Chapter 42 Tariffs

Before the survey of the Makin Railway was conducted, some people with unique vision had already revealed their intention to invest.

This was beyond Constantine's expectations.

It seems that this railway should also be put into preparation.

Constantine telegraphed Banning, who was still in Berlin, to search for some railway engineering experts to go to the Congo River for a field survey, evaluate the railway's preliminary price, and determine the planned route of the railway.

By September, the negotiations on the Congo River Basin had gradually become clear, and various countries successively recognized the Congo Commission's management rights over the Congo.

Among them, the French-occupied Congo (Brazzaville) was officially divided into two parts, Congo (Kinshasa) and Congo (Brazzaville), because the French firmly opposed free trade in the region.

What surprised Constantine was that after the British learned about the preferential purchase agreement signed by Constantine and the French, their original opposition to the Congo Commission's collection of tariffs loosened.

With Banning's unremitting efforts, he agreed to the Congo Commission's collection of a 10% tariff to maintain order in the Congo River and avoid being taken advantage of by the French.

The price is that after effectively controlling Congo, Congo River must help Britain quell the Mahdi rebel forces.

Banning asked Constantine about this condition.

The so-called Mahdi Rebellion refers to the war between the MSL in Sudan, Africa, and Britain and Egypt that broke out in 1881.

Before the rebellion, Sudan was a territory of Egypt, a territory of Ottoman Turkey.

It's a mouthful, but that's the relationship.

This complicated relationship has a rough origin.

Around 1804, Egypt, under the rule of Muhammad Ali, carried out drastic modern political and military reforms, and Egypt gradually became stronger.

Speaking of which, the first war between Egypt and Ottoman Turkey was also related to Greece.

Around 1821, the flames of the War of Independence began to burn on the Greek peninsula.

The long-declined Turkish army was rotten and collapsed at the touch of a button.

The monarch of the Ottoman Empire, Mahmud II, who was forced to do nothing, could only shamelessly borrow troops from his nominal territory, Egypt, to help him quell the rebellion.

Mahmoud promised to give Crete and Cyprus as a reward for sending troops.

Muhammad Ali sent 80,000 troops to suppress the Greek revolution.

But later, with the help of European countries, Greece still gained independence from Turkey.

Now the contradiction between Egypt and Turkey appeared:

For the Ottoman Turkey, Egypt did send troops, but did not accomplish anything, so why should it be paid.

But for Egypt, 80,000 troops cannot work for nothing. How can the dignified caliph go back on his word?

So Egypt asked Turkey for Syria, but Mahmoud refused.

The first Egyptian-Turkish war broke out.

Egypt and the Ottoman Turkey went to war. The Egyptian army, which was unstoppable, successively conquered Palestine and Syria, swept across the Arabian Peninsula, and coveted Constantinople of the Ottoman Turkey.

If it were not for the later intervention of European countries, I am afraid that the Ottoman Empire would have collapsed at this time.

So, Egypt was also a country that was once glorious.

Although Egypt was still a territory of the Ottoman Turkey in name, it actually gained independence.

After Egypt became strong, it infiltrated Sudan along the Nile River and gradually controlled the tribes along the Nile River.

This resulted in the awkward relationship that Sudan was a territory of Egypt, a territory of the Ottoman Turks.

After 1882, the British army occupied and controlled Egypt.

After that, British forces expanded along the Nile River to Sudan, which was located upstream.

This uprising was so powerful that it affected the entire Sudan region. Even the important city of Khartoum (now the capital of Sudan) in Sudan was captured, and Gordon, the British colonial governor in Sudan, was also killed.

(This Gordon also suppressed the Taiping Rebellion in China.)

Due to the severe situation, British forces could only retreat to the Red Sea coastal area of ​​Sudan.

In Constantine's impression, he vaguely remembered that this uprising lasted for more than ten years.

Constantine tended to agree to the British conditions.

The reason is also very simple, it is nothing more than interests.

Sudan has always been an important channel for Arabs to enter the Congo region by land and abduct black people as slaves.

These Arabs in Sudan are not good men and women, they are also outsiders.

Why did Sudan in the 21st century split into South Sudan and Sudan?

Because these Arabs are also invaders. The original natives of Sudan are Negro blacks. Their relationship is that of slave traders and slaves, with a deep hatred and a grudge.

If they knew that the Congo Commission attacked the Arabs in Sudan, I am afraid that both the local blacks and the blacks in the Congo River area would applaud.

The Congo Commission entered Africa in the name of maintaining local order and opposing the cruel slave trade.

This is not Constantine singing a high tone, but the booming capitalism in Europe at this time requires a huge commodity market, and slaves are incompatible with capitalism.

In the process of Arab slave traders capturing slaves, they are often accompanied by massacres and robberies, so that the black population will be drastically reduced.

This is not good for the Congo Commission.

The Congo Commission already has management rights, and the more blacks there are, the larger the market provided, and the more benefits the Congo Commission itself can obtain.

The Arab slave traders in Sudan are undoubtedly a threat to the interests of the Congo Commission.

Secondly, Mahdi, who opposed the colonizers, sounded great and glorious. In fact, he was a figure similar to Hong Xiuquan in Nanjing.

After he came to power, he quickly became corrupt and decadent, indulged in extravagance, and did everything he could, and died in a few years.

As a dictator with religious colors, it would be fine if you played with women and ate delicacies every day, as long as you improved the economy and everyone lived a good life.

But Mahdi only knew how to destroy, and he only knew how to buy foreign guns and cannons. He was also good at plundering slaves, but he didn't care about the economy at all, causing the business to wither and making the city of Khartoum unable to even support itself.

Mahdi also had the ambition to liberate the entire world, and he sent some missions to Mecca and other places to publicize the true meaning of anla that he had experienced in his hallucinations.

Who knew that people would regard his words as heresy and ignore them. In order to prevent the Sudanese people from being brainwashed by other heretical ideas, Mahdi went all out and simply banned the citizens from going abroad, even to Mecca for pilgrimage.

Fortunately, there was no radio or satellite TV at that time. If there was, he would probably weld the radio channels and ask the Sudanese government to strictly prohibit the installation of satellite receivers.

I don’t know if he was exhausted by beauty. He died in his forties after a few years of fooling around.

The Egyptian army collapsed as soon as it arrived, and Sudan returned to being a colony.

Constantine really didn’t like such people.

So Constantine finally agreed to the British proposal to attack Sudan from the north to the south of Congo to help assess the rebellion, and the British supported the Congo Commission to collect no more than 10% tariffs.