Chapter 475 Take action
The British government is calculating the strength of East Africa. The more it calculates, the more it realizes that there is no good way to take over East Africa. Although the size is not large, it is as big as a giant when placed on one-third of an acre of Africa. existence.
After all, apart from Cape Town and North Africa, Africa can no longer find a force that can compete with East Africa in terms of white population. Moreover, the country in East Africa is still composed of Germans. Although it is not very pure, civilization recognizes the natural Favoring Germany.
What does this mean for the UK? Just one Germany is enough to cause a headache for the UK. Add the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the influence of the Germans is enough to change the entire world. If East Africa is allowed to serve as the raw material supply base for these two industrial powers, Britain's dominance will be greatly affected. threaten.
When Benjamin thought of this, he said solemnly: "East Africa is not an ordinary country. For this kind of private colonial company that monopolizes millions of square kilometers in Africa, it has seriously undermined regional peace and stability. As a world order Defenders, we cannot continue to allow the disorderly development of East Africa, we must strike hard!”
Benjamin clearly defined East Africa as a private colonial group like the British East India Company. The glory of the British East India Company was that it occupied India, but the Indian colonies were only three million square kilometers, and the East African Kingdom was indeed twice the area of India. More (so the British government thinks), East Africa The kingdom may not have as superior land as India, nor may the population be as rich as India, but for a country with such a large land area, sooner or later the population will accumulate and become a force sufficient to influence the world pattern. Not to mention affecting the world pattern, the current pattern of the Western Indian Ocean is has changed.
Benjamin then said seriously: "We can look for thugs in other regions of the world to deal with potential enemies that are difficult for us to overcome and achieve strategic balance. But is there any opponent in Africa that can match East Africa?"
"Moreover, the ambitions of the East African Kingdom go far beyond that. They are still expanding, and they have already appeared on the east coast of the Atlantic. With their figures, Southwest Africa is about to fall into the hands of East Africa, and Africa still has vast inland areas with great potential. Now East Africa's land is seven million square kilometers, and tomorrow it may be tens of millions of square kilometers. Will it dominate Africa in the future? ”
At this point, Benjamin himself suddenly found that he had a little fear of East Africa, but he tried to calm down.
The Chancellor of Finance said: "Your Excellency Prime Minister, maybe the situation is not as serious as we think. Although the land area of East Africa is large, I think the potential of East Africa is at most the same level as Canada and Australia. We are also in Africa. There are colonies, and the conditions are definitely much better than those in Africa, a Gold Coast , Cape Town is the most valuable land in Africa, but to be honest, the importance of these two colonies to the British Empire is obviously not prominent in the entire system, especially the economic value is not high, so East Africa If you want to develop, you don’t need land alone. It is definitely difficult to develop in Africa.”
Let’s not talk about the money confiscated by the Chancellor of the Exchequer from East Africa. The main reason is that the government really has no money now. The navy, a gold-eating beast, has rising expenses every year. In addition, government expenditures are already huge during the economic crisis. Furthermore, Britain is now in South Asia. Regional expenses account for a large amount energy, now the Russians are becoming more and more dishonest, and there are strong signs of wanting to break through the blockade. Russia is not a country in East Africa where whether it can develop is questionable, but a real threat that has the strength to break the British hegemony. This The threat was even greater than the Germans.
“Now that the reform of Tsarist Russia has been completed, Alexander II is also the hero, and the threat of Tsarist Russia should obviously be put first. Although Germany is developing rapidly, the French are watching from the side, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is also There are differences of interest with Tsarist Russia, but Tsarist Russia is obviously the largest in Central Asia and the Far East. The threat is even directly related to India’s security issues.”
East Africa’s naval strength is good, but the United Kingdom is completely concerned about it. India’s Royal Navy alone has the ability to tightly restrict East Africa. , Tsarist Russia is different. Tsarist Russia’s strategic direction is land, and that happens to be Britain’s weakness.
The words of the Chancellor of Finance did not make Benjamin feel relaxed, but made him feel heavier. Tsarist Russia, the United States, Germany, the Far East are half, and East Africa is barely half. These countries have developed very well in recent years, and the corresponding countries are Britain and France. The right to speak of the two maintainers of the world order has been challenged.
Benjamin lamented: "With more and more competitors, the cost of maintaining the empire's status is getting higher and higher. It is really too weak to do all the work!"
