Chapter 920: Plotting for Mindanao

In fact, the territory of East Africa has shrunk to a certain extent due to the negotiations with France. For example, some of the land in the east of Antananarivo that was occupied by East Africa was returned to France after the negotiations between the two countries.

After all, this is a no-cost business. East Africa took advantage of the French invasion of the Kingdom of Imerina to gain far more benefits than these, so France essentially lost. France could have obtained the entire territory of the Kingdom of Imerina, but it did not happen because of East Africa.

Of course, returning part of the land of the Kingdom of Imerina is not important to East Africa. Most of the other areas obtained by East Africa are mountainous areas and areas that can form passes, which makes East Africa strategically suppress the French colony of Madagascar.

Of course, if this part of the land is not returned, the territory of East Africa will definitely exceed 13 million square kilometers, instead of just starting out like now.

However, East Africa should not be too greedy. Now East Africa is already the second largest country in the world in terms of area, and 13 million square kilometers is only the homeland. If the Lanfang overseas province is counted, there will be more than that, and this does not count other colonies in East Africa.

…

"This administrative division is more reasonable, but it will take a long time to implement. We will first set up provinces in areas without disputes, such as Orange and Southwest Africa. As for disputed areas such as the Great Lakes Province, we will slowly transition."

After all, the Great Lakes Province needs to negotiate with the original Plateau Province and Western Great Lakes Province, and even Bujumbura will be independent and become the new capital of Soron Province. This is also unfair to the original Western Great Lakes Province. After all, the resources of the original Western Great Lakes Province are concentrated in the provincial capital Bujumbura.

Of course, the biggest loss is the Plateau Province. Not only did it lose the western territory and become the main body of the new Soron Province, but it also ceded the richer Mwanza City in the north. Dodoma City has completely achieved the dominance of the province, but this is obviously not what the Plateau Provincial Government wants.

So the original provinces must do a good job of handover, involving industries, resources, population and other aspects. The provinces in remote areas are easier to solve. After all, they are completely blank, so there is no overly strong controversy.

"By 1900, there are still nearly three years left, which is enough time to complete these tasks. This basically means that the political map of East Africa will be basically stable after 1900. On this basis, after 1900, East Africa's expansion will shift from the African continent to overseas colonies, especially the Nanyang region."

Ernst still misses Nanyang. After all, compared with exerting political influence on East Africa in other directions, the Nanyang region is the easiest.

According to the location of East Africa, under normal circumstances, it should be given priority to West Africa and North Africa, but the competition between these two regions is too fierce. Before the decline of European countries such as Britain and France, Ernst was basically not optimistic about the local situation.

Thinking of this, if nothing unexpected happens, next year should be the time for the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, and East Africa should also take action in advance.

After the meeting, Ernst called Foreign Minister Hermann and Director of the National Security Agency Walsden.

Ernst asked, "Walston, how are our preparations in the Philippines going?"

"Your Highness, the progress is going smoothly. We have disguised our personnel as people from various countries and entered Mindanao one by one. At present, we have more than 2,000 core personnel on the island, and about 8,000 peripheral personnel. However, it may be difficult to control the world."

In Walston's words, it is just difficult, which is a conservative statement. In fact, Mindanao has a very low status in the Philippines, similar to a "wild land".

Even in the previous life, the population of Mindanao was nearly half that of Luzon, and now the population of the entire Philippines is only about 5 to 6 million, even less than that of the Abyssinian Empire. It was not until the mid-19th century that the population of the Philippines exceeded 20 million.

This is the result of the Spanish people's efforts to "feed" the people. In the early 19th century, the population of the Philippines was only more than one million. At the beginning of Spanish colonization, the population of the Philippines would have been even lower. Although the word "colony" is not a positive word, the improvement in productivity and medical and health care levels in backward areas in this era is visible to the naked eye. Otherwise, the population of each colony would not have doubled. Of course, some colonies that are not human beings are exceptions, such as the Belgian Congo colony next to East Africa.

"According to our statistics, the current population of Mindanao is about 300,000 to 400,000. The main population of the Philippines is mainly concentrated in islands such as Luzon. Therefore, although we only have more than 8,000 people in Mindanao, it is risky to control Mindanao, but the chances of winning are still very high."

The error of the figures given by the National Defense Security Agency is not large, which also shows the desolation of Mindanao. Even if Ernst often said that East Africa is sparsely populated, the population of Southwest Africa and the Congo Rainforest in East Africa is less than that of Mindanao.

Of course, from the perspective of population density, Mindanao is far larger than Southwest Africa and the Congo Rainforest. After all, Southwest Africa covers an area of ​​more than 800,000 square kilometers, the Congo Rainforest covers more than one million square kilometers, and Mindanao is less than 100,000 square kilometers.

The population explosion of Mindanao in the past began in the late 1930s. Before that, Mindanao was equivalent to the ancient exile places of the Far East countries or Siberia of Tsarist Russia for the Philippines. It was not until 1939 when the Philippine government advocated immigration that the population of Mindanao increased significantly and exceeded 20 million in the 21st century.

More than 20 million compared with the current 300,000 to 400,000, it can also be seen that the tropical rainforest climate was indeed a "green desert" before the industrial revolution. Let alone development, even survival was quite difficult.

Of course, this is also the reason why Ernst came up with Mindanao. If the population was large, who would want this place? The Abyssinian Empire and the Kingdom of Imerina are examples of this.

As Ernst and Walsden, the old spy, were talking to each other, the Foreign Secretary Hermann next to him broke into a cold sweat.

"His Royal Highness, are you planning to have a conflict with the Kingdom of Spain? This is an issue of interfering with the sovereignty of other countries, and Spain is not a small or weak country. Doing this may cause a diplomatic accident." Herman asked from the side.

Walsden did not speak. In fact, the crown prince’s ambitions for Mindanao were long-planned. East Africa’s infiltration into the local area had already begun before the South African War. Since he became the director of the Defense Security Agency, the love between Mindanao and Hawaii has The island is outside the National Defense and Security Agency, and this is the only focus of Europe, the United States and Japan. However, Kauai has become an East African territory, and now Mindanao is missing.

Ernst: "The Nanyang region is the key area for East Africa's future overseas layout, so it is reasonable for us to make some preparations in advance. After all, the Nanyang region has been divided up, so if we want to gain a foothold here, we must take some special measures. means."

Herman: "But I'm afraid the Northern Hawaiian Kingdom only had one opportunity to take advantage of the right time, place, and people. We also took advantage of the fact that the Hawaiian Kingdom was an independent country at that time. Even a little later, the Americans controlled the entire Hawaiian Kingdom, and we There is obviously no such condition in the Philippines. After all, the Philippines is one of Spain's important colonies and is completely different from Hawaii. If we do this, I am afraid it will anger the Spanish government. "

Of course, Ernst did not mean to offend Spain. After all, East Africa had offended many countries. Britain, Portugal, and Japan were countries whose strength should not be underestimated in the world. The other countries that were wiped out by East Africa did not even have the opportunity to hate East Africa.

As for how to obtain Mindanao from Spain, Ernst naturally wanted to replicate the previous successful experience of the Northern Hawaiian Kingdom, letting the United States act as the villain and East Africa take advantage of it. Of course, Hermann and others naturally did not understand the key. After all, they were not Ernst.