African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 968 Disagreement
After two days, Tirpitz and his party finally arrived at Rhine City. After passing Mbeya all the way to Rhine City, they did not see any big cities like Mbeya along the way. The middle area, which was the eastern part of Zambia in the previous life, had good agricultural development.

"This is Rhine City, our new capital of East Africa. Since we have just moved the capital, the city's population and industries are still relatively scarce, so the whole city seems rather empty." Aaron introduced to the Germans.

"It can be seen that the building density is far less than that of Mbeya and Dar es Salaam, but the urban framework is very large. The road network construction alone shows that East Africa has high hopes for the Rhine City, and there are also a large number of railways."

At this time, Tirpitz and others were approaching the Rhine City Station with the train. As the capital of East Africa, it is naturally not inferior to the central railway hub like New Frankfurt. Therefore, the closer to the Rhine City Station, the number of railways increases visibly, and two trunk railways gradually overlap with the railway line where Tirpitz and others are located.

"The railway plan of Rhine City should be the railway hub of your country. This location should be right in the geographical and economic heart of East Africa." Tirpitz said.

Aaron explained: "It will take some time for the railway hub to take shape. Currently, one of the three lines has not been completed. Only the section from Rhine City to the east has been completed, but it only accounts for about one-third of the entire railway."

Today, the railway in Rhine City has been separated from the Central Railway, so there is no need to transfer through New Frankfurt City, which also means that Tirpitz and others have no chance to see the situation in New Frankfurt.

As the new capital of East Africa, the urban layout of Rhine City is completely different from the styles of the East African cities that Tirpitz has seen, such as the First Town City, Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, and Mbeya.

A trend can be seen here: the closer to the interior of East Africa, the more different the urban architectural style is from that of Germany.

Early East African cities completely imitated European architectural styles, but as East Africa developed, the embryonic form of local architectural styles gradually took shape. And because inland cities were developed later than coastal areas, their styles became increasingly bold and open.

This architectural feature was most fully reflected in the city of Rhine. Although the overall core of the city is still similar to that of Europe, a large number of simple industrial style elements have been added.

Combined with East Africa's usual exaggerated roads and green construction, the entire Rhine city presents the vitality of an emerging city.

Tirpitz and his party finally got off at the Rhine station, which gave people a very majestic feeling. The scale of this station should be ranked among the top in the world. It is different from the Mbeya and Dar es Salaam cities that Tirpitz had seen before.

Subsequently, under the arrangement of the East African government, the German naval delegation officially visited the political center of East Africa. Ernst, who was busy dealing with a large amount of official business accumulated due to the capital relocation, also took the time to meet with Tirpitz, who was also a relatively famous figure in his previous life.

"Count Tirpitz, welcome to East Africa."

"Thank you, Your Highness, for taking the time to meet us." Even though Tirpitz was older than Ernst, he seemed quite in awe of him.

Even if we put aside Ernst's many titles and identities in East Africa, the Hechingen royal family is relatively prestigious in Europe, especially in Germany.

"We in East Africa are honored that Count Tirpitz, as the new German Navy Minister, chooses East Africa as his first stop. I believe that in the future, Germany and East Africa will be able to work closely together to play a greater role in the ocean field." Ernst set the tone.

Ernst would naturally not refuse the German Navy's initiative to seek cooperation with East Africa. Although the East African Navy has become mature, there is still a big gap in quality between it and the European Navy.

The early development of the East African Navy was inseparable from the support of the Austro-Hungarian Navy, but the Austro-Hungarian Navy was not particularly outstanding in Europe, especially compared with Western Europe and Nordic countries. It was even at a middle-to-lower level among the great powers. This was bound to lead to the East African Navy having a lot of lessons to learn.

Although the German Navy developed late and Germany is not a traditional naval power, it is currently the world's science and academic center, and its industrial strength and cutting-edge technology are on par with the United States. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, the world's navy was in an era of great change, especially the revival of battleships. In this case, the German Navy is one of the new forces that can lead the development of the world's navy in the short term.

Although Germany lost the First World War in its previous life, the performance of the German Navy was remarkable from the beginning to the end of the war, especially the German warships, which were no inferior to the British warships in quality and stability.

Against the backdrop of the East African Navy not expanding for the time being, the pressure on East Africa's coastal defense is actually increasing. Especially after East Africa has a coastline in the west that can be developed and constructed on a large scale, the original available scale of the East African Navy has become even more stretched.

If we can cooperate with the navies of Germany and other countries at this time, it will undoubtedly reduce the military pressure on East Africa during this special period.

Although Ernst emphasized that economic development is the current top priority in East Africa, this does not mean that Ernst ignored the possible risk of war.

After confirming Ernst's supportive attitude, Tirpitz was naturally very happy. With Ernst's instructions, it meant that the general direction of the two countries' naval cooperation was stable.

Of course, Germany and East Africa have their own interests and strategic considerations, so there are bound to be many differences. However, these differences are only differences in concepts and do not hinder the cooperation between the two countries' navies.

Tirpitz and Wilhelm II were undoubtedly supporters of the ocean-going navy, which was in line with Germany's world policy, so they wanted to exert the influence of the German Navy around the world.

The East African Navy's current mainstream policy direction is still offshore defense, even though East Africa has many colonies and economic spheres of influence in the world.

The stark differences in the two countries' naval development strategies are bound to have an impact on the naval cooperation between the two countries, the first of which is the conflict in ideology.

When it comes to the economic sphere of influence in East Africa, Germany and East Africa also have differences, especially in their attitude towards the Far Eastern Empire. The focus is undoubtedly East Africa’s two economic cooperation zones in the Far East, especially the core Jiaozhou Port.

With the development led by East African capital, Jiaozhou has obviously become a more tempting bait than in the past. Every country is coveting it. Germany had its eyes on Jiaozhou in the past, not to mention Jiaozhou after it was supported and developed by East Africa.

Ernst naturally could not give up his dominance over Jiaozhou, as it was the communication window and the most important economic channel between East Africa and the Far East Empire.

Due to the need to win over East Africa, the German naval delegation headed by Tirpitz naturally could not rob it by force. However, one thing is certain, that is, Germany would not sit idly by and watch other powers divide up the Far Eastern Empire market.

Although Jiaozhou is nominally an area of ​​common interests among East Africa, Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and other German countries, the dominance of the region has always been in the hands of East Africa.

Therefore, if Germany wants to have a core port dominated by Germany in the Far Eastern Empire, it can only find another place to build and develop, or snatch it from Britain, France and other countries. The latter is obviously unrealistic, so Germany will most likely re-enclose land outside the sphere of influence of various countries as its commercial base in the Far East.

Ernst could do nothing to help. After all, East Africa could not stand against Germany, nor had any reason to interfere in Germany's national policy. East Africa's guarantee of Jiaozhou's independence was actually a great help to the Far Eastern Empire. Although for various reasons, East Africa inevitably infiltrated Jiaozhou in cultural and economic fields, the Far Eastern Empire at least had some dominance and was not completely at the mercy of other powers like other ports.

(End of this chapter)