Chapter 815 Madagascar Military Control Zone
The East African military operations in the west and south of Madagascar were going very smoothly, and the British government did not want to cause any trouble at this time because they were under serious threat from the French.
During the South African War, France took advantage of Britain's lack of attention to the Kingdom of Imerina to occupy a lot of territory and expand its colonies to the plateau area of the Kingdom of Imerina.
So at this time, in order to focus more on dealing with the threat from the French, the only way for the British government was to stabilize East Africa and prevent East Africa from taking sides in the struggle between Britain and France.
To be honest, with the military strength that East Africa has on the island of Madagascar, there is no need for it to take sides, and it can even directly change the situation on the island of Madagascar. However, as Britain and France are the dominant powers in the current world order, there is no need for East Africa to turn against the two countries for the sake of the Kingdom of Imerina.
In fact, France was equally nervous about East Africa's military activities on the island of Madagascar. However, the Kingdom of Imerina had always been close to Britain. Before completely colonizing the Kingdom of Imerina, France did not need to talk to East Africa and could only watch East Africans occupy the western and southern regions of Madagascar.
However, this also made the Kingdom of Imerina more important in the eyes of Britain and France. With the expansion of East Africa, Britain and France had fewer places to intervene in southern Africa. Britain still had the Cape Town colony as support, and France now only had the French Reunion Island in the South Indian Ocean region that was completely under French control.
The competition between Britain and France for the Kingdom of Imerina will only become more intense, but judging from the investment, France will eventually gain the upper hand.
The main reason is that the Kingdom of Imerina cannot be considered a British colony, so Britain cannot fully support the Kingdom of Imerina in resisting the French invasion.
…
It took East Africa only three months to basically determine its sphere of influence on the island of Madagascar, and signed security agreements with Britain and France to guarantee the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Imerina.
Next, East Africa will just sit back and watch the fight between two tigers on the island of Madagascar. As for who will eventually gain control of the Kingdom of Imerina, the East African government does not care.
Although the Kingdom of Imerina has a small population, it is not an easy fruit to swallow. Throughout the 19th century, the Kingdom of Imerina, through the rule of several generations of monarchs, actively learned from advanced European countries and actually formed a relatively advanced civilization.
Antananarivo, the capital of the Kingdom of Imerina, is actually a completely European-style city, and even Christianity has become the state religion of the Kingdom of Imerina.
Moreover, the population of Antananarivo is not small in Europe. In the 18th century, the population of Antananarivo exceeded 80,000, and now it has reached more than 100,000. It is one of the rare large cities in the whole of Africa.
Even before East Africa, apart from the colonial capitals of Britain and Portugal, no city in sub-Saharan Africa could compare with Antananarivo.
In the previous life, even for France, it took as long as thirteen years to colonize the Kingdom of Imerina. This shows that the Kingdom of Imerina is not a simple indigenous country.
…
November 27, 1889.
With the end of East Africa's military operations on Madagascar, East Africa established the Madagascar Military Control Zone on Madagascar as a temporary transitional administrative area.
The two brigade headquarters are stationed in Mahajanga in the north and Tulear in the south, controlling the western grassland area and the southern arid grassland area respectively.
Although both belong to the tropical savanna climate, there are great differences within the tropical savanna climate. The rainfall in the southern part of Madagascar is similar to that in Dodoma, less than 600 mm, while the western part is much better, almost the same as Mozambique across the river.
Therefore, the main economic model of the black people in the southern part of Madagascar is based on nomadic pastoralism, while the western part is mainly based on hunting and gathering.
East Africa is not in a hurry to develop Madagascar Island. Food can be transported from the east to Madagascar Island by sea.
As for the local blacks, they were controlled by East Africa, which built military camps, roads and other infrastructure to ensure the East African Defense Force's control over the military control zone on the island of Madagascar.
The kingdom that was most nervous about this suddenly appearing neighbor was actually the Kingdom of Imerina, which was also aware of East Africa's fierce record in South Africa.
Therefore, the Kingdom of Imerina was extremely nervous about this "evil neighbor" at the beginning. However, with the guarantee of the British government and two months of observation, the Kingdom of Imerina accepted the East African military presence on the island of Madagascar.
At the same time, the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Imerina, Rainileiarivoni, sent a diplomatic mission to East Africa to seek to establish diplomatic relations between the two countries.
Today, the Kingdom of Imerina is under the rule of Queen Ranavalona III, but most of the country's major policies are formulated by her second husband, Rainileiarivoni. It was also during Rainileiarivoni's period that the Kingdom of Imerina became more open and civilized.
However, it was too late for the Kingdom of Imerina to transform at this time, and its strength was too weak to break free from the control and invasion of Britain and France.
The addition of East Africa gave the Kingdom of Imerina a new breakthrough. They hoped to balance the relationship between Britain, France and East Africa to achieve the security of the Kingdom of Imerina.
November 6, 1889
Just when East Africa had not yet completely completed its military operations on the island of Madagascar, a delegation from the Kingdom of Imerina arrived in Dar es Salaam and was received by the East African government.
East African officials have not shown much interest in this African "big country" that has been hiding on the island of Madagascar.
However, East Africa naturally welcomes countries that take the initiative to establish diplomatic relations with it. In fact, this has been the case since the South African War.
The diplomatic environment in East Africa has undergone tremendous changes, with more and more countries choosing to make friends with this emerging world power.
Even the United States, whose relations with East Africa had deteriorated due to racial issues, has repaired its diplomatic relations with East Africa.
Asian countries such as the Far Eastern Empire completely put East Africa on the same footing as powers such as Britain, France and Germany, and Japan once again began to lurk.
Japan has always had fantasies about the South Ryukyu Islands, and was even more eager to make a move after the outbreak of the South African War. However, the outcome of the South African War was beyond Japan's expectations, which forced Japan, which has always "admired the strong", to continue to "keep its head down and be small."
At this time, Japan had not yet gotten rid of its inferiority complex, especially after the baptism of war. Although it had gained many advantages in the Korean region, it had never fought against the major powers in the world.
During the same period, the country's national strength was slightly weaker than in history, but Ernst knew that Japan at this time was actually qualified to fight any force except the great powers.
Of course, that was all. The booster for Japan's development was the war reparations it received after the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. Before that, even if Japan tried its best to save money, it could not be a match for the world's powers.
Of course, the Ottoman Empire and the Far Eastern Empire, although they are great powers, can only be considered pseudo-powers. And don’t underestimate Japan because of its small size. In fact, Japan is already the number one maritime power in East Asia.
Although the Far Eastern Empire Navy is quite powerful, it is inferior to Japan in terms of marine economy, civilian shipbuilding, etc. This is also an advantage of Japan as an island country.
Of course, the real gap between the two countries is mainly a matter of mentality. The Far Eastern Empire has always been wary of the ocean, and many open ports were forced to open, and this is still the case today. The different attitudes towards the ocean naturally led to Japan's expansion in the Western Pacific region. If we had been more decisive and dealt with Japan a few years in advance, Japan's fragile economy would have had no chance to rise again.
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
