Chapter 499: The Establishment of Diplomatic Relations
“The war between East and Portugal ended so quickly, which fully shows that Portugal is not a rival at the same level in East Africa. This is just like Mexico to the United States. We can see that in Africa A regional hegemonic country similar to the United States in North America is rapidly emerging. If no one curbs the development of East Africa, Africa will also become Africa for Africans." - "The Times"
For Africans. Regarding this statement about Africa, a reporter from The Sun conducted an exclusive interview with Will, the East African Ambassador stationed in Germany.
"Ambassador Will, the Times recently commented that Africa will become Africa for Africans. Is this African alluding to East Africa."
Will: "Regarding this statement, we are Objection, East Africa has never said that Africa is Africa for Africans. In fact, we can see that East Africa’s influence in Africa is limited to itself. North Africa is the traditional sphere of influence of the Arabs, and the country with the greatest influence in West Africa is France, South Africa and the UK are also very strong. In addition, Spain, Italy, Belgium and other countries are all involved in Africa. This shows that Africa is currently diversified, rather than an Africa of Africans in some populations. I want to ask who is Africa? People? Who represents the Africans? Not the Germans, not the French, not the Arabs, so the Africans’ Africa is just an empty anxiety.”
Will's interview received widespread attention in Europe, because East Africa had a relatively low-key presence in Europe before, but the East-Portuguese War made the entire European society interested in the African country of East Africa for the first time.
Portugal, the old colonial power, has lost all face this time, and Portuguese domestic public opinion has sharply criticized East Africa and the current government.
Just like the Times, the Portuguese mainstream media exaggerated East Africa as the biggest threat to Africa.
After all, Portugal has lost a lot of face this time. Portugal is heartbroken when Brazil becomes independent. In the past, Portugal failed to compete with Spain, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. Portugal can understand it, but it was defeated by an African country and ceded territory to seek peace. It was simply What a shame.
As a result, the current Portuguese government collapsed. After taking office, the new prime minister emphasized the need to recover lost territory through various means, and at the same time announced sanctions on East Africa.
The more eagerly Portugal jumps, the less East Africa will take Portugal to heart. Will it sanction East Africa? It's ridiculous. While East Africa regards Portugal as a clown, other countries are beginning to dig deeper into the reasons behind Portugal's humiliation.
What follows is an assessment of East Africa’s national power. Because East Africa practices isolationism, the East African Navy is the most intuitive manifestation of East Africa’s national power.
Then everyone was surprised to find that the East African Navy had unknowingly reached the seventh position in the world, only behind the Austro-Hungarian Empire and above Germany. The Army could only rely on guesswork from various countries. However, according to the East African It can be estimated that there were at least 200,000 army troops in East Africa during the Portuguese War.
So from the perspective of military strength, East Africa can be regarded as a world power. It is unclear how strong it is, but it is definitely above Portugal.
What follows is the East African threat theory. In fact, the East African threat theory has been around for a long time. This argument began to appear after East Africa occupied South Africa, but most of them were taken by the Hessingen Consortium. The controlled media suppressed it.
As for the Africa of Africans, no matter how stupid East Africa is, they will not say such a thing, because who doesn’t know that Africans generally refer to black people, and East Africa will not rush to expel itself from German citizenship.
However, the sour comments from The Times and the Portuguese media can also tell the true mentality of Britain and Portugal. The East-Portuguese War can be said to have been the result of Britain forcibly holding Portugal down and then ending. Britain knows one thing, that is East Africa has not yet exerted its full strength, but Portugal's two colonies have already drained all their potential.
The direct consequence of the East-Portuguese War was that some countries began to seek to develop friendly relations with East Africa. Among them, Italy and Belgium were the most active. Both countries' colonies are next to East Africa. Therefore, in order to meet their interests, they must Build good relations with East Africa.
As a result, both Italy and Belgium sent diplomats to Dar es Salaam to discuss the establishment of diplomatic relations with East Africa. This was also the first time that a European country took the initiative to establish diplomatic relations with East Africa. The Dutch also later, Diplomats were sent to discuss the matter with East Africa. In fact, East Africa has diplomatic relations with these three countries, but it is similar in nature to the German Chamber of Commerce established in the Far Eastern Empire during the East African colonial period, but it was one step closer after the East-Portuguese War.
The Netherlands has a good relationship with East Africa and has had many cooperations. In addition, the Netherlands may have noticed East Africa's actions on the island of Kalimantan, so a timely and formal consultation platform is needed to prevent conflicts between the two countries.
The Lanfang Republic is not large, so it does not matter if it is given over to East Africa, but there are Dutch colonies nearby. If there is a conflict between the two countries, it seems that East Africa is really capable of cutting off the connection between the Netherlands and the East Indies.
For these friendly countries, East Africa is of course open to all comers, but the planned embassy area in East Africa makes people have to complain.
The embassy area planned by East Africa is in Dar es Salaam, not the first town in the capital. However, East Africa is relatively sincere. According to various countries, Dar es Salaam is the largest city in East Africa. In a prosperous city, the construction level of the first town is too backward and cannot provide corresponding services. Dar es Salaam
The level of business and service industry in the first town is indeed not as prosperous as Dar es Salaam, but it is not as bad as described in East Africa.
However, Ernst considered from a practical perspective that the relationship between East Africa and these countries was not good enough for them to move to the East African capital. As a highly centralized country, the first town and city officials knew relatively high intelligence, and there was a risk of being bribed. Therefore, it is better to place the diplomatic personnel of these countries in Dar es Salaam.
Anyway, Dar es Salaam is not far from the first town. It only takes less than an hour by train, and there is also telegraph communication.
In addition to these countries that have real interests in East Africa, there are also some countries that simply have good relations with the Hechingen royal family or East Africa, so they have established embassies in East Africa.
Ernst established the embassies of these countries in the first town, including Germany and Austria, newly independent Romania, Sweden, the Far Eastern Empire, Paraguay, etc.
Of course, the Far Eastern Empire's embassy is quite special, and I can't say what its relationship with East Africa is, but for the Far Eastern Empire, East Africa is definitely a country with relatively good relations among the countries, at least it is easier to talk to.
In fact, there is a third type of country embassy area in East Africa, that is, the Zanzibar Island embassy area. The countries that are stationed in the Zanzibar Island embassy area include the Ottomans, the United States, Japan and other countries.
So the diplomatic construction of East Africa is seriously mixed with Ernst's personal emotions, which also reflects the unparalleled control and influence of the Hechingen royal family in East Africa as an autocratic monarchy in East Africa.
The three embassy areas in East Africa also reflect the differences in East African diplomacy. The ones in the first town are definitely friends from East Africa, the city of Dar es Salaam is a friendly country, and the island of Zanzibar is a hodgepodge. .
This kind of embassy division also has confidential arrangements, such as the mixed economic system in East Africa. Ernst did not want to reveal it. The Paris Commune was in front of it, and East Africa did not want to have anything to do with it. Although the two The author is not the same thing at all, but many policy-related things have too high a duplication check rate, so it is not good for interested people to use and interpret them. Moreover, whether it is monarchy, class autocracy, or slavery, currently countries do not seem to accept it very well. Welcome, East Africa is indeed too reactionary.
(End of this chapter)