Chapter 1398 European Consensus
Germany's situation was very embarrassing. After failing to challenge the hegemony of Britain and France in World War I, Germany only nominally maintained and consolidated its position as the overlord of Europe.
After all, since the Franco-Prussian War, Germany has always been the number one military power on the European continent. Although France emphasized in its pre-war propaganda that its army was the best in Europe, since the Franco-Prussian War, France has never defeated Germany militarily again. The First World War made the French army firmly sit in the position of the second army in Europe.
However, this did not change the situation of Germany, the current overlord of Europe, and its idea of seizing the vast overseas colonies of Britain and France through war was shattered.
Germany can only continue to develop its original market and sphere of influence, and expand outward based on this. The two directions of expansion are Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
However, Germany's expansion in these two directions was obviously not smooth. In the Eastern European direction, the current Russian regime led by the Russian Labor Party still continued the fundamental policy of the Tsarist era of expansion towards Europe.
Any Russian leader with a normal mind knows that Europe is the foundation of Russia, and the Far East, Central Asia, Indian Ocean and other regions are secondary directions.
It’s not that these regions are not important, but the benefits of expanding into these regions are far less than those in Europe, and the costs are also not low.
A typical example is Nicholas II, who originally wanted to reverse Russia's decline through the Eastward Policy, but he ran head-on into the rising star Japan. Not only did he not gain much benefit, but he ended up with a complete failure.
There is also the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life. After the Far Eastern Empire recovered its national strength, its main expansion direction was also the Southeast Asian region at its doorstep. It did not spend too much energy on Europe and other regions.
In the past, the Far Eastern Empire invested more than 60% in Asia, while Europe and North America each had only about 10%, followed by Latin America and Africa, with similar proportions at around 7%. Oceania had the least, less than 3%.
Therefore, the expansion of sphere of influence, in general, is from near to far, and European countries such as Britain, France, Germany and Russia will inevitably fight hard for European hegemony.
The United States regards America as its backyard, while Japan focuses on the Pacific Rim, especially East Asia.
Compared with these countries, East Africa is a rather peculiar existence. It was only recently that it established a Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa and began to integrate resources on the African continent.
To a certain extent, this reflects East Africa's vacillation in its expansion policy. East Africa wants to get involved in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South America and West Africa, which has also led to the dispersion of East Africa's power.
However, on the whole, East Africa still regards the countries and regions along the Indian Ocean as its core sphere of influence.
As a result, East Africa had differences in interests with Russia, Britain, Germany, and even the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire. Other countries were also reluctant to see East Africa control the Indian Ocean. After all, the Indian Ocean was the main artery of Eurasian trade in the era of maritime transport.
Hermann told William II: "East Africa is already too powerful, and with its geographical advantages, its threat to the world is no less than that of Russia."
"To the north, they have the ability to control the entire African continent and implement an African version of the Monroe Doctrine. To the east, they can control the Indian Ocean and block communication and trade between Europe and the Far East."
"To the west, East Africa has already set its sights on America and has come into conflict of interest with the United States. In the future, it is possible that they will continue to move northward along the Atlantic Ocean and spread their influence to the entire Atlantic coast."
"If Russia can connect Eurasia by land, then East Africa is the most likely powerful force to split Eurasia in two by land and sea."
Speaking of this, Hermann couldn't help but fall into deep jealousy. Compared with Germany, East Africa's geographical conditions are simply "invincible".
East Africa is geographically capable of both offense and defense, and because of the special location of Africa, they are more offensive than the United States.
"Over the years, East Africa has relied on this geographical advantage to expand globally. New colonies have been established in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, the Far East, West Africa, etc."
The reason for East Africa's advantage is that East Africa is surrounded by weak targets on three sides. To the north of East Africa are North Africa and West Africa. These two regions obviously cannot pose a threat to East Africa.
The east, which is the Indian Ocean area, is also mostly colonies and backward countries.
The gap between the two most powerful countries in South America to the west, Brazil and Argentina, and East Africa is too great.
Let’s look at Germany again. There is no one around it that is easy to get along with. Europe at this time can be said to be a “monster house”.
Hermann couldn't even imagine how great it would be if the geographical location of East Africa was changed to Germany.
William II also gnashed his teeth and said: "East Africa's natural endowment is indeed enviable, jealous and hateful. This is also the reason why they were so comfortable in World War I. I am afraid that the benefits gained by the Americans are nothing compared to those of East Africa."
