Chapter 1137 Territorial Transaction
So in terms of East Africa’s feedback on Germany’s help, East Africa is completely worthy of Germany. It’s just that these feedbacks are not what Germany needs most urgently. What Germany needs is East Africa’s strategic role. Cooperate with Germany in all aspects, rather than those "empty" things in the economy.
However, Germany obviously cannot say that economic cooperation between the two countries is unimportant. After all, Germany's geographical location, climate environment, and land size determine Germany's disadvantages in many aspects, especially its reliance on East Africa for support for many strategic materials.
Xiao Maoqi said: "Actually, East Africa's proposal is also the best choice for us. At this time, it is simply impossible for us to consider overseas territories. If we can exchange these overseas territories for The support from East Africa is also a good result. These overseas territories It was originally the leftovers divided between Britain and France. "
"For the empire, as long as it defeats Britain and France, the rich colonies in the Middle East and India are not yet available, so it is for us to realize these colonies. The most beneficial.”
Moltke's statement made many high-level officials in Germany fall into silence. In fact, the German government understood this truth in their hearts, but they still felt a little aggrieved. The saddest thing was the psychological hurdle.
Now that Little Maoqi has made his words clear, it is at least a good psychological comfort to the German government. Everything is for the empire. As for East Africa, Germany should now vigorously win over it. Even if they cannot become comrades-in-arms, as long as East Africa Being able to show a friendly attitude towards Germany is also a good thing for Germany.
After all, except for East Africa, other countries outside of Europe are not very helpful to Germany. For example, the United States, although its industrial strength is the largest in the world, but based on the relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, there is a high probability that it will lean towards the British side. .
Although East Africa and the United States both declare neutrality, the relationship between the countries is also different. East Africa is at least a German country, so it will naturally be biased towards Germany.
This is also true. Although Ernst chose to stand aside, he secretly still hoped that the Allies would achieve final victory, and East Africa also provided a lot of support to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Teko provided a lot of help to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
At this point, William II could only say helplessly: "Let Ambassador Boers from East Africa come and sign an agreement with us!"
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"We in East Africa definitely support Germany. , after all, Germany’s victory in the war is a great thing for the entire German nation. As a member of the German nation, we will not oppose Germany on this matter, but hope that Germany can achieve European hegemony.”
Boers talked a lot about the friendship between East and Germany when he came up. This was actually Boors' real idea. After all, East Africa is also a German country. As a German, Boors naturally leaned towards Germany in his heart.
Of course, it was different in the eyes of the German monarchs and ministers. Burse, an East African with obvious mixed-race characteristics, still seemed particularly awkward among the genuine Germans.
It is hard not to feel a sense of disobedience in the hearts of German monarchs and ministers. You, an East African with obvious Far Eastern descent, are brazenly claiming to be a member of the German nation. So who do they think they are?
To be honest, East Africans have changed a lot in the outside world in recent years. In the past, most East Africans abroad had serious Germanic faces, or there were a very few who were completely different from Germanic people. There is a clear distinction between the two East Asian faces.
Nowadays, people from East Africa traveling abroad have been replaced by a large number of faces with obvious mixed-race characteristics, and their accents also have obvious Swabian, or South German, accents.
This change in appearance and language all illustrates the success of the assimilation policy in East Africa. It is obvious that the racial integration in East Africa is very thorough, and the promotion of German is quite smooth.
The only pity is that there are some subtle differences between East African Standard German and Germany, especially those in Berlin. After all, Berlin is in the northeast of Germany, and there is a relatively clear difference in accent.
Of course, the German government is not too surprised by this East African spoken language. After all, East African Standard German was originally collected from southern Germany, especially the Swabian region. Swabian German is actually very widely distributed in Germany and even around the world. After all, the South German region used to be the area with the most serious population loss in Germany, including Austria, other regions of Germany, East Africa, North America, South America, Croatia and many other countries and regions. Both have a large Swabian German-speaking population.
For example, in the Croatian region within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Germans in Croatia call themselves Danube Swabians. It can be seen that the population flow in the Swabian region has driven the development of Swabian dialects. flow.
The recent large-scale population movement was brought about by the East African regime, including the original Hechingen royal family, which is now the Rhine royal family, which itself belongs to the Swabian cultural circle.
In short, Boers and other East African officials brought a very novel sense to the German monarchs and ministers. Of course, from the perspective of extreme German nationalists in Germany, East Africa definitely does not belong to the German nation. Compared with those who consider themselves orthodox, To the Germans, the East Africans seemed like a new people.
Of course, senior officials in the German government would definitely not say that. Although East Africa is ethnically mixed with a large number of immigrants from the Far East, it is almost the same as Germany in other aspects. More importantly, Germany needs East Africa at this time, let alone East Africa. Kicking Germany out will only make Germany's enemies happy.
William II said: "Okay, Ambassador Burles, let's get straight to the point. Regarding our overseas territories, it's not that we can't transfer them to East Africa, but East Africa must give us their due value. After all, these overseas territories It is also an important part of the empire's territory."
Boers replied: "Naturally. No problem, we in East Africa will give Germany a satisfactory solution based on the market price. We in East Africa are willing to purchase these German colonies for 50 million Rhine guilders.”
The currency value of the Rhine guilder can be said to be the largest in the world. For a big country, it is relatively low. Fifty million Rhine guilders sounds very coaxing, but in fact it is only about eight million US dollars.
This price also made William II frown. After all, what East Africa wanted was all of Germany's overseas colonies.
Boers said: "This price is definitely not low. After all, most of the areas such as German Central Africa and the Pacific Territory are sparsely populated tropical rainforest areas, and development is very difficult. Especially those islands in the Pacific are simply unable to support large-scale operations. Activities.”
“It is even blunt to say that many of these colonies are relatively useless, and they are colonies of Britain and France. No country is interested in the existence, so 50 million Rhine guilders is definitely a sincerity..."
As a buyer, Boors must find more faults in these colonies, but in fact Boors really did not belittle them As for the attributes of these German colonies, the most valuable ones for East Africa are German Central Africa and Togoland, but that's just the way it is for East Africa.
Although German Central Africa is close to East Africa, it is covered with large areas of undeveloped virgin rainforest. Even if East Africa wants to develop the area, it will not be too easy, and this is especially difficult for Germany. A bottomless pit.
These overseas territories are indeed a bottomless pit for the German government. The investment far exceeds the income, and it is impossible for Germany to defend it.
Rather than taking advantage of the Entente, it would be better to hand it over to East Africa. At least it can get some practical benefits from East Africa. After defeating Britain and France, Germany will not only be able to establish its right to speak on the European continent, but also directly plunder the wealthy colonies of Britain and France.
So, although Boers was a little picky, Germany still agreed to East Africa's plan. As for the specific payment, it was completely required by Germany to replace it with the war supplies that Germany needed, and this was what East Africa wanted. After all, East Africa The port warehouse has long stockpiled a large amount of materials, just to use these materials to make a lot of money during the war.
(End of this chapter)