War Palace and Knee Pillow, Austria’s Destiny

(Mombasa and Bagamoyo were written out of order in the previous article, which has been corrected.)

Although Mombasa was the territory of the Oman Empire at this time, with the development of east-west trade, the great powers were increasingly communicating with each other, and even the Indian Ocean overlord Said the Great felt powerless.

Although he rebuilt the fleet in a few years and improved his military strength to a higher level, the Austrian cannon giant ship became a lingering shadow in the mind of Emperor Said.

The Austrian Empire occupied Tanzania, and the British's repeated tossing on both sides of the Gulf of Aden made Sima Zhao's intentions clear.

The British instigated the nomadic tribes in the Somali region to rebel against the Oman Empire in the southern part of the Gulf of Aden, and directly occupied the city of Aden (Port of Aden) in the north.

Historically, the Oman Empire had little reaction to the betrayal of the Somalis, and even sent its own blessings.

However, due to the frankincense and myrrh business with the Austrian Empire at this time, the merchants of the Oman Empire firmly opposed Somalia's independence, and the local farmers were even more afraid of losing their market and land.

So Emperor Said planned to have a drink to release his military power, and the chiefs of Somalia wanted to use Jing Ke to assassinate the King of Qin.

Afterwards, both sides declared that the other party was the enemy of "Frame Cook", and they were forced to fight back.

Somali nomadic forces burned farmland cultivated by the Omanis, who sent fleets to raid their coastal areas and destroyed almost all the ports along the way.

The purpose of the former was to force the latter to leave, while the purpose of the latter was to warn the British not to interfere. At this time, there were only a few hundred British troops in Aden, and the most valuable thing was a coal warehouse.

Seeing the mighty Omani Empire warships outside, the British troops in Aden naturally knew what this meant, so they all huddled in the city and prohibited anyone from leaving the port to avoid irritating the other side's sensitive nerves.

It was obvious that the Oman Empire won the first round of confrontation between the two sides because their goal was achieved. The nomadic tribes in Somalia gained nothing except arousing the anger of the other party's merchant class and destroying some farmland.

What followed was a brutal land war. As one of the few army talents in the Oman Empire, Al Haldi received training from British instructors since he was a child and felt that he could fight even if he encountered the French army.

(At that time, it was generally believed that the French Army was the strongest in the world.)

This time Al Haldi brought 8,000 soldiers and five thousand peaks of supplies, and his destination was Hargeisa, the base camp of the Somalia Tribal Alliance.

The troops from both sides met unexpectedly shortly after landing. As the overlord of the Western Indian Ocean, the Oman Empire showed its due strength.

With a numerical disadvantage, the Oman Empire unilaterally defeated the Somali nomads. In the end, at the cost of only 59 people, the Oman Empire wiped out more than 300 of the opponent's people, captured more than 2,000 people, and captured more than 1,000 peaks. Supplies and gold and silver treasures.

(Feng refers to a camel.)

After the victory in the first battle, Al Haldi marched all the way to the city of Hargeisa. Under the bombardment of artillery, the city surrendered in less than half a day.

But the war was not over. The nomadic tribes of Somalia made full use of their strengths and began to attack the supply convoys of the Oman Empire.

In the end, the Omanis were forced to abandon their inland cities and retreat to the coastal areas, and the Somalis' life was not easy as their living space was drastically compressed.

At the same time, the loss of trade routes with Omani merchants made their lives extremely difficult, and they could only survive by relying on trade with the Abyssinians.

To outsiders, this was nothing more than a civil war in the Oman Empire. Said declared his hegemony in the Western Indian Ocean to the British.

But this is meaningless to the British who have occupied the Port of Aden, because their goal has been achieved. It does not matter whether the Somalis can succeed and whether they can gain freedom.

In addition to Somalia, what makes the Oman Empire even more troublesome is the rise of the Second Saudi Empire in the north. Although there were less than 200,000 people in Najd at this time, they were very enthusiastic about expanding their territory.

The former ruler of Najd, Ibn Shunat, was a religious fanatic. Although he went to war and captured cities and territories, Said did not regard him as an opponent.

However, the new King Faisal chose a soft policy to integrate local forces, and at the same time began extensive marriage alliances and continued to curry favor with the British.

This put great pressure on Said. He even considered sending a large army to destroy Najd directly, but it was still nominally Ottoman territory.

First of all, doing so would offend the powerful Ottoman Empire. The second and most critical problem was that Najd was too poor.

