Chapter 769 Chips
The war in East Africa against the remaining forces in Angola, or in other words, against the plantation owners and mine owners, was one-sided. After all, even the kingdom's army had been defeated, and these plantation owners who enslaved the "black slaves" to survive were simply unable to make the black slaves work sincerely for them.
If there is something wrong, they will really go! No, if there is something wrong, they will run faster than anyone else. However, this is a good thing for East Africa. After all, no matter how they run, as long as they are still on the land of East Africa, the fate of these black people has already been arranged by East Africa.
…
November 12, 1888.
First town city.
"At present, all wars against Angola have basically ended. After our statistics, most of the Portuguese, including soldiers and civilians, are about 130,000 people. There are not many Portuguese in inland Angola, and many Portuguese in coastal areas have fled back to their homeland by boat." Siewert reported the current situation in Angola to Ernst.
Ernst: "Only more than 130,000 people?"
After all, Portugal has ruled Angola for hundreds of years, and such a small population does not meet Ernst's psychological expectations, and there are also many Portuguese native troops among them.
Strictly speaking, these Portuguese native troops cannot be counted as the local Portuguese population in Angola. After all, they came to Angola only to stay in the area temporarily because of the war.
"There are also many mixed-race descendants of Portugal and the indigenous people, but we don't count them as Portuguese, and I think the Portuguese are unlikely to be interested in these black people," said Sweet.
According to the American one-drop blood principle, the mixed-race descendants of Portugal must also be black. They are not like the Portuguese whites who have relatives in the local area, so their value is not high, so the Portuguese government is unlikely to take over these "hot potatoes."
Ernst said: "Very good, let's gather these Portuguese people together and detain them first. These will be our bargaining chips with the Portuguese government in the future."
Although it is impossible for East Africa to return Angola to Portugal, the failure of the war does not mean that the Portuguese government has the courage to compensate "Angola" to East Africa. Such an act is tantamount to treason.
Therefore, if East Africa wanted Portugal to sign the treaty honestly after the war, it needed these prisoners as hostages. If it was for the purpose of redeeming its own citizens, the Portuguese government would be willing to give up land and pay compensation.
130,000 pure-blooded Portuguese is not a small number, especially for Portugal, which has a population of only a few million. It basically means that every family is in mourning.
And this is just Angola. There is still one East African country, Mozambique, that has not been taken. According to optimistic estimates after the war, the number of Portuguese in East Africa will reach at least 300,000.
These 300,000 Portuguese were an important bargaining chip for East Africa to threaten the Portuguese. Of course, East Africa could also use very brutal means to directly "illegally" occupy the two colonies.
However, a humiliating treaty that is in line with legal principles can make people feel more at ease. After all, if Portugal does not sign the treaty, it will not be good for East Africa's international image.
Although signing a humiliating treaty after defeat was common in Europe, with countries like Prussia, France, and Austria-Hungary having signed similar treaties, Portugal was in Europe, not Africa. If the Portuguese government was determined not to sign a humiliating treaty, East Africa really had no better solution.
Just like in the past, when Japan demanded war reparations after defeating Tsarist Russia, why was Tsarist Russia able to refuse so stubbornly? It was because the land in the Far East was not that important to Tsarist Russia. Japan defeated Tsarist Russia in the Far East, but it did not reach St. Petersburg. Even if Japan really had the strength to do so, the national character of Tsarist Russia would probably not allow it to surrender completely.
Portugal is now in a similar situation with East Africa. Ernst has never thought about how much war reparations he can get from Portugal. First of all, the Portuguese government is already poor, and secondly, East Africa has no ability to collect debts from Portugal.
Therefore, the best outcome is to let Portugal honestly accept the price of losing two colonies. Although this is painful, it is not unacceptable.
At least Portugal has not lost everything. For example, in the current colonial hotspots - West Africa, the East Indies, and even in India and the Far East Empire, the Portuguese still have colonies, as well as some relatively important islands.
It’s just that the value of these colonies, except for the Gold Coast, cannot be compared with Angola and Mozambique.
Of course, if Portugal really lost Angola and Mozambique, according to Ernst's prediction, Portugal's only entrepreneurial direction in the future would probably be the Gold Coast, which is now Portuguese Ouidah, and the Kingdom of Dahomey in West Africa is likely to become the direction of Portuguese expansion.
As for other regions, the opponents Portugal faced were too powerful. For example, in India, Portugal still had several colonies in India, but the area was very small, and next to it was the territory of the British Empire. There was no need to think about the Portuguese and Macao colonies of the Far Eastern Empire. The status quo could be maintained only because the current government of the Far Eastern Empire had granted it special favors.
Finally, there is the Portuguese Timor colony. The Dutch next to it are not people the Portuguese can afford to provoke now. After losing Angola and Mozambique, Portugal is completely unable to compete with the Netherlands.
Only the Portuguese in West Africa still have a little chance. Although Portugal's territory in West Africa is a bit small, West Africa is a mixed bag, which is very suitable for fishing in troubled waters.
Of course, Ernst did not care about the future fate of the Kingdom of Portugal. Now Ernst only wanted to take Angola and Mozambique into his pocket.
So he said: "Treat our Portuguese prisoners well. They are important bargaining chips in post-war negotiations. As for the mixed-race descendants, ignore them for now. If the Portuguese are interested in them in the future, they may be of some use to you."
Of course, although he said this, Ernst was very pessimistic about the Portuguese attitude towards mixed-race descendants. After all, the Portuguese who had fallen to the point of intermarrying with the natives or were simply irresponsible should themselves be at the bottom of Portuguese society.
The Portuguese with a little bit of power would never have any relationship with the indigenous people. Otherwise, according to Portugal's colonial history in Africa, the number of mixed-race descendants in Angola should have exceeded one million by now.
Of course, this is also related to Portugal's previous lack of attention to the development of Africa. The expansion of Portuguese Angola and Mozambique was actually forced by the wave of East African and international colonization.
During the hundreds of years of Portugal's colonial history in Africa, for most of the time, Portuguese colonies were limited to coastal areas.
Because the Portuguese had almost no competitors in Africa before, and the emergence of East Africa was an important reason why Angola and Mozambique received Portugal's attention.
It can be said that the decade or so when East Africa threatened the security of Portugal's colonies was also the period of fastest development for Angola and Mozambique, with both population and construction higher than the total of all previous eras.
But Portugal is ultimately one step behind East Africa, just like Ernst. If immigrants from the Far East Empire had not been introduced in the early days, the population of East Africa would not have reached its current scale.
Portugal has a vast land and a sparse population (compared with other European countries), and it can develop in Brazil, so why should it go to Angola and Mozambique!
The openness of East Africa is also an important reason for East Africa's victory in the African Colonial War. Without millions of Far Eastern immigrants who laid a solid foundation for East Africa in advance, there would be no current development of East Africa. Population and land are the basis of East Africa's development.
Of course, this is also related to the fact that immigrants from the Far East are easy to fool. Europeans more or less know that Africa is not a good place, but the people of the Far East Empire are not enlightened now, and most people probably have never heard of the so-called Africa. The popularity of Africa may not even be as famous as the Dongsheng Shenzhou in "Journey to the West".
Of course, this is old news. Now Africa’s popularity in the Far East Empire has been greatly promoted by East Africa. After all, immigration and commercial activities are too frequent.
(End of this chapter)
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