Situation In Africa

"By the way, speaking of slave traders, Arab slave traders in the Congo River Basin, are they harassing frequently?" Constantine asked Stanley.

"Why is it not frequent? Europeans go to Africa just to seek money. These Arabs are really vicious. They set off from the east coast of Africa, especially Zanzibar Island, which is the base camp of their Arab slave traders. They often explore with us. The mercenaries of the team clashed and exchanged fire. When these **** came to the villages of the African indigenous people, as long as they dared to resist, they would kill them all, then kidnap the young children and serve as slaves with docile women, even the missionaries of the Catholic Church. I can't stand it anymore." At this point, Stanley seemed to think of something interesting and paused.

"If one day, you go to southern Africa and see many Christians, don't be surprised. Since the age of voyages, there have been missionaries from Europe going to southern Africa one after another. You will never guess that their first missionary trick, haha," Stanley laughed.

"Missionary methods?" Nina asked in confusion, "What other methods can missionaries have? A priest preaches the Bible to those who worship God."

"No, no," Stanley was very proud of Nina's failure to guess correctly, and deliberately made fun of the little girl, "their initial missionary method was to kidnap local nobles or powerful people, and then preach to them about God until they convert. God, let them go, isn't it fun, you say?" Stanley said.

"There is still such a missionary?" Nina's eyes widened in disbelief.

"By the way, just last year, an expedition led by the French Brazzaville planted the French flag in the northern part of the Congo River, now called Brazzaville. Kinshasa, plant the flag of the Council of the Congo," Stanley said cautiously, looking at Constantine.

According to the original plan, in the north of the Congo River, Constantine personally informed Stanley, but this guy didn't care and let the French take the lead.

"Hey," Constantine sighed in his heart. Historically, the Kingdom of Gang (Brazzaville) was a colony of the French, but it still hasn't changed the situation.

Of course, it could also be that Stanley judged the situation and did not dare to offend the French. Although the French were defeated by the Germans in the Franco-Prussian War, they were still a foreign power that Greece could not provoke.

"How many strongholds and treaty agreements have your expedition built?" Constantine asked.

In various European countries, the basis for determining the ownership of colonies is the actual occupation or the agreement signed with the chief. The actual occupation is the business contact point established by the businessman. It's a Mandate Treaty.

This is the basis for determining the ownership of a colony. For a small country like Greece, it may not be able to get a colony if it has this thing, but if it doesn't, it will definitely not get it.

"We went upstream along the Congo River as planned, setting up more than a dozen strongholds along the way, and signing more than 100 rights transfer treaties," Stanley replied.

"You need to speed up the progress. Countries are expanding rapidly to Africa. By the way, based on your experience in Africa for so many years, what do you think of the development prospects of the Congo River Basin?" Stanley asked.

After Stanley heard Constantine's question, he frowned and thought.

"If you're talking about development prospects and you mean making money, I, Your Excellency the Duke, probably won't be happy to hear it," Stanley said while touching his chin with his right hand.

"What does this mean?" Stanley was nervous. He thought he could hear some encouraging words, but Stanley's words were more like pouring cold water.

"The Congo River Basin is densely covered and criss-crossed, not only the Congo River, but also many tributaries of the Congo River, with abundant rainfall and stable water flow, because the equator passes through the Congo River Basin. During the dry season, the north of the equator is the rainy season, and vice versa. The tributaries of the Congo River are distributed in the north and south of the equator. They take turns to inject abundant water into the downstream Congo River. From my experience, it has a very high water transport. value," Stanley said.

No matter what era, water transportation is the cheapest way of transportation.

The waterways formed by the many tributaries of the Congo River are golden trade routes.

"According to you, this should be good news, right?" Constantine asked inexplicably.

"You are right, but there is a premise that you need a huge upfront investment, and the railway from Matadi to Kinsasha is a hurdle that cannot be overcome," Stanley replied.

From Matadi to Kinshasa, the railway is about 400 kilometers long. You can imagine how difficult it would be to build such a railway in Africa, far from the civilized world.

No matter how difficult it is to build, the cost will be high.

As for why Matadi went to Kinshasa, this is because after the ships caused by the waterfalls in the lower reaches of the Congo River reached Africa, UU reading www.uukanshu.com sailed inland along the Congo River as far as they could reach Matadi. .

The section from Matadi to Kinsasha is not navigable.

"Construction of a railway linking the vast network of waterways of the Congo River with the mouth of the navigable ship is an indispensable condition for the development of the Congo," continued Stanley.

"As for what resources Congo has, I'm not a professional scholar, and I don't know, but from the perspective of the civilization level of the local people, no matter what kind of treasure God buried in Congo, it's still buried in the ground intact," Stanley said.

"In other words, so far, I know that you and your father, His Majesty, have invested a lot of money, but with all due respect, it is not enough, you must find supporters, those who have A banker with a lot of capital, or some other dignitary, this is my sincere suggestion," Stanley said, looking at Constantine.

Stanley hoped that Constantine would succeed because the balance of his remuneration had not been paid yet.

"That is to say, the initial investment is very expensive, but it is still very profitable?" Constantine continued to ask, wanting to know the thoughts of this old African oiler.

"That's right, O, by the way, I also heard about an expedition from Tanzania recently," Stanley said.

"There are as many expeditions in Africa, sir," Constantine said disapprovingly.

"This one is different. His leader is Cameron, an Englishman. As for his patron, I have heard privately," Stanley said here, looking at Constantine, "It is the king of Belgium, Leopold II."

Hearing this name, Constantine's pupils shrank, and he secretly said, he's still here.