Chapter 920 Plot for Mindanao
In fact, the territory of East Africa has shrunk to a certain extent due to negotiations with France. For example, part of the land in eastern Antananarivo that was occupied by East Africa. After negotiations between the two countries, East Africa returned part of the land to France.
After all, this is a business without capital. The benefits that East Africa gained when France invaded the Kingdom of Immerina are far greater than these, so in essence, France lost. France could have obtained the entire territory of the Kingdom of Immerina, but because East Africa did not realize it, .
Of course, returning part of the land of the Kingdom of Imerina is not important to East Africa. Most of the other areas acquired by East Africa are mountain ranges and areas that can form passes. This makes East Africa strategically opposed to French Madagascar. Colony formation suppresses.
Of course, if this part of the land had not been returned, the territory of East Africa would have steadily exceeded 13 million square kilometers, instead of being just in its infancy like it is now.
However, East Africa should not be too greedy. Now East Africa is already the second largest country in the world by area, and 13 million square kilometers is just the mainland. If you include Lan Fang Overseas Province, it will be more than that. This is not included. Other Colonies in East Africa.
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"This administrative division is more reasonable, but it will take a long time to implement. We will first set up provinces in non-disputed areas, such as Orange and Southwest Africa. As for disputed areas like the Great Lakes Province, we will Transition slowly.”
After all, the Great Lakes Province wants the original Plateau Province to negotiate with the Western Great Lakes Province, or even Bujumbura becomes independent and becomes the new capital of Solon Province. This is also unfair to the former Western Great Lakes Province. After all, the resources of the former Western Great Lakes Province are concentrated. The provincial capital is Bujumbura.
Of course, Plateau Province suffered the most. Not only did it lose its western territory and become the main body of New Solon Province, but it also ceded the richer Mwanza City in the north. Dodoma City completely became the dominant city in the province, but This is obviously not what the Plateau Provincial Government wants.
Therefore, the original provinces must do a good job in handover work, involving various aspects such as industry, resources, population, etc. Provinces in remote areas are easier to solve. After all, it is a completely blank piece of paper, so there will be no too strong disputes.
"By 1900, there were still nearly three years, and this work could almost be completed in this time. This basically means that the political landscape of East Africa would be basically stable after 1900. On this basis, after 1900, East Africa's Expansion moved from the African continent to overseas colonies, especially in Southeast Asia.”
Ernst is still obsessed with Nanyang. After all, compared with exerting political influence in East Africa in other directions, Nanyang is the easiest region.
According to the geographical location of East Africa, West Africa and North Africa should normally be given priority. However, the competition between these two regions was too fierce. Before the decline of European countries such as Britain and France, Ernst was basically not optimistic about the local situation.
Thinking of this, if nothing unexpected happens, the Spanish-American War should break out next year, and East Africa should also take action in advance.
After the meeting, Ernst called in Foreign Secretary Hermann and Director of the Defense Security Service Walsden.
"Your Royal Highness, the progress is going smoothly. We have disguised our personnel as personnel from various countries and entered Mindanao one by one. Currently, we have more than 2,000 core personnel on the island, and about 8,000 peripheral personnel, but we want to be certain Qiankun, I’m afraid there are some difficulties.”
In Walsden's words, it is only difficult. This is an understatement. In fact, Mindanao's status in the Philippines is quite low, similar to a "wild land". Even in the previous life, the population of Mindanao was nearly half less than that of Luzon. Now the population of the entire Philippines is only about five to six million, not even comparable to the Abyssinian Empire. It was not until the mid-19th century that the population of the Philippines exceeded 20 million.
This is already the result of the Spanish's efforts to "feed". At the beginning of the 19th century, the population of the Philippines was only over one million. At the beginning of Spanish colonization, the population of the Philippines would only be even lower. Therefore, although colony is not a complimentary term, in this era The improvement in productivity and medical and health standards in backward areas is visible to the naked eye, otherwise the colonies would not have doubled their population. Of course, there are exceptions in some colonies where people are not living, such as the Belgian Congo colony next to East Africa. .
"According to our statistics, the current population of Mindanao is about three to four hundred thousand. The main population of the Philippines is mainly concentrated in Luzon and other islands. Therefore, although we only have more than 8,000 people in Mindanao, it is risky to control Mindanao, but The odds are still good.”
The error in the figures given by the National Defense and Security Administration is not large, which also shows the desolation of Mindanao. Even though Ernst often said that East Africa is sparsely populated, after searching all of East Africa, the population of Southwest Africa and the Congo rainforest is smaller than that of Mindanao.
Of course, from the perspective of population density, Mindanao far exceeds Southwest Africa and the Congo rainforest. After all, Southwest Africa covers an area of more than 800,000 square kilometers, the Congo rainforest exceeds one million square kilometers, and Mindanao is less than 100,000 square kilometers. kilometer.
In the previous life, the population explosion in Mindanao began in the late 1930s. Before that, for the Philippines, Mindanao was equivalent to the ancient penal colony of Far Eastern countries, or Siberia in Tsarist Russia. It was not until 1939, after the Philippine government promoted immigration, that the population of Mindanao increased. There has been substantial growth and exceeded 20 million in the 21st century.
Comparing more than 20 million to the current 30 to 400 thousand, it can also be seen that the tropical rainforest climate was indeed a "green desert" before the industrial revolution. It was quite difficult to survive, let alone development.
Of course, this is also the reason why Ernst came up with Mindanao. If the population was large, who would want this place? The Abyssinian Empire and the Kingdom of Imerina are examples of this.
As the conversation between Ernst and Walsden, the old spy, the Foreign Secretary Hermann next to him broke into a cold sweat.
"His Royal Highness, are you planning to have a conflict with the Kingdom of Spain? This is an issue of interfering with the sovereignty of other countries, and Spain is not a small or weak country. Doing so may cause a diplomatic accident." Herman asked from the side.
Walsden did not speak. In fact, the crown prince’s ambitions for Mindanao were long-planned. East Africa’s infiltration into the local area had already begun before the South African War. Since he became the director of the Defense Security Agency, the love between Mindanao and Hawaii has The island is outside the National Defense and Security Agency, and this is the only focus of Europe, the United States and Japan. However, Kauai has become an East African territory, and now Mindanao is missing.
Ernst: "The Nanyang region is the key area for East Africa's future overseas layout, so it is reasonable for us to make some preparations in advance. After all, the Nanyang region has been divided up, so if we want to gain a foothold here, we must take some special measures. means."
Herman: "But I'm afraid the Northern Hawaiian Kingdom only had one opportunity to take advantage of the right time, place, and people. We also took advantage of the fact that the Hawaiian Kingdom was an independent country at that time. Even a little later, the Americans controlled the entire Hawaiian Kingdom, and we There is obviously no such condition in the Philippines. After all, the Philippines is one of Spain's important colonies and is completely different from Hawaii. If we do this, I am afraid it will anger the Spanish government. "
Of course, Ernst did not mean to offend Spain. After all, East Africa had already offended many countries. Britain, Portugal, and Japan were countries whose strength should not be underestimated in the world. The other countries that were wiped out by East Africa did not even have the chance to hate East Africa.
As for how to obtain Mindanao from Spain, Ernst naturally wanted to replicate the previous successful experience of the Northern Hawaiian Kingdom, letting the United States act as the villain and East Africa take advantage of it. Of course, Hermann and others naturally did not understand the key. After all, they were not Ernst.
(End of this chapter)