Chapter 1306 The United States Enters the War
1917 to 1918 were two years of turmoil in the international world. We were already at the juncture of World War I, and the establishment of Soviet Russia was a major historical event that was no less important than World War I. , in 1918, another incident happened, which added another fire to the already heated international situation.
In March 1918, with the active solicitation of Britain, the United States finally hurriedly declared war on the Allies. The Allies, which had just lost their Russian general, were instantly given a shot in the arm.
In Rhine City, the East African government once again launched a heated discussion.
Rogans, Minister of Finance of East Africa, said: "It is obviously reasonable for the United States to join the Allied Powers. From an economic perspective, from the outbreak of the war to the present, the United States has become the largest creditor of the Allied Powers. If the Allied Powers are defeated, , then the United States will inevitably face the risk that the Allied Powers camp will be unable to repay the loan.”
"This is obviously unacceptable to the U.S. government and enterprises. If the Allied Powers are defeated, not only will the Americans not be able to make a huge profit from the war, but they will lose everything."
"This may trigger domestic enterprises in the United States. bankruptcy crisis, thus triggering a national economic crisis, and a large number of unemployed workers may It can have more serious consequences for the U.S. regime than not participating in the war, so the United States has been tied to the chariot by Britain. "
Although East Africa is also a creditor of the Allied Powers, East Africa and the United States are different after all. The most important thing is. That is, the scale of interest exchanges between East Africa and the Allies is much larger than that of the United States.
This means that the victory or defeat of the Entente and Central Powers is not enough to have a decisive economic impact on East Africa.
What's more, since 1917, East Africa has begun to withdraw from the European market on a large scale, turning its energy to conquering the markets of southern countries, and is committed to cultivating its own economic sphere of influence.
Moreover, East Africa's loan review is obviously not friendly to European countries. The most typical example is the previous trade between East Africa and Russia. Russia's national credit is almost zero in East Africa, and the trade between the two countries is even settled through barter.
Of course, it is also true that the financial industry in East Africa is underdeveloped. It has only been less than ten years since the free market was opened. Private capital is very weak, excessive government intervention, etc. have made the development of the financial industry in East Africa very slow. The only The advantage is probably that it is relatively stable.
After all, the financial industry is a game where the big fish eats the small fish. The financial industry in East Africa cannot be the opponent of other established financial powers in any case. Therefore, in the early stage, the East African government must intervene in the financial market to maintain its own "fish pond" of stability.
On the contrary, there are almost no thresholds for large and small financial institutions in the United States compared to East Africa, and the U.S. government also lacks free market supervision. A large number of U.S. financial institutions, companies and even the U.S. government issued large amounts of war bonds to Europe.
In addition, there is another factor that cannot be ignored, that is, the United States has extensive connections with Europe in the financial field, which cannot be compared with East Africa.
Before the opening of the market, financial cooperation between East African and European countries was almost limited to the government level, while American companies and financial institutions have been developing for hundreds of years, and even have European financial backgrounds, especially the original sovereign country of the United Kingdom. There is a certain degree of integration between the financial industry and the United States itself.
This has led to the fact that almost all companies and financial institutions with certain strength in the United States have their own channels for contacting Europe.
At the same time, it also means that the U.S. government cannot prevent U.S. companies and financial institutions from having direct connections with Europe. Of course, the U.S. government obviously has no such intention.
This makes American companies and financial institutions greedy for European wealth almost unscrupulously lend money to European countries.
In the field of industrial capital, American companies could not resist the temptation of the European market, because in the early days of the war, the United States was poorly prepared, which made East African industrial products popular in the two European camps.
How could Americans not be jealous when they saw East Africa making money in Europe, so this further stimulated competition between Americans and East Africa for the European market in the middle and later stages of the war.
