Chapter 661 Berlin Conference
As 1884 approaches, a conspiracy "gathering" is brewing in Europe. As in the previous life, the location is Berlin, but the purpose and content of this Berlin Conference are greatly different. Differently, and surprisingly, East African governments were also invited.
The previous Berlin Conference was mainly caused by the dispute over the Congo River Basin, but the trigger for this Berlin Conference was the Niger River Basin.
After all, East Africa has de facto controlled most of the Congo River Basin. Only the lower reaches of the Congo River are controlled by Belgium and Portugal respectively, while the outlet of the Congo River is completely controlled by the Portuguese colony of Angola. Therefore, the Congo River Basin is currently under the control of Belgium and Portugal. There is no so-called dispute.
“German Prime Minister Bismarck plans to convene an international conference on West African affairs. Nominally, it is to bring civilization to West Africa and change the local backwardness. In fact, it is to completely resolve the increasingly fierce confrontation and conflict in West Africa. Disputes, or the colonists of various West African countries, want to divide the interests of West Africa and speed up the colonization of West Africa.”
"Invite us? Will they let East Africa enter West Africa?" Constantine said jokingly.
“This is the weird thing. We in East Africa are definitely the leading force in Africa now. If they get involved in West Africa, aren’t they asking for trouble! So I’m afraid there are some coming this time. Not good.”
“This Berlin Conference is actually a contest between Britain, France and Germany in West Africa, with Spain and Belgium included. , the Netherlands, Portugal and other traditional colonial powers.”
Portugal’s colonies in West Africa are mainly the small coastal territory of the Kingdom of Dahomey-Wida, as well as the Portuguese Sao Tome and Principe on the Atlantic Ocean. Compared with islands, bad ships also have three pounds of nails. This is the case of Portugal, so the Berlin Conference cannot avoid this colonial power that has completely declined.
Of course, Portugal is mentioned in particular, mainly because Portugal’s participation in this international conference is quite ironic. As in previous lives, the countries eligible to participate in this Berlin Conference are the sixteen “world powers” by Western standards.
Specifically, they include the five major gangsters in Europe, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and Austria, then the United States, Spain, the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, the Kingdom of Italy, Portugal, and the only African country qualified to participate - the Kingdom of Hechingen (East African Kingdom).
If Portugal is not counted as a "powerful country", then Denmark, Norway, and only half of Italy are all embarrassed. Although Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden are small in size, they are either developed or wealthy. , or like Sweden, which is very influential in Northern Europe, and these countries are no worse than several major powers in terms of industrialization.
“This Berlin Conference did not invite us to Sigmaringen. Will this affect our strategic layout of Sigmaringen?” Prince Karl asked.
Sigmaringen is indeed more concerned about the content of this conference than East Africa, because the main expansion direction of Sigmaringen's future territory is West Africa in order to seek an independent sea outlet, but this Berlin Conference disrupted Sigmaringen layout.
What is even more embarrassing is that Sigmaringen is not qualified to sit at the negotiating table, that is, the mainstream countries in the world do not recognize the existence of the Sigmalingen royal territory.
In fact, this is not because Europe is discriminating, but because many countries do not know the existence of the Sigmaringen colony at all, including Germany, which led this meeting.
Because of the geographical location of Sigmaringen, it is indeed too remote. Even the Eastern Azande Province at the junction of East Africa and Sigmaringen actually has only a small population except for the army, not to mention that it has to go through East Africa to get back to the province. Developing Sigmaringen in the Chad region.
Some French expeditions knew the existence of the royal territory of Sigmaringen, but they mistook it for East Africa.
Because before Sigmaringen, the indigenous people in Chad mainly dealt with East Africa. Many indigenous forces who fled from the Great Lakes region to Chad naturally regarded East Africa as their suzerainty.
So before the royal territory of Sigmaringen colonized the Chad region, the East African Army often patrolled the Chad region to escort East African geologists and expedition teams deep into West Africa. In this way, the Chad region was regarded as East African territory by the French, but in fact it has become the territory of the Sigmaringen royal family in recent years, and the local indigenous forces were expelled by East Africa in advance.
“Karl, you don’t have to worry. At this meeting, we will definitely guarantee the basic interests of Sigmaringen. However, because of the sudden incident, I think there may be some problems with Sigmaringen getting access to the sea in the future. It’s difficult!” Constantine analyzed.
The final result of the Berlin Conference will definitely be to divide the spheres of influence according to the strength of each party in West Africa. Therefore, except for those countries that have colonies in West Africa, such as Austria-Hungary, Tsarist Russia, and Norway , Sweden, and even East Africa are all spectators. Of course, since they participate in the meeting, they will definitely compensate the participating countries in terms of economic benefits, including business, transportation, development and other rights in West Africa.
In fact, large areas of land in West Africa have not been developed, especially the inland. In this era, a quick way for colonists to develop the inland was to follow the waterways and go deep into the inland areas.
This is also the reason why expedition teams from Europe and the United States like to explore the source of rivers. In his previous life, Stanley used the banner of exploring the source of the Congo River to carry out preparatory work for the colonization of the Congo Basin with funding from Belgium.
This time, he did not have this opportunity, because everything west of the Kinshasa area was within the control area of East Africa, and the East African inland river and lake troops could cruise the entire middle reaches of the Congo River.
The outlet of the Congo River was also completely controlled by the Portuguese with the demise of the Kingdom of Congo. The Portuguese are still a considerable force in Africa, especially in recent years in order to deal with East Africa. Significantly improve military strength.
So explorers like Stanley could only carry out activities in the Niger River Basin. In addition, the fierce competition between Britain, France and Germany in West Africa over the years led to the convening of the Berlin Conference.
Originally, France was the strongest in West Africa, but Britain also occupied many good places, the most famous of which was the Gold Coast. Now Germany, a new world power, has also plunged into the quagmire of West Africa, covering the entire West African coastline. A mess.
There is no way around this. East Africa has blocked the British road to the south and north, so they can only sacrifice themselves and compete with Germany and France for the last uncolonized area of West Africa.
"This time Germany invited us to participate in the Berlin Conference, most likely to ask us to support its colonial activities in West Africa. As for East Africa wanting to benefit from this conference, it is basically impossible. After all, Britain, France and Germany, including other countries We don't want a giant country to appear in Africa.
So our primary goal is to strive for conditions based on economic interests, like Tsarist Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while ensuring the royal territory of Sigmaringen. However, the current situation of the West African coastline is complicated, and it is difficult for the last few major powers to reach an agreement on the distribution of West Africa," Ernst said.
The main reason is that Sigmaringen entered Africa too late. If Sigmaringen colonized Africa at the same time as Belgium, then this matter would be much easier to handle.
Constantin also said to Prince Karl: "If Sigmaringen wants to obtain the sea port, it must negotiate with Germany. You ask Leopold to discuss this matter with the Prussian royal family in advance. If Germany agrees, Then this matter will be much easier to handle, but in this way, Sigmaringen will also owe Germany some favors in the future.”
We are not afraid of owing favors anyway, especially to the three royal families. They are all branches of the Hohenzollern family, and they are the three main branches, so the Prussian royal family will definitely support Sigmaringen, but the attitude of the Prussian royal family does not necessarily represent the attitude of the German government.
(End of this chapter)