There are actually reasons why Germany has such a bad attitude towards East Africa now. There are mainly two aspects. The first is colonies, and the second is economic interests.
Before the war, East Africa "took advantage of the situation" to rob Germany's colonies. Although this transaction was objectively "fair and just" before World War I, the Germans obviously did not see it that way. From the German perspective, they were the loser.
That is more than one million square kilometers, and involves Central and West Africa, the South Pacific, the Far East and other regions. Since the unification of Germany, decades of overseas colonial achievements were easily taken away by East Africa.
Obviously, East Africa does not see it that way. In its view, this is a fair deal that is completely mutually beneficial. After all, if Germany does not sell these colonies to East Africa, these colonies will only benefit countries such as Britain and France.
However, now that the war is over, Germany is planning to take back these colonies, but East Africa will definitely not agree.
This is one of the important differences between the two countries. For Germany, because of the final outcome of World War I, Germany's gains were not enough to offset its costs, and the loss of these overseas colonies made Germany very sad.
In terms of territory, Germany only gained 50,000 square kilometers of new land in Eastern Europe after the war. Compared with the millions of square kilometers of territory lost overseas, it would be strange if it could feel balanced.
In terms of economic benefits, Germany was not only not grateful to East Africa, but also complained that East Africa had reaped too much of Germany's wealth during World War I.
As Germany's most important supplier during World War I, the more money East Africa made, the more heartbroken Germany felt after the war. Germany had fought hard in Europe and paid a heavy price, but East Africa had taken away all the wealth accumulated by Germany without any effort.
That’s not all. During World War I, a large number of overseas markets that Germany had worked so hard to build were also harvested by East Africa, such as the markets for arms, power equipment, etc.
Although there are differences in weapons between East Africa and Germany, there are many similarities, such as the rifles and artillery of the two countries. Many of East Africa's technologies come from Germany and Austria.
However, during World War I, Germany was embroiled in the war and its arms exports stagnated. Countries that originally imported arms from Germany naturally had to choose alternatives. There was no doubt that East Africa, which had a certain commonality with German equipment, was the best choice. This made the overseas arms market that Germany had carefully cultivated before the war go to East Africa for nothing.
Once a country originally equipped with German military products has had its weapons and equipment replaced in large quantities with East African products, it would obviously be very difficult to replace them back.
In the international arms trade market, brand, quality, performance and price are important influencing factors, but in these areas, German military industry has no obvious advantages over East African military industry. Both are "German". Although East Africa's overall industrial level is not as good as Germany's, its military industry is comparable to Germany.
Perhaps German weapons are indeed of better quality than those of East Africa, but it is also true that East African weapons are cheaper than German ones.
On the political level, East Africa's influence is obviously wider than that of Germany, which is also an important favorable factor for East Africa to seize Germany's overseas military industry market.
For example, the Far Eastern Empire was a huge military market in the early 20th century. Because of its weak domestic military industry and frequent wars, it imported a large number of foreign military products every year.
As for which country's military products to import, it is obviously also necessary to consider from a political perspective. After all, there are many forces behind which are supported by different countries.
The most typical examples are Russia and Japan, two malicious neighbors. Because they are close to the Far Eastern Empire and are easy to manipulate and interfere in the internal affairs of the Far Eastern Empire, they can easily obtain a large number of military orders.
At this time, the military products of Russia and Japan were undoubtedly not outstanding among the great powers, and it would not be an exaggeration to even describe them as "junk". However, the fact that these two countries could obtain a large number of military orders from the Far Eastern Empire is very telling.
When it comes to Germany and East Africa, East Africa obviously has more advantages than Germany. East Africa has many colonies in the Far East and its navy is stationed in the Pacific region, which are influences that Germany does not have.
The First World War lasted for five years, and a large part of the overseas military market of Germany and Austria was taken up by East Africa. So based on this issue alone, it would be strange for Germany to have a favorable impression of East Africa.
Therefore, in the eyes of Germans such as William II and Hermann, East Africa was a "thief" in the international market, stealing a large amount of interests that should have belonged to Germany.
However, even if Germany feels dissatisfied with East Africa, it can only keep it in its heart. Now Germany's attitude towards East Africa is quite twisted.
William II said: "Although East Africans are annoying, our main enemy now is still Russia. It is indeed a good idea to reach an agreement with Britain on the issue of the League of Nations and bring the whole of Europe to fight against Russia."
