Chapter 1288 Meeting between East and France
Of course, although East Africa still remains neutral, it is not polite when faced with the bait thrown by Britain and France, and will consider swallowing whatever it can.
Two days later.
"Ambassador Thomson, we in East Africa have always been a peace-loving country. At this stage, we have no consideration of participating in the European war." East African Foreign Minister Freer said with a serious face.
However, Ambassador Thomson still did not dare to take it lightly. Freer said the words "current stage" in his words.
While Thomson secretly scolded the East Africans for being cunning, he pretended to have a smile on his face and said to Freer with a hint of compliment: "Your Excellency Freer, we in France have always known that East Africa is a country that protects the world and the region. A stable big country that has made important contributions to the peaceful development of the world."
"In addition, the two countries have a long history and have always maintained friendly relations, so we in France also support the future. Let your country play a more important role in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic, thereby promoting peace and stability in the world."
He did not say a word of truth. East Africa has a history of nearly sixty years, and this is a short period of time. There has been almost no cessation in the past sixty years. East Africa can be said to be the biggest disruptor of regional stability. Otherwise, East Africa's tens of millions of square kilometers of land and colonies would not have been picked up out of the country.
But the situation is stronger than the people. In order to win over East Africa, Thomson even lost his face. Anyway, as a diplomat, telling lies with open eyes is a basic skill.
Friel said with a smile: "There, there, compared with your country, we in East Africa are just a junior. Your country has a decisive influence in the world, with colonies all over the world. important areas.”
"Although we in East Africa are also a world power, we are far behind France in overseas territories. Both Algeria and Indochina are fertile lands."
"Up to now, our colonies in East Africa are just Existing in name only, it has always been in losses and has been unable to make profits.”
"So, where do we in East Africa have the ability to further promote our influence in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean? Compared with your country, we are still far behind."
Faced with Freer's hypocrisy and coercion, Thomson did not say a word. Believe it or not, these "miscellaneous" Germans don't know whether they were influenced by the Far Eastern Empire, and they like to engage in this kind of superficially modest talk.
It is true that East African colonies are not wealthy places, but East Africa’s overseas colonies are so large!
France has worked hard for hundreds of years, and all its overseas territories add up to only 8 million square kilometers. However, East Africa, which has only a few decades of history, currently has a combined overseas territory of nearly 2 million square kilometers.
At first glance, it seems that there is a big gap between East Africa and France, but if you include the two countries, the situation is completely different.
The two provinces of Cameroon and Gabon, which were recently merged into East Africa, cover more than 600,000 square kilometers, which also makes the area of East Africa exceed 13.6 million square kilometers.
These two new provinces alone are much larger in area than France today, which only has more than 500,000 square kilometers, and that does not include Lorraine and Alsace in the previous life. area.
East Africa’s own giant, born in the 19th century, is enough to make France envious and jealous. Adding colonies, the area of East Africa is slightly smaller than Russia in its previous life.
With a land area of more than 13 million square kilometers, even if East Africa loses all its overseas colonies, it will be enough to support East Africa's status as a great power and continue to maintain its hegemony in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic.
So Ambassador Thomson is now extremely envious of the geographical conditions in East Africa. He has calculated in his mind that if France could take a step ahead of the Hohenzollerns and make drastic changes in Africa, it would probably be inferior to the UK today. Not going anywhere.
Of course, from a practical point of view, France has made great efforts in Africa, ranking second only to East Africa in the world. According to normal history, Britain and France carved up Africa, and Belgium and other small countries also drank the soup.
In this time and space, the British are unfortunate. Their African strategy in the previous life conflicted with the expansion of East Africa. This instead caused France, which focused its energy on West and North Africa, to gain a lot of power. Cheap.
France's previous overseas colonies before World War I were approximately more than 10 million square kilometers, most of which were concentrated in French West Africa (including North Africa and West Africa).
The area of France's overseas colonies in this life is only about 8 million square kilometers. One of the important factors is the rise of East Africa, which caused France to lose territory in Madagascar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville and many other places in its previous life.
It seems that France is also a victim of East Africa. In fact, this is not the case. After all, France basically had little interaction with East Africa during its expansion in Africa.
Moreover, compared to Britain, France concentrated on developing French West Africa, which put France in an advantageous position in its expansion in West Africa and North Africa.
Although Britain also had its own colonial strategy in West Africa, due to previous competition with East Africa in southern Africa, Britain lost an important period of opportunity to support its colonies in West Africa.
After the South African War, when the British had to turn their attention to West Africa, the French had already taken the lead and gained a huge advantage in West Africa. Today, France's colonies in Africa cover an area of about 4 million square kilometers, making it the largest colony in Africa. The second largest force after East Africa.
From a French perspective, the emergence of East Africa actually gave Britain a hard time, which secretly made the French very happy.
There are only two colonies in East Africa obtained from the French. One is Gabon, but Gabon is owned by the Germans and the French. Due to the conflict in Morocco, the two countries compensated Germany through the exchange of interests, and was finally sold by the German government. East Africa, so East Africa's acquisition of Gabon will not affect the relationship between France and East Africa.
Other than that, the only territorial connection between France and East Africa in Africa is the island of Mayotte. At that time, the Second French Empire had just collapsed. Mayotte was the principality of Hechingen assisting Prussia and participating in The spoils of the Franco-Prussian War.
If the French really want to settle these two accounts, they will definitely fall on the Germans in the end. In short, they have nothing to do with East Africa. French people like Ambassador Thomson are very clear about these historical issues. . You know it, France can only curse the Germans a few more times.
Ambassador Thomson said: "Your Excellency Freer, you are too modest. No matter how the war in Europe develops, by the time the war is over, East Africa will become an emerging world power."
"We in France fully support East Africa's war on The Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic, and even the Pacific have played an important role, and your country has been able to shoulder the important task of maintaining world peace after the war."
"Our two countries should also play an important role. It’s time to build relationships in advance to deal with competition and threats from other countries, especially those that may pose obstacles and threats to your country’s strategy.”
There are only two countries that can pose strategic obstacles and threats to East Africa. One, that is, the United Kingdom and the United States. There is no doubt that the biggest obstacle to East Africa's desire to dominate the Indian Ocean is the British, while East Africa's potential competitors in the Pacific and Atlantic oceans are the Americans.
As for France, France focuses its energy on three places, Europe, West Africa (including North Africa) and Indochina (Indochina).
Of these three places, only in West Africa, France may have some intersection with East Africa, but currently there is only one colony in East Africa, Togoland, in West Africa. At the same time, this colony only borders the French Upper Volta and the Dahomey colony. The east and west are rich. The colonies are all in the hands of the British, so the one who should be most nervous is Britain, not France.
As for Upper Volta, the border with East Africa is less than 200 kilometers away, and the environment is relatively poor. It is not a place worth coveting. The Dahomey colony is not unique to France. The Portuguese and The British are all involved, so there is no pressure on the French here.
(End of this chapter)