Chapter 473 The New Governor's Troubles
The smell of gunpowder was everywhere in the world, and the atmosphere of war was becoming increasingly intense. The major powers did not resort to fighting each other, but the countries in backward areas or colonies suffered terrible misfortune.
East Africa also made preparations to deal with this atmosphere. The intensity of naval and army exercises was greatly increased, and national military training was resumed, especially for the navy, which received a group of high-quality seafarers from East African middle schools. Officers trained by the Ferdinand Naval Academy also began to board ships for training.
December 1877.
The East African Navy launched a large-scale military exercise in the waters of Mozambique and near the Port of New Hamburg. A total of 25 combat ships participated, including five main ironclad ships, 18 gunboats and two wooden sailing warships. It is worth mentioning that five of the gunboats are masterpieces of the Bagamoyo Shipyard and are domestically produced ships in East Africa.
The number of East African ironclad ships has increased to five, and a new ship will be received from Austria early next year. In order to better arrange this exercise, the East African Navy has gathered most of its forces in the waters near the New Hamburg Port.
This location is close to the British colony of Natal and not far from Maputo, the capital of Portuguese Mozambique, and can effectively demonstrate the strength of the East African Navy.
As the East African fleet conducted exercises in the colonial waters of the two countries, the strength of the East African Navy has basically surfaced. In the Mozambique Channel, the East African Navy launched a series of military operations against imaginary enemies.
The East African naval exercise became one of the attractions in the western Indian Ocean, and passing ships were quickly attracted. The new Portuguese Governor of Mozambique, Leford, was one of the spectators. He came to East Africa with a local mission, but he did not expect to encounter a setback when he first arrived in Africa.
Lyford stood on the boat, staring at the East African Navy exercise area through a telescope and said: "The East African Navy has become one of the strongest forces in the Indian Ocean region. When did they develop such a navy?" Lyford asked.
"The East African Navy did not emerge suddenly, but it has indeed developed at a rapid pace in recent years. A few years ago, they were still equipping antique ships from the Sultanate of Zanzibar, which is now the province of Zanzibar. But in recent years, they have been like eating firecrackers, and have commissioned several ironclad ships in succession."
Lyford said with some jealousy and pessimism: "I'm afraid that even if our local navy comes here, it will not be able to defeat the East African navy!"
The Portuguese Navy had an extremely miserable life in those years. In 1875, the Portuguese Navy ordered an ironclad ship from the British Thames Shipyard and named it Vasco da Gama. This was also the only ironclad ship in Portugal.
The total displacement of the Vasco da Gama ironclad ship is 2,384 tons, which is almost the same level as the first domestically-made ironclad ship under construction in East Africa. Moreover, this ironclad ship has just been launched, and it may have to wait until next year for it to be officially put into service.
Lyford: "This East African Navy is the naval force of the so-called Kingdom of Hechingen. Why is East Africa capable of building a navy of this size, but we, who are also colonizers, cannot?"
"Mr. Governor, you are new here, so I'm afraid you don't know. Behind East Africa stands the Hechingen Consortium of the German region. The owner of the Hechingen Consortium is the Hechingen royal family, so a large amount of their funds are provided by the Hechingen royal family. If they relied solely on colonial income, I'm afraid they would have gone bankrupt long ago. No matter what, they would not have developed to the scale they are today, unless they controlled a gold mine. But so far we have not heard of any gold mines in East Africa."
Lyford: "Let's not talk about the navy issue for now. Why has the speed of colonial expansion been so slow in recent years? You have to know that we have been in Mozambique for hundreds of years, but the Germans have overtaken us."
"Your Excellency, Governor, this is not our fault. Colonial development requires capital injection in order to develop. Of course, if we rely on the human wave tactics like in East Africa, that would also work. The problem is that we don't have any, so naturally we can't expand inland Africa like the Germans did."
Lyford: "As far as I know, the Mozambique colony is profitable, right? How can there be no money for development?"
The subordinate looked at the rich second generation with resentment and said, "The profits from the Mozambique colony are indeed good, but the problem is that the kingdom has taken away most of it, so it is naturally unable to develop itself. In addition, after hundreds of years of rule, we cannot squeeze much money out of these natives. Moreover, these natives are not easy to mess with. They have now learned to resist. It takes money to suppress the native riots, and it will also disrupt the production order, resulting in reduced profits."
The indigenous people of Mozambique are very different from the indigenous people under East African rule. Because they have experienced hundreds of years of colonial history, their sense of resistance is much stronger than that of the indigenous people of East Africa. Moreover, the living standards of the indigenous people of East Africa are higher than those of the indigenous people of Mozambique. Therefore, they will not fight to the death with East Africa, and even if they fight to the death, they will be powerless to fight against the state apparatus of East Africa. The immigrant population in East Africa (excluding newborns) exceeds one-half of the number of indigenous people, so the indigenous people do not have an advantage over East Africans in terms of numbers.
Lyford: "You just said that East Africa relied on the human wave tactic to expand in Africa. What about the population of East Africa?"
"It's not clear, but a rough estimate is that the number of immigrants in East Africa may be over a million."
Only then did Lyford realize that he had made a hellish start! Unlike the rumors, Africa was not an undeveloped continent. He only needed to incorporate the unowned land into the kingdom's territory step by step to gain political achievements.
Lyford: "Where do they get so many people?"
"Of course there are Germans, and of course there are people from the Far East. Based on our experience in Dar es Salaam, the Germans should be similar to the Far East. There may be a small number of other races. I know a waitress in a hotel, she is Italian."
"Aren't they afraid of malaria when they import people from Africa like this?"
"Your Excellency Governor, it has been proven that the emergence of quinine has been able to effectively solve the malaria problem. However, East Africa should have other methods to reduce the probability of malaria outbreaks. I have never heard of a large-scale malaria outbreak in East Africa, but it happens frequently here."
This news made Laiford even more depressed. What a guy! Not only could he not achieve any political achievements, but he might also be threatened by malaria. Could he go home now?
As if seeing what was on Lyford's mind, the subordinate said, "Your Excellency the Governor, don't worry too much. In fact, malaria is only a minor problem. Since the advent of quinine, most patients can basically recover on their own. Moreover, the price of quinine is not high now. Neighboring East Africa is one of the major quinine producing countries."
Lyford: "East Africa has advantages everywhere. No wonder the previous governor was so incompetent. Under such circumstances, even if His Majesty the King personally governs Mozambique, there is probably nothing he can do. Even so, the local old men still want us to make efforts in Africa?"
The reason why Leford took over as the new governor was that the Kingdom of Portugal was dissatisfied with the inaction of the previous governor. Especially after the outbreak of the economic crisis, Portugal's economic situation could be said to be rotten, so it became particularly important to obtain fresh blood from the colonies. The Portuguese government looked left and right and found that only Africa still had much "potential", especially the two colonies of Angola and Mozambique, which could be said to be Portugal's most important colonies and the strongest.
Now European countries are stepping up their colonial expansion, and Portugal is not willing to lag behind. After all, it is precisely because of colonization that it has some say in Europe.
As for the existence of the East African Kingdom, Portugal chose to turn a blind eye. They still looked at Africa with inertia. Portugal was not afraid of anyone on the road of colonization. Even the British dared to touch it, so they did not take the African Emirate of East Africa seriously.
But only people like Leford who have really come to Mozambique can intuitively feel the gap. The East African Navy alone can sink the current kingdom’s domestic navy into the sea. As for the army, who dares to doubt the combat effectiveness of the Germans?
(End of this chapter)
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