African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1124 Military Assets
Compared with Germany and Japan, East Africa does not live up to its reputation as an imperialist country in terms of diplomacy, but this also shows that East Africa is becoming increasingly mature politically.

Germany and Japan are typical militaristic countries, and East Africa was also a militaristic country at the beginning. In order to deal with the indigenous people and other colonists on the African continent, they passively chose the organizational form of universal military service. However, after the founding of East Africa, national security was initially guaranteed, and national politics also underwent major changes.

Of course, all European countries are currently expanding their armaments. Germany's military construction is actually not uncommon in Europe, because neighboring Russia, Austria-Hungary and France are not much behind. As for Britain and Japan, they are overdrawing their national strength to build huge navies. In the early 20th century, it was truly rare for many countries not to develop strong armies.

Therefore, in the context of the times, Germany's military construction seemed particularly normal, but Germany's radicalism was what really frightened Ernst. After all, Germany had intended to engage in a one-on-many war from the very beginning of its military plan, which was not very wise.

Ernst therefore advised Kamon: "The situation Germany faces in Europe is extremely severe. Your enemies are not only France, but also Russia and Britain. Even if you can defeat France, it will be difficult to digest the results of the war with the intervention of Russia and Britain. You must learn the lesson of the fall of Napoleon's regime. Sometimes, if you make too many enemies, the enemy can consume your advantages with just their deep foundation."

In Ernst's view, France in Napoleon's era was even more outrageous than Germany today. At least Ernst did not believe that Germany could march to Moscow as easily as Napoleon did. Napoleon's military achievements even surpassed those of Germany during World War II.

However, Russia is an unsolvable existence. With its deep territory and poor transportation conditions, it is difficult for any country to defeat Russia unless Russia collapses internally first.

Kamon didn't take Ernst's advice seriously. He said with some pride: "We in Germany are fully capable of repeating the glory of the First Franco-Prussian War. As long as we can defeat France before Britain can react like last time, there is no need to worry about other countries. As for Russia, it is too backward. The Austro-Hungarian Empire can pin Russia in Eastern Europe. After we defeat France, we can turn around and join forces with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Russia's intervention is bound to fail."

This is obviously an ideal situation, which cannot convince Ernst at all. The main reason is that Germany is so bad at choosing allies. In fact, it is also Germany's helplessness. Latecomer countries have no choice at all in terms of alliances.

This was true for Germany, the Soviet Union, and later the Far Eastern Empire. When the world's second largest country faced the world's first largest country, it was difficult to find good allies.

This is also the advantage after the establishment of hegemony. When the Far Eastern Empire was in its heyday, a group of scoundrels in East Asia were proud to be its lackeys. From the northern grasslands, to the eastern island countries, to the Southeast Asian countries, they were proud of the civilization of the Far Eastern Empire. Even the bandits on the grasslands would feel culturally inferior when facing the Far Eastern Empire.

However, in the world system constructed by Britain today, Germany and East Africa are both highlighted as "barbaric countries", which is a form of political and cultural isolation and bullying.

Although Germany and East Africa have many shortcomings, Britain is not an innocent people. Instead, it has committed many evil deeds because of its vast colonies and world hegemony.

Of course, countries like Germany that dare to challenge the current world system naturally have their admirers. On the contrary, countries like East Africa and the United States that play ostrich are more likely to be despised.

Ernst said to Kamon: "That's enough. East Africa is located in the southern part of the African continent, separated from Europe by the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. It is difficult to coordinate with Germany. Although we cannot support Germany militarily, we can still contribute in other aspects."

Although Camon was used to Ernst's rejection, he still felt a little uncomfortable. Fortunately, it was not without results.

So Kamon said politely: "Then on behalf of our government, I would like to thank His Majesty the Emperor for his support."

……

After sending Kamon away, with Ernst's tacit approval, the East African government tried its best to give Germany some concessions in trade, which was in fact a kind of support for Germany's development, but for a country of Germany's size, it was better than nothing. After a series of "cordial" exchanges with the government delegations of various countries, the attitude of the East African government was relatively clear, that is, it would choose to remain neutral as much as possible in the next dispute.

In this way, among the world's generally recognized powers, the United States and East Africa are temporarily considered neutral countries, which gives European countries the confidence to challenge each other, and this is exactly what East Africa and the United States want to see.

At the same time, Ernst also began to calculate the current financial situation of East Africa. Strong military strength is the basis for East Africa to maintain its status as a neutral country.

Merkel: "In terms of military strength alone, our army currently has a total of 460,000 troops, which is slightly ahead of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and only behind Russia, Germany and France, ranking fourth in the world."

Of course, this obviously cannot be simply viewed as the military strength of each country. Take Russia, which has the largest number of troops, for example. Its military strength certainly cannot rank first in the world.

Apart from its large population, Russia basically has nothing to show for itself, and its population is not much larger than that of East Africa. The two countries now have a population difference of only 20 to 30 million, but East Africa is much stronger than Russia in terms of artillery, machine guns, military vehicles, railways, etc.

However, military strength is indeed a good reference. From the perspective of military strength alone, East Africa is currently ranked fourth in the world, and East Africa's mobilization potential can be ranked in the top three. There are many factors to consider in mobilization potential, including population, logistics, transportation, material reserves, etc. East Africa has nearly twice as many railways as Russia, and millions of kilometers of roads. If East Africa really carries out a national mobilization, it is probably not inferior to Russia. According to the current standards of the Russian army, it would not be difficult for East Africa to mobilize five million people.

East Africa's military strength is at an upper-middle level in the world. In comparison, there is a big gap between maritime powers such as the United States and the United Kingdom and East Africa. Of course, if the colonial army is included, the overall strength of the United Kingdom is actually similar to that of East Africa. The colonies are numerous and scattered, and the corresponding defense pressure is also great.

Of course, the expenditure of the British colonial army was far from comparable to that of the East African Defense Force. After all, the main task of the colonial army was to prevent colonial rebellions rather than fight against other military powers.

"In terms of army weapons and equipment, we have reached the level of various European powers. The number of rifles, machine guns, and artillery is not inferior to any country. In some areas, we are even ahead of European countries, such as the number of military vehicles, armored forces, army aviation forces, etc."

Today, the East African Air Force has become independent from the Army, and the Army has also retained some aviation arms to exercise coordination capabilities. Only the naval aviation force has not yet been formed.

The navy is mainly deployed around the coastline. It is too conspicuous to form a naval aviation force now, and the naval aviation force will not be able to play a good role without an aircraft carrier as a carrier.

And at this stage, the East African Air Force is already the most powerful in the world. Many countries don't even have aircraft, which also means that East Africa has no need in this regard for the time being.
Judging from the current equipment of the East African Army, the East African Army is half a century ahead of its peers, but this advantage is not obvious. The main reason is that the performance of current tanks and aircraft is not up to standard, and it is still insufficient for cross-regional operations.

As Ernst told Camon, East Africa is a country on the African continent, which ensures the national security of East Africa to a certain extent, but on the other hand it can easily limit the performance of the East African military.

As the number one military power on the African continent, it has no rivals around East Africa. However, participating in wars outside the region requires crossing oceans, which obviously requires the guarantee of the navy and the country's shipping capabilities. Therefore, it is currently difficult for the East African military to support overseas operations.

(End of this chapter)