African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 936 Arms Sales
East Africa had no way of knowing the Spanish government's attitude towards the US-Spain conflict, but this did not prevent East Africa from selling various war supplies and arms to Spain in advance.

In fact, the arms trade between East Africa and Spain began as early as after the South African War. After the South African War, East Africa's military products, especially army equipment, attracted the attention of many countries.

Spain is among them, because a large part of the Spanish Army's weapons procurement comes from Germany, and the East African Army's equipment is of the same origin as Germany, which provides convenience for East Africa.

Before the South African War, Spain might have had some doubts about the quality of East African weapons, but after the South African War, such doubts disappeared.

From the South African War to the present, East Africa has exported more than 20,000 rifles and hundreds of machine guns to Spain. In South Africa, the performance of machine guns is undoubtedly the best, which has attracted some attention.

"Mr. Cruise, this is the M1895C Mauser rifle, a special rifle for tropical jungles produced in East Africa. It also belongs to the Mauser rifle series, but the military research and development team in East Africa has improved it according to the regional conditions. According to the temperature and humidity in the tropical jungle area, we have carried out targeted material improvements, making it more suitable for shooting in hot and humid areas." Mansk, an East African arms salesman, said to his old friend Cruise.

Since 1886, Spain has begun to equip Mauser rifles. The Mauser rifles used by Spain are the M1893 model, which is a German export variety designed specifically for Spain. East Africa also has the production qualifications, but the Mauser rifles used by the East African Defense Force have some differences in details from the German or its export Mauser rifles, mainly to adapt to the climate and terrain characteristics of East Africa, as well as the requirements of the East African Defense Force.

In the previous Spanish-American War, the M1893 Mauser rifle used by Spain performed so well that after the Spanish-American War, the United States, which suffered losses, later developed the M1903 Springfield rifle, which was actually designed under the authorization of the Mauser Rifle Arsenal based on the Mauser M1898 rifle.

Therefore, the Mauser rifles now in service in Spain are destined to shine in the war, and East Africa naturally wants to get involved to test the performance of its weapons and equipment.

Moreover, because of the South African War, the Mauser rifles used by the East African Defense Force had a history of combat experience, which also accelerated the Spanish government's determination to replace Mauser rifles. The army introduced and equipped Mauser rifles on a larger scale than in history.

Therefore, if Spain wants to meet the needs of the war now, it can only go through Germany or East Africa, the two countries in the world that mainly use and produce Mauser series rifles.

In the past, Spain ordered more than 1893 M1928 Mauser rifles, and used them until 1916. Its domestically produced Mauser rifles were not officially launched until , so now Spain's Mauser rifles mainly rely on imports, which provides export opportunities for the East African defense industry.

"Spain has been one of our partners since 1890. After all, the quality of our East African Mauser rifles is no worse than that of German ones. However, the M1893 Mauser rifles you use may be good for the local environment. After all, Spain has a Mediterranean climate, with hot and dry summers and mild and rainy winters. However, Cuba and the Philippines have a tropical rainforest climate, with hot and humid weather and many jungles. The shooting environment in this situation is different from that in your home country."

"Take the jungle environment itself, which is different from the regular field environment. Because of the heavy rain and fog, as well as the dense trees, the shooting conditions are naturally limited. Therefore, strengthening firepower is more important than range and accuracy. Just imagine, in a tropical jungle full of trees, how far can your bullet fly?"

Cruz nodded and said, "You have a point. But when it comes to understanding the local environment, we are more familiar with it than the Americans. Even if a land battle occurs, it is unlikely that a large-scale battle will take place in the jungle."

After all, neither Spain nor the United States were natives like Vietnam who were adept at navigating the jungles, and their focus of colonization was on coastal and developed areas.

Mansk was very clear about this point. He said, "Don't be too absolute. Are you going to give up just because you, Spain, lost the ports and other areas in the war? And it's not just the Americans. The suppression of the colonies is also a big part of it. Those local indigenous people are also part of what you urgently need to fight, and this cannot avoid jungle warfare." Today, local people in the Philippines and Cuba are revolting one after another. The root cause is still the excessive exploitation of Spain. Of course, there is also the shadow of the Americans behind this. They have imposed targeted economic sanctions on Spain. The most typical of these is to increase tariffs on Cuban sugar. In this case, the economic difficulties in Cuba and other regions have been aggravated. Changes in the economic situation have intensified the resistance of local people.

Of course, there are some differences between Cuba and the Philippines. The local resistance forces are actually the local Spaniards. Just like the independence of the United States in the past, they are dissatisfied with the central government's taxation of the local area. In the context of a downward economic situation, this contradiction has been further intensified.

The armed unrest in the colonies was also one of the important reasons for Spain's failure in the war. It consumed a lot of Spain's energy. With collusion between internal and external forces, Spain had no chance of winning.

Of course, East Africa has no control over the situation in Cuba. East Africa still attaches importance to the sovereignty of the Philippines, so East Africa is more enthusiastic about helping Spain suppress the native Filipinos.

"It might have been easy for your army to deal with the local natives in the past, but now they have the support of the Americans. It's different now. No one knows what kind of weapons will appear in the jungle." Mansk said meaningfully.

Cruz also said with a heavy face: "Yes, the colonial thugs are indeed a key problem. If they hadn't been messing around behind the government, the Americans wouldn't have been able to threaten Spain so easily."

In Cruz's view, these indigenous people or some Spanish comprador forces are typical examples of traitors. Spain may have gone too far, but when the Americans came, the problem remained the same.

"Then I wonder what you think of this rifle? Do you want to buy it? You should know that some of our troops have already equipped it, especially in the western region."

Mansk went on to deceive: "The M1895C rifle is based on the M1888C tropical jungle rifle, which was used in battles with Portugal and has been tested in the South African War. The 331st Mountain Division, the most elite unit in my country, was equipped with this rifle at the time. This unit fought from the tropical rain forests of Angola to Maputo in the southeast. It can be said that they have made great military achievements. The excellent performance of this rifle has been tested in the war."

"The M1895C tropical jungle rifle is a new generation of tropical jungle combat rifle that we developed over five years based on the M1888C rifle. It is better than the original. The troops stationed in the western part of East Africa, especially in the tropical rainforest area, basically use this rifle."

Mansk spoke directly with combat records. Although the combat record of the M1895C rifle was mainly inherited from the 1888 model, the two were in a relationship of inheritance and development. The East African military industry department improved it according to its advantages and disadvantages in actual combat, and its performance will only be better than before.

At this time, Cruz was already somewhat tempted. He said to Mansk, we can first purchase 500 units to try the effect. If the performance is good, we can expand the scale.

Mansk shook his head and said, "Five hundred is still too few. How about this? I'll take you to the simulated terrain to see the actual combat effect firsthand, and then you can decide on the purchase quantity."

No matter how much we say, it is better to let Cruz and other Spaniards do the operation directly. As weapons purchasers, Cruz and others are more familiar with firearms. Mansk is confident that this East African rifle can achieve excellent results in front of them.

(End of this chapter)