At this time, Saudi Arabia was not that rich country. In 1846, the tax revenue of the entire Najd region was less than 100,000 pounds, and the population was less than 200,000. The main industry was sheep raising and wool harvesting.

Coupled with the vast territory and sparsely populated areas and good at fighting guerrilla warfare, Said was afraid that Najd would become the second Somalia. this

In addition, the French and Portuguese are also appearing more and more frequently in East Africa. Mombasa, the hen that lays golden eggs, the Oman Empire may not be able to save it sooner or later.

Said thought for a long time and finally came up with the idea of ​​giving half of his sovereignty as a dowry to the Austrian Empire, which would be jointly managed by the two countries.

As a result, income from Mombasa will be reduced by half, but long-term security will be obtained.

Said thought well, but in fact, according to European customs, Mombasa was at best the private property of Archduke Friedrich rather than the Austrian Empire.

However, the document was finally handed into Franz's hands, and of course he knew what was going on. But to be honest, Franz doesn't like the small place of Mombasa. After all, its port size is limited and the upper limit is too low.

Whether it is Bagamoyo or Sanlan Port, the ultimate goal is to replace Mombasa's position at this time.

There is also this gift that seems to be a loss of blood for the other party, but actually contains a murderous intention. Because once the Austrian Empire accepted this gift, it would be equivalent to shouldering the burden of dealing with the great powers for the Oman Empire.

But Franz doesn’t care, because Mombasa is really not worth mentioning to him, so he will maintain the status of Mombasa Free Trade Port. Franz will not step into the fire just because of this small temptation. inside.

It was appropriate to comfort the anxious allies a little, so Franz decided to reluctantly accept it on Friedrich's behalf.

The ownership belongs to Friedrich and the management rights belong to Franz, so the 50/50 split is considered fair.

In fact, this kind of windfall cannot be controlled by ordinary nobles at all, but as one of the richest family members in the Austrian Empire, this money does not seem so important.

Friedrich's handling of this money was to transfer it directly to naval expenditures, which Franz very much agreed with.

The marshal spent his own money to build warships, I admire him, I admire him.

Franz also wrote a letter to Said, telling his ally how to get out of the situation.

That is "Have more children and more land."

Although this is a meaningless statement in the eyes of many people, in the eyes of Said, it is a golden word.

In fact, the population of the Oman Empire is too small, and two-thirds of it is slaves.

If the Oman Empire can directly immigrate 300,000 people to Somalia, does it still need to fear the threat of nomadic tribes? Just kill all the enemies and you can sit back and relax.

The same is true for threats from Nejd and foreign powers. All fears come from insufficient population. Then in return, the Austrian Empire would support the Oman Empire in colonizing the Kingdom of Marawi.

——

The Great Lakes region of the Kingdom of Malawi was one of the richest areas in East Africa at this time, but the price was worth it in order to firmly tie the Oman Empire to its own chariot.

At this time, the Austrian Empire did not yet have a navy strong enough to defend its colonies, so even if it was arrogant, it had to have a good relationship with the overlord of the Western Indian Ocean.

In Bagamoyo, taking advantage of the monsoon and ocean currents, ships full of Dalit laborers arrived, and then transported sisal, animal skins, bushmeat, and grain, goods that no one wanted in Tanzania.

Although bushmeat was banned in the colonies of the Austrian Empire, the unique-tasting food was a favorite among Indian princes.

Mysterious jungle meat paired with secret curry and a bowl of fragrant Ganges water, this is the luxurious and decadent life of Indian princes.

In addition, due to the sudden war, prices in the Indian subcontinent have skyrocketed. Among them, food prices have risen the most. The reason is that it is hard currency.

In addition, the British reinforcements coming from all directions require a large amount of supplies, so the price of food in India this year is higher than that of the Oman Empire and Abyssinia.

With the arrival of a large number of workers, crop yields in Tanzania will further increase. In the next five years, the development of the coastal area and the original Seven Kingdoms ruins will be completed, and then it will advance inland.

However, this kind of trade between the Viceroyalty of Tanzania and India cannot last long because the resources of the two sides overlap very seriously, but fortunately, they can complement each other in the Southeast Asian region and the Far East.

It has introduced more than 80,000 workers in less than a year, which is already a very good result.

We must know that on the route from the California colonies to Japan, the number of merchant ships was seven times that of the Western Indian Ocean region, but only 50,000 laborers were introduced to California itself, and nearly 20,000 of them died.

The price of labor sold by the shogunate was very cheap, but the freight was really high, so the loss in California this time was not small.

Returning to the Tanzania colony, with the further increase of Dalit labor and the introduction of the colonial government's "black" policy to control "black".

