Chapter 1639 The "Troublemaker" Strikes
East Africa's investment in the Western Regions is concentrated in light industry and agriculture, which has indeed promoted local development, but has little impact on the overall economic structure of the Western Regions.
This system relies almost entirely on East African technology and personnel for operation. Once the East African personnel withdraw, the effectiveness will be greatly reduced. Furthermore, in terms of education and ideology, the Western Regions Province has not implemented corresponding reforms, making it difficult to transform the existing achievements into its own.
This can be seen in the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union implemented its first Five-Year Plan, its industrial development was characterized by chaotic management, serious waste of resources, and low worker quality. However, by the time of the Second Five-Year Plan, the Soviet government and enterprises were much more at ease.
The Soviet Union's industrialization required a long adaptation process, and this was based on the fact that the Soviet Union had a certain industrial base and a relatively well-developed education system. The predicament faced by the Western Regions Province will only be greater than that of the Soviet Union.
However, East Africa itself does not want to completely change the Western Regions Province, so it is not surprising that its support for the Western Regions Province is only superficial. This is more like a Western Regions version of the "Westernization Movement."
In the future, after East Africa withdraws from the Western Regions Province, at most it will leave behind a group of workers with work experience and a bunch of factories and enterprises that cannot operate independently without reorganization.
However, such a short period of prosperity was quite rare and precious for a northwestern region in the context of the Far Eastern empires of the 1930s.
...
October 21, 1936.
As East Africa systematically expanded its influence and military presence in Europe, Africa, Asia and other regions, this also touched the sensitive nerves of the British.
It can be said that at this stage the UK is most worried about two countries. The first one is undoubtedly Germany, and then East Africa.
Because in 1936, a series of political, diplomatic and military actions in East Africa were almost all related to Britain's sphere of influence or area of interest.
In Europe, East Africans were behind the Spanish Civil War, and Britain itself had a lot of investments in Spain. At the same time, Britain also had to consider East Africa's participation in the Spanish Civil War. Does this mean that East Africa, Germany and Italy have reached a tacit understanding?
This is a particularly crucial point. Britain cannot tolerate East Africa cooperating with Germany. If East Africa cooperates with Germany, there will inevitably be an "enemy", and the "enemy" that can unite East Africa and Germany is likely to be Britain and France.
This situation is not impossible. For example, if Germany seeks European interests and East Africa seeks overseas colonies of Britain, France and Germany, then there will be a basis for cooperation between the two countries in a short period of time.
In the African direction, the opening of the North African Railway and the activities of East Africa in West Africa also posed a threat to Britain's interests in Africa, such as colonies such as Egypt and Nigeria.
Finally, in the direction of Asia, the activities in Gwadar, Western Province and Southeast Asia in East Africa also made the British government panic. After all, these regions almost surrounded the British Indian colony.
To this end, British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin urgently convened a cabinet meeting to discuss the East African issue.
"Since 1936, we have been experiencing a period of relative chaos domestically. Furthermore, due to the threat posed by Germany, the Reich has neglected international developments in other directions."
The chaos mentioned here refers to the turmoil in British domestic politics caused by the issue of the throne of the British royal family at the beginning of the year.
In early 1936, George V died, and Edward ascended the throne as Edward VIII. A few months after his accession, he proposed to American socialite Wallis Simpson, triggering a constitutional crisis.
Britain and the dominions explicitly opposed Edward VIII's move, unable to accept the reality that a woman who had been divorced twice and whose ex-husbands were both still alive would become queen. Ultimately, Edward VIII abdicated, and his throne was inherited by his brother Albert, who became George VI, thus resolving the crisis.
Edward VIII's marriage caused great conflict with British religion and led to confrontation between the king and the government. This challenged the principle of "constitutional monarchy" and had a negative impact on the stability of the Commonwealth. Finally, there were social and moral issues.
Faced with immense pressure from the government, the church, the public, and the entire Commonwealth, Edward VIII had only two choices: either give up his marriage to Wallis Simpson or abdicate.
In short, the abdication of Edward VIII caused a great stir in Britain in early 1936, and also caused the work of the British government to come to a certain halt, and external attention naturally declined.
