Chapter 456: The Rise of South Africa

In the winter of 1869, the war-torn world suddenly became peaceful. In order to divert the domestic economic crisis, the wars of aggression launched by the major colonial empires all ended in this season.

There is a huge disparity in the strength of the warring parties. In the face of hot weapons, the blood of courage is not worth mentioning at all.

If it hadn't been for everyone pulling each other's backs, the war would have ended earlier. The pattern of the African continent after the war became more obvious.

France occupied Egypt, solved Algeria, and divided up Tunisia with the British; Austria also completed its established goals and occupied Botswana, Kenya, Tanzania and other regions.

There is no doubt that the British are at a disadvantage in this round of competition. Although John Bull defeated Ethiopia and killed Aldo II, it still did not change their disadvantage in the competition for the African continent.

Killing an indigenous emperor does not mean that the British occupied Ethiopia, and they cannot even rule in name.

Without the central government, Ethiopia has become fragmented, and it is also a headache in the face of warlords, the British.

There were fearless internationalists who secretly supported Ethiopia to fight against them. The British also paid a heavy price in this two-year war.

A total of 136,000 troops were invested before and after, and the loss of personnel alone exceeded 5,000, of which nearly 3,000 remained permanently on the African continent, and the military expenditure was astronomical.

This casualty is only the statistical loss of white soldiers, the servant army is worthless, and their casualties are naturally not included in the statistics.

In any case, the battle was finally won, and the British Empire did not lose face this time.

The absolute gap in strength is not so easy to make up. Even if Fao helped, Ethiopia was only causing the British a little trouble.

Without the anti-British Emperor Aldo II, Franz did not count on the remaining warlords. With British means, they feared that a civil war would break out before long.

It wasn't too bad, at least in the short term the British couldn't plunder a lot of wealth from Ethiopia.

Strategically, the British have increased their influence in the Gulf of Aden, but unfortunately the price paid is a little too high. It is estimated that the anti-war faction of the London government has grown a bit.

According to the current pattern of the African continent, Austria has become the general trend, occupying an absolute dominant position. The total area of ​​the colony exceeds 13 million square kilometers, which is already half the size of the African continent.

If it’s just a matter of occupying land, you can find another opportunity to grab it. The problem is that there are more than eight million white immigrants living in this land.

Colonies of all countries have a common feature, that is, everyone has a gun, and anyone who can resist can become a soldier.

If this fights, who will rob whom in the end is really uncertain. Unless Britain and France can put millions of troops into the African continent, there is no chance of victory.

Obviously this is impossible, and the French would not dare to throw the main force on the African continent, otherwise their hometown would be in danger.

As for the British, let alone the army of one million, even if the army is expanded by 300,000 to 500,000, the army and navy will start working first.

The Royal Navy will not let the Army grab resources. For them, this is a more terrible disaster than the combination of Fao.

Austria did not continue to expand on the African continent. The main reason was that it was struggling and needed to digest the fruits of war.

There are still many hidden dangers in this vast land, threatening the rule of Austria, and clearing the place is the top priority.

If the colonial society cannot be stabilized, how can wealth be created? A colony that cannot create wealth is a burden.

In this round of carve-up activities, the French also performed very well, followed by Austria.

If the French can achieve the set goals, their colony area will also exceed 10 million square kilometers.

Obviously, the European strategy has contained a lot of energy of the French, and they are somewhat powerless in the colonial expansion of Africa, otherwise Tunisia will not be divided into half of the British.

Now their actual control area is less than half of the plan. Inland areas aside, there are also many areas in Austria that are not under actual control.

For example: Morocco has brought together the spheres of influence of Britain, France and Spain. How to expel the two countries is a problem.

In any case, the French sphere of influence is not small in name, including the Sudan, which was turned into a protectorate by Napoleon III.

Of course, this was only announced unilaterally by the Paris government and has not been recognized by the international community. The British also claimed to have signed a treaty with the Sultan and directly claimed to be the suzerain.

These documents are basically signed by the colonists, and they may even be forged. Don't think about the integrity of the foreign powers, colonization has always been by force, and it doesn't matter whether there is a treaty or not.

This kind of fancy trick is just for self-framed, to make one's food look better, and it does not have much legal effect in itself.

Obviously, the Sudan region has become the focus of competition between Britain and France.

The French want to connect Sudan and Egypt together, preferably by occupying Ethiopia and Somalia, to gain the dominance of colonial East Africa.

The British are fighting for the Sudan area, and they are also fighting for the attention of Egypt, and the Suez Canal makes them even more coveted.

In short, the Sudan region is very important to Britain and France. Falling into the hands of the French, the British are likely to be squeezed out of East Africa and can only be trapped in South Africa.

Falling into the hands of the British, the British, who occupy the two southeastern corners, not only reversed their unfavorable strategy on the African continent

, and may go one step further to seize the Suez Canal and regain dominance of the Mediterranean.

