African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 917: Eastern and French border conflicts

XNUM X Year X NUM X Month.

Madagascar Island.

As early as 1893, the French government intensified its invasion of the Kingdom of Imerina and forced the Kingdom of Imerina to cede Dias Soule Bay to France.

In 1895, the French government had decided to annex the entire Kingdom of Imerina and launched another war, capturing Antananarivo and finally achieving full military occupation of the Kingdom of Imerina in April 1896.

Of course, in the French perception, the Kingdom of Imerina, as the main country on the island of Madagascar, is basically equivalent to the island of Madagascar.

However, after the French completely defeated the British and took control of the Kingdom of Imerina, they finally discovered that the Kingdom of Imerina had been divided into the northeast of Madagascar by East Africa.

From the Maevalanu River basin in the north to the Manambasi River basin in the south, all became the sphere of influence of East Africa. In the process of pursuing the remnants of the Kingdom of Imerina, the French army inevitably encountered the East African Defense Force, resulting in some minor misunderstandings.

"Colonel Silves, right? Why did you cross the border into our East African territory? As a Frenchman, I think you should know the Westphalian system, so you should respect our East African territory and sovereignty."

East African Lieutenant Marsels taught the French a lesson right from the start. The Westphalian system is the basis of the modern concept of national territorial sovereignty, and this system was originally dominated by the French, thus achieving the deconstruction of Habsburg rule and turning Germany into a complete geographical concept.

Sylvester certainly did not back down in response to Massels' questioning. Are you, an African civilization in a remote corner of East Africa, now considered a "human"?

Of course, although the East African Defense Force is not large in number, it is clear at a glance that their weapons and equipment are not comparable to the backward civilization of the Imerina Kingdom. In addition, who knows how many East Africans are behind Lieutenant Marsels, so Silvester is still relatively restrained. Otherwise, just because the other party speaks fluent German, he would have to teach this group of young people a lesson.

"Lieutenant Marsels, your East Africa is also an emerging country in the colonial dividend. I don't think Madagascar originally belonged to your East Africa, right? Now the Kingdom of Imerina has become our French sphere of influence. As the former overlord of Madagascar, we naturally have reason to intervene in the control of the entire Madagascar Island."

Massels: "What does that have to do with East Africa? East Africa recognizes that the Kingdom of Imerina is an independent country, and also recognizes that the Kingdom of Imerina is now a French colony. However, the Kingdom of Imerina cannot represent Madagascar. Before this, the Kingdom of Imerina had never actually unified Madagascar. Therefore, our East African territory naturally does not include the territory of the Kingdom of Imerina, but the area outside its territory. Now you are standing on the land of East Africa."

Good fellow! Silves, who was blamed, was happy. If it was true as the East African side said, France would have accepted it, but in fact, when France was fighting with the Kingdom of Imerina, did you dare to swear to God that you did not occupy the land of the Kingdom of Imerina?

Well... obviously East Africa did this, but you allow France to invade the Kingdom of Imerina, but you don't allow us East Africa to profit from it, right? The East African side is naturally justified. Everyone is not a good person, so why pretend to be a saint?

"Lieutenant Marsels, is your East African name written on this land? We are only recovering the territory of the Kingdom of Imerina. After all, they have been fleeing here."

The remnants of the Imerina Kingdom named by Colonel Silves were trembling on the side. After all, although they were afraid of France, the East Africans next to them were not easy to deal with.

In fact, the Kingdom of Imerina also knew that East Africa was encroaching on its territory, but at that time, in order to deal with the main threat of France, who could care less about the scraps that East Africa had swallowed up? After all, East Africa was only trying to take a bite of its meat, while France was going for their lives.

Marsels glanced at the remnants of the Imerina Kingdom. This group of people was actually intercepted by him. In order to evade French sanctions, the Imerina people naturally ran to the East African territory. They had no control over East Africa at all. As a result, they were blocked on the border between the "two countries" by the East African border guards and French pursuers.

"Colonel Silves, this doesn't prove anything. Just because the Belgians ran to German soil, can you say that the place where the Belgians went is Belgian territory? This is completely specious. As for the ownership of the land, we naturally have evidence. Look at the stone tablet in the distance, which is favorable proof." Following the place pointed by Massels, Silvester actually found a prismatic stone tablet buried in the ground. On it was written in German: "Boundary of the Kingdom of Hechingen".

The Kingdom of Hechingen is the official name of East Africa. Of course, according to the customs of countries around the world, most countries still call it the Kingdom of East Africa, just like the Netherlands, which is actually the Netherlands, and the same is true for Germany and Germanic.

After seeing Massels' so-called evidence, Sylvester was speechless. If a stone tablet could solve the problem, then the stone tablets erected by France in Lorraine and Alsace should have been able to prevent the Franco-Prussian War.

Of course, although Silvester was dissatisfied, East Africa was the local boss after all, so he said: "I will not argue with you on this topic. At the same time, we do not want to have a conflict with East Africa, but you must hand over these remnants of the Imerina Kingdom to us first."

Marsels naturally did not pay much attention to the so-called remnants of the Imerina Kingdom. After all, the reason why he appeared here was to block the remnants of the Imerina Kingdom from entering the East African territory.

"Of course, but the prerequisite is that you withdraw from our territory first, then we can hand the person over to you."

Hearing what Massels said, Silvester was so upset that he gritted his teeth, but he finally did what he said. The French side withdrew behind the stone tablet, and Massels handed over the remaining forces of the Kingdom of Imerina to the French as agreed.

"Colonel, these East Africans are too arrogant and domineering! Are we just going to accept them?" On the way back, a subordinate asked dissatisfiedly.

Colonel Silves said unhappily, "Why, you want to fight with East Africa? Do you know the strength of East Africa's troops on Madagascar? Even though the East African officer has a small number of troops, the overall strength of East Africa on Madagascar is definitely far greater than that of our country. If a conflict breaks out rashly under such circumstances, the South African War will be our fate."

"Do you expect the mainland to send more troops thousands of miles to this godforsaken place and replicate the British's 'glory'?"

Amid Colonel Silvester's angry scolding, no one mentioned the recent conflict again.

After a moment of silence, Silvester said, "It's definitely not possible to force it. This matter can only be intervened by the government and those East African country bumpkins. This is not within our consideration."

When Silvestre and his team arrived, they reported what had happened to the French government with some exaggeration.

As a great power, France has never suffered such an injustice, so the government’s attitude towards this matter is naturally... to negotiate with East Africa.

In addition to the dispute over the island of Madagascar, France actually has two colonies bordering East Africa, including the Gabon colony and French Somaliland (Djibouti).

Of course, there is actually no connection between French Somaliland and East Africa. Although there is a small border between them, it is not a desert area that attracts attention.

The key point is the division of sovereignty between the Gabon colony and the Madagascar colony and East Africa. Given the lessons learned from the South African War, the French naturally could not be so stubborn as to start a major African war with East Africa.

At that time, the British, even with Portugal and tens of thousands of Boer cannon fodder, still failed to gain any advantage in East Africa. Therefore, when communicating with East Africa, they still had to convince people with "reason" and not be "rude".

(End of this chapter)