African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1057: Arms Business First
In Ernst's view, Germany's diplomatic style should not be like this. Although Germany is currently the most powerful country on the European continent, it does not have an absolute advantage compared with France and Russia. At least this is the general concept of European countries.

Take France for example. Although France's industry and population have been far behind Germany, its military strength has been growing rapidly over the years. It can be said that the French army is completely prepared for Germany, and is not inferior to Germany in either quantity or quality.

Before the outbreak of World War I in the previous life, France claimed to have the strongest army in Europe, and after the outbreak of World War I, the performance of the French army was indeed eye-catching.

Therefore, France alone is not a hard nut that Germany can easily chew. If Britain and Russia are added to the mix, Germany will eventually be encircled and suppressed by the Allies.

Of course, the poor quality of Germany's allies was also a major reason. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was in a mess, and its military actions were completely inconsistent with its status as a traditional European power. Italy, this traitor, even jumped directly to the Allied camp before the war.

In short, the development of the world situation today has completely deviated from Ernst's judgment. Without Italy, the traitor, it is a question whether Germany can launch a world war.

Of course, due to the needs of its own development, East Africa naturally hopes that European countries will fight each other. No matter which side wins, East Africa can gain huge benefits. It is estimated that the United States has similar ideas.

The key to the outbreak of World War I was Germany. In order to make this war break out, Germany had to be strengthened, so that it could expand and eventually detonate the whole of Europe.

Therefore, helping Germany control the Ottoman Empire was just a matter of convenience for East Africa. In order not to disrupt Germany's layout, East Africa had to follow Germany's lead in its actions in the Ottoman Empire.

In January 1908, the East African diplomatic mission formally communicated with German diplomats in the Ottoman Empire, and Germany responded positively to the "big gift package" sent from East Africa.

After all, the main purpose of East Africa's actions this time was to cause trouble for Britain and Russia, and the two countries also had 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 premise of these cooperations basically could not avoid Germany's approval. After all, an important prerequisite for Germany to influence the Ottoman Empire was to support pro-German forces in the Ottoman Empire's army.

For example, if Germany helped train the Ottoman Empire's army, it would easily cause a misunderstanding if East Africa did not discuss this with Germany.

The German ambassador to the Ottoman Empire emphasized: "At present, the military training of 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 conduct it as East Africans, but as Germans."

It is very common to influence a country's army through military instructors and advisers, just like Germany and Japan in the past, and the United States sent military personnel or advisers to the army of the Far East Imperial Republic Government.

Therefore, Germany does not want East Africa to establish contact with the Ottoman army in an independent capacity. If East Africa acts alone when Germany has already invested a lot of resources, it will easily make people suspect that East Africa is here to "pick peaches".

East Africa readily accepted Germany's request. It did not expect that its country would have much influence on the Ottoman Empire. As long as the Ottoman Empire could play a certain restraining role on Britain and Russia, East Africa's goal would be achieved.

Germany was naturally very satisfied with East Africa's cooperation, and the Ottoman Empire was also very friendly towards East Africa. After communication between East Africa and Germany, the Ottoman Empire mistakenly believed that East Africa belonged to Germany. It would be beneficial to East Africa for the Ottoman Empire to continue 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 was that Persia was far from being as powerful as the Ottoman Empire. Facing Britain and Russia, Persia did not even have the intention to resist.

"We have communicated with the Persian government, but Persia has been dealing with Russia and Britain for many years, and the Persian government has always been the one that suffers losses. It is not as enterprising as the Ottoman government, so it is difficult to accomplish anything."

The Youth Party currently in power in the Ottoman Empire has relatively high morale. It can be seen as the "Westernization faction" of the Ottoman Empire. It is unwilling to always bow down and be small in front of Western countries.

But Persia was completely different. Whether facing Britain or Russia, Persia had to appear too "weak" in the eyes of East African diplomats.

"The top government of Persia has no ambition at all. Although there are political forces in Persia that hate Britain and Russia, they are not mainstream, so it is difficult for us to make a fuss about Persia."

"The Persian government's attitude towards us is more of a vigilance and a use of us to check and balance Russia and Britain."

Ernst was not surprised by the Persian government's idea. He said, "Persia is an important country in the Persian Gulf. If we want to intervene there, we can't avoid Persia. Since Persia doesn't have the confidence to confront Britain and Russia, we will give them the confidence. As long as we can arouse the fear of Britain and Russia, even if it is only a little bit, our goal will be achieved. As for supporting Persia, it has never been our real purpose."

East Africa just wants to disrupt the situation in the Middle East and Central Asia, and does not really want to contribute to local development, so Persia’s attitude is not important.

"We should first expand the local arms trade market. As long as weapons flow into the Persian Gulf, it will not be us who will have a headache, but Britain and Russia. At that time, Britain and Russia will have to negotiate with us."

In fact, the Middle East and Central Asia have always been East Africa's arms market. East Africa's local arms trade began in the 1970s. The most typical example was the Afghan War. East Africa exported a large number of weapons to local armed forces, which caused the British a lot of headaches for a while.

With the current round of arms trade expansion in East Africa, it is not just Afghanistan that is affected, but all people in the region who can become potential customers of East Africa. The influx of a large amount of arms will inevitably cause instability in the rule established by Britain and Russia in the local area.

Of course, in addition to disrupting the local situation, Ernst also has another important purpose, which is to strengthen the military industrial capacity of East Africa.

Currently, the East African military industry is not very large due to the size of the army, especially when it comes to weapons such as rifles, machine guns, and artillery. After all, the total number of the East African Defense Force does not exceed 400,000, which is even inferior to Germany and France.

In Ernst's view, the military industry is more profitable in the short term. If we wait until the outbreak of World War I to temporarily expand military production capacity, we will easily become chaotic.

In addition to enhancing the country's military strength, the main purpose of this round of expansion of East Africa's military industrial capacity is to make a fortune when World War I breaks out. If World War I really breaks out, military products will definitely be very popular. In order to have the best of both worlds, East Africa must not only have weapons that meet its own standards, but also adapt to the popular weapons of other countries on the market.

Even if they could not squeeze into the European arms market, other regions of the world would temporarily lose their access to arms due to the wars among European countries during World War I. Therefore, Ernst judged that there would be a window period in the arms market in the future, and this window period would be a good opportunity for East Africa to make a fortune from the war.

At that time, East Africa's main competitor was the United States. Unlike East Africa, the United States actually had greater potential for weapons production than East Africa at that time. After all, the United States is a country that does not ban guns, so the American gun manufacturing industry can be said to be flourishing. In the early 20th century, the types of weapons were far less abundant than in later generations. Many countries were highly dependent on rifles, which was also reflected in wars. Only the great powers could afford large-scale artillery bombardments.

(End of this chapter)