African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1059 War Proprietor
It can be said that suppressing Arab countries is Britain's unchanging national policy, especially their leader, the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire has considerable deterrent power. Although it has now become the "sick man of West Asia", the reputation its ancestors earned through killing, burning and looting in Europe always makes European countries worry about its rise.

"The Ottoman Empire and Persia should be the focus of East Africans' strategy, so we will start with these two countries and keep a close eye on the cooperation between East Africa and the two governments."

As for Oman, although it is also a key country for visits to East Africa, the British government is not worried because Britain has huge advantages in Oman, and with the British deployment, Oman's national strength has been declining. Just like the UAE in the past, the current Pirate Coast is the political force that Britain split from Oman.

As the only maritime power in the Arab world, Britain would naturally not feel at ease with Oman, so it has always implemented a policy of suppression against Oman. This is also the reason why a relatively strong anti-British group has formed within Oman.

……

Hodeidah.

In the past, Hodeidah was the second largest port city in Yemen. Of course, now it belongs to the Ottoman Empire.

A team of robed merchants were counting goods in an inn.

"This time, they brought over more than 50 guns and three boxes of ammunition, all of which are British-made rifles. The British influence in other areas along the Gulf of Aden is relatively strong, so it is very difficult for us to transport these weapons to Aden by sea. We can only transfer them through Ottoman ports."

"We bribed the Ottoman officials at the port to bring this batch of goods here smoothly. But we still have to take a long land route and then cross the border to deliver this batch of weapons to our customers in Aden."

Aden, also known as the British Aden Protectorate, includes Yemen, Oman, and some parts of Saudi Arabia in the previous life. There are many small countries in the region, which is actually an Arab nomadic tribal country similar to the Pirate Coast.

This also gave East Africa an opportunity. With more countries, there are naturally more conflicts, especially in areas where water resources are relatively scarce. They may fight to the death for water.

Of course, no matter which country or force it is, they will try their best to enhance their military strength. This is especially true for the tribes in the Aden Protectorate. Whoever has more guns and the more advanced their guns are will gain an advantage.

Although everyone has the pressure of Britain over their heads, it does not mean that there are no conflicts among them. At this time, if someone supplies weapons to everyone from outside, they will naturally accept them with pleasure.

Not only the port of Hodeidah, most of the other southern ports of the Ottoman Empire became transit points for smuggling arms from East Africa to the Persian Gulf coast and the Arabian Peninsula, mainly because other areas were easily detected by the British.

Although it is called arms trade, in fact East Africa has spent a lot of costs, similar to the military gift packages that the United States and the Soviet Union distributed to their respective brothers in order to fight the Cold War in the past, that is, free military aid.

After all, if there is no profit, the people of Zanzibar will not take a lot of risks. Helping East Africa to smuggle arms to various parts of the Middle East and earning intermediary profits has always been the basis of cooperation between East Africa and the people of Zanzibar.

The people of Zanzibar did not disappoint East Africa. Relying on their strong personal connections and business network in the Arab region, they were able to find buyers accurately.

"In June of this year, we have already delivered more than 2,000 rifles and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition to the Middle East and Central Asia. If nothing unexpected happens, tribal conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia are likely to intensify and eventually expand, thus causing unrest in the local situation." The agent of the National Defense Security Agency reported to his superiors.

"The credibility of these Zanzibar people is relatively reliable. They have been doing business in the Arab region for many years, and their influence covers almost the entire Indian Ocean coast, so most of these weapons entered the Middle East and Central Asia without anyone noticing." "It's just that they are only selling weapons to some small customers now. They are not enough to trigger the situation in the entire Middle East and Central Asia. As time accumulates, the more powerful their hands are, the more their ambitions will expand, and then the British will have a headache."

In fact, Britain had noticed something was wrong since the second half of 1908. The minor conflicts and contradictions in its colonies had increased significantly. However, they were all minor fights, which was easy to explain. Before the arrival of the British, these Arabs often fought, so the "occasional" violent activities were completely unnecessary for Britain to pay attention to.

After all, as long as inter-tribal conflicts do not involve Britain’s own interests, they are completely acceptable.

So, with Britain's indulgence, East Africa increased the shipment of local arms, and small-scale low-intensity wars have begun to develop in the direction of "normalization", which is the case in all British colonies nearby.

The frequent outbreaks of small-scale wars finally attracted Britain's attention. It had no choice but to pay attention. The situation developing in the direction of getting out of control would only undermine Britain's own prestige.

In the past, under British rule, these tribes or countries basically would not harm British interests. However, when the situation got out of control and everyone got angry, they would start a melee without thinking.

Under such circumstances, some local political forces that the UK originally supported in the local area are vulnerable to challenges, so they urgently need the UK to restore order and maintain their own interests.

Therefore, under the instigation of some pro-British forces, the British Aden Protectorate government had to launch an investigation. However, if it had not investigated, it would not have known that according to rough data, tens of thousands of firearms had flowed into the Aden Protectorate.

It was obvious that there were foreign forces intending to undermine Britain's rule in the area, and following the response from the Aden Protectorate, other British colonial governments near the Persian Gulf also described this situation.

This coincides with former British Prime Minister Bannerman's prediction that East Africa will make big moves in the Middle East and Central Asia. However, no one would have thought that East Africa was just trying to cause trouble. After all, apart from this, East Africa has gained almost no actual benefits. Instead, it has to pay part of the way back to subsidize the arms business.

As for why it was the former prime minister, it was because Bannerman died of a heart attack in April this year, which caused the British government to be in a panic and temporarily relaxed its vigilance against East Africa in the Middle East and Central Asia.

It was not until feedback from the Aden Protectorate and other colonies along the Persian Gulf that the new government returned its attention here.

The new Prime Minister Asquith was quite disgusted with East Africa's small moves. In order to solve this trouble, Asquith finally decided to have preliminary negotiations with East Africa.

What East Africa wanted was very simple, that is, "free trade" in the Persian Gulf, the Middle East and Central Asia. Britain did not agree to this "simple" request. After all, Britain had just divided the spoils with Russia and had already regarded the region as its own interest. It was naturally impossible for Britain to give some meat to East Africa.

Moreover, if East Africans were allowed in, East Africans would definitely become more and more demanding in the future. The British government would naturally not be so short-sighted, and the negotiations between the two sides would remain at a stalemate.

East Africa began to increase its military aid to the Middle East, which really made Britain overwhelmed. Of course, Britain also had many means to hit East Africa, so the whole year of 1908 was spent in mutual harm between Britain and East Africa.

Of course, both countries knew their limits. After all, there were many countries in the world besides East Africa and Britain. The unpleasantness between Britain and East Africa did not affect Germany. France posed a greater threat to Britain, and it was impossible for East Africa to have a fierce conflict with Britain in a short period of time. So time passed in the stalemate between Britain and East Africa. 1909 came quietly. In the past 1908, East Africa had almost been playing the role of a warmonger, making the entire Persian Gulf and Gulf of Aden region hot.

(End of this chapter)