The conversation changed: "However, the more this happens, the less we can turn a blind eye to the existence of East Africa, and we cannot add new challengers to the empire. You all think of a way, how can we strangle East Africa in the cradle?"< br>
Ernst would have laughed to death if he heard this sentence. It is not wrong to say the cradle. In Ernst’s opinion, East Africa is indeed very fragile, but with the secret development over the years, East Africa has also developed a complete set of crisis response methods. The ability is barely considered a giant baby. If the UK wants to completely strangle East Africa, low investment is not enough. High investment must consider the risk of being stolen by other countries.
Benjamin’s words made everyone a little confused. What is the weakness of East Africa? Let Ernst say that it is trade. If East Africa is cut off from foreign trade, East Africa will be really uncomfortable. But the British fell into a misunderstanding. Is there any foreign trade in East Africa? The answer is definitely yes. The problem is that the trade system in East Africa is more like an extension of the German-Austrian trade. It relies on the trade system of the two countries and is disguised as the export of German capital. Therefore, the British can feel the competition between Germany and Austria, especially German goods. I really have no feeling for East Africa.
Essentially, East Africa is a colony of Germany and Austria, but this colony has its own independent thoughts. Economically, East Africa has sacrificed huge profits to Germany and Austria. It’s just that these benefits are distributed through the Hechingen Consortium, transferred from East Africa to the Hechingen Consortium, and the Hechingen Consortium is indeed part of the German capital. The wealth created by this part of capital in the German region has indeed benefited A business group with close ties to the common people, government and Hechingen capital.
The Foreign Secretary asked in a timely manner: "East Africa is a very closed country. It is completely a puppet of Germany and Austria. It is not connected with the world market. Sometimes it is even impossible to feel the existence of East Africa as a country. They have no relationship with our country." When dealing with diplomacy, this feeling is like not being Like the Far Eastern Empire before we forcibly opened the country? But the rulers of East Africa are the Hechingen royal family, pure German nobles. Why do they do this? To run a colony, you must consider the cost issue. Does the Hechingen royal family really want to just do this? Building a Middle Ages in Africa The feudal monarchy of the 19th century!”
The effect of seclusion is reflected here. East Africa can peek into the world through the window, while other countries have a dark eye on East Africa. Of course, not everyone does not understand it. East Africa, very few Austrians investing in East Africa Local businessmen have a clear understanding of East Africa, but they do not spread it around because they think the economic system in East Africa is too rebellious and completely contrary to the capitalist economy. Moreover, they are also afraid that the Austrian government will follow suit and Learn from what happened in East Africa.
The economic system in East Africa is quite complex, but in this economic system the monarch is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary, followed by the aristocrats and bureaucratic groups in East Africa, and finally the common people, but there is no place for capitalists, and This model seems to be applied well in East Africa, so they tacitly refrain from telling the national conditions of East Africa. If the Habsburg family does the same, who will suffer it! And this is not impossible, such as the nationalization of the railways in Austria-Hungary during the economic crisis.
Of course, conversely, East Africa can also be described as a medieval serfdom country. The problem is that serfdom is not what Austrian businessmen want to see, so East Africa is still playing it on its own. Get a set! As long as you don't go out to disturb others, and besides, as long as you can make money by cooperating with East Africa, no one is willing to give up the benefits of eating alone.
Well, the composition of East Africa is indeed complex, including feudalism, monarchy, autocracy, serfdom, state-owned economy, collective economy, monopoly capital, everything is gathered together. This is also a helpless choice. According to the historical process, the autocratic monarch should be thrown into the garbage dump of history. But Ernst’s butt cannot be crooked, so he can only copy a little bit from other systems. In the end, East Africa will become different.
Benjamin: "If East Africa is really a closed country like the Far East, where oil and salt cannot enter, then we can only use force to solve East Africa and force them to open up!"
There is really no way, no one knows The final destination for a country like East Africa What is the appeal? We can only compare it with the Far East, which is most similar to East Africa. Benjamin assumes that East Africa wants to develop a self-sufficient economic model like the previous Far Eastern Empire. Thinking about it this way, the two really have many things in common, including people. species in common.
“But are we declaring war in East Africa?”
“Of course not. We don’t know the combat effectiveness of the East African army, so we cannot act rashly. In this way, aren’t the Portuguese colonies on both sides of East Africa? Let's give Portugal a try first Water, if East Africa is just a faggot, then we will dismember it."
"Your Excellency, the fighting power of the Portuguese... I don't know if the East African army is a fad, but the Portuguese must be. Goods!”
"It doesn't matter, Portugal can't do it, why don't we still have us? Let's pull the French together, provide some support to Portugal, and arm the two Portuguese colonies! I believe the French are still capable of army training, especially last time They lost to the Germans, which just allowed them to compete with the Germans in the colonies.”
(End of this chapter)