As for why it is Europe, the reason is very simple, that is, Europe has strong consumption power and strong accumulation. It can be said that the markets outside Europe combined are difficult to compare with the European market. In the hundreds of years since the Age of Discovery, there is no doubt that most of the world's wealth has flowed into Europe. Otherwise, Europe would not be able to support the existence of the five top powers (England, France, Germany, Austria, and Russia).
When the United States wants to enter the European market, it faces restrictions from Britain and France. This is different from East Africa. There are several more trade routes between East Africa and Europe than the United States (including land trade routes), and because of its location, trade with Europe cannot bypass Britain and France.
Of course, Russia's Siberian Railway is an option, but the railway obviously cannot compete with the sea route, not to mention that the Siberian Railway is very long, has harsh weather along the way, high maintenance costs, is prone to breakdowns, the Russian railway system is inefficient, etc. Because of this, except for Japan and the Far Eastern Empire, few countries attach importance to the Siberian Railway as a trade route.
In contrast, the Berlin-Baghdad-Basra Railway, the most important land trade artery between East Africa and the Allied Powers, is only one-third as long as the Siberian Railway, and the climate conditions are much better than those along the Siberian route.
However, as the Ottomans entered the war, this major transportation artery has been shut down. At the end of last year, the British sent troops from Persia and directly entered the Persian Gulf territory in the southern part of the Ottoman Empire.
All in all, it is difficult for the United States to compete with East Africa in terms of geographical conditions for trade with Europe. Of course, the United States is not without its advantages. After all, the North Atlantic route is conducive to trade between the United States and the Allied Powers.
The two core countries of the Allied Powers, Britain and France, were originally countries along the North Atlantic coast. Coupled with the obstruction of the British, American entrepreneurs who wanted to make a lot of war fortune could only continue to increase the distance between them and the Allied Powers. trade.
It can be said that in the past four years, the interests of the United States and the Allied Powers, especially the United Kingdom, have become more and more deeply bound. From the perspective of economic interests, it is not unexpected for the United States to join the Allied Powers.
Logans continued: "The geographical disadvantage of the United States makes them only have the Allied Powers as a cooperation target. Even if the US government wants to bypass the Allied Powers and the Central Powers to conduct large-scale trade activities, it cannot do so. And today, the Allied Powers have basically completely eliminated them. Cut off the foreign trade of the Allied camp."
"The Americans are like red-eyed gamblers, constantly raising their bets on the Allies, and even taking out their money. He lost all his wealth, so from an economic perspective, the United States would never allow the Allies to fail. "
"The final push for the United States to join the war was probably the collapse of the Russian tsarist regime, which made the Allies and the The balance of war between the Allies is unbalanced."
Summary of Rogers' words, we can roughly infer the underlying reasons for the US government to join the Allies.
To a large extent, the U.S. government was coerced by the huge interest groups composed of U.S. financial institutions, companies, and other organizations and had to join the war. Even if the U.S. government wanted to learn from East Africa, it would not sit back and watch the storm. It's possible.
East Africa does not have such troubles. Of course, East Africa also has its own interest groups, especially the powerful bureaucratic group in East Africa. But the problem is that the bureaucrats in East Africa do not have deep connections with Europe.
Even in the German region of Europe, that is, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the two core sources of immigrants from East Africa, the interest relationship between the upper classes of both parties is not close enough. On the contrary, the upper class of the United States Society and the British upper classes broke the bonds of bone and sinew.
In the final analysis, most of the bureaucrats in East Africa are from the bottom, and they just want to curry favor with the German aristocratic fellows. They may not necessarily like this group of "political upstarts".
Moreover, the geographical location of East Africa cannot be forced by East African bureaucrats to go to Europe. Transportation from East Africa to Europe cannot bypass the sea route. During this period, it will take more than ten days. Generally, it is not an important matter. It is difficult for East Africans to find opportunities to interact with European nobles. On the other hand, there are many small countries in Europe and there are so many nobles that it is much more convenient for them to visit each other.
These reasons have affected the exchanges between East Africa and European countries, but Ernst is happy to see the results.
(End of this chapter)