African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1104 Blackmail
The Second Moroccan Crisis can also be called the Agadir Crisis. Ernst was not very familiar with this period of history, but the fact that it left an impression on him showed that it was quite important.

In the following days, Europe's East African intelligence system continued to transmit the dynamics of Germany and France during this round of crisis to East Africa.

"National sentiment is high in public opinion in Germany and France. There are signs that troops from both sides are gathering at the front line. Germany and France may go to war!"

This was the news that came back the day after the Agadir crisis broke out. It caused headaches for the East African government, especially Ernst. In his heart, Ernst did not want a war to break out in Europe at this time.

Because East Africa was not yet ready for the European war at the current stage, Ernst actually began to prepare for the outbreak of the European war starting from the Second Five-Year Plan, and adjusted some indicators for the development of the national defense industry and light industry at that time.

However, the Third Five-Year Plan was the beginning of Ernst's large-scale transformation of domestic industrial development in response to the outbreak of war in Europe.

The East African government envisions that if a war breaks out in Europe within a few years, East African local industries will adapt to the European war state and carry out large-scale production activities to meet the order needs of European countries and quickly expand to the world market outside Europe.

However, the Third Five-Year Plan has just begun, and many East African companies have not yet completed their transformation. If a full-scale war breaks out in Europe at this time, the final benefits East Africa will gain will be greatly reduced.

Therefore, for the sake of "peace and stability" in Europe, Ernst issued an order: "Send inquiries to the German and French governments, test the attitudes of the two governments, and try to persuade the two governments not to act rashly."

There will inevitably be a war between Germany and France, and East Africa also hopes that this war will break out and spread to the whole of Europe, but East Africa does not want a full-scale war in Europe to break out at this time. At least, it will wait until East Africa's industrial basic adjustments are completed. This is what the East African government wants to see most.

Following Ernst's orders, the East African Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded quickly and began to walk the fine line between the German and French governments.

At this time, in addition to the tension in East Africa, countries on the European continent also felt that storm was coming, and Britain seemed to be at a loss in this round of diplomatic conflict.

This can be reflected in the British public opinion. When Germany and France were criticizing each other and showed signs of a fight, British public opinion remained silent.

This is similar to public opinion in East Africa. Apart from the tension at the government level, there is actually not much reaction among the people. After all, East Africa is far away from Europe, and even if a full-scale war breaks out in Europe, it will be a irrelevant matter to ordinary people in East Africa.

But the silence of public opinion in the UK is quite different. Although the UK is not on the European continent and is separated from the continent by the sea, the distance is too close, and the possibility of being affected by changes in the European situation is quite high. Therefore, at this time, most countries cannot figure out what the British government is thinking.

On July 7, the German government finally made a clear response to East Africa, but the German government's response left Ernst speechless.

Foreign Minister Freer reported to Ernst that "Germany's political behavior this time is mostly speculative. According to German officials, they tend to negotiate with France and extort some overseas interests from France to make up for Germany's losses."

What is Germany's loss? To be more specific, it is Morocco, which is currently being promoted by Germany as involving German interests. By saying this, Germany obviously does not intend to compete with the French government for the dominance of Morocco.

In fact, from a realistic point of view, Germany's actions in Morocco this time are somewhat unreasonable, because during the first Moroccan crisis, Germany had temporarily reached a consensus with France, which was considered to be tacitly acknowledging France's interests in Morocco.

Moreover, France's colonial activities in Morocco started very early. As a North African region, Morocco and France are only separated by the Mediterranean Sea. France has always wanted to establish a large French mainland across the Mediterranean. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and even Libya are all within France's strategic scope.

The trigger for the Agadir crisis was actually an internal crisis in Morocco and an uprising launched by the opposition, so Germany took this opportunity to provoke in Morocco.

Ernst asked, "What do the Germans want?" Frielda said, "They want France's colony in Gabon as compensation for this incident, and they hope that we can support them in the subsequent negotiations between the two countries."

The Gabon colony can be said to be the last colony of France in the Central African region, and the French Gabon colony is very different from its original history.

Because of East Africa, Belgium occupied part of the land of the former Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon, which led to the French Gabon colony only being able to expand northward.

The northern part of Gabon was Germany's Cameroon colony, so today's Gabon colony actually includes most of the former Gabon and southern Cameroon.

Germany obviously wanted to use Morocco as a negotiation condition to acquire the French colony of Gabon. Generally speaking, Morocco was a French colony and was regarded by France as one of its core interests in African colonization.

Germany's current behavior is equivalent to directly taking the "dishes" from the French table and asking France to pay for the meal ordered by Germany, which is a case of eating and taking at the same time.

Ernst could imagine how aggrieved France would feel if it agreed to Germany's demands. In fact, Germany had finally achieved this goal in its previous life, but France endured it.

However, the status of French Gabon today is not comparable to that in the past. You must know that in the past, French Gabon was an insignificant existence among French colonies.

After all, without Gabon, France still has French Congo, but now Congo-Brazzaville is Belgian territory. As a result, Gabon has become France's only colony in Central Africa.

Moreover, Gabon now borders East Africa, which can be said to have further enhanced Gabon's strategic position, because East Africa is no longer a bunch of fragmented African indigenous countries in the past, but one of the important powers in the world, so the value of the surrounding countries or land in East Africa has also increased.

Take the Belgian Congo for example. If Belgium relied on itself alone, the Belgian Congo would not be able to do anything. But because East Africa was on its side, the colonial government of the Belgian Congo could obtain a large amount of fiscal revenue through trade with East Africa, including the export of iron ore, tin ore, potash ore, etc. to East Africa.

East Africa provides these colonies, countries and regions with a channel for rapid monetization, thereby driving up the value of the entire region.

This is the case with the French colony of Gabon. Through trade with East Africa, the economic status of the French colony of Gabon in the French colonial system was also improved. Therefore, it would be much more difficult for Germany to obtain Gabon as it did in the previous life.

Ernst said to Freer: "Germany is really causing us trouble, but if the German government can really obtain the Gabon colony, it may be a good thing for us. However, our foreign policy determines that we cannot lean too much towards Germany, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will flexibly play between the German and French governments to ensure our image of neutrality."

East Africa certainly cannot listen to everything the German government says, so playing the "neutrality" card of the United States is the best solution. If East Africa and the United States lean towards either side, it is possible to suppress the conflicts between European countries and thus affect the situation of the war in Europe.

Freer had no choice but to agree to Ernst's request, mainly because it was too much of a test for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In order to avoid problems, Freer had to personally keep an eye on the German and French diplomatic missions in East Africa to prevent anyone from acting on impulse.

As a German country, the overall national sentiment in East Africa is definitely biased towards Germany, which will inevitably affect some East African officials. Freer wants to prevent them from acting on impulse, otherwise East Africa will suffer a great loss if it really defines East Africa as a certain camp.

On July 7, Germany indeed started negotiations with the French government, and the two countries began to argue over the Morocco issue, and Germany's demands on Gabon were indeed rejected by France.

However, the two governments were obviously more restrained, or were not prepared for war. In this situation, France had to hold its nose and negotiate with Germany.

(End of this chapter)