African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1136 The Distressed William II

Berlin.

William II was in a very bad mood. First of all, in his view, Germany was not ready for war. Moreover, facing declarations of war from three major powers, Russia, France and Britain at the same time, this was beyond William II's expectations.

Although William II always talked about war, he was actually very cautious about it.

Otherwise, when Russia began to mobilize, William II would not have advised the Russian government to stop mobilization. In essence, he still did not want to have a military conflict with Germany.

Although a war between Germany and Russia was inevitable, before the war, William II had absolutely no intention of starting a war right away.

The culprit for this irreversible situation was actually William II himself. The reason why the war faction of the Austro-Hungarian Empire headed by Conrad was not afraid to declare war on Russia was rooted in William II's guarantee.

Conrad had previously asked about William II's attitude, but at the time William II did not realize the seriousness of the problem, so he wrote in his reply to Conrad: "How to deal with this matter is your business, but no matter what happens, Germany will stand by your side."

At that time, William II only thought that Austria-Hungary would punish Serbia. Strong countries have many ways to sanction weak countries, but William II did not realize that Austria-Hungary would take the most radical form of war to retaliate against Serbia.

It can be said that William II was completely unaware of the military operations planned by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, Conrad and other Austro-Hungarian radicals had already obtained the answers they wanted from Germany.

This was equivalent to William II writing a "blank check" to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and Conrad wrote a number on this check that exceeded William II's psychological expectations, which put Germany in a difficult situation.

To a certain extent, Germany was tied to the wheel of war by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and provoking three world powers at once made the German government even more passive.

After all, in the alliance between Germany and Austria-Hungary, Germany had a clear advantage. Whether in terms of population, military, economy, industry, social stability, etc., Germany far surpassed Austria-Hungary.

Therefore, in theory, Germany should have played a leading role in the alliance between the two countries. However, due to William II's unintentional words, the Austro-Hungarian Empire "dominated" Germany, and Germany had to passively accept the outcome of the war.

This feeling of being out of control was naturally not what William II wanted to experience. It also showed that there were misunderstandings in the communication between the two countries. If William II could listen more to other people's opinions and act cautiously, he would not have written a "blank check" to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If it were Bismarck or William I, they would never have made such a mistake.

This also reflects the political flaws in Germany. William II held too much power, so that some of his remarks or decisions could completely bypass the constraints of the German government.

In short, challenging Russia, France and Britain at the same time put great pressure on William II. If it was a one-on-one battle, Germany would naturally not be afraid, but any one of these three powers would be enough to give Germany a headache.

Now the government of William II could only hope that the Austro-Hungarian Empire would hold back Russia and solve the Russian problem after Germany defeated France.

The second troublesome thing was East Africa's "taking advantage of the fire". Now that the German government's attention was fully focused on the war, East Africa was deliberately engaging in colonial trade, which made William II's bad mood even worse.

After all, from Germany's perspective, East Africa should support Germany's actions and join its camp. If the three most powerful German countries in the world join forces, Germany will not fall into the current passive situation.

By then, East Africa will move north to cooperate with the Austro-Hungarian Empire to control the Mediterranean. Relying on the three countries' strong industrial capabilities and abundant resource reserves, they will have no rivals at all.

After all, East Africa has a lot of scarce resources in Germany, such as food, cotton, rubber, oil, metals, etc., and East Africa also has a population of more than 100 million and a relatively strong army, with considerable war potential, at least much stronger than the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Yes, Germany is also relatively dependent on East Africa for oil. East Africa has quietly become the world's largest exporter of refined oil and has the world's most powerful oil industry system.

Apart from anything else, as long as East Africa can provide Germany with sufficient material support, Germany will be more confident in gaining an advantage in the war.

Of course, Germany's thinking is naturally centered on German interests, and East Africa has no intention of getting involved in muddy waters.

For example, the Mediterranean is not so easy to enter. Britain and France have such strong advantages in the Mediterranean that it is impossible for the Austro-Hungarian Navy to gain a say in the Mediterranean. Even if Austria-Hungary is a little more competitive and can surpass Britain in the eastern Mediterranean, perhaps East Africa may still consider the plan of going north.

After all, Britain and France controlled the vital passage from East Africa to the Mediterranean, and an attack from the outside was almost impossible. Assuming that the Austro-Hungarian Navy could cooperate from within the Mediterranean, it might be possible to break the powerful blockade system established by Britain and France in the Mediterranean. But the fact was that the Austro-Hungarian Navy was locked in the Adriatic Sea and could do nothing. Moreover, with the strength of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, even if it broke out of the Mediterranean, it would only be encircled and suppressed by the British and French navies.

Therefore, from all angles, it is impossible for East Africa to take the risk and board the German pirate ship, which naturally aroused Germany's dissatisfaction.

However, Germany needed East Africa's help, so it could only keep this dissatisfaction to itself. Therefore, William II did not have a good attitude towards East Africa, but he could not blame anyone either.

This time, the proposal to take over German colonies in East Africa made William II even more unhappy. After all, Germany paid a considerable price to obtain these colonies.

Especially the German Central African colonies. Before this, East Africa, Germany, Belgium and South Germany had just signed an agreement to jointly develop Central Africa.

Now, all of this will be used as a wedding dress for East Africa. It would be strange if William II was in a good mood! These are all the family businesses that Germany has worked hard to build overseas, and it has put in a lot of effort.

If these colonies were handed over to East Africa, it would mean that Germany had already started losing territory before the war even started. Under normal circumstances, no one would be able to accept this calmly.

However, this period of time was not an ordinary time for Germany, but an important time concerning the crisis of national survival, so William II and the German government could only accept it.

Looking at the letter sent from East Africa, William II sneered in his heart, but still asked the German government members without pretending to be serious: "What do you think of this proposal from East Africa?"

Foreign Minister Artur said indignantly: "East Africa is simply the scum of Germany. This is clearly a blackmail against the empire. If it were in the past, we would definitely fight back."

As the Empire's Foreign Minister, Arthur's attitude towards East Africa was not friendly. After all, in Germany's previous foreign policy, it had always adopted a policy of wooing East Africa, which could be said to have met a large part of East Africa's needs.

Germany naturally hopes to tie East Africa to its own chariot, so it has always been generous to East Africa, especially when East Africa was vigorously developing its own industry, it provided a lot of financial, technical and personnel support.

Adhering to this policy, the German Foreign Ministry naturally deals with East Africa quite frequently. Arthur himself said that in the relationship between the two countries, Germany has spared no effort in supporting East Africa, but has not achieved the desired results, which naturally caused great trouble to the German Foreign Ministry.

Even diplomats like Arthur don't like dealing with East Africa, but for the future of the empire, they still have to bite the bullet and cooperate with East Africa, which is very uncomfortable.

Of course, from the perspective of the East African government, the East African government did nothing wrong. Apart from not cooperating with Germany's strategic needs, East Africa also gave Germany a lot of positive responses, such as trade, investment, resources, etc., and also provided Germany with a lot of conveniences in the economic and military fields.

(End of this chapter)