Prime Minister Baldwin said: "The Empire is now in unprecedented difficulties. The Empire's world hegemony is facing a huge challenge. Our cabinet must shoulder this responsibility and help the Empire out of the crisis."
"In 1936, we were always wary of countries like Germany and Italy, but we ignored the actions in East Africa. In 1936, East Africa had quietly completed the strategic encirclement of the Empire."
"From the Gulf of Dakhla in West Africa to Togoland, to the port of Benghazi in North Africa, Spain and Dalmatia in Europe, to the Persian Gulf, Gwadar and the Far East, East Africans can be seen everywhere."
"The East African military is accelerating the construction of a powerful overseas military system, building a powerful region of influence spanning three continents: Eurasia and Africa, through the continuous construction of ports, airports and military bases."
"East Africa, especially along the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean coasts, has become one of the most significant potential threats to Britain's overseas interests."
“If East Africa continues to collude with other countries, it will undoubtedly be a terrible disaster for the world system established by the empire.”
"If we don't understand East Africa's true intentions, we may lose India, Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand... these regions where the UK has close interests."
British Colonial Secretary William Ormsby-Gore then said: "I agree with His Excellency the Prime Minister's assessment that, arguably, the worst strategic mistake Britain made throughout the 19th century was ignoring the rise of East Africa."
"If there had been no East Africa, Britain would undoubtedly be the country with the largest influence and colonial area in Africa, instead of having a behemoth in Africa that threatened the hegemony of the empire."
"Moreover, East Africa's growth rate is too astonishing. Its ambition is no longer limited to the African continent, but is spreading to South America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania."
"And the aforementioned regions are all core areas of British interests. Our interests in South America have been deprived by East Africa and the United States. Our interests in Europe are facing severe challenges from Germany. During the World War, East Africa was also a major factor in our failure to completely suppress Germany."
"As for the Indian Ocean, East Africa is a direct threat to us. Countries and regions such as India, Australia, and Persia all face military threats from East Africa."
The Marquis of Zetland, the Secretary of State for India, was well aware of this. He told his cabinet members, "Over the past 20 years, East Africa has built a ring of encirclement around India. To the east is their Phuket military base, to the west is their Gwadar military base, and to the north they extend their reach into the western regions of their Far Eastern Empire, Afghanistan, Sikkim, and other places."
"This means that as long as we become hostile to East Africa, East Africa is fully capable of severing India's ties with the mainland in a short period of time, causing us to lose India, the core colony of the empire, forever..."
Following the two colonial secretaries' speeches, other members of the British cabinet also analyzed East Africa. In the end, they sadly concluded that Britain had no way to deal with East Africa.
Prime Minister Baldwin said with a wry smile: "As early as the end of the 19th century, we had anticipated that East Africa's development would be unstoppable, but we could not have imagined that East Africa would develop so rapidly in the early 20th century."
"This overseas monster can be said to have been left to fester by our own hands, but it's too late to hold anyone accountable now."
After the end of the South African War, Britain was very clear that it could no longer restrict the development of East Africa. Even if Britain wanted to find a chess piece to curb the development of East Africa, there was no one to use.
Even Britain couldn't deal with East Africa the way it did with the United States. At least the United States had Mexico, a hopeless case, in its vicinity, and Brazil and Argentina, countries of barely passable size, in South America.
There wasn't a single decent country next to East Africa, so Britain would never consider Egypt, and South Africa became a pawn in its confrontation with East Africa.
Prime Minister Baldwin said helplessly: "Our diplomacy with East Africa can only be passive. We can't even offend East Africa. Now that East Africa can still maintain restraint, it is already the best outcome for us. If it were a country like Germany, they might have uprooted our overseas interests long ago."
Chancellor of the Exchequer Chamberlain then said: "Even so, we cannot sit idly by and wait for death in dealing with the East African issue."
"Britain's job now is to prevent ourselves from being dragged into war. There must not be a major war against Britain, either in Europe or in Asia."
For Britain in 1936, all its activities now revolved around two points: trying its best to maintain its vast global empire and avoid being involved in a large-scale war in Europe and Asia.
Chamberlain continued: "Our dominance of the world is no longer secure. It is entirely dependent on the wishes of other countries, especially Germany and East Africa."
