African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1056: Germany Takes the Lead

East Africa's support for the Ottoman Empire and Persia was relatively simple and direct, which was to help the two countries, especially the Ottoman Empire, build certain military capabilities.

The Ottoman Empire, which once dominated Europe and Asia, is actually not bad in military terms even now. It can actually manufacture most of the world's mainstream military weapons by itself, which is the same as the Far Eastern Empire.

After all, the Ottoman Empire had a population of only more than 30 million. If its military capabilities were not strong enough, it would have been devoured by Tsarist Russia or the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The fact is that the Ottoman Empire dragged its ancient body to fight against Tsarist Russia for hundreds of years, and its exchanges with European countries were never interrupted. The reason why the Ottoman Empire had difficulty in achieving anything was that it was slow in establishing a modern industrial system, which was a common problem for many traditional ancient countries.

"Constantinople, Istanbul of the Ottomans, the Ottoman Empire is located at the junction of the Eurasian continent, so it has frequent cultural, political and economic exchanges with Europe. For various reasons, when Europe was rapidly industrializing, the Ottoman Empire's ships were too large to turn around, but this did not hinder the prosperity of Constantinople at all." The head of the East African delegation, Moslade, stood on the bow of the ship and looked at Constantinople in the distance and said.

The Ottoman Empire was considered half a European country, especially when its capital was still Constantinople. The entire Constantinople was not inferior to other European cities in all aspects.

Of course, this would not be the case if you went deep into the entire Ottoman Empire, because the capital was not representative. The capitals of African countries in the past were also beautifully built, but it is not an exaggeration to say that when you walk out of the capital, it is actually a whole rural area.

As the core of the Ottoman Empire and at the forefront of exchanges with the Western world, Constantinople is not lacking in some characteristics of industrial civilization, and many modern things have been applied in urban construction.

Of course, Moslade did not come here to appreciate the beautiful scenery of Constantinople. The location of Constantinople can be said to be quite advantageous, but it is also facing the threat of war. Tsarist Russia and the countries on the Balkan Peninsula are eyeing it covetously.

Mosled's deputy Hans introduced him: "The Germans have had a close relationship with the Ottoman Empire in the past few years. For various reasons, Germany hopes to support the Ottoman Empire as its potential ally. Through commercial and military cooperation, Germany's influence in the Ottoman Empire is growing day by day. The economic exchanges between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire are also relatively frequent. It is one of the main markets for the Austro-Hungarian Empire's industry. The Ottoman Empire is also one of my country's major trading countries. In the past, a large part of my country's black slaves were sold to the Ottoman Empire."

Moslade: "So the Ottoman Empire has close ties with us, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, but the relationship between East Africa and Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire is more economic."

Hans: "Yes, the Ottoman Empire's territory covers North Africa, the Red Sea coast, a small part of Europe and many areas in Asia. It has the foundation of a great power. In addition, it is a natural commercial power due to its geographical location. European countries have a certain degree of commercial exchanges with the Ottoman Empire."

"However, the Ottoman Empire has very prominent internal problems. Today, the power of the Ottoman Sultan is almost hollowed out. The forces within the Ottoman Empire are complex, and many regions are at risk of division or invasion. For example, the Ottoman Empire's territory in North Africa is inconvenient to communicate with the Ottoman Empire because of Egypt's independence. Coupled with the instigation of France, the Ottoman Empire's rule in the region is actually in name only."

The situation of the Ottoman Empire in this life is slightly better, at least its land area is slightly larger than before.

Because Italy had not completed its unification, it did not encroach on the Ottoman Empire's North African territory as it had done in the past. However, the baton was passed to the French, who used Tunisia as a springboard to continuously infiltrate the Ottoman Empire's Libya region.

France has always attached great importance to North Africa, even more than West Africa. If it could establish effective rule in North Africa, it would be of great benefit to France's Mediterranean strategy. Therefore, when there was no unified Italy as a competitor, France played the role of Italy in its previous life.

As for the Libyan issue and other issues, the Ottoman Empire had a very bad relationship with France, which further strengthened the cooperation between the Ottoman Empire and Germany. Hans: "Germany helped the Ottoman Empire build factories, military facilities, and train troops. Our mission this time is to cooperate with the Ottoman Empire on this basis, so we need to contact the Germans in advance."

The East African government's support for the Ottoman Empire this time is still mainly from Germany. On the one hand, East Africa is not really helping the Ottoman Empire with its construction, but just wants to use the Ottoman Empire to threaten Britain and Tsarist Russia, so as to gain influence in the Middle East, especially along the Persian Gulf coast.

The Ottoman Empire's territory extended all the way to the Persian Gulf. It was a major country along the Persian Gulf coast. Iraq and Kuwait were both core territories of the Ottoman Empire.

On the other hand, Ernst wanted to strengthen the Ottoman Empire, thereby further expanding Germany in the future and ultimately leading to a European war.

In the previous world war, at least before the war, the three Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy faced the Allied Powers led by Britain, France and Russia. At least the number of powers was similar. Now Italy is just a regional regime, not a power, and because of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is impossible for it to join the Allied Powers, even temporarily.

As a result, Germany lacked allies on the European continent. If it relied solely on the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the two countries might not dare to start a war.

Although Italy was a traitor in its previous life, as a great power, even if it was the weakest one, it was a kind of psychological comfort to Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Without Italy, Germany would inevitably have to support new forces in European countries to help Germany seize European hegemony. As far as we know in East Africa, Romania, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire are all targets that Germany is more interested in winning over.

In fact, if William II had been more honest and not threatened Britain's maritime hegemony, Germany would not have fallen into such a bad diplomatic dilemma.

Britain was happy to see a major war between Germany and France. Without Britain's participation, the war would not have broken out and would at most have developed into an intensified version of the Franco-Prussian War.

In fact, at the moment, Britain’s emotions towards Germany are rather complicated, because the core of British foreign policy is continental balance, so it would be best if it could avoid direct intervention.

However, Germany's vigorous development of its navy has violated the bottom line of the British. In addition, the growth of Germany's industrial strength has posed a huge threat to British industry. All these factors have made Germany the number one target of suppression by Britain.

Of course, any of the most powerful countries on the European continent will become the primary target of suppression by Britain. Russia has lost face because of the Russo-Japanese War, and France is far less powerful than Germany. So Germany is currently the most powerful country on the European continent. Therefore, Britain will inevitably try every means to weaken Germany to a certain extent in order to maintain the balance on the entire European continent.

Therefore, the key to the outbreak of World War I was Germany. Germany’s "arrogance and domineering" before World War I led to the formation of a huge "anti-German alliance" in Europe.

(End of this chapter)