African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1259 Agree
Palau Island is the Republic of Palau in the previous life. This island is located between the Philippines and the US Guam base in the previous life.

After the end of World War I in the previous life, Palau Island fell into the hands of Japan because of Germany's defeat, but now it is obvious that Japan cannot get this advantage.

After East Africa took over Palau from Germany, it attached great importance to Palau, mainly because Palau served as a sea bridge between the Mindanao colony in East Africa and the New Guinea colony, and there were no other large islands within the surrounding thousands of kilometers of sea area.

This island is also the last backup route from East Africa to the Far East. However, apart from military purposes, it is estimated that few ships from East Africa will choose to reach the Far East from here.

Kuyper said: "Although many of the strategic locations we are going to visit in East Africa this time seem very important, they are relatively useless places for our country."

"After all, the Netherlands has declined to a certain extent and does not need to consider global strategy. It is not a bad idea to sell these islands to East Africa."

He pointed to the map and said: "For a small country like ours, our fate is always controlled by the powers such as Britain, France, Germany and East Africa."

“If we really offend someone, even if we occupy these strategic locations, they can easily cut off our connection with the colonies or our trade routes.”

Kuyper's words are not an exaggeration at all. Britain, France and Germany are right next to the Netherlands. The Netherlands has no control over its own destiny. Otherwise, it would not be able to maintain a neutral position in the current European war. This is actually a helpless choice. If the Netherlands offends any of the three warring countries, it will be in danger of being destroyed.

Although East Africa is far away from the Netherlands, it can easily cut off the connection between the Netherlands and the Dutch East Indies in the Indian Ocean, or intercept the trade between the Netherlands and the East. Although there is no threat of national destruction, it is enough to cause serious damage to the Netherlands.

After all, as a commercial country, the Netherlands' greatest reliance is maritime trade. Britain once replaced the Netherlands' maritime hegemony starting with the promulgation of the Navigation Acts.

This regulation stipulates that all goods entering British territorial waters must be transported using British ships, and the use of ships from other countries is not allowed.

On the surface, this bill was intended to protect the interests of British ships, but in fact it was aimed at the Netherlands, because the Dutch shipbuilding industry was well developed at the time, and the Dutch Chamber of Commerce was efficient and well-organized, and basically monopolized the maritime transit business.

The promulgation of this act intensified the struggle and friction between Britain and the Netherlands, and the ultimate result was naturally the defeat of the Netherlands and the rise of the British Royal Navy.

Therefore, as long as a country has the ability to cut off the Netherlands’ maritime trade, it basically means that it has grasped the Netherlands’ lifeline.

"And we do not rely on these strategic locations. The most important thing for our government at present is to ensure that East Africa and other countries have no intention of the wealthy areas of the East Indies."

"Only places with dense populations, such as Java and Sumatra, or places with rich mineral resources are worthy of our attention."

"So selling these dozen islands and island groups to East Africa is not a big deal for us. If we insist on controlling these places in our own hands, it may lead to disaster."

"After all, East Africa is still willing to negotiate with us. This is the best news. If we really refuse, Siam will be a negative example."

Kuyper's mention of the unfortunate Siam was apparently convincing to Queen Wilhelmina.

Not only did East Africa snatch the Isthmus of Kra from Siam, but Siam also had to pay East Africa a huge sum of money to keep the peace. It was simply a huge loss.

So Wilhelmina agreed and said, "What the Prime Minister said is indeed reasonable. If we do not agree to East Africa's demands, maybe East Africans will not only not feel frustrated, but will be ecstatic. In this way, they will not need to consider the relationship between the two countries and will target the East Indies colonies." Kuyper sighed and said, "This is also what I am most worried about. The current international situation is quite favorable to East Africa. Apart from the United States, which major power can check and balance East Africa?"

"But the United States is also competing fiercely in the Americas and East Africa. In the South Pacific region, their strength is far inferior to that of East Africa. Moreover, cooperating with the United States may lead to a wolf entering the house. If this happens, it will be the worst. After all, East Africa is only planning to take over a dozen islands, and the Americans may really have bad intentions for the entire East Indies."

"So I think our attitude towards East Africa should be that as long as East Africa does not do anything that harms our core interests, we can fully agree to some minor details with East Africa."

Kuyper's concerns were not unfounded. The United States only had one Philippines in the South Pacific region, and it was not even the complete Philippine Archipelago. On the other hand, East Africa not only had a large number of colonies in the South Pacific, but also had colonies in the entire Pacific Ocean, except for the west coast of South America.

So compared to East Africa, which is already half-full, it is the hungry countries like the United States that pose a greater threat to the Netherlands.

Furthermore, the relationship between East Africa and the Netherlands has always been good. Although there are some conflicts due to the colonies in Southeast Asia, this does not affect the relationship between the two countries at all. At least at the government level, East Africa’s attitude towards the Netherlands has always been good.

This is just like the fact that Britain and the Netherlands had many conflicts overseas in the past, but the relationship between the Netherlands and Britain is actually quite good.

This attitude at the government level is often related to national conditions. Even if the Netherlands has some dirty dealings with the United Kingdom, the United Kingdom is also the Netherlands' reliance to prevent being attacked and annexed by Germany and France from land.

The economic significance of East Africa to the Netherlands is far greater than that of the East Indies. From Ernst to the colonial era of East African development, there has been a lot of cooperation between the Netherlands and the Dutch, and this was even more so after the rise of the Rhine Empire.

Extraterritorial countries like East Africa have always attached great importance to developing friendly relations with some small European countries. Of course, Portugal is an exception, but this is only because Portugal blocked the road to expansion in East Africa.

In fact, since the 20th century, relations between East Africa and Portugal have begun to warm up, especially after the outbreak of the European war, cooperation between the two countries in the economic field began to develop rapidly.

After all, Portugal is one of the gateways to Western Europe, and trade between East Africa and Western Europe cannot bypass Portugal. As for the dirty tricks that once occurred between the two countries in Africa, they have gradually dissipated with the passage of time.

Wilhelmina said, "Since you have a specific plan, all you have to do next is to do a good job in the parliament. At the same time, you must control the public opinion on this territorial sale and avoid causing problems in the country."

Prime Minister Kuyper said: "I believe that Parliament will recognize our reasons. After all, our country is helpless and has no right to refuse East Africa. As for controlling domestic public opinion, domestic attention is now focused on the European war, so it will not cause any waves."

The European war dominated the headlines in the Netherlands every day. It can be said that every little movement on the Western Front attracted the attention of the entire country.

After all, if something goes wrong, the Netherlands may become a battlefield between two major camps and repeat the mistakes of Belgium. Just look at the miserable situation of its neighbor Belgium today. The Dutch have no time to pay attention to the changes in the sovereignty of a few islands thousands of miles away.

After all, the last time East Kalimantan was taken away by East Africa, it did not attract much attention in the Netherlands, unless the core overseas interests of the Netherlands such as Java Island or Sumatra were damaged. These places can still be named, but 99% of the people in the country probably don’t know the dozen or so islands that East Africa has demanded.

A day later, the Dutch Parliament was successfully persuaded by Kuyper. Of course, the threat implied in the subtext of East African Foreign Minister Freer was the key to making the Dutch Parliament decisively admit defeat.

Compared to selling out a few islands to ensure the security of the entire East Indies, the Dutch government had no better choice. It did not even need to send troops to East Africa. Simply funding the indigenous resistance forces in the East Indies would make the Dutch government unable to cope with the situation.

(End of this chapter)