Chapter 227: Congo (Page 1/1)

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In fact, when shouldering the responsibility of strengthening normal economic exchanges between Han and Germany, Hu Yaqi also needed to contact the German non-governmental colonial associations, persuade the colonial associations to cooperate with the Han government, and then reach a consensus on cooperation with the German government on African colonial affairs through the German colonial associations.

Han colonization in Africa began in 1872 with Kismayo as a transit point for immigrants, the first colony established by Han in Africa, followed by Mtwara in Tanzania, Matadi in Congo, and Eboloa in Cameroon.

Of the four colonial strongholds, Kismayo and Mtwara were the first to be valued by the Han mainland, and an incident in 1875 changed Li Mingyuan's attitude towards the African colonies.

In late 1875, King Leopold II of Belgium established a conference of European nations to openly discuss the division of colonial power in Africa.

The strength of the Belgian state was weak, and Leopold II's desire to expand the colonial scope in Africa with the help of other European countries aroused Li Mingyuan's vigilance, because in history, it was after the Conference of Seven in 1876 that Leopold II funded the adventurer Morton in the name of helping the African region to civilize. Stanley went deep into the Congo to conduct a colonial expedition, and finally relied on Morton. Stanley's expedition was recognized by other European countries, and he succeeded in colonizing the vast area of Kongo.

Belgium's occupation of the Congo was supported by the British, and Li Mingyuan feared that the explorers supported by the Belgian king would expel the Han colonial forces in the Congo after entering the Congo, so after learning of the ambitions of King Leopold II of Belgium in the Congo region, Li Mingyuan sent foreign mercenaries who had been stationed in China to Africa to assist local Chinese officials in expanding their colonial sphere of influence in Congo.

The Han Foreign Legion was reorganized from the earlier Rio Grande do Sul legion, and after the end of the Franco-Prussian War, the Foreign Legion recruited more than 1,000 retired soldiers from the newly formed German Empire, bringing the total number of the Foreign Legion to 1,500.

The Foreign Legion was organized as a regiment, headed by Frank, the first mercenary leader to defect to the Wehrmacht, and the commander of the regiment was a Chinese officer.

Under Li Mingyuan's order, two battalions of foreign legionnaires were led by Frank to the Congo region, and a company of troops came to Ebolova, Cameroon, and the remaining foreign soldiers, except for a small number stationed in Mtwara, were all stationed on the mainland for tropical survival training, which was used as a support force for the African stronghold.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the production of quinine from cinchona trees entered the practical stage, and due to the geographical advantage of being located in South America, the Han State was able to obtain a large number of raw materials to produce quinine, an anti-dysentery drug, so the armed forces of the Han State stationed in Africa had a more adequate supply of drugs for the prevention and treatment of tropical diseases than European countries, and the proportion of soldiers killed by tropical diseases was much lower than that of European countries.

After the Wehrmacht soldiers entered the Congo region, they first swept away Matadi and other surrounding indigenous forces and occupied the areas along the mouth of the Congo River, and then in 1876, the Han State negotiated with the Portuguese government, and the Han State ceded the occupied Danba area to the Portuguese Angolan colony, and obtained the Portuguese government's recognition of the Han occupation of the coastal areas of the Congo River such as Cabinda and Matadi, and the two sides divided their respective spheres of influence in the southern Congo region according to the dividing line between the Congo and Angola in the later CongoAs a result, Han's colonization in the Congo was recognized in writing by the first European country.

The colonial demarcation agreement with Portugal preserved the Cabinda region, allowing the Han to obtain a coastal port area of moderate size in the Congo, avoiding the problem of the colonial development lagging due to the small coastal area of the Congo in later generations.

The Congo region is rich in natural resources, and in later generations, due to the lack of Belgian national strength and the lack of ports to the sea in Belgium, the Congolese colony has not been well developed, and in 1878, the vast area of the Congo 6 has not been paid attention to by Britain and France due to factors such as the primitive natural environment and the prevalence of tropical diseases.

France occupies the Gabon region west of the Congo River, and because it has not yet carried out in-depth colonial exploration of the Congo River basin, there is no direct conflict between the two sides, but in order to avoid future conflicts of interest between the two parties in the Congo River region, Li Mingyuan believes that it is necessary to draw Germany into the competition of colonizing Africa in advance.

In the early days of the German Empire, Bismarck advocated concentrating national forces on the domestic economy and opposed the consumption of precious national power on colonial expansion in Africa.

Bismarck's ideas were in the national interest from an objective point of view, and even though he had acquired African colonies such as Cameroon, Namibia, and Tanzania through the Berlin Conference of 1884, he did not increase Germany's economic investment in the African colonies, but instead had the intention of selling the colonies to other countries because of the fact that the management of the African colonies could not make ends meet.

The difficulty of opening up African colonies to bring valuable benefits to Germany was the main factor that led to Bismarck's dissupport for the expansion of African colonies, and in order to change Bismarck's attitude towards colonizing Africa, Li Mingyuan prepared a greeting gift for the German government.

Li Mingyuan's gift to the German government was a map of Cameroon's mineral resources, which detailed several famous aluminum, gold and copper mining areas in Cameroon in later generations, which would be handed over by Hu Yaqi to Bismarck.

Li Mingyuan worked as a mercenary in Africa in his previous life, and he had a good understanding of the mineral resources that led to the turmoil in Africa, so with the impression in his mind, Li Mingyuan marked the sources of mineral resources that might be used in Africa one by one in a notebook, and then selected several mineral producing areas distributed in Cameroon as gifts to the German government.

Sierra Leone's diamond producing area, South Africa's undiscovered mega gold mine and other famous mineral producing areas in later generations are very familiar to Li Mingyuan, but these places are in the hands of the British and French colonialists, even if Li Mingyuan has the support of a country behind him, he does not dare to snatch these large mineral producing areas with them, so Cameroon, which has not yet fallen into the hands of Britain and France, the two major European powers, and German businessmen have a large sphere of influence in the local area, has become a suitable gift to win over the German government.

Several mining areas marked on the drawings by Li Mingyuan have been confirmed by Chinese colonial expeditions, among which an aluminum mining area in northern Cameroon has reserves of more than 500 million tons in later generations, which is a rare giant aluminum mining area.

Cameroon's aluminum ore reserves are too large, and forcibly occupying it with the national strength of the Han State will only cause trouble, and Britain and Germany have colonial bases in Cameroon, and the reason why Germany was able to completely take the Cameroon colony is also because of the exchange of interests with Britain, so Cameroon, which has several large mineral areas, in exchange for Germany's support and take the Congo, which is more resource-rich, is a very cost-effective deal in Li Mingyuan's view.

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