The black uncles and small animals in Tanzania were devastated. Some European scholars commented that the Indians during the colonial period only worked and did not eat meat. In fact, except for some vegetarians, the main reason was that they could not eat. Remove the meat.

The attitude of the Tanzania colony towards these Dalit workers is close to free-range status, coupled with the small animals running around on the African savannah.

This resulted in a catastrophe for Tanzania's natural ecology. The Dalits slaughtered small animals much more efficiently than the indigenous black people, almost to the extent of Operation Disc.

The indigenous people who had lost their tribal protection were even more devastated, but it also solved the black refugee problem that had been plaguing the colonies.

Otherwise, the colonial people would have to hire Umbrella soldiers every time they went out. This was not only wasteful, but also reflected the incompetence of local officials.

Then there is the issue of infrastructure. Otherwise, every rainy season is a reshuffle, with roads randomly rearranged or farmland flattened, and several large rivers randomly rerouted every year to roam freely on the great plains.

But soon, even more disgusting news reached Vienna. A grassland king emerged from the interior of East Africa, claiming to be "the king of three million Eastern Bantu people" and preparing to launch an army to the east.

The destination happened to be the Tanzania colony of the Austrian Empire. Franz didn't think that the other party could really produce millions of natives to fight him.

But this was an event that did not exist in history, which made Franz very angry. He didn't know if something weirder would happen after he destroyed this tribe.

However, this matter still needs to be taken seriously. Three million is naturally impossible, but theoretically there should be two or three million subordinates. Then half of the old, weak, women and children who cannot be beaten will be removed, and half of the logistics and management personnel will be removed.

Seventy or eighty thousand, this is already the biggest challenge the Austrian Empire faces in Africa.

Although we have encountered countries with larger numbers before, the mobilization ability of primitive farming civilization is far inferior to that of nomadic people. After all, the latter can mobilize all the people.

Franz felt that adding five thousand troops would be a sign of respect for the other party. On the other hand, the reason why the Dalit workers suddenly went to war with the Ngoni Kingdom was found.

It was a missionary who took advantage of the opportunity to treat illnesses and save people. He took the opportunity to preach to Dalit workers, and then randomly picked an imaginary enemy, which resulted in a war.

(This is one of the consequences of the abuse of religious power. It doesn’t matter that Ngoni is an indigenous kingdom. What if one day these people suddenly go to attack the colonies of the British Empire?)

Treating illnesses and rescuing people is a powerful tool for missionary work and one of the essential skills for missionaries. No matter in what era, life and health are extremely important things, and even today, people still flock to them.

Especially for malaria, a terminal disease that seemed incurable at the time, both recipients and onlookers were greatly shocked.

What is more intuitive is surgery, among which cataract surgery is regarded as a magical skill.

The first cataract surgery recorded in Western history was in 1745. However, cataract surgery in this era had strict requirements for both the recipient and the operator. After all, it was not possible for ordinary people to perform eye surgery without anesthesia. Those who can do it must be at the level of a famous general.

Fortunately, Austria developed laughing gas anesthesia. At the same time, due to the introduction of the concept of disinfection and sterilization, coupled with the accumulation of a lot of experience in colonial areas, the success rate of surgery and postoperative survival rate have been greatly increased.

The huge shock and contrast can easily make people worship it. Even people who do not believe in ghosts and gods will have strong curiosity, and then sink step by step without finding any evidence to refute it.

In addition, I have to say that the fighting power of the black indigenous people is really not good enough. Even the third-rate colonial army can defeat the Ngoni Kingdom, the largest in Tanzania at this time.

Sanlangang Port is ready for use after a few months of renovation. In fact, it means adding some trestles and then expanding the fishing village pier.

But with its natural geographical advantages, it has become a medium-sized port with a throughput no less than Mombasa.

When the transformation is completed, Sanlan Port will become the second largest port in East Africa after Sofala.

At this time, Sofala was the most important Portuguese stronghold in East Africa, able to berth more than a hundred large ships.

In addition to agriculture, Franz also sent a group of geological experts, whose task was to find important mineral veins in Tanzania.

After all, if you want local residents to immigrate to Africa, just farming is not enough. What they want is gold, silver, and diamonds.

Tanzania just meets these conditions. In addition, it also has oil, a very important strategic resource for future generations, and a gemstone that is not inferior to diamonds in price - tanzanite.

However, agriculture is the foundation of everything, and it is impossible not to cultivate the land well before the navy is strong.

I will write something else tomorrow. I feel like not many people read about East Africa.