African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1083 The Worried British
It is obviously impossible to surpass Britain. The production of East Africa's domestically-produced dreadnought was not unrelated to East Africa's preliminary preparations. On the contrary, it was Britain that responded quickly after the Russo-Japanese War and built the world's first dreadnought in just less than a year, which shows its strong shipbuilding industry foundation.

Even so, the East African Navy still attracted the attention of the Royal Navy. Moreover, since the birth of the first dreadnought in East Africa, the East African Navy has changed its past style and returned to the path of naval competition. Currently, the number of dreadnoughts ranks third in the world, after Britain and Germany.

For this reason alone, it is impossible for Britain not to be on guard against East Africa. After all, the movements of the navies of any country are the focus of Britain's attention, and Germany is the most concerned. The German navy can be said to be Sima Zhao's intention, known to everyone, and East Africa cannot be easily ignored.

George: "Now that the East African Navy has been expanded again, the number of dreadnoughts alone has reached four, with almost one launched every year. Among all the countries in the world, apart from us and Germany, only East Africa has made such a big move in the navy. It won't be long before East Africa can form a powerful main naval fleet composed of dreadnoughts. This has also increased the pressure on the Empire in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic."

"The situation in Europe is also becoming increasingly tense. If we can't get out of this, I'm afraid East African forces will accelerate their spread to the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. Judging from the current offensive in East Africa, it is very likely that our influence in the Persian Gulf and South America will be destroyed."

"And this is not the most terrible thing. On this basis, East Africa will even cause irreversible adverse effects on the Empire in Egypt, India and other regions. Therefore, curbing the development of the East African navy and ensuring that it does not pose a challenge to the Empire in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic should be the top priority of the Empire."

"Even if we have to temporarily give up some interests, we must stabilize East Africa. After the situation in Europe stabilizes, we will settle accounts with it. The same principle applies to the United States. We cannot let these two countries become destabilizing factors. The US Navy is even more powerful than the East African Navy. Therefore, suppressing the development of the two countries' navies will allow us to more easily deal with possible changes in Europe."

George's idea can be summarized as one must first stabilize domestic stability before fighting against foreign aggressors. Extraterritorial countries such as the United States and East Africa will indeed pose a challenge to British hegemony, but Britain's core interests are still in Europe.

If Europe is not settled, and a powerful country like Napoleon's regime emerges on the European continent, Britain will be in real trouble. That will directly pose a huge threat to the British mainland, unless Britain moves its capital to India, Canada or Australia, which is obviously unacceptable under Eurocentrism.

Asquith agreed with George's opinion, but he still asked: "We can no longer fully restrict the development of the United States and East Africa, and these two countries are very independent. How can we make them willingly reduce their navies?"

This is also the biggest headache for the British government at present. As world powers, why do other countries have to listen to Britain? This is also the main reason why Britain’s previous economic sanctions on East Africa failed. After all, there are many other powers in the world, such as Germany, France and Austria-Hungary. It is not just Britain that has the final say. Moreover, Britain is greedy and cannot let other countries become Britain’s pawns.

As the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George did not have any good solutions. He said, "We may need to contact the diplomats who have been dealing with East Africans for many years to understand the specific situation in East Africa first, so that we can prescribe the right medicine."

Soon, Cromwell, the former British ambassador to East Africa, was called over for a talk by the two men.

Cromwell: "When I was in East Africa, it was the period of national industrial construction in East Africa. East Africa carried out the so-called first five-year industrial plan. At that time, East Africa built factories and mined minerals across the country. Based on my observations of East African cities, the speed of industrial development in East Africa was quite fast."

"Take their capital, Rhine City, for example. Rhine City is located in the heart of East Africa, more than a thousand kilometers from the coast. It has been built to a considerable scale, with a population of hundreds of thousands, which is in no way inferior to the coastal cities of East Africa. There are many such cities in East Africa. The large cities within the East African railway range, such as Morogoro, Dodoma, Mbeya, etc., are all large in size."

"As for the East African coastal economy, it is even more prominent. I believe that you all know that East Africa has built dozens of modern port cities along the African coast, which are in no way inferior to any European country. The population of Dar es Salaam is probably over one million, and cities such as Mombasa are also quite prosperous."

"So now East Africa has built a fairly complete industry from inland to coastal areas, and the entire society is highly developed. Although it is not as strong as Europe and the United States, it is definitely much stronger than other regions or countries in the world..."

As Cromwell described, the development of East Africa was presented more objectively in the minds of Asquith and George. Asquith asked: "So what do you think the current level of East African national strength should be?"

Cromwell said: "As it stood when I left office in 1906, East Africa should be stronger than Austria-Hungary."

"How does it compare to Russia?" George asked.

Cromwell said conservatively: "The total economic volume may not be comparable to Russia, but the development speed should be much higher than Russia, and the domestic political stability is also higher than Russia."

This was just Cromwell's speculation. After all, Russia was the world's second most populous country with an overly large economy, and East Africa had only been developing for a few years. This impression would be difficult to change if the East African government deliberately concealed it.

Asquith said: "That means that the current national strength of East Africa is between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Russia, which is about the same as that of mainland France."

Although France continues to decline, it is definitely one of the world's top powers. Even if East Africa's national strength is comparable to that of France, it can still cause major changes to the international landscape. Not to mention anything else, even now Britain does not dare to say that it can surpass France.

In fact, France's performance in World War I in the previous life was worthy of France's external propaganda. Facing a powerful opponent like Germany, France showed amazing resilience. You must know that in the previous life, during World War I, Germany's economy was equivalent to one-seventh of the world's economy, and its war potential was even more amazing.

Therefore, comparing East Africa with France does not mean that the British government despises East Africa, but rather that it attaches great importance to it. However, precisely because of this, Britain's attitude towards East Africa becomes even more difficult to deal with.

Imagine that Britain said to France at this time: "Your navy is too powerful, you should limit it!"

Will France agree? The answer is obviously no. France is actually on the same level as Britain. The two countries are not subordinate to each other and do not have a common enemy, Germany. So, it is probably France that is against Britain in the current European situation.

Asquith considered for a moment and said, "We should contact the East African government first. We need to test its bottom line. If we can convince East Africa to make concessions, everyone will be happy. A certain price and sacrifice will also be acceptable. If we cannot achieve our goal, then we can only take relatively extreme measures."

East Africa has reached the point where Britain has to pay attention and weaken it. Even from a geopolitical perspective, East Africa poses a greater threat to Britain than the United States. Although the United States is stronger than East Africa, it is currently impossible for the United States to affect Britain's rule in India.

India is the core colonial interest of Britain and also the bottom line of the current British hegemony. East Africa is much closer to India than to the British mainland. If the development of the East African navy cannot be restricted, then India’s colonies in the Indian Ocean will be affected by East Africa, and even lead to the collapse of the entire colonial system.

Therefore, the development of the East African Navy's strength is what Britain fears the most. In order to maintain its imperial hegemony, even sacrificing some interests is better than waiting for the East African Navy to grow up completely and then seizing it from Britain by force.

(End of this chapter)