Chapter 502: The Lanfang Overseas Province
Aside from northern Mozambique, East Africa also acquired the southern third of Angola. However, Ernst had no immediate plans to develop the region.
Angola lies on the Atlantic coast, which makes it harder to influence than the Indian Ocean. In the Indian Ocean, East Africa can project naval power. In the Atlantic, it's a different story—and dividing the navy's forces could be dangerous. What if the British decided to strike?
Ernst's concerns were well-founded. Though he disliked the British, he had to admit they were a pragmatic people—or to put it another way, ruthless. They would stop at nothing to achieve their goals, which is how a tiny island nation managed to hold France, Germany, Austria, Russia, and America in the palm of its hand.
In the past, Ernst would have had no right to scoff at Britain's "tiny island" status. But East Africa was now large enough to speak that way.
Cape Town was still in British hands. British dominance in the Atlantic was unmatched. The infamous prison island of Saint Helena, where Napoleon had been exiled, wasn't far from Angola. Britain's home fleet could head south without issue. If East Africa dispersed its navy into the Atlantic, Britain absolutely had the power to destroy it.
And they had the motivation too. At the very least, Britain already considered East Africa an enemy.
That's why Ernst didn't feel safe spreading naval forces thin. The Indian Ocean was a different matter. East Africa's navy wasn't weak, but it could only be effective if concentrated in a single theater.
East Africa's fleet was comparable to that of Austria-Hungary and Germany, whose naval operations were extremely limited—almost pitiful in scope. So their strength looked more impressive than it was. East Africa's problem was the opposite. The Indian Ocean was enormous, and even just securing the eastern coast was a challenge. Adding the Atlantic would stretch them beyond their limits.
There was another reason Ernst didn't want to develop Angola yet—the land Portugal ceded wasn't particularly valuable. Being in southern Angola, it shared environmental traits with Namibia: arid, remote, and not ideal for development.
…
Borneo—Lanfang Republic.
Pontianak Port was the largest harbor in the Lanfang Republic. East Africa already had a military presence there, but today, two East African merchant ships arrived, disembarking a full battalion. This marked the official transition of the Lanfang Republic into an East African colony.
Now that the war with Portugal was over, East Africa had the time to turn its attention to Lanfang. The main reason for the move, however, was that the Netherlands had given up on Lanfang in exchange for East Africa recognizing Dutch interests in the surrounding region. In other words, East Africa and the Netherlands had drawn clear boundaries on Borneo. Ernst, tactfully, agreed to respect Dutch interests in Lanfang's vicinity.
At Pontianak Port, Wilte was sworn in as the first governor of the Kingdom of Hechingen's Lanfang Overseas Province. While Alaska had been the royal family's first colony, it belonged to the royal household, not the East African state. Ernst always believed in having a backup plan—and the royal family needed its own refuge.
As the Hakka flag of the old Lanfang Republic was lowered and replaced by the East African flag, Governor Wilte felt a deep sense of satisfaction. From today onward, he was the head of a province.
Due to its unique geography, Lanfang had no local governing official—only a governor. Governors in East Africa had more power than regional administrators and in Lanfang's case, held partial military command.
Ernst favored centralized authority and wasn't about to give the Lanfang Republic too much autonomy. That's why Lanfang was made into an official overseas province rather than a standard colony. As a province, it would be treated like any other part of East Africa—part of the family.
There was little resistance to this. Lanfang wasn't large, nor heavily populated. At its peak, the Lanfang Republic only held the northwestern part of Borneo. Repeated Dutch incursions had reduced it to a minor regional player.
If it had controlled the whole island, Ernst would never have granted it provincial status.
Lanfang also had a colony of its own—Dayak.
Dayak was a native state in Borneo's inland east. According to Lanfang, it was a vassal state. But by East African standards, it was a colony—and it was promptly absorbed into the new Lanfang Overseas Province.
Whether the locals liked it or not was irrelevant. East Africa didn't bother with the politeness of the Lanfang Republic.
Dayak had once balanced between Dutch and Lanfang influence. But now that East Africa and the Netherlands had made their deal, Dayak's time was up.
Religiously, Borneo's states could be divided into three categories. First were the Hakka—ethnic Chinese whose traditions, while not a formal religion, had unique cultural weight. Second were Christians, mainly Dutch. Third were Muslims, which made up the majority of Borneo's native states.
Dayak was Muslim. But that didn't matter much to East Africa, where Catholicism was the dominant popular religion. As far as East Africa was concerned, Muslim states were heathens—and removing them caused no moral discomfort.
This aligned with European thinking. The Dutch had long been active in missionary work on Borneo. Their colonial religion, like East Africa's, prioritized Catholicism, followed by Protestantism. Islam came third. East Africa followed the same hierarchy—though due to Zanzibar's legacy, it did have some Muslims.
But East Africa's Muslim population was unique. The state tolerated them only for trade purposes. Most of these Arabs were fluid in national identity.
Because Zanzibar had once belonged to the Omani Empire, many Arabs there retained citizenship from Oman or other Arab states.
When Zanzibar became a province, many of its Arab elite returned to Oman. After all, Islam had no real standing in East Africa, and most stayed only because of trade. They were guests.
There was an unspoken agreement between East Africa and the Arab community: so long as East Africa didn't drive them out, they could stay. But the initiative always belonged to East Africa. If it wanted them gone, all it had to do was tweak a few policies—and these merchants would return to the Arab world. Many were wealthy and would rather be respected first-class citizens in Oman than second-class ones in East Africa. Anyone who refused could expect a visit from the East African army.
As for Dayak, being a Muslim state, East Africa planned to forcibly relocate its population and assimilate them. As a former vassal of Lanfang, Dayak had no grounds to negotiate. Its people were mostly Malay. As long as they weren't Black, Ernst could tolerate them.
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