African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 821 - 125: Dust Settles

In cahoots with a few others, Portugal directly became the biggest victim; not only that, Solzbury rejected the proposal from Allen Tal to reduce the compensation Portugal had to pay.

After all, eight million British Pounds is not a small sum. Anyway, the "bad guy" is East Africa, and the one receiving the money is the United Kingdom, so naturally, there's no need to let Portugal pay less. Solzbury even unscrupulously thought the initial demand from East Africa to Portugal was too low, and doubling it would truly benefit the United Kingdom.

This notion received contempt from Austria-Hungary and East Africa, proving that being an ally to the British truly has no good outcome.

It was Allen Tal who spoke up: "Forty-eight million British Pounds might be the limit of what Portugal can bear. If the amount is doubled, the Portuguese government might directly default. They are definitely not the once majestic Portuguese colonial empire anymore."

During the changes in world structure in the 19th century and before, all countries were essentially seizing food from the mouths of Portugal and Spain since these two countries held the majority of colonies back then.

Now Spain still possesses some strength, but Portugal has completely declined. Therefore, the future for Portugal is bound to be more challenging, although most of Portugal's remaining colonies don't hold much value. Areas like Portuguese Goa, Timor, Sao Tome, and Principe are all small bits of colonies.

With East England and East Africa reaching an agreement, the subsequent negotiation meetings are just a formality, and Portuguese representative Gers noticed the changes in Solzbury.

Most of the time, Solzbury engaged in fierce debates with East Africans, but when it came to Portuguese issues, Solzbury was often vague, sometimes merely a spectator.

Gers naturally had no defense against East Africa; it was a disparity in national power. People were more willing to show face to East Africa, an emerging power, while Portugal, who? No recognition or significance.

Of course, this had to do with Portugal being closely associated with the United Kingdom. In their perception, Portugal was a vassal of the United Kingdom, so Portuguese issues clearly weren't something they needed to jump in on when the British weren't in a hurry. Hence, they were even less willing to speak for the Portuguese.

During the Venice Conference, the East African Government also engaged in multiple private discussions with the United Kingdom. Betraying the Portuguese Kingdom to safeguard British interests in South Africa was recognized by both nations, allowing the British to simultaneously make a huge profit. Why not?

As for the extensive military expenditures previously, in the end, they were swallowed up by Britain's own military-industrial interest groups, so the United Kingdom actually lost nothing. Although the South African war didn't meet the optimistic expectations before the war, being able to exit gracefully was the best outcome for the current British government.

The Venice Conference stumbled along until June, despite East England and East Africa having established the basic framework back in March, engaging in a fierce war of words to save face for their two British allies, Portugal and the Boers.

And at the end of March, according to prior commitments, the East African Government began halting military operations in Cape Town, while starting to repatriate captured British soldiers.

The first batch of British Army totaling 523 returned to mainland United Kingdom on April 26, 1889, greatly restoring the reputation of the British government. British war prisoners received exceptional welcome from mainland civilians; after all, the United Kingdom's area isn't large, and over sixty thousand POWs could be distributed across various regions.

Thus, the lives and security of these prisoners were of great concern to the British populace, involving over sixty thousand families.

In reality, it should be concerning over eighty thousand families, as East Africa also cannot perform necromancy, and the deceased twenty thousand British soldiers couldn't exactly be resurrected and handed back to Britain.

Moreover, a significant portion of the twenty thousand British soldiers who died didn't perish due to war but due to disease and such problems, with missing personnel reaching 1,008, making East Africa even less familiar with themselves, let alone the British Army fighting as guest forces on the South African battlefield.

Actually, the casualty numbers of the British Army were relatively good compared to the allies. The allied forces suffered a total of 170,000 deaths, with the wounded surpassing 300,000, enough to incite an epidemic in South Africa.

And so it was; East Africa continued to deal with the mess in Angola and Mozambique, especially as pharmaceutical expenses hit a new high, which was submitted to the Venice Conference in June.

The indemnity claimed by East Africa against Portugal didn't decrease but increased, directly breaking through fifty million British Pounds, forcing the Portuguese government to expedite the negotiation schedule. Staying any longer with the 120,000 captured Portuguese troops was indeed like having mythical creatures that only consume but never escape.

Portugal, unlike the UK, truly couldn't bear the strain, particularly regarding the POW issue, given the UK's own population of about 40 million, rendering the 60,000 POWs almost negligible in importance to the British government, pale in comparison to the troubles stirred by worker riots.

Portugal's population was just over 3 million, with 120,000 prisoners constituting a substantial portion of Portuguese population activity domestically.

The Portuguese government hence had to ensure the safety of the 120,000 Portuguese POWs, otherwise the angered masses might directly overthrow the Portuguese government.

Thus, with Portugal's compromise, the Venice Conference concluded definitively on June 28, with the three participating parties signing the ceasefire agreement under the witness of the International Community led by Count Allen Tal.

According to the ceasefire agreement:

The unilateral ceasing of conflict between East England and East Africa, withdrawal of both sides' troops to pre-war borders of the two countries, the United Kingdom needs to compensate three million British Pounds for the expenditure and treatment of British Army POWs during their time in East Africa.

Portugal ceded Angola and Mozambique to the Kingdom of East Africa and compensated East Africa with forty million British Pounds as war reparations.

Due to Portugal's financial burden, this portion of war reparations was advanced by the United Kingdom; of course, two million British Pounds were calculated according to the value of Angola and Mozambique, meaning East Africa obtained Portugal's two colonial territories valued at two million British Pounds, solidifying the question of Angola and Mozambique's affiliation.

Legally, Angola and Mozambique no longer have any ties with Portugal.

Lastly, the Boer issue, the Boer Republic was abolished and incorporated into East African territory, with Orange becoming part of the Kingdom of East Africa, divided by the Orange River and Tugela River, the south belonging to the United Kingdom, while the north belongs entirely to East Africa.

As for the Boer people's opinion, it was completely ignored by East England and East Africa, unable to maintain even a government-in-exile for the Boer Republic now.

After all, keeping a government-in-exile premise is having a populace base in Boer Republic just like Poland; although occupied by Tsarist Russia, the people living on the land were indeed Polish, so the Polish government-in-exile in the UK served a significant purpose, capable of inciting nationalistic sentiments within Tsarist Russia at any time to deter Tsarist Russia.

Whereas East Africa in the original Boer Republic, namely Orange area, proceeded too decisively, directly draining the local Boer populace base, rendering even maintaining a Boer Republic government-in-exile meaningless, aside from barking across the Orange River at East Africa, only further spending British taxpayers' money without any effect.

Of course, the British government had deeper considerations, namely in the Cape Town colony, where Boers constituted over 60% of the population. If keeping a Boer Republic government-in-exile, not only couldn't threaten East Africa, but might provoke adverse regional forces against British rule.

The Cape Town colony's population, where Boers comprised over 60%, naturally couldn't be left an unaddressed "major threat."