African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1084 Confidence
The British government soon authorized the current ambassador to East Africa, Russell, to negotiate with the East African government, and the two countries exchanged views on stability in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic regions.

In fact, East Africa’s current diplomatic and military activities in South America are not deliberately targeting Britain. The fundamental reason is that in order to meet the needs of its own industrial development, it has to be more proactive in related regions.

Ernst bluntly told Russell: "Our current political and diplomatic activities in East Africa are all carried out in accordance with our national development conditions. East Africa is a weak and poor country compared to Britain, so we need to participate more in international trade to pave the way for East Africa's development."

What this means is that it is impossible for East Africa to stop its current overseas diplomatic and military activities, after all, this is driven by East Africa's national interests.

Russell had no way to deal with Ernst's evasion. To put it bluntly, the fact that Ernst was now talking to him in a humble and friendly manner was already a good result. After all, it was the British government that needed help in East Africa.

He said, "Your Highness, the United Kingdom has always been a peace-loving country, and its attitude towards East Africa is relatively 'friendly', but the East African government's behavior is definitely not what you said. The Persian Gulf and South America are both core interests of the Empire. East Africa's behavior has undoubtedly caused substantial harm to our country's interests."

Ernst naturally could not admit it. He said: "Any activities of East Africa in the Persian Gulf and South America are legal and just. We East Africa also have huge interests in these two regions, so Ambassador Russell is too worried."

In fact, when it comes down to it, East Africa's actions in the Persian Gulf and South America are just to snatch food from Britain's mouth, and Britain's control over the two regions is relatively weak. Even in the Persian Gulf region, Britain only guarantees its own interests by supporting puppet regimes. Of course, Britain itself has a strong military presence in the Persian Gulf region, so East Africa's little tricks will definitely not work in the short term.

South America obviously does not have this problem. Although South American countries are economically poor, they still have relatively strong autonomy. Even if they have political inclinations, they will focus on their own country, which means they are more valuable to win over. Therefore, East Africa’s current diplomacy has a relatively friendly attitude towards South America. As for the behavior of the East African Navy, it is to endorse this round of diplomatic activities.

Compared with South America, East Africa's behavior towards the Persian Gulf region is obviously much more excessive. It can be said that East Africa is importing war to the coast of the Persian Gulf. Although the effect is not significant under the suppression of the British, East Africa is the first country in the southern hemisphere to challenge Britain's regional hegemony in the world.

Therefore, from the perspective of Ernst and Russell, the Persian Gulf is regarded as a core interest of both countries, and their competition in South America is more of an economic competition.

Moreover, this kind of economic competition is not very prominent. East Africa is developing markets in South America, and there is nothing wrong with this objective fact. However, the competition between East Africa and the United Kingdom for industrial products in the international market is not fierce, mainly because the categories of industrial products that the two countries mainly trade do not overlap.

Take East Africa’s automobiles and electrical products, two advantageous export categories, for example. East Africa’s competitors in the international market have never been the United Kingdom, but rather the United States and Germany.

Britain's advantages are concentrated in the field of light industry, the most typical of which is the British cotton textile industry. Although East Africa is a major textile country, the cotton textile industry in East Africa is still mainly focused on meeting the needs of the domestic market. This is even more true in other light industrial fields. Many light industrial products in East Africa have no international competitiveness at all.

On the contrary, the United States and Germany are Britain's main industrial competitors, especially Germany. Germany is equivalent to the Far East Empire's competition with the American industry in the previous life, and it constantly launches attacks on Britain in the field of mid-to-high-end light industrial products.

If the Far Eastern Empire had always maintained low-end industrial production, the United States would have been happy to see it happen. However, once the Far Eastern Empire touched upon mid- and high-end industrial production, the United States would have changed its attitude.

This is also the main reason for the biggest conflict between Germany and Britain in terms of industry. As for East Africa, it has not yet developed to this stage, and currently East African light industry does not have this capability. As for the light industry of the United States, it is also relatively developed, but the quality of American industry is far inferior to that of Germany, so the threat to Britain is not as direct as that of Germany. Today, the relationship between the United States and Britain is like the relationship between the Far East Empire and the United States in the early 21st century. The American industry is relatively low-end compared to the British, and the British have a large amount of industrial investment in the United States, which also makes the British cautious about the development of the United States.

On the other hand, the situation in East Africa is different. Apart from its own capital, almost all the dividends of East Africa's economic development have contributed to Germany, Austria, France and other countries. However, due to its own reasons and East African diplomacy, the United Kingdom did not participate and did not gain much benefits.

Therefore, the British government first used East Africa as a breakthrough point. In the final analysis, it was just picking on the weak. On the one hand, East Africa's own strength was still some distance away from that of the United States and Germany. On the other hand, East Africa and Britain had almost no interest binding, so Britain did not need to treat East Africa the same way it treated the United States.

Russell: "Competition between East Africa and the Empire is of no benefit, especially the expansion of the East African Navy, which has disrupted the balance in the region. If it touches the Empire's red line, we will definitely not sit idly by."

What Russell said now truly reflects the demeanor of the British Empire as the most powerful country in the contemporary world. It can also be said that Russell is threatening East Africa.

Of course, this threat is of no use to Ernst. If it were a dozen years ago, Ernst might have made concessions due to the limitations of national strength. However, the strong national strength of East Africa now gives Ernst the confidence to refuse.

Ernst: "Ambassador Russell, although East Africa is poor and weak, it is definitely not a small country that can be bullied. Twenty years ago, East Africa could win in South Africa. Twenty years later, East Africa is not afraid of threats from any country in the world. Going against East Africa means going against one twentieth of the world's population. More than 100 million people in East Africa will not agree to it."

Ernst felt encouraged after saying this, and when he thought about it carefully, the South African War happened 20 years ago. At that time, East Africa dared to go to war with the two world powers, Britain and Portugal, as well as the powerful Boers. Now East Africa is even less afraid of war.

If he was facing a small country, Russell might still be able to maintain his dignity, but when facing a big country like East Africa, and a big country that is outside the British system, Russell had to calm down.

After calming down, Russell asked, "Your Highness, there is actually no need for conflict between East Africa and the Empire. We can give concessions to East Africa to a certain extent, and East Africa should also make certain contributions to regional peace, especially in terms of naval development, which should be within a reasonable framework. As for other aspects, they can be resolved through negotiations. I believe that the Empire and East Africa will reach a result that satisfies both parties."

In the end, Russell still gave East Africa due respect based on its strength and status. After all, East Africa was not like Russia. Britain could curb Russia's development by supporting Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Far Eastern Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and even Japan. But if Britain wanted to trap East Africa, it had to do it itself.

But as Ernst said, behind East Africa stands one twentieth of the world's population. Russell does not believe that it would be as easy to control East Africa as India. In fact, during the South African War, Britain had already defined East Africa as "African Prussia" and expressed affirmation of East Africa's war capabilities.

Now, twenty years have passed. Even if the combat effectiveness of the East African army has declined, East Africa's industrial capacity and war potential are incomparable. A conflict with East Africa in the Indian Ocean at this time will only benefit the Germans. There is no doubt that if a war breaks out between East Africa and Britain, Germany will definitely stab Britain in the back.

(End of this chapter)