ps: Thank you to Lu I’m Afraid of Solo Dancer for 100 starting coins, and for classmate He Nian’s 200 starting coins for your support.
Hu Yaji's mission to Germany was not as simple as what he told Li Han. In fact, when shouldering the responsibility of strengthening normal economic exchanges between Han and Germany, Hu Yaji also needed to contact the German non-governmental colonial associations to persuade the colonists.
The association cooperated with the Han government, and then reached a consensus on cooperation with the German government on African colonial affairs through the German Colonization Association.
Han's colonial operation in Africa began in 1872. Kismayo, as a transit point for immigrants, was the first colony opened by Han in Africa, and it was located in Mtwara in Tanzania, Matadi in Congo and Cameroon.
Ebolowa was a subsequent colonial settlement.
Among the four colonial strongholds, Kismayo and Mtwara were the first to receive the attention of the Chinese mainland. An incident that occurred in 1875 changed Li Mingyuan's attitude towards the development of African colonies.
At the end of 1875, King Leopold II of Belgium convened a conference of European countries to openly discuss the division of colonial power in Africa.
Belgium was a weak country, and Leopold II wanted to use the power of other European countries to expand colonial scope in Africa, which aroused Li Mingyuan's vigilance, because in history, it was after the Seven Powers Conference in 1876 that Leopold II
In the name of helping the African region to civilize, it funded the adventurer Morton Stanley to conduct a colonial expedition into the interior of the Congo. Finally, based on Morton Stanley's expedition, he was recognized by other European countries and successfully occupied the vast Congo area as a colony.
Belgium's occupation of the Congo was supported by the United Kingdom. Li Mingyuan was worried that the explorers supported by the Belgian king would expel the local colonial forces established by the Han Dynasty after entering the Congo. Therefore, after learning that the Belgian King Leopold II
After becoming ambitious in the Congo region, Li Mingyuan dispatched foreign mercenaries who had been stationed in the country to Africa to assist local Chinese officials in expanding their colonial sphere of influence in the Congo.
The Han Foreign Legion was adapted from the early Rio Grande do Sul. After the Franco-Prussian War, the Foreign Legion recruited more than 1,000 retired soldiers from the newly established German Empire, bringing the total number of the Foreign Legion to 1,500.
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The Foreign Legion is organized into a regiment, headed by Frank, the earliest mercenary leader who defected to the National Defense Forces, and the commander of the regiment is a Chinese officer.
Under Li Mingyuan's order, two battalions of foreign legionnaires came to the Congo area under the leadership of Frank. One company of troops came to Ebolowa, Cameroon. The remaining foreign soldiers were all stationed in the mainland except for a small number stationed in Mtwara.
Conduct tropical survival training and use it as a support force for the African base.
In the second half of the 19th century, quinine produced from cinchona trees entered a practical stage. Due to its geographical advantage in South America, the Han Dynasty was able to obtain a large amount of raw materials to produce the anti-dysentery drug quinine. Therefore, the Han Dynasty stationed in its African strongholds
Compared with European countries, the Chinese armed forces have a more adequate supply of drugs to prevent and treat tropical diseases, and the proportion of soldier deaths caused by tropical diseases is also much lower than that of European countries.
After the foreign legionnaires under the National Defense Force entered the Congo area, they first wiped out the surrounding indigenous forces such as Matadi and occupied the areas along the Congo River estuary. Then in 1876, the Han State negotiated with the Portuguese government, and the Han State passed the occupied areas.
The Danba area was ceded to the Portuguese colony of Angola, and the Portuguese government recognized the Chinese occupation of Cabinda, Matadi and other Congo River coastal areas. The two parties divided their respective territories in the southern Congo based on the dividing line between later Congo and Angola.
As a result, Han's colonial operations in the Congo received written recognition from the first European country.
The colonial demarcation agreement with Portugal preserved the Cabinda area, allowing the Han Dynasty to obtain a moderately sized coastal port area in the Congo, and avoided the problem that later colonial development would lag due to the narrow coastal area of the Belgian Congo.
The Congo region is rich in natural resources. In later generations, due to factors such as the lack of national strength in Belgium and the lack of sea ports in the Belgian Congo, the Congo colony has not been well developed. In 1878, the vast areas in the interior of Congo were affected by the primitive natural environment and tropical diseases.
Factors such as popularity have not yet received the attention of countries such as Britain and France. After expelling Belgium, the main future competitor, from the Congo region, only France is left that may compete with Han.
France occupies the Gabon region to the west of the Congo River. Because it has not yet conducted in-depth colonial exploration of the Congo River Basin, there is no direct conflict between the two parties. However, in order to avoid future disputes over the interests of the two parties in the Congo River region, Li Mingyuan believes that it is necessary to pull Germany in in advance.
into the competition to colonize Africa.
In the early days of the establishment of the German Empire, Prime Minister Bismarck advocated concentrating national power to develop the domestic economy and opposed consuming precious national power on colonial expansion in Africa.
Bismarck's proposition was objectively in line with the national interest. During his tenure as Prime Minister, even though he acquired Cameroon, Namibia, Tanzania and other African colonies in 1884, he did not increase Germany's economic investment in the African colonies.
The African colonies were unable to make ends meet and other reasons gave rise to the plan to sell the colonies to other countries.
The difficulty of opening up African colonies to bring valuable benefits to Germany was the main factor that led to Bismarck not supporting the expansion of African colonies. In order to change Bismarck's attitude towards colonizing Africa, Li Mingyuan prepared a meeting gift for the German government.
The gift Li Mingyuan prepared for the German government was a distribution map of Cameroon's mineral resources. The distribution map listed in detail several famous aluminum, gold, and copper mining areas in Cameroon in later generations. Hu Yaqi would personally hand it over to Bismai.
Li Mingyuan worked as a mercenary in Africa in his previous life, and he had a good understanding of the mineral resources that caused instability in Africa. Therefore, based on the impressions in his mind, Li Mingyuan marked the possible origins of mineral resources in Africa one by one on a book, and then from them
Several mineral producing areas distributed in Cameroon were selected as gifts to the German government.
Li Mingyuan is very familiar with the diamond producing areas of Sierra Leone, the huge gold mine that has not been discovered in South Africa, and other well-known mineral producing areas in later generations. However, these places are all in the hands of British and French colonists. Even if Li Mingyuan has the support of a country behind him, he does not dare to follow
They robbed these large mineral producing areas. Therefore, Cameroon, which had not yet fallen into the hands of the two major European powers, Britain and France, and where German businessmen had a considerable sphere of influence, became a suitable gift to win over the German government.
Several mineral areas marked by Li Mingyuan on the drawing have been confirmed by Chinese colonial expeditions. Among them, an aluminum ore producing area in northern Cameroon has reserves of more than 500 million tons in later generations and is a rare giant aluminum ore producing area.
Cameroon's aluminum ore reserves are too large, and forcefully occupying them with Han's national strength will only cause trouble. Moreover, Britain and Germany both have colonial strongholds in Cameroon. The reason why Germany was able to completely seize the Cameroon colony was because of the exchange of interests with Britain.
Therefore, exchanging Cameroon, which has several large mining areas, for Germany's support and acquiring Congo, which is richer in resources, Li Mingyuan thinks it is a very cost-effective deal.:
