African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1313 The deal is concluded
When it comes to territorial issues, East Africa has always preferred to adopt an utterly ruthless approach in order to eliminate local hidden dangers.

Moreover, East Africa has long been unhappy with the Horn of Africa. At that time, a large number of Somali looters fled to the Horn of Africa. However, due to the British occupation of this place, it was difficult for East Africa to take action. Now Ernst will naturally not miss this opportunity.

Of course, Ernst actually had other considerations in mind when he wanted to eliminate the remnant Somali forces in the Horn of Africa, which was to completely clear out the black forces in the entire Northeast Africa.

The Somali region is different from the Abyssinian Empire. The Abyssinian Empire is a mixed race, while the Somali region is made up of pure black people, but they believe in Arabic.

The blacks believe in Arabic and are hostile to East Africa. It can be said that they have violated East Africa's taboos in all aspects. The remnants of Somalia in the Horn of Africa have long been recorded in the East African government's notebook.

Today, the blacks in the Horn of Africa are the only purely black force bordering East Africa, so either taking over the Horn of Africa or eliminating the local Arab black forces is worth it for East Africa to take action.

Of course, the Horn of Africa was only one of the issues in this round of negotiations between East Africa and the United Kingdom, so Ernst only expressed East Africa's attitude.

Ambassador Thomson said: "The Horn of Africa is one of our goodwills from the UK. The next exchange of interests between us and East Africa involves the issue of the Indian colony that East Africa obtained from France."

"The Empire is willing to exchange the Socotra Islands, the Chagos Archipelago, and Gwadar for three colonial outposts in East Africa on the Indian Peninsula."

As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately caused a commotion in East Africa. The senior officials in East Africa began to whisper to each other, and Ernst's face began to become serious.

This time, the UK has thrown out a big bait. Both the Socotra Islands and the Chagos Islands are extremely attractive to East Africa.

As for Gwadar, it is worth savoring because Gwadar is the territory of Oman, but this area is an enclave of Oman and is located in Pakistan in the previous life.

East African Defense Minister Pripyat said: "Your country is indeed sincere, but Gwadar is Omani territory, which means that the only areas where your country actually trades with us are the Socotra Islands and the Chagos Islands."

"But in my personal opinion, these two areas are much less valuable than our three colonies in East Africa and India."

Although the three Indian colonies that East Africa obtained from France were small in area, they had completely different significance in terms of value.

Mainly because India played a huge role in the rise of Britain, and even now India has become an important support for the continuation of British hegemony.

And Pripyat said this, of course, in order to raise the price of East Africa in the Indian colony.

Ernst also added at this time: "Yes, India is an important market. Although the Socotra Islands and the Chagos Islands have certain strategic value, they are obviously not comparable to India."

Here Ernst switched concepts and equated the three colonial outposts in India with India. However, this is exactly what the British were worried about.

Thomson explained: "Gentlemen, let us not mention the strategic value of the Socotra and Chagos Islands, but first take your three colonies in India."

"These three colonies are very small in size and do not have much practical significance for your country. Therefore, we, the British Empire, come here with full sincerity. If your offer is too outrageous, we are willing to give up this negotiation."

Ernst said, "How about this, Ambassador Thomson? For East Africa, the Chagos Archipelago is not as valuable as the Seychelles. If your country is willing to exchange the Chagos Archipelago for the Seychelles, we can naturally withdraw from India."

Thomson refused directly: "This is impossible. Seychelles is also an important part of the British Empire's global interests, so we can't exchange Seychelles."

The UK is naturally well aware of the importance of Seychelles to East Africa. The reason why it chose the Chagos Archipelago to trade with East Africa is because the Chagos Archipelago is far less important than the Seychelles.

Although the Chagos Archipelago is located in the middle of the Indian Ocean, it is no longer of much use to the UK, mainly due to the geopolitical changes in the Indian Ocean caused by the rise of East Africa and the advancement of ship technology. In the past, ships crossing the ocean needed to stop frequently to replenish supplies and resupply due to technical reasons, such as the many coaling stations set up by the UK and France overseas.

As the name suggests, a coaling station is a place where ships dock and add coal. After all, the mainstream power source for ships nowadays is the steam engine.

In the previous Russo-Japanese War, Russia lacked overseas colonies, so its warships had to carry large amounts of coal, which had a great impact on the war.

With the advancement of ship technology, today's ships are faster, can sail farther, and take less time, which greatly saves energy and material supplies. Therefore, some places that were important in the past have become less important.

The Chagos Archipelago belongs to this type. Although the Chagos Archipelago is located in the center of the Indian Ocean, it is not on the main route of Indian Ocean trade.

At the same time, its natural conditions are far inferior to those of Seychelles. Of course, the British government obviously also intends to use Seychelles to balance East Africa.

After all, the British government knew very well why East Africa wanted Seychelles. Seychelles was related to the security of the east coast of East Africa, so Seychelles could not be easily given to East Africa.

After hearing Thomson's refusal, Ernst thought for a moment and said, "If that's the case, we can't agree to use the Indian colony to make this deal with your country."

"If we can only get the Chagos Archipelago and the Socotra Archipelago, then we will trade at most two of our Indian colonies to your country."

In this way, East Africa still has a colonial outpost in India that can be used to make use of.

Thomson reminded: "There are three pieces, including Gwadar. I still hope that your country can accept our approach."

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Ernst said: "Gwadar does not have much practical significance for us in East Africa, and Gwadar is Omani territory, so it cannot be used as a bargaining chip in the negotiations between the two countries."

The place of Gwadar does not really have any appeal to East Africa. After all, its conditions are relatively poor. Although it is close to the Persian Gulf, if East Africa wants to intervene in the Persian Gulf region, it has many options, and it is not necessary to go to Gwadar.

Seeing Ernst's insistence, Thomson said, "In this case, I can only consult my country first and then negotiate with your country."

East Africa's demands were not something Thomson could decide on his own, after all, he was just a mouthpiece for the London government.

As a result, the negotiations reached a deadlock that day. The most critical issues were the Seychelles issue and the Indian issue.

London quickly responded that Seychelles must continue to be controlled by Britain. As for East Africa, if it was unwilling to completely trade the Indian colony, it would be acceptable to take back two pieces first.

So, the next day, the focus of the negotiations between the East African government and Britain shifted to which two Indian colonies East Africa should trade with Britain.

In the end, East Africa decided to retain only the Indian colony of Kaligar, while Pondicherry and Yanam would be exchanged with Britain for territories.

The disputed area of ​​Gwadar was negotiated between the British government and Oman, and was finally handed over to East Africa by Britain.

Although Gwadar is an enclave of Oman, Oman's rule here is completely in name only, so the handover between the three countries was very smooth.

The reason why Britain gave Gwadar to East Africa was actually to provide East Africa with a springboard to enter Central Asia. Gwadar was historically Afghanistan's outlet to the sea, and beyond Afghanistan is the Central Asian region controlled by Russia, which actually includes northern Afghanistan and is also Russia's sphere of influence.

(End of this chapter)