Chapter 1613 Security Threat
From the adjustment of the East African military region and war zone, it can be seen that East Africa's position in the world is that it is a global power between a regional power and a world hegemon.
East Africa does not have the strength and influence to dominate the world, otherwise it would not focus on the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic, instead of the global deployment like when Britain and the United States became world hegemons in the past. There are many places in the world that East Africa cannot control.
At the same time, East Africa still attaches more importance to the development of land power than pure maritime powers. Britain itself is an island country, so its army has not been taken seriously for a long time. Although the United States is a continental country, its land security is more stable than East Africa.
The land security situation faced by East Africa is much more complicated than that of the United States. Two aspects are more prominent, namely religious and ethnic issues. Northern East Africa is the sphere of influence of Arab religion and has natural religious and cultural barriers.
The United States does not have such concerns. Both Canada and Mexico are Christian countries, and there are no natural conflicts between their religions and cultures.
Regarding religious and cultural conflicts, we can boldly imagine that if Canada were an Arab country, the relationship between the United States and Canada would definitely be complicated, contradictory, and conflicting, and the two countries would not be able to form the close relationship they have now.
Just as it is impossible for East Africans to put aside religion and regard the Arab countries in North Africa as "their own people".
This problem can also be illustrated from Canada itself. For example, the French-speaking regions such as Quebec in Canada are independent in Canada and even want to become independent from Canada.
This is just the conflict between the English-speaking and French-speaking peoples, which has already caused a split in Canada, a place with excellent basic conditions. If it were a religious conflict, there would be a high probability of direct conflict in Canada, or even civil war.
Religious conflict itself is the most intense ideological dispute. The confrontation between two completely different religions is no less intense than the conflict between the Soviet Union and capitalist countries.
East Africa is naturally no exception, so when facing the huge Arab religious forces in the north, East Africa must suppress them. This is considered relatively restrained.
In ancient times, it would most likely have evolved into an African version of the "Crusades".
Therefore, East Africa will inevitably retain military forces on its northern border and be prepared to intervene or even go to war at any time to prevent the connection and expansion of Arab religious forces in North Africa and even the Middle East.
These two regions are connected by land, so army power is an effective means for East Africa to intervene in and suppress the Arab world.
Theoretically, the East African army can even advance from the mainland through Egypt and the Sinai Peninsula all the way to the heart of the Middle East.
On the other hand, if the Arab world unites to form a powerful alliance and empire, they may become a "border threat" threatening the security of East Africa.
Dollfuss said, "From a long-term perspective, the unification of Arab forces is a major concern for the empire. The Arab world is only declining now, but in ancient times, the Arab world was a powerful force capable of attacking all of Europe and the Far East, conquering South Asia, and infiltrating Southeast Asia."
"Therefore, the Arab religious forces have reunited and are equally capable of posing a threat to East Africa and bringing immense military pressure to our country's north."
"In the future, the empire's enemies may also take advantage of this and turn the Arab religious forces against us, thereby achieving the goal of suppressing the empire."
"Therefore, the Empire must ensure the military superiority of the North to prevent this from happening."
The Soviet Union could start a fire in the United States' backyard by supporting Cuba. The United States could support Afghanistan to compete with the Soviet Union, or it could support Japan and the Philippines to encircle the Far East Empire.
Similarly, potential enemies of East Africa in the future, namely other superpowers, the United States, Germany, the Soviet Union, Britain and France, can also support the Arab religious forces in North Africa to confront East Africa.
Dollfuss cited a typical example: "This is exactly what the British did. Ever since becoming the dominant power in East Africa, they have provided Egypt with a series of military support. The political leaders of the two countries even formed a tacit military alliance to jointly deal with the pressure from the empire."
Although Egypt is a British colony, the Egyptian government is actually in cahoots with Britain. Compared to the British sucking blood from the Egyptians, they believe that East Africa will eat Egypt to the bone.
This is actually a mentality similar to "making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones", and long-term history has also proved that Britain will not pose a fatal threat to Egypt's survival. On the contrary, out of considerations of interests, Britain will even support their own interest representatives in Egypt, and these people occupy an absolute majority in Egypt's ruling class.
