Chapter 1312 The Horn of Africa

Next, the East African government and the British had an in-depth discussion on the Indian Ocean issue, which was also the purpose of Thomson's visit.

Thomson said: "In recent years, the bandits headed by Hassan have set off a bloody storm in the Horn of Africa, seriously threatening the safety of merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden."

"So the two countries can cooperate to fight against the forces such as the pirates in the Gulf of Aden headed by Hassan, and we are also willing to hand over the Horn of Africa east of Berbera to East Africa to maintain local stability."

Who is Hassan! It is worth Thomson to single out for targeting.

This has to start with the establishment of the British Somaliland colony. In the last century, East Africa controlled most of southern Somalia. At the same time, the British Somaliland colony was not idle. In order to prevent the Horn of Africa from falling into the hands of East Africans, Britain actively expanded eastward and almost occupied the coastal areas of the Gulf of Aden in Somalia in the previous life.

But from the beginning, Britain's colonization in Somaliland was not very stable. After all, as an invader, the locals were bound to resist fiercely.

Hassan was the leader of the Arab resistance forces that rose in British Somaliland in the late 1990s. Although there was a huge gap between their strength and that of the British, Hassan led his followers to go deep into the interior of British Somaliland and deal with the British.

Unlike East Africa, the British could not do two things at the same time, conquering by force and changing the cage, which enabled Hassan to make full use of the mass base of British Somaliland to fight guerrilla warfare with the British.

East Africa was able to do whatever it wanted on the African continent, relying on a broad "mass base". Without the masses, it would carry out large-scale immigration from the Far East. Even a rotten land like Somalia would be much better for the Far East immigrants than their original living environment after being snatched.

The strength of farming warriors has always been not to be underestimated. Of course, the premise is that they can "sound" to them or solve their worries. The reason why Ernst's colonial model can be successful is all in the word "rob".

By robbing the indigenous people of Africa, they can obtain their land, water, minerals and other resources that can generate economic value and provide a living environment.

The British could not copy this model. In fact, the British also had the conditions to do so. After all, the living conditions of Indian cattle and horses at this time were not much better than those of immigrants from the Far East Empire.

But Ernst dared to promote German-Chinese integration, treating Far Eastern immigrants as his own people, intermarrying and assimilating, while the British obviously could not accept treating Indians as their own people.

This is the difference between the two. Of course, since the British looked down on Indians, they could also immigrate their own citizens and change the cage for birds, but the bottom cattle and horses in Britain have long been very different from the early days of industrialization.

Today, even the lowest-level people in Britain will not have a low quality of life, not to mention that even if they cannot survive in their own country, they have many choices, such as immigrating to the United States, Canada, Australia and other regions. Naturally, no one wants to go to Somaliland to suffer.

Therefore, the British government can only conquer Somaliland by force, but it cannot establish a stable rule there.

This is also affected by the high level of civilization in Somaliland. Somaliland is a traditional Arab power area, so the Arab forces in Somaliland have the courage to resist invaders like Britain.

A high level of civilization also means broad knowledge and high level of organization. In the feudal era, Arab civilization was an equal opponent to Europe. Now Europe is one step ahead of them, but it will not let them surrender directly.

So although British Somaliland belongs to the British sphere of influence in name, their influence only extends to the coastal areas.

Even now, the British not only have no way to deal with resistance forces such as Hassan, but also have to endure their harassment of British-controlled areas. After all, Britain is now deeply mired in the quagmire of World War I, so it is better to throw this burden to East Africa.

Of course, Britain has no intention of completely abandoning Somaliland. They plan to retain the western area headed by Berbera.

Why Berbera? The reason is also very simple. Berbera is the only deep-water port in the area suitable for building a military base.

East of Berbera, the coastline is straight and there is no natural harbor, unless large-scale artificial transformation is carried out, but this is obviously too costly.

"Hassan!"

The East African government is more familiar with this "bandit leader" active in British Somaliland. The reason is simple. Since he is an Arab "hero" in Somalia, he is naturally anti-British and anti-East African.

East Africa is also one of the powers that invaded Somalia, but in the past, the Somalia region invaded by East Africa had no intersection with Hassan's forces.

After all, in the 19th century, Somalia was also full of countries, and the countries eliminated by East Africa obviously had nothing to do with Hassan.

But when East Africa expanded to the intersection of British Somaliland, the situation was naturally different, especially the establishment of Dire Dawa City. Of course, Dire Dawa was just a military town at that time.

As long as it is a bordering country or region, territorial disputes have always been a very common problem. In addition, when East Africa invaded Somalia in the north, a large number of Somalis fled to Somaliland in the north, and many of these people joined Hassan's forces.

After all, in the early days of East Africa's rule in Somalia, it can be said that many people were killed or taken to the south as slaves. The Somalis who had a sense of crisis had already fled.

So there are two types of members in Hassan's forces. One is those who were driven inland from the coast by the British, including Hassan himself, and the other is the Somalis who fled from East Africa to Hassan.

And the activity area of ​​Hassan's forces happened to be between Britain and East Africa, and it was inevitable that they would conflict with the two major powers.

Of course, Hassan's forces have always been mainly fighting against Britain, but this does not mean that they have no contradictions with East Africa.

Since it is clear that Hassan is an enemy of East Africa, Ernst said without hesitation: "Of course, we in East Africa will not hesitate to fight against Hassan's gang and maintain the security of the Gulf of Aden."

East Africa obviously cannot let Hassan go, except that his existence itself poses a threat to East Africa's national defense security, especially the border areas.

By attacking the Hassan gang, we can legitimately take over nearly 150,000 square kilometers of land in Africa and officially expand the territory of East Africa to the Gulf of Aden. Where can we find such a good thing?

Although the environment in the Horn of Africa is more severe, in addition to the desert, it also lacks water sources such as rivers, but East Africa is more interested in the strategic value of the Horn of Africa.

As for the lack of a natural harbor like Berbera, it doesn't matter. It is not necessary to deploy many naval forces in the area, but the East African Navy can establish an intelligence early warning mechanism here, so as to avoid the situation during the South African War when the British Royal Navy went south from the Mediterranean along the Red Sea to Mogadishu.

And now that the air force has appeared, it is completely possible to rely on the coastal land to build airports and use military aircraft to block the Gulf of Aden to a certain extent.

It can be said that the emergence of aircraft has greatly changed the pickyness of countries around the world about colonies. Some small islands that were previously of no value to the navy can become unsinkable sea fortresses with a little transformation, and the strike range is wider.

Of course, only East Africa now pays more attention to this area, such as the small islands in the Sunda Strait. After all, aircraft have just been used on a large scale on the European battlefield, and many people have not yet realized its importance.

The Horn of Africa region that Britain gave up is not just one or two islands, but a piece of land of nearly 150,000 square kilometers.

In addition, its triangular shape goes deep into the Indian Ocean. If this area is obtained, the coastline of East Africa will directly increase by nearly 1,000 kilometers.

And Hassan naturally became a victim of the political game between East Africa and Britain. East Africa is not as easy to deal with as Britain.