African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 963 Cooperation Ideas
"Your Excellency, you are too kind. Submarine technology is still unstable and cannot compete with powerful battleships. Its position in the navy is at most a supporting role. In this regard, the strength of our East African Navy is far inferior to that of Germany." Klintmann said very humbly.

Tirpitz did not care about Klintmann's humble attitude. After all, before coming to East Africa, Tirpitz learned that East Africans were not as ostentatious as Europeans, and of course not as overly humble as the current people of the Far Eastern Empire.

This is actually easy to understand. When you lack the strength, it is not a bad thing to humble yourself. Think about it, before the 1950s, the Far Eastern Empire's description of foreigners was actually very contemptuous.

Even the core idea of ​​the Westernization Movement was "learning advanced foreign technology in order to control it", but in the Far Eastern Empire, "foreign" was not a good word.

Ignoring Klintmann's self-deprecating remarks, Tirpitz said: "It seems that our visit to East Africa this time is not only to strengthen cooperation at the strategic and tactical level of the navy, but also to reach some cooperation between the two countries on some of the unique skills of the East African navy, especially in terms of technology."

Before arriving in East Africa, Tirpitz had originally looked down upon some of the technologies mastered by the East African Navy. After all, the East African Navy was derived from the Austro-Hungarian Navy, and even its early officers were members of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. Its commander-in-chief was Archduke Ferdinand, a former Austrian navy commander.

So before, Tirpitz believed that the East African Navy might not be able to compete with the Austro-Hungarian Empire in terms of technology and shipbuilding.

In fact, there is nothing wrong with this statement. When it comes to shipbuilding industry today, although East Africa has surpassed the Austro-Hungarian Empire in scale, there is still a gap in technology and quality between it and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

At present, the Austro-Hungarian Empire's shipbuilding capabilities are actually stronger than in history. After all, Venice in hand provides the Austro-Hungarian Empire with more options, while in the past, the only ones the Austro-Hungarian Empire could rely on were Trieste and the underdeveloped Dalmatian coastal areas.

Of course, this is not the case in the military shipbuilding industry. East Africa's military shipbuilding industry has completely freed itself from its dependence on Austria and has even surpassed the Austro-Hungarian Empire in some areas.

The main reason is that the status and positioning of the two countries' navies in their own countries are different. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is not like Germany, and Franz is not William II, so Franz's understanding of his country is much more sophisticated than William II.

There is a saying that the reason why William II promoted Germany's ocean-going naval plan was that he was stimulated by attending the British Royal Navy review ceremony in 1897 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's accession to the throne. After that, he vigorously developed the German navy, laying the groundwork for the outbreak of World War I.

However, faced with the huge fleet of Royal Navy warships, the "best warships of the German Navy" carefully selected by William II were completely dwarfed, which greatly stung William II's self-esteem.

According to Ernst's understanding, this rumor is most likely true, because after that, William II often made "inappropriate" remarks in public, including "Germany's future is the ocean" and "Germany is a world power".

Of course, William II's ideas also have no shortage of supporters in Germany. A German scholar recently stated in a newspaper: "Germany's goal... German influence, German capital, German commerce, German industry and German ingenuity compete with other powers throughout the world... and all of this is inseparable from a strong navy."

Including Tirpitz, the newly appointed Navy Minister, who was also a supporter of William II, and he was also the naval admiral who escorted William II to the review ceremony on Queen Victoria's birthday in 1897.

In fact, it was after the review ceremony that Tirpitz, at the instruction of William II, led a huge 20-year German naval development plan - the "Tirpitz Plan". According to the plan, the German Navy will be built into at least the second largest navy in the world and will be able to compete with the British Navy.

If it was Franz or Ernst, they would definitely not do this. After all, the current strength of the German Navy is not too weak. Even if it is to maintain its interests, as long as it can stabilize the Baltic Sea, the German Navy cannot avoid the geographical disadvantage even if it can reach the level of the British Navy in terms of hardware facilities. On the contrary, the Austro-Hungarian Empire seems "rational". Its naval positioning is near-shore defense to ensure its presence in the Mediterranean, rather than an ocean navy.

The same is true in East Africa. Although the South African War caused the British Army to suffer a disgrace in East Africa, it did not affect the reputation of the British Royal Navy at all.

If East Africa, like Germany, also came up with a "big navy" plan at this time, it might really trigger a new round of war between the two countries.

After all, the current East African Navy has already posed a huge threat to Britain, including India, Australia and the mainland's communications are all under the surveillance of the East African Navy.

Of course, even if East Africa increased its investment in the navy, it would not be able to gain an advantage over the Royal Navy in a short period of time. This had been fully demonstrated by Germany in the past. Even if Germany tried its best to strengthen its naval strength, Britain would still be better.

However, the financial resources of Britain and Germany are far greater than those of East Africa, so if East Africa participates in the naval competition in the current environment, it will only gain nothing. It is better to invest more resources in local development and industrial development. Therefore, the current focus of East Africa's investment is on the civilian shipbuilding industry, which is very abrupt in the naval arms race among countries in the world.

However, East Africa's approach is certainly in line with Britain's current philosophy. No matter what, the results of the naval arms race among various countries will have the greatest negative impact on the British Royal Navy. After all, before the arms race, Britain was already number one, but the expansion of the naval armaments of other countries forced the Royal Navy to follow up and invest more funds, which in itself is a consumption of national potential.

……

After visiting the East African submarines, Tirpitz and German naval representatives returned to Bagamoyo and made relevant suggestions to Archduke Ferdinand.

Since Ernst moved the capital to Rhine City, Archduke Ferdinand and his wife have continued to stay in Bagamoyo. Now Archduke Ferdinand is no longer in charge of frontline work, but his influence in the navy is very huge. In Bagamoyo and even in East Africa, the status and position of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife are second only to the members of the Hechingen royal family.

"Germany's new Navy Minister?" asked Archduke Ferdinand.

"Yes, Your Excellency, our German Navy is willing to strengthen exchanges and cooperation with the East African Navy. This is also the purpose of my visit to East Africa this time." Tirpitz said directly.

"Well, I have some understanding of you. I wonder what you think about the future development of the German Navy?" Archduke Ferdinand said to this junior.

Archduke Ferdinand is quite well-known in navies all over the world. Apart from the stain of having been the Emperor of Mexico, he once served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Austrian Navy and later founded the East African Navy. These are quite dazzling achievements. Moreover, the East African Navy has experience in the South African naval battle, so its combat effectiveness is also recognized by various countries.

This also reversed the image of Archduke Ferdinand. Although the career of the Mexican Emperor was somewhat anticlimactic, the development and growth of the East African Navy made it easy for people to attribute the credit to Archduke Ferdinand. After all, when he took over, the East African Navy was completely "zero", and now it has become one of the few powerful navies.

(End of this chapter)