At the same time as the initial confrontation between East Africa and Mozambique, the waters of the western Indian Ocean were not calm, although the tacit understanding of the four countries limited the outbreak of naval warfare, but the warships of various countries still gathered here.

The main reason is that Britain and France want to suppress the Portuguese, and if a sea war really breaks out, then the Portuguese will definitely be blasted by the East African Navy.

As for the promise of no naval war between the two sides, it is impossible to say if they are really in a hurry, Britain and France must monitor the East African navy, so Britain and France sent five ironclad ships to cruise in the western Indian Ocean.

Of course, this number is not too much for Britain and France, but it does have a certain deterrent effect on East Africa, and sometimes the big powers only need to show their attitude.

"Portugal has not added new ships over the years, and the only ironclad ship has just entered service, I am afraid that it is too late for training, and the fleet of a remote colony like Mozambique uses backward sail warships, although the number is more than that of East Africa, but the combat effectiveness is much worse than that of East Africa, and the quality is not good." Commodore Perón of the French Navy said.

British Rear Admiral Frank: "That being said, the comprehensive quality of Portuguese sailors should be stronger than that of East Africa, many of them are old sailors who have been in the sea all year round, and the East African Navy has only been established for a few years, and it is certainly not as good as the traditional maritime powers in this regard." ”

This is the conclusion reached by Britain and France after observing the Portuguese and East African surface fleets, although the Portuguese navy is poorly equipped, but it is indeed proficient in the operation of ships, and it must have enough experience in dealing with crises, but this gap between ironclads and sail warships is far from being bridged by personnel experience, so no one will think that the Portuguese navy is an opponent of the young East African navy.

From the 30s of the 20th century, ironclads were often used as break-up ships, but they were built initially and primarily for the purpose of fighting their fellow ships, and this continued until the end of the arms race to build ironclads, with many countries using ironclads to defend large merchant fleets, or to control colonies far from their homeland, or both.

However, at present, only the navies of Britain and France can reach this level, and the countries behind are barely enough, Tsarist Russia and Austria-Hungary lack development momentum due to sea conditions, Germany has not yet embarked on the road of frenzied shipbuilding, and the United States and the Far East Navy are considered to be half a pound and eight taels.

Now the U.S. Navy is so unbearable, and the United States will not really attach importance to naval development until after 1881, and the current U.S. Navy strength is not even comparable to that of the Far Eastern Empire, and two small countries such as Denmark and Chile are also above the U.S. Navy.

In fact, the U.S. Navy broke out in a short period of time during the Civil War, with the North building large-scale ships to block the sea lanes in the south, and the South carrying out armed smuggling in order to break the naval blockade, and at the end of the war, the U.S. Navy had more than 700 sail warships of various kinds, and the number of ironclad ships also reached 5 top assets.

However, this huge fleet disappeared with the end of the war. The Americans sold most of the more than 700 warships to merchants, who converted them into merchant ships. Although some ironclad ships and fast warships were retained in this disarmament, these warships were left to be gradually corroded by the passage of time due to the long-term lack of maintenance and maintenance.

This point cannot be bypassed by the advantage of the United States' geographical location, and there is no national defense pressure, so the United States has no incentive to develop a navy, and compared with the navy, the US Army is even more pitiful, with only tens of thousands of troops.

Therefore, it is understandable that the US Navy and Army always changed the law in their previous lives to ask Congress for funds, and peacetime was too tight.

Contrary to the American line is East Africa, which is also a large country in terms of territorial area, and East Africa's sense of distress is much stronger than that of the United States, so the number of troops has always been maintained at a high level.

For example, in terms of territorial expansion, the United States mainly relied on militias to exterminate Indians, and the army was the main force to capture blacks in East Africa, supplemented by militias, especially after the scale of the East African Army was reached, the more so, the dependence on the militia was basically negligible.

Industries in East Africa, including East Africa, are also giving priority to the development of military industries, the navy and army have achieved a certain degree of self-sufficiency in equipment, and the national defense industry is not a fake manpower.

In recent years, the East African Navy has been special, because the shipbuilding industry in East Africa is indeed unable to meet the needs of the native navy, and it is mainly purchased from Austria-Hungary, but with the increasing maturity of the Bagamoyo shipyard technology, it will not be long before the East African Navy will also turn into an independent development state.

Of course, the most important reason is that the current size of the navy is completely sufficient, and if it is vigorously developed, the British will have to jump on their feet.

And the speed of warship technology replacement is not slow, this special period, East Africa large-scale purchase of warships, then the East African Navy will retire these warships at the same time in a certain period of time in the future, after all, the life of ironclad ships is not too high, maybe these main naval warships will be replaced at the end of this century, so the current East African Navy can develop step by step.

Anyway, East Africa is now dominated by territorial defense, and there is not much demand for sea power, and defending the doorstep is victory, even so, East Africa is also talented, and the navy is developing rapidly, but it is not much for East Africa's maritime frontier.

In response to the joint naval exercises of Britain, France and Portugal, the East African side could not pretend to be deaf and dumb, and also conducted a trilateral joint maritime exercise with Austria-Hungary and Germany.

After all, at the Four-Power Conference, Austria-Hungary and Germany favored East Africa, so as the eldest brother and second brother, the navies of the two countries also had to support East Africa, and East Africa dispatched five ironclad ships, two Austria-Hungary and one Germany, and the current difference in naval strength between the three countries is not big, Austria-Hungary ranks first, East Africa is second, and Germany is third.

Therefore, the Prussian admiral who came to East Africa for the exercise this time was quite embarrassing, according to the national strength of the three countries, it is obvious that Germany should be ranked first, but Austria-Hungary is strong, after all, Austria-Hungary has a first-mover advantage, and the result is that the naval strength of East Africa is also stronger than that of the German navy, which is unreasonable.

In fact, whether the German navy can be vigorously developed is entirely a question of whether the current German government wants to invest or not, and it is obvious that Germany's demand in this area is still not high.

Spee said to the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his East African colleagues with some envy: "The Empire's attention to the navy is still too low, so that even East Africa surpasses Germany, and the status of the Imperial Navy obviously does not match the status of Germany. ”

Vice Admiral Claire of the Austro-Hungarian Navy comforted: "In fact, the Austro-Khail Navy is the most pitiful of the three, you have developed rapidly in recent years, and new warships are launched almost every year, and the number of new ships in the Austro-Hungarian Navy is obviously inferior to yours." ”

The words of the Austro-Hungarian and German navies made Archduke Ferdinand a little proud, but he also modestly said: "The geographical location of East Africa is very bad, although the importance of the western Indian Ocean route has decreased because of the opening of the Suez Canal, but it is still an area that the navies of various countries should pay attention to, and you have the advantage of terrain, our east is the ocean, so the pressure on the sea threat is also great." ”

Archduke Ferdinand's words are the real Versailles, and the bad geographical location of East Africa is very unpleasant, is it difficult to have Germany and Austria sandwiched in the middle of the European continent? Moreover, facing the ocean is an advantage for the development of the Navy.

But not all the land in East Africa faces the ocean! For example, Pemba and Zanzibar, Mafia and the Comoros archipelago have a small island and reef that can play a role in defending the country, which is much stronger than Germany and Austria.

(End of chapter)