African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1288: East-France Meeting
Of course, although East Africa remains neutral, it did not hesitate to take the bait thrown by Britain and France, and would consider swallowing anything it could.

Two days later.

"Ambassador Thomson, we in East Africa have always been a peace-loving country. At this stage we have no intention of participating in the European war," said East African Foreign Minister Freer seriously.

However, Ambassador Thomson still did not dare to take it lightly, and Freer mentioned the four words "current stage" in his words.

While Thomson cursed the East Africans for being cunning in his heart, he pretended to be smiling and said to Freer with a little compliment: "Mr. Freer, we in France have always known that East Africa is a major country that maintains world and regional stability and has made important contributions to the world's peaceful development."

"In addition, our two countries have a long history and have always maintained friendly relations, so we in France also support your country to play a more important role in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic in the future, so as to promote the peaceful and stable development of the world."

There was not a single truth in his words. East Africa has only a history of nearly sixty years, and in these short sixty years there has been almost no peace. East Africa can be said to be the biggest destroyer of regional stability. Otherwise, East Africa's tens of millions square kilometers of territory and colonies could not have been picked up by others.

But the situation was stronger than the man. In order to win over East Africa, Thomson even lost his dignity. After all, as a diplomat, telling lies with open eyes is a basic skill.

Freer said with a smile: "There, there, compared with your country, our East Africa is just a junior. Your country has a significant influence in the world, and its colonies are spread across important areas of the world."

"Although we are also a world power in East Africa, we are far behind France in terms of overseas territories. Both Algeria and Indochina are fertile lands."

"Until now, our colonies in East Africa have existed in name only and have always been in the red and unable to make a profit."

“So, we in East Africa are still far behind your country in terms of our ability to further promote our influence in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.”

Thomson didn't believe a word of Freer's hypocrisy. It was not known whether these "miscellaneous" Germans were influenced by the Far Eastern Empire and liked to use this kind of superficially humble rhetoric.

It is true that the colonies of East Africans are not wealthy places, but what can be done about it is that the overseas colonies of East Africa are large in area!

France has worked hard for hundreds of years, but all its overseas territories add up to only eight million square kilometers. In contrast, East Africa, which has only a few decades of history, currently has nearly two million square kilometers of overseas territories added up.

At first glance, it seems that there is a huge gap between East Africa and France, but if the two countries' mainland are included, the situation is completely different.

The two provinces of Cameroon and Gabon, which were recently incorporated into the mainland of East Africa, cover an area of ​​more than 600,000 square kilometers, which also makes the mainland area of ​​East Africa exceed 13.6 million square kilometers.

These two new provinces alone are much larger in area than mainland France today, which is only over 500,000 square kilometers, and does not include the Lorraine and Alsace regions of the previous life.

This behemoth born in East Africa in the 19th century is enough to make France envious and jealous. Including colonies, the area of ​​East Africa is only slightly smaller than that of Russia in its previous life.

With a land area of ​​more than 13 million square kilometers, even if East Africa loses all its overseas colonies, it is enough to support East Africa's status as a great power and continue to maintain its hegemony in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic.

Therefore, Ambassador Thomson is now extremely envious of the geographical conditions of East Africa. He thinks in his mind that if France had been one step ahead of the Hohenzollern family and made drastic moves in Africa, it would probably not be much different from the current Britain.

Of course, from a practical point of view, France has also made great efforts in Africa, second only to East Africa in the world. According to normal history, Britain and France divided Africa, and small countries such as Belgium also got a share of the profits.

In this time and space, the British were very unfortunate. Their previous African strategy conflicted with the expansion in East Africa, which in turn allowed France, which focused its attention on West Africa and North Africa, to gain a great advantage.

Before World War I, France's overseas colonies covered approximately 10 million square kilometers, most of which were concentrated in French West Africa (including North Africa and West Africa).

In this life, the area of ​​France's overseas colonies is only about 8 million square kilometers. One of the important factors is the rise of East Africa, which caused France to lose many territories in its previous life, such as Madagascar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville and so on.

It seems that France is also a victim of East Africa. In fact, this is not the case. After all, in the process of France's expansion in Africa, there is basically not much intersection with East Africa.

Moreover, compared with Britain, France focused on developing French West Africa, which gave France an advantage in its expansion in West Africa and North Africa.

Although Britain also had its own colonial strategy in West Africa, due to the previous competition with East Africa in southern Africa, Britain lost an important opportunity to support its own colonies in West Africa.

By the time the South African War ended and the British were forced to turn their attention to West Africa, the French had already taken the lead and gained a huge advantage in West Africa. Today, France's colonies in Africa cover an area of ​​about four million square kilometers, making it the second largest force in Africa after East Africa.

From the French perspective, the emergence of East Africa actually dealt a heavy blow to Britain, which made the French secretly very happy.

East Africa only obtained two colonies from the French, one of which was Gabon. However, Gabon was given to Germany as compensation by the Germans and the French through exchange of interests due to the conflict between Morocco, and was finally sold to East Africa by the German government. Therefore, East Africa's acquisition of Gabon did not affect the relationship between France and East Africa.

Apart from this, the only territorial connection between France and East Africa in Africa was Mayotte. At that time, the Second French Empire had just collapsed, and Mayotte was the spoils of the Principality of Hechingen's assistance to Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War.

If the French really want to settle these two accounts, they will definitely put the blame on the Germans in the end. In short, it has nothing to do with East Africa. French people like Ambassador Thomson are very clear about these historical issues. Although they know it, the French will at most curse the Germans a few more times.

Ambassador Thomson said: "Mr. Freer, you are too modest. No matter how the war in Europe develops, when the war is over, East Africa will become an emerging world power."

"We in France fully support East Africa's important role in the Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic Ocean, and even the Pacific Ocean. Your country has been able to shoulder the responsibility of maintaining world peace after the war."

“Our two countries should also build good relations in advance to cope with competition and threats from other countries, especially those that may hinder and threaten your country’s strategy.”

There are only two countries that can pose strategic obstacles and threats to East Africa, namely Britain and the United States. There is no doubt that the biggest obstacle for East Africa to dominate the Indian Ocean is the British, and East Africa’s potential competitors in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans are the Americans.

As for France, France focused its energy on three places: Europe, West Africa (including North Africa) and Indochina.

Of these three places, only in West Africa may France have some intersection with East Africa. However, East Africa currently has only one colony in West Africa, Togoland. At the same time, this colony only borders France's Upper Volta and Dahomey colonies. The rich colonies in the east and west are all in the hands of the British. Therefore, the country that should be most nervous is Britain, not France.

As for Upper Volta, it is less than 200 kilometers away from the border with East Africa and the environment is relatively poor. It is not a place worth coveting. The Dahomey colony is not exclusive to France. The Portuguese and the British also have a share, so the French do not feel any pressure here.

(End of this chapter)