Dollfuss went on to say, "This is just Britain. Since the late 19th century, Britain has been in decline, so in its confrontation with East Africa, Britain has chosen a more defensive strategy rather than an offensive one."
"But if it were countries like the United States, Germany, and the Soviet Union, the situation would be completely different."
"They can provide more substantial support and military assistance to the Arab religious forces in North Africa to curb the development and expansion of the empire."
"At the same time, if combined with the integrity of the Arab world, it could cause great trouble to the empire in the future."
Ernst agreed with Dollfuss's concerns. Although the Arab world had performed very poorly in the past, they could at least still get along openly.
In fact, if it were not for the intervention of external forces, Nasser of Egypt in his previous life would have been very likely to unite the Arab countries and form a unified Arab country.
At that time, there were a large number of Nasser's followers and supporters in the Arab countries, and most of them were young and strong people in the Arab countries. If this force was united and organized by Nasser, there was more than a 60% probability of forming a powerful Arab country spanning the Arabian Peninsula and North Africa.
As for the poor performance of the Arab world in its fight against Israel, it is not enough to prove that this force is not formidable.
After all, Israel is just a "gold medal fighter", and the entire Western world stands behind it, and even the United States and the Soviet Union in the early days supported it.
Moreover, in the confrontation between Israel and Arab countries, the Western world has been sowing discord and carrying out targeted suppression within Arab countries, thus preventing a dominant force from emerging in the Arab world.
The conspiracy of the Western world was very successful, but the price was not small. After all, the confrontation between the West and the Arab world has lasted for thousands of years. Even after the industrial age, when the West's strength surpassed the Arab world in all aspects, it took nearly a hundred years for the West to completely split and eliminate this group.
What will happen if the West relaxes its suppression of the Arab world?
The result is predictable. The Arab world will inevitably complete its internal integration quickly and a leader will emerge. Therefore, East Africa must never relax its vigilance against the Arab world.
Ernst said, "This mindset of being prepared for danger in times of peace is correct. The possibility of a united Arab world is very high, and may even persist for a long time. If this happens, it will have a huge negative impact on the interests of the Empire. The Arab world is also the only independent force on the African continent that is not bound by the Empire. The threat to the Empire's security from North Africa is far greater than from West Africa."
The conflict between East Africa and West Africa is mainly reflected at the racial level. However, West Africa does not have a unified religious belief like North Africa, and it is not easy for it to become a community and thus have the capital to have equal dialogue with East Africa.
Moreover, due to the colonial activities in West Africa, it is even less likely that West Africa will unite in the future. Now West Africa has the British sphere of influence, the French sphere of influence, the East African sphere of influence, as well as the influence of countries such as the United States, Spain and Portugal.
This actually makes West Africa more divided, and the division is at a deep level such as language and culture.
For example, the sphere of influence in East Africa, namely Togoland, the Habsburg Monarchy, the Kingdom of New Austria, and the Kingdom of South Germany, these regions and countries will become the German-speaking areas of West Africa in the future. Even the races are different from the locals, so it is naturally impossible for them to unite with the black countries in West Africa.
This means that East Africa has already planted several nails in West Africa that are difficult to knock out. If the Habsburg Monarchy and the New Austrian Kingdom successfully expand in the future, the German-speaking area will even be able to directly compete with all the black forces in West Africa in terms of size and number. Dealing with North Africa will not be so easy.
This time, the division of East Africa's local military regions and the adjustment of the Northern Military Region and the Western Military Region have further clarified East Africa's strategic direction on the African continent.
The Northern Military Region's resource integration is obviously intended to deal with religious forces in North Africa. By cooperating with the Northeast Military Region, the Pacific Theater, and the East Indian Ocean Theater, East Africa will be able to better suppress the entire Arab world from a military perspective.
The Northern Military District targets the Arab religious forces in North Africa, while the Northeastern Military District targets the Arab religious forces along the Red Sea coast and in the Middle East. The Eastern Indian Ocean Theater targets the Arab religious forces in South Asia. Finally, the Pacific Theater is responsible for suppressing the Arab religious forces in the South Pacific region. The division of labor is very clear.
The expansion of the Western Military Region will further strengthen East Africa's dominance over West Africa and the entire South Atlantic. West Africa is also an important distribution area of Arab religious forces.
