Chapter 1246 Territorial Details Dispute

Chapter 1246 Territorial Details Dispute

As a student who once studied in the UK, Rama VI naturally has a lot of research on East Africa, which "tie" with Britain in the South African War. After all, when it comes to the influence of countries around the world on the countries in Southeast Asia, several traditional powers, including the already declining Netherlands and Portugal, have accumulated deep power in Southeast Asia.

At present, the flag bearer in the Southeast Asia region is Britain. No local country is not afraid of Britain, of course, except for those uncivilized natives who are not afraid of life and death in the jungle.

In fact, the more uncivilized the natives are, the more they look down on life and death. After all, their living environment is too harsh, and death and injury are commonplace for them.

And Siam, an ancient civilized country in the Southeast Asia region, is obviously much more "smart", which also leads to the weakness of Siam's foreign diplomacy today.

This is the sadness of backward countries in the early 20th century, Anglophobia, Francophobia, Germanophobia, Hispanophobia..., so that the latest "East Africanophobia" always has a powerful country or even multiple powerful countries suitable for these small and weak countries.

This is the situation of Siam now. It is served by three imperialist countries, Britain, France and East Africa, in turn. It is considered "blessed".

In recent years, with the deepening of East Africa's colonial activities in the South Seas, it can be said that East Africa has also firmly established the title of imperialism in the region.

In fact, in addition to East Africa, the three late-developing countries of the United States, Japan and Germany are also new players in the colonization of the South Seas. However, Germany's colonial path has been cut off, the United States is still struggling in the Philippines, and Japan has limited strength. At least Japan is currently unable to intervene in the situation in the South Seas. Only East Africa is the most powerful.

It can be said that Rama VI surrendered decisively because of his understanding of East Africa's strong military strength and the existence of East Africa's power in the South Seas.

Now at least he can negotiate with East Africa to avoid the division of the core territory. If the East African navy really comes, not only will the Siamese navy be at risk of destruction, but the final compensation and land will only be more.

On September 1, 1916, Ande, a senior official of the Lanfang Overseas Province in East Africa, led a team to Bangkok to conduct detailed negotiations with the Siamese government.

Ande said to Rama VI: "According to the previous verbal agreement between our two countries, this territorial division mainly involves Siam's territory on the Malay Peninsula, so we require your country to hand over the national territory and islands south of Chumphon Province to our country for management."

The first-level administrative district of Siam is based on "provinces", and the country is divided into nearly 70 provinces, which are roughly equivalent to the first-level administrative districts of "provinces, states, and states" in other countries.

Of course, in the eyes of East Africans, the so-called prefectures of Siam are just equivalent to the scale of prefecture-level cities. After all, the national area of ​​Siam is only about hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, but it is divided into about 70 prefectures, and the average area of ​​each prefecture is just over 5,000 square kilometers.

Chumphon Province is such an administrative district. The location of this prefecture is just at the narrowest part of the Kra Isthmus, but its west is the territory of Myanmar, not Siam.

However, Myanmar is mountainous, so the population is small, which is the main reason why Myanmar could not compete with Siam on the Malay Peninsula.

On the other hand, Siam has many plains and hills, and a well-developed water system, so the population is rich, which is also the main reason why Siam can resist Myanmar in the west and the infiltration of Arab forces in the south.

Rama VI looked at Ande's big hand casually waving on the map, and his heart was tense and he said: "Sir, this is impossible. According to your division model, we Siam cannot afford it. Although the several provinces and regions in the south are remote, they have a large population and fertile land, and they have transportation advantages."

"So we will not cede the several provinces in the south. We Siam can only accept the several provinces in the southeast to be under the jurisdiction of East Africa."

If you look at the map, you can find that the protruding part of Siam on the Malay Peninsula, and a bulge deep into the territory of Malaysia in the previous life.

These areas are the several southeastern provinces mentioned by Rama VI, including parts of Pattani.

The Pattani area was once the land of the Pattani Sultanate, which was established in the 15th century and was later destroyed by Siam in the mid-to-late 18th century.

From the name of the country, it can be seen that this country destroyed by Siam has the typical color of an Arab country on the coast of the Indian Ocean, such as the Zanzibar Sultanate on the coast of East Africa.

The Siamese conquest of the Pattani Sultanate has a history of less than two hundred years. The beliefs of the local indigenous people are naturally different from those of Siam, plus the part of Pattani land that the British cut off. It can be said that Pattani has superimposed two layers of negative influence on Siam, one is religion and the other is the border. In this case, Pattani and its surrounding areas are naturally the most likely places for Siam to split.

Therefore, if East Africa takes several provinces in the southeast, it will have both advantages and disadvantages for Siam. The disadvantages are naturally needless to say. The advantage is that the Siamese government can get rid of this "burden" while isolating East Africa from the British in the south, so that the two can check and balance each other.

And Ander naturally could not agree with Rama VI's plan. Although East Africa did not mind taking Pattani, Pattani alone was far from enough.

Ander said: "This is impossible. We must take Pattani, and we must not lose any of the other regions."

"After all, the several provinces in the southeast are less than one-third of our plan. If this is the case, it is far from our expected goal."

"It is better for us to leave the Pattani area to you and leave other areas including Chumphon to us, so that you can relax a little bit."

King Rama VI scolded Ander in his heart, and thought very depressedly that he would not covet the little land in Pattani.

Of course, it's not that they are not greedy. After all, the more things like territory, the better. But now Siam has no choice, so it can only stop its losses in time.

Therefore, the Pattani region is a bargaining chip in the hands of Rama VI. He hopes to avoid other regions being cut off by East Africa by leaving this burdened region to the East Africans. However, it is obvious that East Africa’s ambitions are too great, and the Pattani region is far from being able to satisfy their greed.

King Rama VI had no choice but to change his words: "The Pattani area plus Songkhla Province, this is our greatest sincerity."

Songkhla is quite large, at least for the country of Siam, and is right next to the Pattani area.

Ande's reaction to this was very bland and said: "We are bound to win the Thapi River Plain, so we still use Chumphon Province as the boundary. We can give up our demands for the southern Siam area, including Nakhon Si Thammarat and Krabi. The land to the south can continue to be controlled by your country. "

Rama VI believed that East Africa’s intentions could basically be seen from here. The area East Africa sought was obviously the Tapi River Plain.

The Thapi River is the most important river in southern Siam and is currently the most densely populated area in southern Siam.

Obviously East Africa has also seen this. After all, according to the thinking of Rama VI, these Western powers generally like areas with high colonial economic value.

However, this is the only area that Siam cannot give up. After all, East Africans think it is valuable, and this is especially true for Siam. The Thapi River Plain can be said to be the essence of the entire southern Siam.

In the era when the Malacca Strait did not rise, it was a node for east-west trade. Therefore, in terms of land fertility, population density, and strategic value, it was impossible for Rama VI to abandon this area.

Although Siam's land is fertile, its land area is small, which makes even the small Tapi River Plain of great value to Siam.

After all, Siam is a backward agricultural country, and the country's income mainly comes from agriculture, and the Thapi River Plain is one of the country's financial and taxation centers.

As for the areas further south, they have not been effectively developed, and the management costs are still high, so they are far less important to Siam than the Thapi River Plain.