African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 147: Chapter 137: The War Ends

”This is the Buganda Palace, it doesn’t look impressive at all!” Felix said casually, sitting on the throne in Mongol’s Buganda Palace.

”Compared to Zanzibar, this isn’t a wealthy nation. Mutesa I and his predecessors have done quite well to build the palace as it is.” The advisor said.

Mongol’s location is quite favorable, situated at the northern part of the Great Lake, where there are many large islands compared to the south. Mongol was built on a peninsula surrounded by these islands, and the Buganda Palace stands on a hill.

”It’s a pity Muset I is at the southern front. I didn’t get to confront him,” Felix said with a hint of regret.

The eastern front is led by Mutesa I’s son, the Crown Prince of the Buganda Kingdom. Clearly, the Buganda Crown Prince is not as brave as his father.

He was defeated soon after engaging, and the Buganda Crown Prince was the first to flee. Felix pursued him all the way here to the capital of Buganda over the past few days.

Now the area is deserted, with valuable items from the palace taken away. The Buganda Palace has a distinct Arab architectural style, obviously influenced by North African countries.

”Report, sir, our advance troops have encountered people from the south. Lord Arman has ordered us to chase north.” The intelligence officer handed an order to Felix.

”They came quickly! It seems Mutesa I has also been defeated in the south. No wonder the Baganda abandoned the royal city—they got the news and fled. I wonder why they didn’t regroup here and continue resisting!” Felix said.

”Lord Arman must have won a great victory at the southern front. There, the Four-Nation Alliance Army, the Enkole Kingdom, and Buganda were fighting on home ground, yet they were so easily defeated,” the advisor said.

”Hmm, Buganda is not a tribe without knowledge. They often interact with Egyptians, and their army is equipped with Egyptian-made weapons. However, the Baganda’s handling and maintenance of these weapons are poor, so they had little effect in battle.”

Felix continued, ”From this, we can see that the closer the natives are to the north, the more they interact with Egyptians. This is quite different from the southern tribes of Tanganyika back in the day.”

”It’s a pity the Baganda are deep inland and can’t directly interact with the civilized world. Otherwise, their level of development wouldn’t be so low, at least reaching that of the Indian Ocean coastal countries,” the advisor analyzed.

In Buganda, the country is obviously influenced by Egypt and other countries, with many Islamic-style buildings, but unfortunately surrounded by less advanced civilizations.

The only contactable entity is Egypt, which is through Arab traders serving as intermediaries, because Buganda doesn’t directly border Egypt, with numerous nomadic tribes in between.

Especially within the Egyptian Sultanate, the Sahara Desert stretches endlessly, with long and difficult supply lines making it impossible for Egypt to penetrate deep into the African interior.

”Alright, order the entire army to end their rest. Our next task is to drive the natives northwest. We need to link all the lands along the Great Lakes’ shores,” Felix commanded.

The Buganda royal family, which had disappeared from the frontline, had already fled northwest under Mutesa I’s leadership.

The reserve troops left behind by Mutesa I in Kampala became the capital for re-establishing the nation, and Mutesa I knew fleeing north was out of the question.

Although Mutesa I had good relations with Egyptians, it was only through dealings with Arab merchants. These merchants got some good stuff for Mutesa I,

The power of the Egyptians is to the north, and Mutesa I did not want to live a life depending on others. Besides, the greedy East African colony might continue marching north, so Mutesa I chose to head northwest instead.

Mutesa I’s plan was quite good, but his eldest son didn’t share this view. Deeply influenced by Arab culture, the Buganda Crown Prince, after the defeat, hurriedly led his people toward the Egyptian Sultan to seek refuge directly.

Mutesa I didn’t mind; he had dozens of sons, losing one wasn’t a big deal. Moreover, the remaining elite forces of Buganda were in his hands.

After clearing out all valuables from the palace, Mutesa I headed northwest.

With money and people, fear no longer mattered wherever he went. Additionally, Mutesa I formed the most elite royal guard equipped with firearms obtained through Arab merchants, which hadn’t participated in the war. Mutesa I was confident he could conquer a territory in the northwest.

This defeat didn’t break Mutesa I’s confidence. Instead, it made him believe that the East African colony won against the alliance merely due to their advantage in firearms.

Mutesa planned to increase his connections with Arab traders after heading northwest, intending to establish an army fully armed with firearms in the future.

Once his forces grew strong, he would come back to fight. As for military expenses, Mutesa I already had a plan—first, he would raid various tribes in the northwest, and after re-establishing the kingdom, he would collect more taxes.

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In the following dozens of days, the East African army marched north, driving the native forces northwest, and even the northern nomadic tribes suffered.

Starting from the Kampala Lake Bay, they swept west and north, reaching near Omolate and Frederick Lake (Albert Lake) at the northeastern shore, covering a diameter of about four to five hundred kilometers, with countries and tribes along the Great Lakes and northern nomadic tribes in their strike range.

Omolate cooperated in this action to prevent native forces from fleeing east, simultaneously cutting off their road to continue north.

If these tribes were allowed to move north, they might disturb Egypt and Abyssinia. East Africa did not currently want to engage directly with these two countries, so a stable buffer zone was needed.

From the southwestern mountains of Ethiopia, extending to the grasslands inside South Sudan, about a three hundred kilometers wide, four hundred kilometer long area, East Africa intends to leave it untouched for now.

Meanwhile, the tribes and kingdoms near the Great Lakes region were driven toward the Congo and Central Africa to the west.

With this campaign, the entire Great Lake became the inland lake of the East African colony, its nearly seventy thousand square kilometers of water area exclusively enjoyed by the East African colony.

The entire northwestern part of the Great Lakes region, over three hundred thousand square kilometers of land, all fell into the hands of the East African colony. The newly occupied territories connected directly with Lake Turkana, Frederick Lake (Albert Lake), Tanganyika Lake, and the Great Lake (Lake Victoria).

This way, several major lakes in East Africa are now connected to the East African colony, with lakes like the Great Lake (Victoria Lake) and Kivu Lake becoming inland lakes of East Africa.