"If either of these two countries were to launch a war against Britain, Britain would inevitably and completely decline and relinquish its dominion over the world."
"Therefore, we must avoid this from happening and it would be best if we could keep the UK completely out of it and preserve our interests as much as possible."
This is obviously a very discouraging statement, and it also proves that Britain is losing power in the world today.
"Not to mention East Africa and Germany, even countries like the Soviet Union, the United States and Japan are not something Britain can handle right now."
"Our job should be to sow discord and conflict among these countries so they ignore the UK. We should also involve France. France faces the same dilemma as us, so the two countries should align on foreign policy and work together for support."
Prime Minister Baldwin affirmed Chamberlain's suggestion, saying, "Since we cannot contain East Africa, we should at least divert their attention, or at least prevent them from focusing all their attention on Britain."
"So, in order to achieve this, I believe the Empire's diplomatic work in East Africa should proceed in this way: instigate relations between East Africa and the United States in South America, intensify conflicts between them and Germany in Europe, make the Soviet Union and East Africa compete in the Middle East, and pit Japan against East Africa in the Far East."
"This strategy also applies to other countries, such as instigating conflicts between the United States and Japan, East Africa, and the Soviet Union."
"To stir up conflict between Japan and the Soviet Union, the United States, and East Africa."
"To sow discord between Germany and the Soviet Union, and between East Africa."
"To sow discord between the Soviet Union and Germany, East Africa, the United States, and Japan."
"Only by creating chaos in five countries—Germany, East Africa, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Japan—can Britain remain uninvolved."
As a world-renowned troublemaker, it turns out that Britain is still disgusting to everyone as always when it comes to foreign affairs.
Chamberlain expressed support for Prime Minister Baldwin's strategy, saying: "These five countries are also the five major countries that pose the greatest threat to Britain. If the contradictions between them can be intensified, it will be most beneficial to Britain."
Germany threatened British interests in Europe, which were Britain's most core interests and concerned the very survival of the British mainland.
Then there was the Soviet Union. The Soviet threat to Britain, or more accurately, the threat to the British upper class, was even greater than that posed by Germany.
East Africa is the biggest threat to Britain's overseas interests, and more than half of Britain's overseas colonies face threats from East Africa.
Then there is Japan, which is currently the main spoiler of British interests in the Far East.
Finally, there is the United States. Compared with other countries, the United States undoubtedly poses the smallest threat to the United Kingdom. To some extent, it is even the only partner that the United Kingdom can cooperate with. If the decline of the United Kingdom is inevitable, then exchanging interests with the United States is the only option for the United Kingdom to preserve its interests as much as possible.
Prime Minister Baldwin said: "Germany, East Africa, Japan and the Soviet Union are the four countries that Britain will focus on in its foreign policy, especially in stirring up conflicts between them."
"Letting Germany and the Soviet Union confront each other can relieve our pressure in Europe, while letting other countries conflict with East Africa can stabilize our interests in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. Finally, as for Japan, we must first intensify the conflict between the United States and Japan."
"Japan and the Soviet Union shouldn't be allowed to face off first. The Soviet Union's main task now should be to deal with Germany first. After all, Germany is still somewhat stronger than the Soviet Union..."
In Prime Minister Baldwin's view, it would be most beneficial to Britain if Germany and the Soviet Union could both suffer losses first. Otherwise, Germany would deal with Western Europe first, and Britain would not have to consider other strategic directions.
At that time, the only question Britain had to consider was whether it could survive Germany's war against Western Europe.
Therefore, given that it was clear the Adolf government would inevitably launch a war, prioritizing the instigation of conflict between Germany and the Soviet Union became the top priority. In this situation, the Soviet Union could not be weakened too much, since it was already far behind Germany.
Therefore, before the war between Germany and the Soviet Union, the ideal situation for Britain was that Japan would not cooperate with Germany in launching an attack on the Soviet Union in the east.
When the Soviet Union and Germany are almost exhausted, Britain can bring in France to re-consolidate the two countries' dominance in European affairs, and then use the power of the whole of Europe to maintain the overseas interests of the two countries.
(End of this chapter)
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