African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 469: Chapter 147: Imperialism

July 23, 1875.

A fleet of seven East African warships arrived at the Lan Fang Republic, landing at San Yangkou. Grand Duke Ferdinand remarked, ”Among the many islands in the Nanyang, this place is indeed developing quite well!”

All around were fertile lands, somewhat reminiscent of the agricultural scenes in coastal East Africa. This shattered Grand Duke Ferdinand’s stereotype about the newly established regions in Nanyang as they traveled from the Strait of Malacca.

The Strait of Malacca is indeed narrow, but its shores include the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, two large islands, thus offering vast land. However, development on both sides of the Strait of Malacca, except for a few cities (which to Ferdinand looked like countryside), was mostly deserted and covered with rainforests.

But the Lan Fang Republic was completely different. Originally, the East African fleet first arrived at Bangxia, a northern city of the Lan Fang Republic, but as Lan Fang’s capital, Dongwanlu, was in the south, the East African fleet sailed down the coastline.

Along the way, Ferdinand for the first time witnessed the construction of a purely Chinese-ruled country. Lan Fang’s agriculture and mining industries were well-developed, especially agricultural development, which was considered the most advanced among the Nanyang islands. With such a comparison, it seemed that what Ernst said about the Nanyang natives being of little use had some truth to it.

This was proven by history itself. The Dutch knew the Lan Fang Republic best historically, as Gao Yan from the Netherlands witnessed the final days of the Chinese era in West Borneo: ”The era of the Chinese in Borneo, even the prosperous era of Borneo, vanished without return. The local gold mining industry was replaced by large-scale modern enterprises by Europeans, but the mining boom of the Chinese era was no longer present; agriculture was driven to ruin as Chinese immigrants returned to the Far East en masse.”

So Ernst’s claim that the Lan Fang Republic represented the highest productivity in the Nanyang region wasn’t unfounded. Indeed, the Dutch annexation of the Lan Fang Republic was a move in vain.

What did the Lan Fang Republic rely on for development? Fundamentally, it was a matter of people. After the Dutch expelled the Chinese, the Lan Fang region fell into decline. Currently, the Lan Fang Republic itself is under Dutch intervention, and its so-called chief leader is nothing but a puppet manipulated by the Dutch.

The arrival of the East African fleet at San Yangkou evidently caused quite a stir; the massive objects forged from iron were quite shocking to the locals who had never seen ironclad ships.

”Is that a boat?”

”A warship!”

The Dutch merchants conducting business in the San Yangkou area recognized the ironclad ships, and the more knowledgeable even identified the flag as belonging to the East African Kingdom.

”Why have the Germans suddenly come to Lan Fang? What do they intend to do?”

Grand Duke Ferdinand did not come for ”friendly” exchanges. Under the ”friendly” greetings of the East African navy, the Chinese leader in San Yangkou hurriedly came to pay his respects—not coming would not do, as the opposing troops had already landed.

”May I ask which nation you hail from? What brings you to Lan Fang?”

From the very first words, Ferdinand felt a bit confused, as he completely couldn’t understand. He thought that with a little knowledge of Chinese, he could exchange a few words with the other party, but apparently he had overestimated himself!

In terms of language learning, the Habsburg family dared say they were first, no one dared claim second, forced by circumstances. To rule in the Habsburg family, one must know several languages, otherwise, they weren’t fit to be rulers of Austria-Hungary. Franz himself could fluently use eight languages of Austria-Hungary.

In this regard, Grand Duke Ferdinand was no less adept, and his experiences were even more remarkable than Franz himself, having mingled in Europe, America, and Africa, hence knowing more languages.

Many Chinese were in the East African Navy, although they all spoke German, Grand Duke Ferdinand specifically learned Chinese. In just three months, Ferdinand could communicate with Chinese sailors without using German, which was beneficial for him to manage the navy, given the complex resident composition of East Africa, where some ethnic groups would privately use their native languages for communication.

Fortunately, East Africa dispersed and separated them beforehand, so besides German itself, no other language could challenge the dominance of German in East Africa.

Ferdinand learned Northern Chinese, more accurately ”Mandarin,” the current official elegant language of the Far East, whereas Lan Fang Republic spoke Hakka and Chaozhou dialects, exceeding Ferdinand’s capacity.

Luckily, there were many southerners in the East African navy, all recruited from Zhuhai, skilled in water, much like recruiting mountaineers from Guangxi. With translators, both sides could finally communicate normally.

”We are the East African Kingdom...”

With the translator’s mediation, the San Yangkou leader finally understood the East Africans’ purpose, but this exceeded his authority.

