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Chapter 139 - Chapter 139: End of the War

Chapter 139: End of the War

"This is the Buganda royal palace? Not much to look at!" Felix said, sitting casually on the throne in Mengo's Buganda Palace.

"Well, compared to Zanzibar, this isn't a wealthy kingdom. Mutesa I and his forebears did well to build it up this far," his adjutant replied.

Mengo sits in a fairly decent location on the northern part of Lake Victoria. Unlike the southern shore, it's surrounded by many sizable islands. Mengo itself stands on a peninsula ringed by those islands, and the Buganda palace rises atop high ground.

"Too bad Mutesa I stayed in the southern lines, so I didn't get to face him," Felix said with a hint of regret.

In the eastern theater, leading Buganda's forces was Mutesa I's son, the crown prince, who clearly lacked his father's martial prowess. He crumbled in battle and fled, so in the past few days, Felix pursued him all the way to the Buganda capital. Now the place was empty. The palace's valuables had been taken away. Its architecture had a distinct Arab style, visibly influenced by North African countries.

"Sir, our vanguard has linked up with those coming from the south. Lord Yarman orders us to continue pursuing northward." An intelligence officer handed Felix a written directive.

"That was quick! Looks like Mutesa I lost in the south, too. No wonder the Bugandans abandoned their capital—they got the news and bolted. I was wondering why they didn't regroup here to keep resisting," Felix remarked.

"I guess Yarman won a big victory on the southern front. That was supposedly the combined force of four states, with Ankole and Buganda even fighting on home soil. Surprising how feebly they collapsed," said the adjutant.

"Indeed, Buganda isn't a clueless tribe. They've had dealings with Egyptians, using Egyptian-made weapons in their army—but they manage those weapons so poorly that in battle we saw no effect," Felix went on. "We can thus see that these natives, especially those farther north, do have more contact with the Egyptians—quite unlike the tribes around Tanganyika in the south."

"It's a shame Buganda is so deep inland that they can't connect directly with the civilized world, or else their development wouldn't have been this low. At least they'd match the Indian Ocean coastal states," the adjutant analyzed.

In Buganda, Egyptian and other external influences were clearly visible, especially in Islamic-style architecture. But their neighbors weren't very advanced. The only place they could tap was Egypt, and that was via Arab caravans, as no direct border existed; plenty of nomadic tribes lay between them. With vast Sahara stretches in Egypt's Sudan, it couldn't extend deeply into central Africa.

"All right, have the troops finish resting. Next, we're to drive the natives further northwest. We want a continuous belt of land around the Great Lakes," Felix ordered.

By now, the vanished Buganda royal family had already withdrawn northwest under Mutesa I's leadership. The reserve force left in Kampala became his foundation for rebuilding elsewhere. Mutesa I knew fleeing north was no good. He might have cordial ties with Egyptians—strictly via Arab middlemen obtaining some nice goods for him—but he didn't want to live under Egyptian patronage. Moreover, the greedy East African colony might come north eventually, so he chose to move northwest.

Mutesa I's idea was good, though his eldest son felt otherwise. Deeply influenced by Arab culture, the Buganda Crown Prince, after losing the battle, took about a hundred people to the Egyptian Sudan instead, hoping to join them. Mutesa I didn't mind much—he had dozens of sons; losing one was no big deal. The main Buganda elite stayed under his control. Having packed up all valuables from the palace, Mutesa I headed northwest.

With people and wealth, he need not fear. Plus he'd acquired firearms from Arab merchants to arm his royal guard—his best men, who hadn't fought in the recent battle. Mutesa I was confident he could carve out new territory in the northwest. This defeat didn't shake his faith; it only reaffirmed that the East African colony relied on firearms to beat the allied armies. Going northwest, Mutesa I would cultivate closer ties with Arab merchants and form an army fully armed with guns. Once strong, he'd return. As for funding, he'd simply plunder various tribes in the northwest, then levy higher taxes after rebuilding the kingdom.

Over the following weeks, the East African forces pressed north, driving native groups further northwest, even hitting northern nomadic tribes. Setting off from the Kampala bay area, they swept west and north, pushing on to near Omerate and Lake Albert in the northeast—a roughly four- to five-hundred-kilometer diameter zone. The lakeshore states and tribes, plus the northern nomads, all ended up in their line of fire.

Omerate cooperated in the operation, preventing tribes from fleeing east and cutting off their path north. If those tribes had all fled north, they might have alarmed Egypt or Abyssinia—something the colony wished to avoid. East Africa needed a stable buffer zone.

From Ethiopia's southwestern mountains all the way into the South Sudan savanna, a swath about three hundred kilometers wide by four hundred kilometers long would be left for now. Meanwhile, tribes and kingdoms near the Great Lakes were driven west into Congo and Central Africa.

Thus the entire Great Lake became an inland lake for the East African colony. Its seventy thousand square kilometers of water now belonged exclusively to them. Thirty-plus thousand square kilometers of land in the lakes' northwest region also fell into East African hands. Newly claimed territory linked Lake Turkana, Lake Albert, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Victoria.

All major East African lakes thus connected with the colony, turning Lake Victoria, Lake Kivu, and so on into wholly inland waters.

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