Chapter 1057: Arms Business First
In Ernst’s view, Germany’s diplomatic form should not be like this. Although Germany is currently the most powerful country on the European continent, compared to France and Russia, it does not Absolute advantage, at least this is the common concept in European countries.
As far as France is concerned, although French industry and population have been far behind Germany, France's military strength has been growing rapidly over the years. The French army can be said to be completely prepared for Germany, regardless of Both quantity and quality are not inferior to Germany.
Before the outbreak of World War I in the previous life, France declared that it had the strongest army in Europe. After the outbreak of World War I, the performance of the French Army was indeed impressive.
So France alone is not a hard nut that Germany can easily chew off. If Britain and Russia are added to it, Germany will eventually be surrounded and suppressed by the Allied Powers.
Of course, the poor quality of Germany's allies was also the main reason. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was in a mess, and its military actions were completely inconsistent with its status as a traditional European power. And Italy, a young kid, jumped directly to the Allied camp before the war started.
In short, the current development of the world situation has completely deviated from Ernst's judgment. Without Italy as a second-tier boy, whether Germany can launch a war is a question.
Of course, due to the needs of its own development, East Africa naturally hopes that European countries will fight hard. No matter which side wins, East Africa will gain a lot of benefits. It is estimated that the United States has a similar idea.
The key to the outbreak of World War I was Germany. In order for this war to break out, Germany must be strengthened, allowing it to expand and eventually detonate the entire Europe.
So helping Germany control the Ottoman Empire is just a convenient thing for East Africa. In order not to disrupt Germany's layout, East Africa must take Germany as the mainstay in the Ottoman Empire.
In January 1908, the East African diplomatic mission formally communicated with German diplomats in the Ottoman Empire. Germany responded positively to the "gift package" sent by East Africa.
After all, the main purpose of this action in East Africa is to cause trouble for Britain and Russia, and the two countries also have a certain consensus on supporting the Ottoman Empire.
With Germany acting as a bridge of communication, East Africa and the Ottoman Empire easily reached some cooperation, and the prerequisite for these cooperation basically cannot avoid Germany's approval. After all, Germany has an important influence on the Ottoman Empire. The premise is to support pro-German forces in the Ottoman Empire army.
For example, Germany helps train the Ottoman Empire army. If East Africa does not consult with Germany, it will easily lead to an own mistake.
The German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire emphasized: "The current military training in the Ottoman Empire should be led by our instructors. East Africa should not interfere too much. Even if it intervenes, it should be consistent with Germany. It is best not to use East Africa as a not as a German, but as a German."
It is very common to have an influence on a country's military through military instructors and consultants. For example, in the previous life of Germany and Japan, the United States dispatched military personnel or consultants within the army of the Republic of China government in the Far East Empire.
So Germany does not want East Africa to establish contact with the Ottoman Empire army in a separate capacity. Since Germany has invested a lot of resources, if East Africa acts alone, it will easily make people suspect that East Africa is here to "pick peaches."
East Africa readily accepted Germany's request. East Africa did not expect its country to have much influence on the Ottoman Empire. As long as the Ottoman Empire could exert a certain restraint on Britain and Russia, then East Africa's purpose would be reached.
Germany is naturally very satisfied with East Africa's cooperation, and the Ottoman Empire also has a very friendly attitude towards East Africa. After communication between East Africa and Germany, the Ottoman Empire mistakenly believed that East Africa belonged to Germany, so it allowed the Ottoman Empire to continue It does East Africa no good to maintain this wonderful misunderstanding.
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Compared with the smooth development of diplomatic activities in the Ottoman Empire, East Africa's diplomatic activities in Persia were more complicated. The main reason is that the strength of the country of Persia is far from comparable to that of the Ottoman Empire. Facing Britain and Russia, Persia does not even have the intention to resist.
“We have communicated with the Persian government, but Persia has been dealing with Russia and Britain all year round. The Persian government has always been the loser, and it is not as enterprising as the Ottoman Empire government. "
The Al-Shabaab party currently in power in the Ottoman Empire has a relatively high spirit. It can be regarded as the "Westernization faction" of the Ottoman Empire and is not willing to keep bowing in front of Western countries.
But Persia is completely different. Whether facing Britain or Russia, Persia has to be too "weak" in the eyes of East African diplomats.
"The top-level government in Persia has no ambition at all, and although Persia has political forces that hate Britain and Russia, they are not popular, so it is more difficult for us to make an issue with Persia."
"Persia The government's attitude toward us is more about vigilance and use to check Russia and Britain."
Ernst was not surprised by the Persian government's thinking. He said: "Persia is Persia. As an important country in the Gulf, if we want to intervene there, we cannot avoid Persia. Since Persia does not have the confidence to confront Britain and Russia, we will give our confidence to them. As long as it can arouse the fear of Britain and Russia, even if it only has a little effect, Our goal has been achieved. As for supporting Persia, it has never been our real purpose.”
East Africa just wants to confuse the situation in the Middle East and Central Asia, and does not really want to contribute to local development, so Persia’s Attitude doesn't matter.
“First expand the local arms trade market. As long as weapons flow into the Persian Gulf, the headache will not be for us, but for Britain and Russia. By then, Britain and Russia will inevitably negotiate with us.”< br>
In fact, the Middle East and Central Asia have always been the arms markets of East Africa. The local arms trade in East Africa has already begun in the 1970s. The most typical one is the war in Afghanistan. East Africa exported a large number of weapons to the local armed forces, which made the British at that time I had a headache for a while.
With the current round of arms trade expansion in East Africa, it is not just Afghanistan, but all the people in the region who can become potential customers in East Africa. The inflow of large amounts of arms will inevitably make the United Kingdom and Russia The locally constructed rule was in turmoil.
Of course, in addition to disrupting the local situation, Ernst also has an important purpose, which is to strengthen East Africa's own military industrial production capacity.
At present, the East African military industry is not too big due to the size of the army, especially reflected in rifles, machine guns, artillery and other weapons. After all, the total number of East African defense forces does not exceed 400,000, which is not even comparable to Germany and France. superior.
In Ernst's view, the military industry is relatively profitable in a short period of time. If we wait until the outbreak of World War I to temporarily expand military production capacity, we will easily be in a hurry.
The current round of military industrial capacity expansion in East Africa, in addition to strengthening the country's military strength, is also mainly aimed at making a huge profit when World War I breaks out. When the First World War breaks out, military products will definitely be very popular, and even in order to make it easier for both parties to take advantage of it, East Africa must not only maintain weapons that meet its own standards, but also adapt to weapons popular in other countries on the market.
Even if the European arms market cannot be squeezed in, other regions of the world will temporarily lose their way to purchase arms due to the wars in Europe during World War I. Therefore, Ernst judged that there will be a gap in the arms market in the future. period, this window period is a good time for East Africa to make huge war fortunes.
At that time, the main competitor in East Africa was the United States. The United States was different from East Africa. The potential of the United States in weapons production actually exceeded that of East Africa at this time. After all, the United States is a country that does not ban guns, so the United States gun manufacturing industry can It is said that a hundred flowers bloom, but at the beginning of the 20th century, the variety of weapons was far less abundant than that of later generations. Many countries relied heavily on rifles, which was also reflected in wars. Only the great powers could engage in large-scale artillery bombardment.
(End of this chapter)