East Africa is a distant concern, and it should not even be an issue that Germany needs to consider. Now Germany cannot even go beyond Europe. On the contrary, Britain, France and East Africa have deeper intersections in overseas interests. It is just that East Africa simply makes Germany more unhappy, so the king and his ministers said so much.
Hermann said: "To deal with Russia, we must first stabilize the front line, and then look for opportunities to end this war and prevent other countries from acting as fishermen behind the scenes again. After all, it is impossible for us to take down Russia now, and a war with Russia will only be disadvantageous to Germany."
"We need a period of peaceful development to heal the wounds of war and restore the national economy before we consider military investment and the future direction of the country."
"During this period, we should win over more allies internationally, restrict Russia's development, and reduce the empire's military spending. The financial crisis has not been resolved yet, so we can't just do it ourselves to fight against Russia."
Germany and Russia are fighting to the death. It is unknown what the final outcome of Russia will be, but it will definitely be disadvantageous to Germany. After all, even if Germany beats Russia half to death, the international community is unlikely to allow Germany to digest the results of the victory.
While Germany has the idea of a ceasefire, Russia is the main obstacle to peace in Eastern Europe. Judging from the current state of the Russian Labor Party, they support the continuation of the war because, up to now, the war situation is favorable to Russia, and the Russian Labor Party currently has the attributes of a world political party. Their political slogan is to liberate the world, and liberating the world can naturally be achieved through war.
Therefore, Hermann proposed that the war situation should be stabilized first, and Russia should be "hurt" so that the Russian Labor Party would return to rationality.
Although the Russian Labor Party temporarily holds the upper hand, don't forget that Russians are not equal to the Russian Labor Party. The collapse of Tsarist Russia during World War I was due to the fact that the lower-class people were tired of the war, so it ultimately did not end well.
Therefore, Hermann believed that as long as Russia suffered a defeat on the front line or found it difficult to make further progress, they would have to return to the negotiating table. Otherwise, even if the Russian Labor Party could still be able to convince the people, they would be doomed to repeat the mistakes of the Tsarist government.
Hermann went on to say: “At the same time, we should also launch a counterattack against the Russian Labor Party in the field of ideology and public opinion, especially within the empire and its affiliated spheres of influence. We should intensify the propaganda offensive and study how to crack the ideological weapons of the Russian Labor Party.”
"We must prevent people in the country and surrounding areas from being incited by the Labour Party. The Labour Party's theory is the most terrifying, just like Satan. The lessons we learned in Eastern Europe this time tell us that we must find a way to curb the spread of this evil ideology."
"Otherwise, let alone Poland and Ukraine, the entire empire might be infiltrated by Labour Party members, which would eventually undermine the foundation of the rule."
William II said solemnly: "The Labour Party's ideology is extremely destructive. Although we have been fighting against the Labour Party members for a long time, the evil ideas of the Labour Party are like weeds, still growing wildly. So when negotiating with the British, we should also take this opportunity to discuss with countries around the world how to deal with the spread of this evil ideology."
Putting aside the so-called "evil" ideological factors, Russia is still the same Russia, and its national strength is even weaker than that of the Tsarist era. However, the combat effectiveness is just the opposite. Armed with this evil ideology, the combat effectiveness of the Russian army is obviously more "brutal" and "swift" than the gray beasts of Tsarist Russia.
Therefore, in the view of the current German government, curbing the spread of such ideas has become a problem that must be solved. If this problem can be solved, the situation in Ukraine and Belarus will not be repeated.
So with these issues in mind, in 1923, the German government not only further strengthened its military support for Eastern Europe and prevented Russia's expansion, but also started exchanges and cooperation with countries such as Britain.
Britain naturally supported Germany's change of attitude. With the active promotion of the two countries, the progress of establishing the League of Nations, a world organization used to coordinate international affairs and relations and resolve international disputes, was greatly accelerated.
After experiencing the mutual slaughter in World War I, the four major European imperialist countries, Britain, France, Germany and Austria, were finally forced to sit down together again due to various threats outside Europe (including Russia) and form alliances to discuss the fate of Europe.
This also doomed the League of Nations, an international organization, to suppress the development of countries outside Europe from its birth. This is also the only consensus that can unite the four countries. And to a certain extent, this also reflects the current decline of Europe.
(End of this chapter)
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