A World Where Only Portugal Was Hurt

Von der Leyen's shameless words made even Allen Tal, biased as he was toward East Africa, twitch at the corner of his mouth.

Yet judging solely by the scale of the war, East Africa's demands were entirely reasonable. If the South African War had taken place on a European battlefield, it would have ranked among the foremost conflicts.

But what was Africa, and what was Europe? Allen Tal dared say with certainty that the losses caused by the South African War did not even compare to those inflicted by Austria's war against Venice back then. Venice itself was a major European city, and even its surrounding economy was far from poor. Meanwhile, most of the South African War's main battlefields had been wasteland, forests, and grasslands. Even if the war had dragged on for ten years without entering East Africa's core territory, it would not have had much impact on Africa.

Still, Allen Tal could only say, "Fine. East Africa's demands are fairly reasonable, but let us not discuss whether the Portuguese can accept this price for now. What we should focus on is the Boer Republic, Cape Town, and Natal. Regarding these two areas, Lord Von der Leyen, East Africa should make appropriate concessions to Britain. After all, East Africa cannot take all the good things for itself."

He deliberately stressed the word "concessions." Salisbury had said nothing just now, and that already represented Salisbury's stance to a certain extent.

Von der Leyen readily took the hint. "The conflict with Britain was, in truth, merely a misunderstanding between our two nations. Looking back through history, there has not been much bad blood between us and Britain. Therefore, we in East Africa are willing to respect Britain, provided that Britain does not harm our interests."

Count Von der Leyen had