African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1070: The French-German Conflict
The core of the German government's discussion on East Africa is still to bring East Africa into its own camp. If it can bind a big country with a population of over 100 million and a land area of ​​over 10 million square kilometers, the benefits to Germany are self-evident.

William II said somewhat dissatisfiedly: "In the past, we have always shown goodwill to East Africa, but the East African government has an ambiguous attitude. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs should think of ways to make East Africa's attitude lean towards us as much as possible, and it would be best if we could sign an alliance."

Prime Minister Bateman was also troubled by the East African government's slickness. He said helplessly: "In recent years, we have been trying to infiltrate East Africa, but with little success. East Africa is not like those countries in Central and Eastern Europe. Even if they accept our investment, there are more restrictions."

"This is not what I am most worried about. The biggest problem in East Africa is their economic system, which is inherently exclusive. It is almost impossible to influence domestic public opinion in East Africa through the economy. It is also impossible to effectively support forces that lean towards us."

Economic aid and loans are never free, especially those from the great powers. Moreover, unlike Britain, Germany is more concerned about political returns when providing economic aid and is less concerned about the benefits than Britain.

In Central and Eastern Europe, due to the relatively backward economy, it was difficult to accumulate funds for industrial development, even for a semi-industrialized country like the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

By infiltrating these regions, German capital has achieved a certain degree of interest ties with local forces, so national decision-making will naturally favor Germany as the financial backer, especially for these free market countries.

East Africa is obviously different from these countries and regions. It has never been a free market country, and its state-owned economy is ridiculously strong. Therefore, it is almost impossible to kidnap the East African government through the economy.

Even the vast majority of Germany's investment in East Africa can only be achieved through joint ventures, in which case German capital cannot even have full control over these joint ventures, let alone influence East African domestic politics.

William II looked a little gloomy. This was also the thing that William II could not understand the most, or it could be said that the East African government was obviously ungrateful.

Culturally speaking, East Africa’s root culture is the same as Germany’s. From a royal perspective, they all belong to the Hohenzollern family. Economically and geographically, there is also strong complementarity. Therefore, in the eyes of William II, East Africa should naturally join forces with Germany.

William II: "No matter what, East Africa is a country that cannot be ignored. Even if a country of this size cannot be used by me, I must not let it turn to France and other countries. I heard that the French and East Africa are very close economically."

Bateman nodded and said, "The East African government may need to balance the situation, but the Rhine royal family does not have much hatred with France, so it is not surprising that they cooperate in economics. Not to mention France, even Britain and Portugal, which have had dirty dealings with East Africa, East Africa still has trade relations with them as usual."

Wilhelm II: "East Africa's location is still too comfortable! If Germany were geographically similar to East Africa, we wouldn't be so passive."

East Africa can engage in balanced diplomacy and thus achieve the goal of having its cake and eating it too. Ultimately, this is due to East Africa's huge geographical advantages. Like the United States, East Africa is far away from the disputes in Europe and Asia. There are almost no powerful countries around the region to compete with it, so it has great flexibility and autonomy.

This is not good news for Germany. Its strong autonomy means that Germany cannot smoothly control East Africa, even though the German and East African economies are deeply tied together.

In the economic and trade relations between the two countries, there is no question of who is in the lead. Germany is an important market in East Africa, and vice versa, East Africa is also an important market for Germany. East Africa is also the main supplier of raw materials for Germany, but East Africa has basically no demand for Germany in this regard.

So although Germany's economy is very strong, it cannot form a huge advantage over East Africa. From the perspective of economic size alone, East Africa is actually similar to Germany, but East Africa also has a large population, so the per capita data is not as good as Germany.

Bateman: "In short, we can only win over East Africa, but we also have to put some pressure on East Africa, at least to make them realize that without Germany's help, it would be difficult for East Africa to complete industrial construction on its own, so that East Africa will need us more."

……Paris.

Compared with the German government, the French government is more concerned about the future diplomatic direction in East Africa.

French President Fallier said at the time: "We must never allow Germany and a populous country like East Africa to join forces, otherwise it will be a disaster for the whole world and for France."

"Just imagine if East Africa joined the German camp, our rear areas and colonies in Asia and Africa would be threatened by East Africans."

As the most powerful country in Africa, East Africa is a huge mountain weighing on the heads of any African country or colony. This is the political influence extended from East Africa's strong power in Africa.

Even though most of France's colonies did not border East Africa, France did not dare to underestimate the country in East Africa. For example, France's colonies of Gabon, Djibouti and Madagascar faced direct threats from East Africa.

As for the colonies in West Africa and North Africa, they were unable to effectively isolate the influence of East Africa. After all, the naval strength of East Africa was not weak, and the development of the west coast of East Africa had become a reality at a speed visible to the naked eye in recent years, and was in front of people all over the world.

Trade between East Africa and France is mainly transited through the west coast of East Africa, so France is no stranger to the development of the west coast of East Africa.

If the East African Navy moves north along the west coast of Africa, it will be able to threaten almost all West African countries and colonies. If it goes to the extreme, the East African Navy will also be able to reach the coast of France along the Atlantic Ocean.

Just looking at the map, we can see the significant impact of East Africa on the world pattern. Now that the population data of East Africa has been exposed, Falliere has further strengthened his idea.

"It's a country with a population of 100 million. Even if we add our homeland and overseas colonies, we don't have that many people. At the same time, East Africa's military strength cannot be ignored. Its navy has always been one of the important forces in the world's navy. It has four of the most advanced dreadnought battleships. If we allow East Africa to reach a partial cooperation with Germany, East Africa's attack at any point may cause us huge trouble."

As of this year, France has only begun building its first dreadnought, while East Africa has already built four dreadnoughts and is equipped with a quasi-dreadnought. From this perspective alone, the East African Navy has surpassed the French Navy.

So Britain, the United States and Germany can look down on the East African Navy, but France cannot. In recent years, France has actually fallen behind in naval construction.

"We should do the same as we did with Britain and Russia, and try to get East Africa to stand on our side, or at least ensure neutrality. The relationship between East Africa and Germany is far from being comparable to that between Britain and Russia. They originally belong to the same culture and the same language, so we must increase our attention to East Africa."

"Especially monitoring the Germans' small moves. Now most of our energy is focused on the eastern interior. Any unstable factors that may affect our future decisive battle with Germany must be resolved as a priority."

President Fallière's major contribution to France was the significant improvement in Anglo-French and Franco-Russian relations achieved during his term, and he directly created the Allied Powers and achieved the final victory in the war against Germany.

Therefore, it can be seen from Fallier's methods that he attaches great importance to cooperation in the diplomatic field, so as to unite all forces that can restrict Germany's development.

(End of this chapter)