African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1110 China-Africa Economic Cooperation Organization
However, it is obviously not feasible to build economic cooperation in Central Africa relying solely on East Africa and South Germany, because South Germany itself is a landlocked country, and the seaports of Central Africa are controlled by East Africa, Belgium and Germany.

Although East Africa has its own seaport, it is still quite far away from the northwest region of East Africa, so the best way is to open up sea access via Belgium and Germany.

Morris said: "Belgium and Germany are both strong economically, but the two countries cannot effectively radiate their colonies in Central Africa, so building the Central African economy requires cooperation between us."

"The first step is to build land transportation interconnection, including the construction of railways, roads and other infrastructure, and to jointly develop mineral resources in the region, thereby bringing economic benefits to all countries."

"The second step is to open up markets within the region, unify tariffs, build a Central African economic alliance, and realize resource monetization and trade exchanges."

"There is no doubt that once the Central African Economic Union is completed, we in East Africa will be able to expand our influence in the region and strengthen economic exchanges with member countries. You will also be able to accelerate the development of your colonies through this regional economic union and enhance the value of your respective colonies or territories."

The conditions offered by East Africa are quite sincere. After all, according to the logic of the international community in the current era, East Africa's approach does not conform to the style of general imperialist countries.

For example, the United States is eager to expel all other colonial forces in the Americas and then become the only superpower in the Americas.

As the most powerful country in Africa, generally speaking, if East Africa wants to come up with an East African version of the "Monroe Doctrine", it is not impossible. If East Africa participates in the competition on the African continent, European countries will basically have nothing to do.

The Central African Economic Union proposed by East Africa now means that East Africa is willing to cooperate with Germany and Belgium on an equal footing. In a sense, this represents East Africa's recognition of the interests of Germany and Belgium in Central Africa.

To put it bluntly, the entire Central Africa is to East Africa as Mexico is to the United States. The United States can use various means to drive Spain and France out of Mexico, and it is even easier for East Africa to control Central Africa through force.

After all, although Mexico performed poorly, it was still a regional power in the world, and Belgium and Germany’s colonies in Central Africa were not comparable to Mexico at all.

Xavier: "We appreciate East Africa's good intentions, but I still need to discuss this matter with my country first. I personally believe that Germany and East Africa will reach a consensus and provide a stable environment for the development of the Central African economy."

Governor Klein of the Belgian Congo colony was much more straightforward. He said to Maurice: "We in Belgium are very interested in the East African plan."

Morris nodded with satisfaction and said, "Communications in Bangui are very developed. You can use the telegraph here to communicate with your respective countries. If you are willing to accept our goodwill in East Africa, we will finalize the agreement in Bangui."

It is not easy for the German and Belgian delegations to come to Bangui because the transportation within their colonies is really complicated, so letting them handle everything directly in Bangui can reduce a lot of trouble.

In the following days, the German and Belgian delegations sent their respective situations back to their countries via telegrams from Bangui. The result is self-evident. The China-Africa Economic Cooperation Organization, led by East Africa, was established in a timely manner.

In fact, the German government had long wanted to use the power of East Africa to develop the Cameroon colony, but at that time East Africa was focused on its own construction and was not interested in the German government's request.

However, times have changed. East Africa's industrial strength has greatly increased, and domestic transportation construction has become quite complete. It is natural for it to expand its economic frontiers outward.

...Rhine City.

Looking at the email sent back by Morris, the officials of the East African government were very satisfied.

Ernst said: "If we can handle Germany, we can basically handle Central Africa. Central Africa is the sea and land throat connecting my country and West Africa, so when constructing local transportation, we should take East Africa as the standard, so as to build an economic radiation zone with East Africa as the core."

The Central African Economic Cooperation Organization is led by East Africa, and of course many relevant standards must be based on East African standards. For example, in terms of railway and road construction, East Africa is responsible for the construction of the Central African railway, which is actually to make up for the problem of sea access in northwest East Africa. If the railway standards of Belgian Congo and German Cameroon can be made consistent with those of East Africa, many intermediate links can be reduced, thus realizing rail-sea transport in northwest East Africa.

As for Germany and Belgium, they actually had the ability to build railways, but the cost of building colonies was too high, so they could only accept the solution provided by East Africa.

East Africa is not a philanthropist. The proposal of the so-called Central African Economic Union is essentially to bring this region, which has similar culture, language and ethnicity to East Africa, into its own sphere of influence.

There is no need to talk about southern Germany and Germany. Belgium itself is a semi-German country with a large number of German-speaking people. This is even more obvious in the Belgian Congo. Because the main trading partner of the Belgian Congo is East Africa, the proportion of German in the Belgian Congo is even higher than that in the mainland.

Therefore, from the perspective of East Africa, the entire Central African region is naturally suitable to be a subordinate force of East Africa, and the only obstacle for East Africa to assimilate the local area is Germany. However, when the European war broke out, Germany probably had no time to care about the Cameroon colony thousands of miles away.

Siwei Te said: "China-Africa Economic Cooperation Organization is an important part of our further expansion and deepening of our country's influence in Africa. Through infrastructure construction and trade exchanges, we can bind here with East Africa. In the future, we can further expand to West Africa, North Africa, and even South Africa, and our base will become more solid."

Today, the South African colonies, under the control of the British, are a rather annoying presence, but East Africa does not have much to say about South Africa for the time being.

Because South Africa is not like Central Africa, which is similar to East Africa in culture and language, and there are many Boers in South Africa. Many of these Boers were driven out by East Africa, and they have a blood feud with East Africa. Therefore, East Africa is not keen on interfering in South African affairs.

As for the Cape of Good Hope, although its strategic position is quite important, it is not as attractive to East Africa as imagined. After all, East Africa’s own railways can play a certain alternative role.

Of course, British hegemony is still strong today, which makes East Africa cautious. If it were to change another country, East Africa would never allow South Africa to break away from its control.

For example, the East Indies controlled by the Dutch was what Ernst wanted to dismantle next. The entire East Indies was too large, and the Dutch incorporated these large and small islands into the management of a unified colonial government, which was actually an integration of local political forces.

Ernst did not want the East Indies to have a powerful regime like Indonesia in the past, as this would be detrimental to East Africa's future strategy in the South Seas.

Moreover, although the Netherlands has not declined as much as Portugal and Spain, it does not have much strength in the international community today. However, it occupies such a large colony, which is a crime for a big country like East Africa.

Of course, now is not a good time to cause trouble in the East Indies. After all, there is Britain behind the Netherlands, and there is actually a certain cooperative relationship between the two countries. Otherwise, Britain would not allow the Netherlands to occupy so much land in the East Indies.

(End of this chapter)