African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 969 Limited Cooperation

"East Africa's current national strength is not enough to support the construction of an ocean-going navy. Moreover, the navies of traditional maritime powers such as Britain and France, as well as the up-and-coming United States, already have great advantages. Unless there are any accidents, our increased naval construction will only trigger a naval competition among countries. This kind of competition cannot narrow the gap between the navies of various countries. Therefore, every penny of the East African Navy's funds must be carefully calculated rather than invested in an endless naval arms race." East African Defense Minister Felix said to Tirpitz.

If two countries cooperate, generally speaking, the stronger the ally, the better, which means that one's own camp is stronger, just like Italy, the ally chosen by Germany in the past, which may have a huge impact on the world pattern even if it does not lag behind.

The East African government is apparently only willing to engage in limited cooperation with the German Navy in areas such as military technology, routine exercises and training.

Tirpitz was naturally disappointed with the East African government's lack of ambition. In his opinion, East Africa was fully capable of becoming a powerful helper of the German Navy in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

"East Africa is a country that spans two oceans, or even three oceans (including the Pacific Ocean; East African colonies are mainly distributed in the Pacific region). You have defeated Britain. If you get the full support of Germany, you can gain greater voice in the Indian Ocean and become one of the founders of the new international order." Tirpitz still tried to drag East Africa into the water, so he painted as many rosy pictures for East Africa as possible.

Germany and East Africa are highly complementary. One is in the northern hemisphere and the other is in the southern hemisphere. There is no conflict of interest and their cultures and ethnicities are similar. If East Africa can be tied to the German chariot, the German government will wake up laughing in its dreams.

Apart from anything else, if the East African Navy expands, the most nervous will be the British in the Indian Ocean, which will greatly relieve the pressure on the German Navy.

Of course, this was Germany's idea. The East African government had three options: one was to stand completely on the side of Germany, the second was to remain neutral, and the third was to stand on the side of the British.

If one is chosen, it means that in the future East Africa is very likely to join forces with Germany to fight against the Allied Powers. This is too risky for Ernst. In his previous life, the Allied Powers led by Germany were actually on par with the Allied Powers in terms of military. If a country of East Africa's size joins the war, can it change the outcome of the war?

The answer is not necessarily. Although it seems that East Africa standing on the side of the Allies can increase the Allies' chances of victory, the actual role that East Africa can play in the European war is not that big.

This has to start with the geographical location of East Africa. There are three main communication channels between East Africa and Europe, namely the Suez Canal controlled by the United Kingdom, the British colony of Gibraltar, and the English Channel.

Therefore, even if East Africa wanted to support Germany, it would not be able to do so in the short term. Moreover, Britain, France, and the United States, a huge blood bag, served as a logistics support center, which further increased the uncertainty of the war.

As for option three, it is not very realistic at present. The relationship between East Africa and the United Kingdom is too bad, and the possibility of cooperation between the two countries is very small. Of course, it is not impossible. After all, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. If the British offer a high price, East Africa is not impossible to stand on the side of the British.

The last is the neutral route, which is also attractive to East Africa. The United States took this route in the early and middle stages of the war. However, this also meant that the United States did not change the original world order after the war and could only continue to watch Britain and France dominate the world situation.

All three routes are feasible, but as far as Ernst is concerned, he prefers neutrality, mainly because it has the lowest risk, while the first two routes may drag East Africa into the abyss of war.

Of course, the final choice of national policy in East Africa still depends on the actual situation. In Ernst's mind, the possibilities of these three routes are three to four to three.

However, East Africa will definitely not join the conflict between Germany, Britain and France, which involves Ernst's judgment that a major war is unlikely to occur in the next ten years. Therefore, Ernst said: "The world situation will be affected by various factors, and we in East Africa are too backward and weak to participate in the game of world power. Of course, from the perspective of national sentiment and interests, we definitely prefer Germany to dominate the future world situation."

Anyway, it's a free thing to do, so there's no problem in complimenting Germany. If it were France, Ernst might have said something similar.

Ernst's words finally had a certain effect. Although they did not meet Tirpitz's psychological expectations, there is no doubt that it is an ironclad fact that East Africa and Germany currently have close relations, and the two countries have more common interests in culture, politics and economy.

As for East Africa's lack of enthusiasm for world power struggles, it is understandable. Although East Africa is in good development, there is still a big gap with European and American countries. At the current stage, East Africa mainly focuses on developing domestic economy and industry, and does not need to reshape the world pattern as urgently as the United States and Germany.

The development of the United States and Germany has reached the limit of what their country can accommodate, so they are in urgent need of more markets and sources of raw materials. However, their domestic markets and raw material supplies are already close to the limit, and the comprehensive national strength of the two countries has reached the standard to compete with any other country.

East Africa has obviously not yet developed to this stage. There are still a large number of undeveloped areas in the country, the degree of industrialization is not high, the national economic and population distribution is uneven, and there is still great potential that needs to be developed.

Therefore, East Africa’s current demand for external markets is not as strong as that of Germany and the United States. East Africa itself is a resource-rich country and, at least at the current stage of industrial development, does not lack any raw materials. Therefore, its demand for raw materials is not as strong as that of Germany.

Therefore, East Africa’s main focus is currently still on its homeland. Only after East Africa completes its own resource development and economic construction will it consider more far-reaching issues.

Although the East African government's attitude towards cooperation between the two countries did not satisfy Germany's appetite, it was not enough to be useful, so Tirpitz could only reduce the huge plan he had formulated when he came according to the requirements of the East African government.

Under such circumstances, it is naturally impossible for Germany to fully support East Africa. In fact, it is impossible to do so because East Africa is too large and Germany can only play a role of icing on the cake at most.

In this way, a castrated version of the "East-German Naval Cooperation Plan" was produced. Tirpitz stayed in East Africa for another week and then returned to Germany to begin drastic reforms.

The East African-German naval cooperation plan mainly aims to achieve the sharing and development of some technical equipment in the field of technical equipment. At the same time, East Africa will provide Germany with certain conveniences to support the future activities of the German Navy in overseas regions such as the Pacific.

Sharing and development of technical equipment. East Africa is interested in German battleship technology, while Germany, or Tirpitz, is more interested in East African submarine technology. Researchers from the two countries will exchange and cooperate in related fields.

Supporting Germany's activities in overseas regions such as the Pacific mainly means providing port conveniences to the German Navy. However, as an independent country, East Africa can only provide support, and it is impossible for it to cede its territory to Germany for use as a military base. At most, it can provide the German Navy with temporary footholds and maintenance services.

The East African Navy and the German Navy's cooperation plan can only be regarded as limited cooperation. Under this cooperation plan, the East African Navy still adopts a conservative policy, but the communication with the German Navy is smoother, which is conducive to the country's navy to learn from each other's strengths and weaknesses and avoid working in isolation.

(End of this chapter)