”Respected Grand Duke Ferdinand, such matters are beyond the decision of a mere local official like me. Let me notify the chief leader first, then rely on his decision.”

”Since you cannot decide, there is no need for talks. We will go personally to Dongwanlu to negotiate with your country’s ruler!” said Grand Duke Ferdinand.

”This...”

However, seeing the army with Grand Duke Ferdinand brimming with murderous aura and the oppressive mighty ships and sharp cannons, the San Yangkou leader swallowed his words.

Although the Lan Fang Republic’s capital Dongwanlu was further inland than San Yangkou, it was still not far from the coast. So it took two days for Grand Duke Ferdinand to reach this capital of the Lan Fang Republic.

In the nineteenth century, the Lan Fang Republic had a population of around a million, with about five hundred thousand Chinese, even after the gold mines were depleted and miners were halved. Many Chinese miners went to Sarawak Kingdom.

Therefore, the Lan Fang Republic was not sparsely populated; it was even denser than many regions in East Africa, with only Kundian having a population of around two to three hundred thousand, and Dongwanlu, as Lan Fang’s political center, having a population scale of tens of thousands.

Currently, although the Lan Fang Republic maintains an independent national identity, it unilaterally claims to be a vassal state of the Great Qing. In reality, it must pay a part of taxes as protection fees to the Dutch. Its chief leader, Liu Asheng, is a result of compromise in struggles between Chinese and Dutch, considered a semi-puppet regime.

The Lan Fang Republic is actually quite chaotic, with people like Liu Asheng colluding with the Dutch, and those insisting on fighting against the Dutch.

For East Africa, this was not important; the purpose of the East African Navy’s visit this time was to force the Liu Clan to open up the Lan Fang Republic’s national gates fully. As long as the Dongwanlu Government signed an agreement, East African commercial organizations would immediately commence their economic invasion of the Lan Fang Republic.

East Africa actually has existent economic trade in the Lan Fang Republic, this is not surprising as British and Americans do business here as well. However, East Africa’s trade with Lan Fang primarily depended on Zanzibar merchants, but this time they were taking charge themselves.

Dongwanlu has two streets intersecting in a cross, each a quarter-mile long, very wide. The houses by the streets are neat and aesthetically pleasing, but with few people like an American town after cholera, the houses are empty due to the exhaustion of local mineral development.

Thus, when Grand Duke Ferdinand led his troops into Dongwanlu, the Dongwanlu Government had no means to stop them.

Entire Dongwanlu had just over ten thousand people, while Ferdinand brought over two thousand troops ashore, so the Dongwanlu Government had no confidence in resisting.

Chinese powers along the way dared not rebel since none understood what these outsiders were about. As long as their interests weren’t threatened, no one dared stand out.

Of course, the Dutch were another matter. The Dutch had accumulated a ”reputation” within the Lan Fang Republic for years, known to be targeting themselves.

In contrast, the East African army, yellow and white mingled, was unfamiliar and relatively strange to them. Coupled with East Africa’s well-equipped navy, uniform clothing, it was evidently a regular army quite unlike the Dutch’s semi-bandit attire (mercenaries), showing clearly that they weren’t to be trifled with.

Grand Duke Ferdinand reached Dongwanlu without hindrance and directly presented East Africa’s wishlist upon meeting the so-called chief leader: ”Mr. Liu Asheng, these are our East African Kingdom’s complete demands. If your country accepts our friendship, we are willing to engage in friendly exchanges with your country.”

With the gun barrel pointed at his forehead, this chief leader, derogatorily called a ”traitor” by the local Chinese hawk faction, signed the friendly commerce agreement tremblingly without even closely looking.

The main reason was that it seemed impossible not to sign, plus East African Kingdom didn’t demand tribute like the Dutch, hence it was acceptable.

East African Kingdom for now wouldn’t covet that small sum. The focus was on long-term occupation, hence attaching more importance to commerce, armed recruitment, immigration, and investment by cultivating pro-East African forces locally, leading to swallowing the fragmented nation wholly in the future.

This was the peculiarity of Lan Fang Republic’s politics; besides the Lan Fang Company, other Chinese companies existed, but Lan Fang Company was the strongest, akin to the ”overlord,” making it more convincing.

This so-called ”negotiation” was essentially a show of force and intimidation, completely different from East Africa’s approach in Africa and Europe.

In Africa, intimidation wasn’t needed for East Africa; it directly suppressed disobedient natives without even granting negotiation rights.

Thus, this ”friendly visit” to Lan Fang Republic marked East Africa’s first display of a typical colonialist face, indulging in a taste of ”imperialist” delight.