African Entrepreneurship Record

Following Ernst’s request, the Ministry of Defense and the Army General Staff formulated matters related to military deployments on the East African land in 1883.

Arman and Sivert gave a detailed report on this military deployment:

”Your Highness, for this troop movement, according to your requirements, we have made the following arrangements, including strengthening the forces in Jezira city, which borders the Nile River province and is adjacent to the Sultanate of Egypt. If the British invade East Africa from the north, Jezira city is the only gateway,” Sivert said.

Jezira city is along the Nile River, very close to the important Sultanate city of Kashim. To the east of Jezira is the Ethiopian Highlands, also known as the Abysinnia Empire, to the west are the Nuba Mountains, and further west is the Kordofan plateau.

This makes Jezira city, with its plain terrain, particularly prominent. It is naturally an important military thoroughfare; to the east is the Ethiopian Highlands, or to the west are the Nuba Mountains, both of which are natural barriers.

Moreover, the Kordofan plateau region is covered with deserts. The British army likely lacks the patience to detour through the desert to infiltrate East Africa, and the Nile River province area bordering East Africa and the Kordofan plateau is almost sparsely populated.

Most of the population is concentrated around the eastern Jezira city and the southeastern Juba city. This also means that even if one dares to cross the Kordofan plateau into the East African Nile River province, the enemy will still face the desolate tropical savannah, and the Nile River province is crisscrossed with rivers and swamp wetlands.

Suddenly transitioning from the arid desert region to the hot and humid western Nile River province is as difficult as the ”Long March,” with even harsher conditions, so much so that Ernst himself could not imagine an army existing under such circumstances in the 19th century.

”Theoretically, it’s feasible to use the Abysinnia Empire as a passage, but there are numerous factions within the Abysinnia Empire; any disturbance, and we can quickly get the news. Besides, we always have military deployments on the border with the Abysinnia Empire, so the possibility of a surprise attack to East Africa from here is slim.”

Moreover, there is one thing Sivert hasn’t mentioned: the Abysinnia Empire may not dare to lend a passage to the British.

The Abysinnia Empire is perhaps more afraid of the situation of ’borrowing a way to attack Yu.’ The Abysinnia Empire was destroyed by the British once before, resulting in the change of power in the Abysinnia Empire. Therefore, the Abysinnia Empire is far more vigilant against the British than East Africa is.

”This is our military deployment in the region bordering the Sultanate, overall, it’s very secure. Besides, in case of an emergency, we can respond in time to build a second line of defense in Juba city.”

Juba city is also considered a military stronghold in East Africa. The main thing is that East Africa trains tropical multi-terrain combat troops here.

Of course, the main infrastructural construction of the Nile River province only reaches the Juba province, and further north mostly relies on water transportation.

The area of the White Nile River basin almost covers the entire Nile River province. Thus, the transportation of the Nile River province heavily relies on water routes, and the connection between Juba city, the provincial capital, and the largest economic city, Jezira, relies on the White Nile River.

This makes Juba city the only land and water transportation hub within the Nile River province. Entering the East African hinterland from Jezira city must transit through Juba city and then proceed from Juba city to the core area of East Africa—the Great Lakes Region.

And entering the Great Lakes Region means access to other core areas of East Africa because the shipping of the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) connects the northern railway and the Central Railway of East Africa.

”In the northeast direction, what we need to pay attention to is the northern province, which is primarily desert, making it unsuitable for marching. Only Dedradawa city is close to the British Somaliland colony. However, Dedradawa city is a military stronghold itself, and traveling inland is inconvenient, so we needn’t worry too much.”

It’s challenging for East Africa to transport supplies to Dedradawa city, let alone enter East Africa from Dedradawa city. This is also a significant reason why East Africa supports Dedradawa city in developing its economy.

The existence of Dedradawa city is largely for strategic deterrence, with secondary purposes for military defense along the border.

”The entire northern area focuses on Jezira city and Dedradawa city. The rest of the regions require minimal change, and the military along the eastern coast should not undergo significant alterations.”

The east is currently the economic core of East Africa, and has always been the region with the strongest military power in East Africa. Therefore, the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense do not recommend drastic changes, or rather, as long as the eastern region is in hand, East Africa has a chance to turn the tables.

Of course, apart from relying on the army, the strength of the navy cannot be ignored in eastern defense. East Africa’s navy currently ranks among the top in the world and is considered a hegemon in the Western Indian Ocean region. Hence, the primary means of coastal defense changed from originally relying on close sea defense systems to relying on the navy and an open sea defense system in the Indian Ocean.

In other words, East Africa has expanded its defense system horizontally towards the ocean, greatly enhancing the security of East Africa’s eastern coast, a strategy to keep enemies at bay across the ocean.

”Our current priority is still to strengthen the military defense system in the southern regions, especially the central core industrial province—Matebel province.

Therefore, the plan is to redeploy a main division from both the north and northwest to move south into Matebel province, partly to guard against the potential attack on Matebel province by Portuguese forces from the east Mozambique region, and partly to enable quick maneuver through the Central Railway into the Heixinggen province (Transvaal Republic) territory, supporting a hypothetical southern theater.”

The south, especially Matebel province, is the area East Africa values the most. Naturally, Ernst himself favors Heixinggen province. Heixinggen province’s resources surpass Matebel province by a tier and serve as a raw material pool for East Africa’s future industrial development.

It’s just that due to Ernst’s restrictive development on Heixinggen province, the potential of Heixinggen province is hidden, leading to a lack of awareness from the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff regarding Heixinggen province.

This is also good—they don’t know the potential of Heixinggen province, so other forces are even less likely to find out. If the Boers and the British were aware of the presence of the largest gold mines in Heixinggen province, the British might have already taken action.

”The central and southern provinces, led by Matebel province, were developed relatively late, so the composition of immigrants is mainly new immigrants since 1873. Their civilian military training and response to war are not as good as in the east, so we plan to carry out reserve military training in the central and southern provinces in the near future.”

The central and southern provinces differ greatly from the eastern provinces of East Africa. The eastern provinces of East Africa developed entirely out of colonies, whereas the central and southern provinces are markedly different.

Before the establishment of the central and southern provinces, East Africa had already conducted regular military operations to clear native and hostile forces in these regions.

In contrast, the eastern provinces of East Africa even mobilized nearly hundreds of thousands of militia forces to strike against internal native forces, so the east has always had a well-developed mobilization mechanism.

This means that when faced with threats of war, the populace in the eastern provinces can quickly react to war, having experienced conflicts with native tribes and kingdoms.

On the other hand, the populace in the central and southern provinces, which were later incorporated into East Africa, obviously cannot achieve this. By the time they arrived in East Africa, most threats had already been eliminated by East Africa, making the reorganization and upgrade of the reserve and militia armed forces in central and southern East Africa more urgent.

After all, the primary threat to East Africa now comes from the southern Cape Town colony and the Portuguese colony. Moreover, the central and southern regions have developed into significant industrial bases and core mineral resource areas for East Africa, with a concentrated population distribution. Thus, all of this is necessary.

”Finally, we plan to establish two new mobile cavalry divisions, focusing on fortifying Heixinggen province and New Baden province (part of Bechuanaland and Botswana), with one cavalry division deployed in New Baden province to respond to potential risks along the Orange River at any time.”

The border between the New Baden province and the Cape Town colony is long, with the east being notably close to the important British Cape Town colonial city of Kimberley. The southern region is also not far from Cape Town city, which is why enhancing the military strength of the New Baden province is a consensus reached by the General Staff and the Ministry of Defense after collective analysis.