From this perspective, the adjustment of the East African military region and war zone carries obvious "malice" towards the world's Arab religious forces.
East Africa has indeed considered this, but it is not just targeting the Arab forces. Another major reason for this result is the high overlap between the spheres of influence of the Arab forces and East Africa.
To put it more simply, the Arab religious forces are too close to East Africa.
There is no need to say much about North Africa, as they directly border the mainland of East Africa, and the areas where Arab religious forces are distributed in the Middle East, West Africa, South Asia, and Southeast Asia also border the subordinate forces of East Africa.
As a new world power, East Africa is in the process of continuous expansion. This process is centered on East Africa and will inevitably confront Arab forces from the inside out.
Of course, East Africa’s actual competitors, at least in the early 20th century, were definitely not these Arab countries and regions, but the European and American countries behind them.
For example, in North Africa, Egypt was supported by the British, Libya was divided between France and Italy, and along the Red Sea coast were Italy's Red Sea colonies, Britain's British Somaliland, and France's Djibouti colony.
Behind West Africa were Britain, France, and the United States' colony of Liberia.
The game in the Middle East is a competition between the four world superpowers: Britain, Germany, the Soviet Union and East Africa.
South Asia is Britain's home turf, there is also Soviet infiltration in the north, and East Africa also has several strategic fulcrums around South Asia.
Nanyang is even more of a hodgepodge. Basically all the great powers have their own interests here or want to get involved. In addition to Britain, France, East Africa, the United States, and the Netherlands, which have clear colonies in Nanyang, there are also three important variables: Japan, the Soviet Union, and Germany.
Japan is easy to understand. After all, Japan is the main contender for Pacific hegemony and is ambitious. Its coveting of Southeast Asia is no less than that of the Far East.
As for the Soviet Union, its influence in Southeast Asia cannot be underestimated. The fact that the Soviet Union was able to successfully support its tentacles in Southeast Asia, Vietnam, is an example. Not to mention Southeast Asia, the Soviet Union has many followers all over the world. After all, the Soviet Union is now recognized as the leader of the world's labor party.
Finally, there is Germany. Germany’s strength in Southeast Asia is relatively weak, but Germany has never given up on infiltrating Southeast Asia. After all, due to the lack of colonies, Germany attaches great importance to the development of overseas markets.
Therefore, in the Asian direction, Southeast Asia can be said to be the second most important region for Germany, and the first is the Middle East.
In short, East Africa's global strategy and military deployment have now encountered a bottleneck. From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, East Africa still had room for expansion, but now it is completely adjacent to the sphere of influence of other countries in the world. Both sides have no room to retreat and have formed a direct competitive relationship.
If a brutal method, that is, war, is chosen to break this situation, East Africa may arouse public anger and eventually be attacked by the masses.
Therefore, for East Africa now, it is better to promote the conflicts between other superpowers and powers and let them fight first, so that East Africa can better reap the benefits.
The current round of adjustments in military regions and theaters in East Africa is also a more reasonable planning of East Africa's global military deployment, which can respond to conflicts and disputes in major directions of the world at any time and consolidate the stability within East Africa's sphere of influence.
It will be convenient for East Africa to steal and reap the fruits of victory when the world situation undergoes drastic changes.
Finally, Ernst said, "The more important aspect of this adjustment of military regions and theaters of war is the change in theaters of war. After all, the main direction of expansion and threat in East Africa now and in the future is the ocean, not the land."
"As for the deployment of theater forces, the various theaters in the Indian Ocean are, on the contrary, relatively stable and solid, with the least pressure."
"The Atlantic theater should strengthen its military deployment to respond to pressure from European and American countries, consolidate our interests in South America, and provide a military guarantee for the expansion of the Empire's interests in West Africa."
The South American market is the market that East Africa attaches the most importance to at the current stage. Therefore, in order to cope with the competitive pressure from European and American countries, East Africa must strengthen the construction of the Atlantic Navy.
"In the South Atlantic, the United States and Britain may still make a comeback. Germany's influence in South America is also increasing. In addition, as other countries gradually emerge from the impact of the Great Depression and their industries and economies recover, they may have negative views on our interests in South America."
(End of this chapter)
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