African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 619: Chapter 297 Regret

The news of the Orange Free State cannot be concealed from East Africa, after all, East Africa has never been a country that keeps a low profile, even though Ernst has always emphasized acting discreetly.

However, from other countries’ perspectives, what East Africa has been doing in recent years is not exactly low-key. It’s just that East Africa has always been rather cautious in terms of publicity, not boasting about its gains, so internationally it appears neither hot nor cold; usually, there’s not much buzz, but when discussing world nations and configurations, it still gets some mention.

This is like a student in a class who usually keeps a low profile, makes no noise, but still participates when something happens.

Ernst: ”This time, the civil war in the Orange Free State is fundamentally due to further exacerbation of conflicts between the Orange people and the Transvaal people. Of course, there’s no lack of British instigation in this, but it precisely shows that even the same nation may not be able to get along harmoniously, especially when the accounts between the Orange people and the Transvaal people are too clearly accounted.”

Constantine: ”There is some truth in this, but the Orange people and the Transvaal people are originally of the same nation, they are all Boers. If the British were not on the side, there probably wouldn’t have been a split into two new national concepts. In the normal development process, the Orange Free State should have assimilated the populace of the Transvaal Republic. Now, it has turned into a tragic internal conflict, which is also a warning to us in East Africa.”

”Our national conditions in East Africa are different, the most important national policy is intermarriage, originally immigrants from various countries form new families, thereby weakening their ethnic attributes.

After all, from the perspective of the ordinary people, it’s generally about taking care of the immediate family first and the country later; compared to family, concepts like nation and country are placed behind.”

”Therefore, trying to create an effect like the Orange Free State within East Africa would require the breaking up of countless small families, which is obviously impossible,” said Ernst.

Ethnic integration is achieved through the word ”integration,” and East Africa has accomplished this through intermarriage, which is the simplest, most straightforward, and labor-saving method.

Of course, by comparison, when the country is stable, families will give up many aspects, but this is already largely irrelevant to the East African government. After all, in the 19th century, being able to establish a family and start a career was enough to satisfy the vast majority of people.

”However, from this event, it seems that the British are indeed as devious as ever, still fond of using instigation to maintain control,” Constantine remarked with some emotion.

The method of British rule over the Orange Free State is no different from their rule over India. In India, it was through the conflicts between Hinduism and Arabism that India could not unite. In the Orange Free State, it was switched to between the Orange people and the Transvaal people.

This bomb can be said to have been planted by the British long ago. As for Ernst, he had a similar idea back then, but he couldn’t make decisions for the Orange people, resulting in the Orange people suffering great loss now.

However, Ernst is also happy to see this happening, as it is definitely good news for East Africa. The Transvaal people and East Africa do not get along well, and the entire Boer nation’s relationship with East Africa frosted, adding pressure to South African national defense.

Now that the Orange people and Transvaal people have broken up, the Boers have also split. As long as East Africa handles it properly, the Boer banner will lose its function.

Not only East Africa benefits, but Cape Town Colony probably harbors such ideas too. There are quite a few Boers in the Cape Colony. In the past, with the existence of the Transvaal Republic and Orange Free State as independent states, the Boers within Cape Colony were given united front value.

The British had to grant the Boers significant rights in Cape Colony, but now that the Transvaal Republic has been wiped out by East Africa and the Orange people have broken with the Transvaal people,

the Boers in the Cape Colony have lost their support as, after all, the Orange people and Transvaal people can only choose one.

Of course, they can also choose to remain neutral. However, with the increase in British immigration numbers, the Boers in the Cape Colony gradually find it difficult to confront the British government, and without the backing of the Transvaal Republic and Orange Free State, it becomes much easier for the British to deal with them.

Of course, the British may not have thought that far ahead initially; they were just acting according to their traditional mindset.

This is akin to how the Russian Empire’s diplomatic level is very coarse, preferring to use force to solve problems, which is an effect of Russia’s traditional mindset.

Simply put, this is the influence of national character on national temperament. Clearly, Ernst’s preference for subtlety and hiding his capabilities is influenced by the national character of his past life.

It’s actually a matter of values, not everyone agrees with them, but the majority do. For instance, Western countries advocate for freedom, the Soviet Union extols democracy, and the social values of the Far East Empire are the same.

Constantine is indifferent to these, as an old-world noble, particularly a German noble, he prefers to exert force in the military. European nobles naturally emphasize military matters.

So he said, ”With this civil war in the Orange Free State, should we take the opportunity to intervene? This is a great chance to annex the Orange Free State, thus thoroughly isolating the Cape Colony on the south bank of the Orange River, which can greatly help reduce national defense pressure.”

Not to mention other aspects, conquering the Orange Free State would drastically reduce the border line between East Africa and the Cape Colony. With a reduced border, the troop deployment can also be adequately reduced. Although the Orange River does not count as a natural barrier, it has certain defensive functions, therefore it can greatly save East African military expenditures.

Ernst placated, ”This matter cannot be rushed. Although we have ideas about the Orange Free State, after all, it is now a British colony, so this must be considered carefully. Moreover, most importantly, if we were to enter the fray, it would break the rift between the Orange people and Transvaal people and they would surely re-ally to counter us as a threat, which would be detrimental to us.”

The latter words were the key. In the perspective of the Orange people, the Transvaal people and the British are scoundrels, and the Germans in East Africa are not decent either.

After all, everyone knows East Africa’s reputation, it’s regarded as the ”Russian Empire” of Africa, owning more than ten million square kilometers of territory not simply handed over by the natives.

It’s just that the Orange people have no choice now but to hope for cooperation with East Africa. The Orange Free State is surrounded on three sides by East Africa and on one side by the Cape Colony, completely landlocked, so they have no other route to seek external support.

Moreover, East Africa’s reputation is actually not bad, especially among the countries in the north adjoining East Africa; they have a pretty good impression of East Africa, while the southern countries, being victims, naturally have little good impression of East Africa.

However, East Africa and the Orange Free State are an exception. Over the past few years of interaction, the Orange people’s impression of East Africa has greatly improved. As the largest land neighbor and a strong power of the Orange Free State, East Africa, although has troops near the border, has never taken excessive actions.

This is quite commendable because the Orange people know East Africa completely has the capability to annex the Orange Free State, but the other side has not done so, which shows East Africa is concerned with international morality and credibility.

This also makes the Orange people deeply regret their past decisions. Had they known earlier that East Africa was not as ambitious as the Transvaal people described, they wouldn’t have agreed to merge into the Cape Colony.