Chapter 606 Regret
The news about the Orange Free State cannot be hidden from East Africa. After all, East Africa has never been a peaceful country, although Ernst has always emphasized keeping a low profile.
However, what East Africa has done in recent years is not considered low-key in the eyes of other countries. However, East Africa has always been more cautious in publicity, and does not publicize it everywhere when it has received benefits. Therefore, it appears to be tepid in the international community, and usually does not have much Popularity, but when discussing countries and patterns in the world, it can miss the mark.
This is like a student in a class who usually doesn't show off, who doesn't make much noise, but is involved in something.
Ernst: “This time the civil war broke out in the Orange Free State, the fundamental reason was the further intensification of the contradiction between the Oranges and the Transvaal people. Of course, the British were indispensable for sowing discord, but this was just right. It shows that even people of the same ethnic group may not be able to get along harmoniously, especially since the Oranges and Transvaal people are too clear-cut.”
Constantine: "There is some truth in this, but the Orangemen and the Transvaal are originally the same nation, both Boers. If the British were not around, I am afraid they would not be divided into two new national concepts. According to the concept of The normal development process should be for the Orange Free State to absorb the people of the Transvaal Republic, but now it has turned into the misery of fighting against each other. This is also a warning to us in East Africa."
“Our national conditions in East Africa are different. One of the most important national policies is intermarriage. Originally, when immigrants from various countries formed new families, their national attributes were weakened.
After all, when considering issues from the perspective of small people, we generally put the small family first and then the big family. Compared with the family, concepts such as nation and country must be placed at the back.
So if you want to create the effect of the Orange Free State in East Africa, you have to break up countless small families, and this is obviously impossible. " said Ernst.
The function of ethnic integration lies in the word integration. East Africa has achieved integration through intermarriage. This is also the simplest and crudest method, and it saves worry and effort.
Of course, in comparison, when the country becomes stable, many aspects of the family will be abandoned, but this has little to do with the East African government. After all, in the 19th century, being able to start a family and start a career was enough to satisfy most people.
“However, it seems from this incident that the British are indeed as treacherous as ever, and they still like to provoke confrontation to maintain governance.” Constantine said with emotion.
The way the British ruled the Orange Free State was no different from the way they ruled India. In India, it was through the contradiction between Hinduism and Arabism that prevented India from being united. In the Orange Free State, it was replaced by Oran. Governance and Transvaal people.
This mine can be said to have been buried by the British a long time ago. As for Ernst having similar ideas at the beginning, but he could not help the Orange people make decisions, as a result, the Orange people have suffered a big loss now.
However, Ernst is also happy to see the result. This is definitely good news for East Africa. The relationship between the Transvaal and East Africa is not good, and by the way, the relationship between the entire Boer nation and East Africa has dropped to a freezing point. This has a negative impact on southern East Africa. Defense exerted pressure.
Now that the Orangemen and Transvaal have broken apart, the Boers have also been divided. As long as East Africa is operated properly, the Boer flag will lose its effect.
Not only East Africa will benefit, but the Cape Colony may also have this idea. There are many Boers in Cape Town. In the past, there were two independent countries, the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State, so the Cape Colony has The Boers were given united front value.
The Boers in the Cape Colony lost their support. After all, the Orange and the Transvaal could only choose one.
Of course, you can also choose neutrality, but with the increase in the number of British immigrants, the Boers in the Cape Colony gradually found it difficult to compete with the British government. Without the help of the Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State, the British It becomes much easier for them. Of course, the British may not have thought that much at first. They just did it according to their traditional thinking mode.
This is just like Tsarist Russia’s diplomacy is very rough and likes to use force to solve problems. This is the traditional Russian thinking mode at work.
To put it more simply, this is the influence of national character on national character. Obviously Ernst likes to hide one's strength and bide one's time, and this is due to the influence of national character in previous lives.
In fact, they are values. Not everyone may agree with them, but most people do. For example, Western countries advocate freedom, the Soviet Union advocates democracy, and the social values of the Far Eastern Empire are the same.
Constantine was indifferent to these. As an old-era aristocrat, especially a German aristocrat, he still preferred to exert military force. European aristocrats naturally attached great importance to military affairs.
So he said: "In this civil war in the Orange Free State, should we find an opportunity to intervene? This is a good opportunity to annex the Orange Free State, so that we can also completely isolate the Cape Colony in Orange The south bank of the river will be of great help in reducing the pressure on national defense.”
Not to mention other aspects, if the Orange Free State is captured, the border lines between East Africa and the Cape Town Colony will be greatly reduced. With the reduced border lines, the deployment of troops can be appropriately reduced. Although the Orange River is not considered a natural hazard, , also has certain defensive functions, so it can greatly save military expenditures in East Africa.
Ernst reassured: "This matter cannot be rushed. Although we have ideas about the Orange Free State, the Orange Free State is now a British colony after all, so this matter must be considered carefully, and the most important thing is Once we leave the field, we will break the barrier between the Orange and the Transvaal, and they will definitely have to rejoin their forces to deal with our threat first, which is not worth the loss for us."
The following words are the key point. In the eyes of the Orange people, the Transvaal and the British are not the same thing, and the Germans in East Africa are not interesting either.
After all, they all live in Africa, and everyone knows East Africa quite well. East Africa even enjoys the nickname of Africa's "Tsarist Russia". The land of more than 10 million square kilometers was not given to the indigenous people for free.
But now the Orange people have no choice but to rely on cooperation with East Africa. The Orange Free State is surrounded by East Africa on three sides and the Cape Colony on one side. It is completely landlocked, so if it wants to gain external support, there is no other option. the way.
And the reputation of East Africa is actually not bad. Especially in the countries bordering the north of East Africa, they have a good impression of East Africa. However, as the victims, most of the countries in the south naturally do not have a good impression of East Africa.
However, East Africa and the Orange Free State are exceptions. After contacting them in the past few years, the Orange people's impression of East Africa has greatly changed. As the largest land neighbor and powerful country of the Orange Free State, although East Africa has troops on the border, it has never been Not a lot of overstepping.
This is very rare, because the people of Orange know that East Africa is fully capable of annexing Orange, but the other party has not done so. This shows that East Africa respects international morality and credibility.
This also made the Orange people regret their original choice. If they had known that East Africa did not have such wild ambitions as described by the Transvaal people, they would not have agreed to be incorporated into the Cape Colony.
(End of this chapter)