, expelling the Boers from the Transvaal Republic was the best option for East Africa. If Ernst really kept the Boers in East Africa, it would be a real time bomb.
The Boers have initially formed their own national ideology, which runs counter to the Germanization of East Africa. However, the cost of reforming the Boers is too high and may not be effective, so it is better to let them leave. Although East Africa knows that this group of Boers may become enemies in the future, it must do so.
(End of this chapter)
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