African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1072: Chapter 81: Warmongers

The suppression of Arab Countries can be said to be an unchanging national policy of the United Kingdom, especially regarding their leading figure, the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire’s deterrent power is considerable. Although now considered the ”Sick Man of Western Asia,” the illustrious reputation earned by their ancestors through killing, burning, and looting in Europe consistently worries European countries about their resurgence.

”The Ottoman Empire and Persia should be the main targets of the East Africans’ strategy, so we will start with these two countries and continuously monitor the cooperation between the East Africans and the two governments.”

As for Oman, although it is also a key country for East African visits, the UK government is not worried. The UK holds a significant advantage in Oman, and with the UK’s arrangements, Oman’s national power has been declining, much like the United Arab Emirates in the previous era, where the current Pirate Coast is a political force split from Oman by the UK.

As the only maritime power in the former Arabian Sect region, the UK naturally doesn’t trust Oman. Therefore, the UK has always implemented a policy of suppression against Oman, which is also why a relatively strong anti-British faction has formed within Oman.

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Hodeidah.

In the previous era, the second largest port city in Yemen, of course, now Hodeidah belongs to the Ottoman Empire.

A group of merchants wearing robes is checking the goods inside an inn.

”This time, we brought over fifty guns and three boxes of ammunition, all British-made rifles. The British influence is relatively strong in other areas along the Aden Bay, so it’s very difficult for us to transport these weapons to Aden by sea; we can only transit through Ottoman ports.”

”By bribing the Ottoman officials at the port, we managed to bring this batch of goods smoothly. However, we still have a long overland journey ahead to smuggle these weapons across the border and into the hands of our clients in Aden.”

Aden, which is the British Protectorate of Aden, including previous-era Yemen and Oman, and some areas of Saudi Arabia, is a region with many small countries, similar to Pirate Coast-style Arab nomadic tribal nations.

This gives East Africa an opportunity; more countries naturally mean more conflicts, especially in water-scarce regions where conflicts over water sources can become extremely violent.

Of course, any country or power would try to strengthen their military capabilities, especially the tribes under the Aden Protectorate. Whoever has more and more advanced guns can gain an advantage.

Although there is a British presence, it does not mean there are no conflicts, and at this time, when weapons come from outside, they are naturally gladly accepted.

Not only Hodeidah Port, but most of the other southern ports of the Ottoman Empire have become transit stations for East African smuggling of arms to the Persian Gulf coast and the Arabian Peninsula since other areas are easily detected by the British.

Although it is called the arms trade, in reality, East Africa incurs substantial costs, similar to the military assistance packages the US and Soviet Union provided to their allies during the Cold War, essentially free military aid.

After all, without any profit, the Zanzibar people would not take on such considerable risks to assist East Africa in smuggling arms to various parts of the Middle East, capturing intermediary profits being the foundation of cooperation between East Africa and the Zanzibar people.

The Zanzibar people did not disappoint East Africa; leveraging their strong connections and business network in the Arabian Sect region, they could precisely locate buyers.

”In June this year, we have preemptively delivered over two thousand rifles and tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition to the Middle East and Central Asia regions. If nothing unexpected happens, tribal conflicts in the Middle East and Central Asia are likely to escalate and expand continuously, leading to local instability,” the National Defense Security Bureau agent reported to his superiors.

”The credibility of these Zanzibar people is relatively reliable. They have been doing business in the Arabian region for many years, and their influence almost covers the entire Indian Ocean coast, so most of these weapons have entered the Middle East and Central Asia undetected.”

”However, for now, we’ve only sold the weapons to some minor clients who are not yet capable of affecting the entire Middle East and Central Asia situation. Once time accumulates and their power grows stronger, their ambition will also expand, causing headaches for the British.”

In fact, from the second half of 1908, Britain noticed something was amiss, with minor conflicts and incidents in its colonies increasing noticeably. However, these were all minor skirmishes, easily explained, as these Arabs often fought before the British came, so occasional violent activities were entirely unnecessary to focus on for the British.

After all, as long as tribal conflicts do not involve British interests, they are entirely acceptable.

Therefore, under British neglect, East Africa increased its local military shipment output, with small-scale, low-intensity wars beginning to normalize, evident in all colonies where the British were nearby.

Frequent small-scale wars finally caught the attention of the British; ignoring it was no longer an option as the situation moving toward loss of control would only damage Britain’s prestige.

These tribes or countries, under British rule, rarely impaired Britain’s interests, but when things get out of control, everyone becomes too involved to care, leading to chaotic fights.

Under these circumstances, the native political forces supported by Britain in the area become vulnerable to challenges, so they urgently require Britain to set things right to maintain their interests.

Thus, under the instigation of some pro-British forces, the British Aden Protectorate government had to act and conduct investigations. Upon initial findings, they discovered over ten thousand firearms had flowed into the Aden Protectorate.

This was clearly a foreign force intending to undermine Britain’s rule in the area. Following the Aden Protectorate’s response, other colonial governments near the Persian Gulf also reported similar situations.

This aligned with former Prime Minister Bannerman’s predictions that East Africa would have major actions in the Middle East and Central Asia regions; only that no one expected East Africa was merely causing trouble, gaining practically no actual benefits, instead even incurring losses through military subsidies.

As to why it was the former prime minister, it was because Bannerman passed away from a heart attack in April this year, causing a flurry of chaos in the British government, leading to a temporary relaxation of vigilance towards East Africa’s actions in the Middle East and Central Asia.

It wasn’t until feedback from the Aden Protectorate and other Persian Gulf coast colonies that the new government refocused attention here.

The new Prime Minister Asquith had a highly negative view of these small actions by East Africa, and to resolve this nuisance, Asquith eventually decided to initiate preliminary negotiations with East Africa.

East Africa’s demands were simple: ”free trade” in the Persian Gulf, Middle East, and Central Asia regions, a modest request Britain refused since it had just shared spoils with Russia, already viewing the area as its own interest area; giving a slice to East Africa was impossible.

Moreover, allowing East Africans in would only let them gain ground in the future; the British government was naturally not shortsighted, so negotiations between both sides were at an impasse.

East Africa began ramping up military aid to the Middle East region, causing the British substantial headaches. Of course, the British also had many means to pressure East Africa, so the entire 1908 passed in mutual harm between Britain and East Africa.

Of course, both countries maintained boundaries, as aside from East Africa and Britain, many other countries existed in the world. British and East African discord did not affect greater threats from Germany and France to Britain; East Africa also could not engage in intense conflict with Britain in the short term, so time passed in a stalemate between Britain and East Africa, with 1909 quietly arriving, and during 1908, East Africa almost consistently played the role of a war monger, leaving the entire Persian Gulf and Aden Bay region in turmoil.