This is a conspiracy. As long as Austria does not stretch out its hands, it will be a matter of time before Britain and France clash over the Sudanese region.

The African continent has temporarily stabilized, and the Mexican civil war has fallen into a period of underestimation. After contracting the counter-insurgency mission, the French army quickly defeated the rebels.

The rabble is the rabble. Without the Mexican government army to add chaos, the French army broke out its true strength, which is simply not comparable to the rebels.

The French told the world with practical actions that the defeat in the last Mexican war was just an exception, and they were still the most powerful army in the world.

Naturally, the rebels have not been wiped out, and Mexico is not a small place. As long as the rebels hide in a random place, the French will be powerless.

The reign of Massimiliano I was not stabilized by the heavy losses of the rebels, but shaky because of successive social reforms.

If it weren't for the fear of the reaction of France and Austria, I am afraid that the powerful factions in Mexico would have launched a coup d'etat and replaced the little crown prince as a rubber stamp.

On the surface, it has stabilized, but the undercurrent has been surging. Now there is only one Mars left to detonate.

...

One wave just flattened, another wave rose again.

In 1860, gold was discovered in several black emirates east of the Transvaal Republic. In 1867, the first diamond was discovered in Hopetown on the Orange River.

For the British who controlled South Africa, the two Boer republics of Transvaal and Orange were no longer poor, but a piece of fat.

This is not the most critical, the bigger reason is that the Austrians have also stretched out their tentacles.

The Boers were originally a mixed race of the Dutch, Germans and some French, and naturally did not reject Austria, who was of the same clan and ancestry.

Small countries need to hug their thighs, and everyone quickly became good friends. The Zulu people acted as a bridge of friendship between the two sides, and in the recent melee in Africa, the two sides worked together to resolve the threat.

For the British, the fall of the Boers to Austria meant that a crisis was approaching. With Austria's advantages on the African continent, it does not seem that it is difficult to assimilate the Boers from the same origin.

If it weren't for the fact that the New Shinra Empire could not accommodate the Republic, the two sides might have merged by now. Even so, there are not a few Boers who support joining the Shinra colonial system.

This is unbearable for the British people who are full of crisis consciousness. They have not forgotten how they were driven out of the European continent. Naturally, they do not want to see what happened in the European continent repeat in South Africa.

Despite the opening of the Suez Canal, Cape Town's strategic value has declined, and it remains a battleground.

This gave the Governor of Delphi a very headache. Since he took charge of the South African region, not to mention the external expansion, his sphere of influence has been continuously compressed.

In the face of the menacing Austrians, they can hold the current sphere of influence, which is the brand of the British Empire.

As for expansion? The expeditions sent out were all without news, and occasionally a few people escaped, all pointing to the black aborigines.

Which indigenous tribe is so powerful and has the strength to stop their progress? This situation has been going on for many years, and a few years ago they organized an expedition of 3,000 troops in an attempt to break this situation.

Then, shortly after departure, this highly anticipated force was blocked by a large number of natives.

All the way, they blocked the gods and the devils and killed the devils, and the indigenous people were crying and screaming. Accidentally playing too much, walking a little far, and being cut off by someone.

Not completely wiped out, not far from that point. Over the next year, more than 1.5 million natives relocated to their colonies.

It’s true that people are powerful, but people also need to eat. The first thing these black tribes drove over was to grab territory.

With the exception of the cities still under British control, the countryside is in disarray. At one time, British tax officials were afraid to leave the city, and a large number of immigrants fled South Africa with their families.

The deteriorating situation made the former take responsibility and retire early and go home for the elderly. Governor Delphi solved the problem of overpopulation by introducing slave traders.

The main reason for these incidents is that the Boer Republic cooperated with Austria's actions and directly released these natives, otherwise Austria would not be able to do this.

Delphi has repeatedly proposed to the government to interfere in Austrian expansion, but to no avail. It's not that the London government doesn't want to interfere, the problem is that they don't have the strength to interfere.

In recent years, the dominance of the navy has been attacked by France and Austria. The number of French ironclads was approaching three-quarters of theirs, and the number of Austrian capital ships was as high as 65 percent of the British.

The two strong standards, I don't know where to throw them and eat ashes. The reality tells the British, don't pretend to be coercive if you don't have money.

Of course, in terms of gross tonnage, the British still barely achieved the top two standards. After all, no one is pking the number of sailing warships with them now.

Looking at the information collected, Governor Delphi felt that he should do something, otherwise it would be difficult for the British Empire to rule in South Africa in the future.

If anyone finds the above, they won't think Delphi is making a fuss. It is impressively the data of immigrants from the two Boer republics in the last ten years.

Among them, the most important is the immigrants from Germany, there are as many as 80,000, more than 80% of the total number of immigrants

.

How many people are there in the Boer Republic? At this rate, it will be a matter of time before it becomes a German-American country. It is not surprising that the two Boer republics fell to Austria, and the votes required the government to be pro-Austrian.