Chapter 1060 Active Foreign Policy
Such a tug of war would certainly not produce any results in a short period of time, but East Africa's actions actually allowed Tsarist Russia to gain an advantage. There was nothing that could be done about it, after all, there was Britain between East Africa and Tsarist Russia.
Tsarist Russia was certainly unwilling to compromise with Britain. Without the disastrous defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, it would have been impossible for Russia to willingly give in to Britain.
However, the emergence of East Africa gave Russia a chance to breathe. Now in the Middle East and Central Asia, as long as Russia can digest its own sphere of influence in the north, and then wait for East Africa to compete with Britain, the Russian government also believes that its national strength can be restored to a certain extent during this period.
"We should not be too hasty about our activities in the Middle East and Central Asia. After all, these places do not belong to our sphere of influence. The purpose of our temporary intervention is mainly to pave the way for the future." Ernst said to officials from the intelligence and diplomatic departments.
Britain has accumulated advantages in the Middle East and Central Asia for hundreds of years. Generally speaking, as long as there is no direct war, it is almost impossible for East Africa to eliminate Britain's influence.
"The layout of the Middle East and Central Asia is a long-term task. Our goal is to build up our own advantages little by little. When something unexpected happens to the UK, we can take over the UK's influence in the region."
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Far Eastern Empire.
As the power struggle within the ancient empire became increasingly severe, East Africa had to make corresponding changes to ensure its interests in the Far Eastern Empire.
Abetz, the East African Consulate General in Jiaozhou, said: "Today, the politics in the Far East are becoming more and more complicated. In order to ensure our interests amid political turmoil, we must support relevant political forces, especially the local forces in the Huaihai Economic Zone that cooperate with us, and increase their voice."
The arrival of the 20th century further accelerated the decline of the power of the central government of the Far East Empire. This political change also made it easy for other forces to take advantage of the situation. The first country that East Africa had to guard against was Japan.
As some minor frictions occurred between Britain and East Africa in the Middle East and Central Asia, Japan, Britain's pawn, was once again pulled out by Britain to cause trouble for East Africa.
This is quite attractive to Japan. If it can replace East Africa, it will greatly alleviate Japan's current economic pressure.
Of course, the Japanese would not easily take a bite of the pie drawn by the British. Having just suffered the losses in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's situation is not much better than Russia's. Moreover, as Russia retreats, Japan can play a greater role in Northeast Asia.
Moreover, Japan cannot afford to completely offend East Africa. Even if the Japanese navy has an advantage over the current East African navy, as long as Japan continues to do business with Europe, East Africa will find ways to cause trouble for Japan. Of course, the price may be that East Africa will be squeezed out of the Far East.
Therefore, both Japan and East Africa had concerns. It was impossible for Japan to be easily pulled out by Britain to serve as a soldier, and Japan could also see the conflict between East Africa and Britain. In Japan's view, if Britain and East Africa could both suffer losses, then the only country that could compete with Japan in the Far East Empire would be the United States.
Therefore, East Africa must always be vigilant against Japan. Consul General Abetz said to his subordinates: "Especially for the forces in Jiaozhou and the region that have ties with Japan, we must strictly monitor them. If they are confirmed to be involved with Japan, we must crack down on them strictly to prevent Japan from infiltrating the Huaihai Economic Zone in various forms."
Years of dealing with Japan have enabled East African intelligence agencies to gain a lot of practical experience. The more they fight with Japan, the more East African security departments understand Japan's methods.
This has already been reflected in the Russo-Japanese War. Japan is far stronger than Russia in intelligence work. Through business personnel, various forms of associations, and diplomatic personnel, Japan has woven an effective intelligence network in Northeast Asia, which laid the information foundation for defeating Russia. Therefore, East Africa in the Huaihai Economic Zone must naturally guard against Japan doing so.
Moreover, East Africa is not as powerful as Russia. Russia has a strong military presence in the Far East Empire, and even if it retreats to the north, it still has a chance to make a comeback. However, the Huaihai Economic Zone in East Africa can only be regarded as a semi-economic colony.
There is no way around it. As a semi-industrial country, East Africa is inherently in an advantageous position in trade with the Far Eastern Empire. As long as the two sides trade, East Africa will definitely gain the upper hand. Moreover, if the Far Eastern Empire wants to develop, it cannot break away from this form of trade.
The semi-economic colony also makes East Africa's control over the Huaihai Economic Zone quite weak, which means that East Africa can only ensure its potential sphere of influence by strengthening cooperation with local forces.
This kind of local force has a lot of initiative. For example, they can bypass and cooperate with British and Japanese capital in exchange for greater benefits. Such short-sighted forces are naturally the target of severe crackdowns in East Africa, especially those forces that have contact with Japan, which are all objects of strict surveillance in East Africa.
"At the same time, according to the orders of the central government, as long as the legitimate upper government of the Far Eastern Empire still exists, our people should not interfere in the power struggle within the Far Eastern Empire." Abetz warned.
Even if the Qing government was destroyed, the North would not be divided into several local political factions like the South. After all, there is a high probability that the Beiyang government will take over the national power, even if only in name, and East Africa's attitude will be neutral.
1908 was clearly a turbulent year for East Africa. On the one hand, with the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the attention of countries around the world, especially Britain, began to shift to other regions, which naturally included East Africa. Britain would not miss any opportunity to dismantle East Africa.
On the other hand, with the development of industrialization in East Africa, the demand for overseas markets is increasing, which requires East Africa to start to pick up a more proactive foreign policy and pave the way for East Africa's industrial exports.
In this case, East Africa mainly focuses on the three major markets of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Far East, while vigorously developing the South American market. As for West Africa, there are too many European countries and they are not within East Africa's consideration for the time being.
Therefore, in 1908, East Africa's foreign policy clearly took the initiative, increasing its influence in a number of hot spots and consolidating its base.
In the global market, the Central and Eastern European and Far Eastern markets are the most important to East Africa, so they cannot be lost. The Middle East, Central Asia and South American markets are in the development stage, which is also a reflection of East Africa's expansion of its own trade scope.
The most direct manifestation is that the export volume of industrial products in East Africa has increased, and with East Africa as the core, the world has been conquering the global market, further intensifying the competitive pressure on the economies of countries around the world.
At the same time, East Africa's diplomatic activities have become more frequent, especially in South America and the Middle East, directly communicating with high-level governments of local countries and regions to achieve relevant cooperation.
Of course, as a great power, East Africa will also use intimidation, threats and other means, but due to the limited capabilities of the navy, it can only play a certain role on the neighboring countries of East Africa for the time being.
So compared with other powers, East Africa is relatively friendly. This is not an isolated case in the world. For example, the situation in the United States and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is similar.
The common point among the three countries is that their influence on countries outside the region is constrained by the rules of the game and the international system set by Britain and France, and thus cannot be effectively exerted.
Unlike Germany and Russia, the two countries' military strength is generally recognized to be relatively strong, so they have a relatively high voice in the international arena, while the military strength of other countries, especially East Africa, is most likely to be questioned.
Of course, the military strength here refers more to the judgment of various countries on their combat effectiveness. At least European countries tend to belittle the military forces of countries outside Europe. For example, the military strength of the United States is easily overlooked, even when the US Navy is relatively strong.
At present, the naval strength of East Africa cannot be compared with that of the top countries. Although East Africa has the second largest number of dreadnoughts in the world after the United Kingdom, the gap in other warships is too big. Two dreadnoughts and one quasi-dreadnought cannot offset this gap for the time being.
(End of this chapter)
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