Chapter 729 Official declaration of war
After the shelling, the old port of Mogadishu was in a mess, including the merchant ships operating here, which suffered considerable losses.
Alex, who escaped back to the port area, was lucky enough to escape with his life. However, his command ship and another gunboat were seriously injured to varying degrees and may need to be returned to the factory for overhaul.
At the same time, the "Andres" was sunk offshore. Only about 20 survivors watched the lifeboat escape back to Mogadishu, and the remaining more than 100 people were missing.
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Just four minutes after the Somalia naval battle took place, the East African navy and the central government received the news. Although the outcome of the Somalia naval battle was reasonable, it still caused an uproar in East Africa.
Especially in the naval department, Archduke Ferdinand was furious, and then Archduke Ferdinand was not in the mood to explore the losses of the Mogadishu navy. Now the British fleet is obviously heading for East Africa, and as expected, it will soon It is possible to touch the eastern coast of East Africa during the night.
This means that the first battle of this war begins with the navy, and then the East African navy will begin to face a tough battle.
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The first town.
"The British have declared war undeclared. The losses in Mogadishu are still being counted. However, the navy in Mogadishu has been declared scrapped. Next we will face a more severe situation. The Ministry of National Defense and the General Staff will start immediately Deployment for all-out war, the whole of East Africa has entered a state of war, and the embassy directly submitted a declaration of war. We must win this war."
As the military order was issued, the East African army began to formally take over railways and highway transportation hubs, and the East African arsenal began to enter wartime status to expand production capacity.
Before anything big happened in East Africa, at the coalition headquarters in Maputo, Count Roberts also formally issued a combat order.
Britain, Portugal and the Boer Republic declared war on East Africa at the same time, and the military forces of various countries began to gather on the land of South Africa.
At the same time, the world’s attention was attracted by this “abrupt” war in South Africa.
Originally, South Africa did not have much popularity in the international community, but once the British came to an end, the world's attention was focused on the land of Africa.
Britain is the world's most powerful country, and every move it makes will be watched. Moreover, Portugal will obviously join Britain's war in East Africa this time, so the South African War is destined to attract worldwide attention. As for the Boers, they are "too weak" and not worthy of the attention of other countries. Pay attention to.
Berlin, Paris, Washington, Peiping...all countries outside the region are thinking about the reasons for this war and its scale.
The first town, Dar es Salaam, and the embassies of various countries in Zanzibar transmitted war news to the country in real time through telegraphs.
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Austro-Hungarian Empire.
As an ally of East Africa, Austria is now very embarrassed. East Africa has gone to war with Britain without any fanfare. Should you join or not?
Also, why didn’t the East Africans disclose relevant information to the Austrian government in advance? Is this a direct attempt to seduce the Austro-Hungarian Empire?
As for the war between East Africa and Britain, the Austro-Hungarian government is neutral. Although East Africa is weak, it has local combat advantages, and East Africa's strength is pretty good, so it should not be instantly defeated by Britain. That's right, no one, including the countries headed by Franz, believes that East Africa has an advantage in the war. Even if it can repel the British and Portuguese coalition forces, it will still have to pay a heavy price, so the Austro-Hungarian Empire does not want to intervene in the war between the two countries now. .
But after all, we are allies and we still have to be concerned. Franz said: "Ask the East African government what's going on? Why did they go to war with the United Kingdom directly? There was not even a hint of news about such a big thing before!"
There are many people who are as confused as Franz, but although most countries are surprised by this sudden war and do not even know the location of East Africa, what can make Britain and Portugal join forces must be hard work.
However, everyone still treats this war with a "watching a show" attitude, because Africa's status in the world map is "not important". Except for North Africa and West Africa, which were previously divided by various countries, everyone is very unfamiliar with East Africa and South Africa, and If someone can cause trouble for Britain, that would be... great!
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Berlin.
The newly succeeded Frederick III did not expect that the East Africans would send him a big gift just after he ascended the throne.
Compared to William I, Frederick III was not familiar with East Africa, so he called Bismarck to help him advise on the reasons for the outbreak of this war and what could make Britain and Portugal join forces.
Bismarck: "East Africans are too extreme. This war has probably been planned from the beginning. Britain and East Africa each have their own calculations. They have been preparing to determine the hegemony of the South African region from the beginning."
Although the name of East Africa has been fixed due to regional issues in the early days, for the African continent as a whole, East Africa is actually South Africa. In the southern part of the African continent, including several forces in this war, the war is also known as South Africa. Called the South African War.
And compared to other countries that turned a blind eye to the South African war, Germany immediately guessed the intentions of East Africa and Britain.
This is mainly due to the efficiency of the German intelligence system. As early as three years ago, Germany was aware of the British adjustment of troops to South Africa.
However, at that time, Germany did not think that Britain was preparing for this war. Instead, it mistook it for colonial needs. After all, Germany was not very active in colonization yet, and its intelligence system focused more on Europe.
Therefore, there was no in-depth analysis of the deployment of British troops in South Africa. If Germany had carefully investigated at that time, it would definitely have been found that the British military power in South Africa could fully support a large-scale war, and this was obviously not something the indigenous people could bear.
As for East Africa, a country also ruled by the Hohenzollern family, Germany is more optimistic. Regardless of winning or losing, East Africa will continue to have closer relations with Germany in the future.
Bismarck: "The strength of East Africa is actually not weak. Their army is trained completely according to our army's methods and has its own industrial system. This is probably an important reason why the Hechingen royal family dared to face the challenges of the British and Portuguese alone."
Frederick III had served in the army for many years before he succeeded to the throne and did not know much about East Africa, so he asked: "Can East Africa ensure its production capacity in the war? Moreover, their country has been established for such a short period of time, and the industrial construction situation is I’m afraid it’s not that good. If we rashly start a war with a world power like Britain, it may be difficult to achieve a good result.”
"That's not what we should be concerned about. We only need to pay attention to the direction of the war. If East Africa can withstand the pressure, it is worth our efforts to win over. The positions of Germany and Austria-Hungary are very embarrassing. If there is a strong ally outside the region, it will be helpful to us. It is a good thing to deal with the situation in Europe, and East Africa's economic strength is not weak. Many of our raw materials are imported from East Africa, so it is necessary for us to help East Africa during the critical period of the war, and we can test the strength of the British without having to do it ourselves. ." Bismarck said.
Bismarck's attitude can be summarized as "wait and see", but Germany must play a role. East Africa is an important German country, but the cooperation between the two countries is still not close enough. If Britain can teach East Africa a lesson, let East Africa know the importance of "allies" Sex, that would save Germany a lot of things. Of course, if Britain wanted to directly destroy East Africa, Germany would not be able to stand idly by. Bismarck planned to mediate the war when "necessary".
(End of this chapter)