Chapter 499: Establishing Diplomatic Relations
"The East-Portuguese War started off well but ended badly, which fully demonstrates that Portugal is not a rival of the same level in front of East Africa, just like Mexico is to the United States. We can see that a regional hegemonic country similar to the United States in North America is rapidly emerging in Africa. If no one curbs the development of East Africa, then Africa will become Africa for Africans." - The Times
Regarding the Africans' Africa statement, the Sun reporter conducted an exclusive interview with Will, the East African ambassador to Germany.
"Ambassador Will, the Times recently commented that Africa will become Africa for Africans. Is this "Africans" referring to East Africa?"
Will: "We are opposed to this statement. East Africa has never said that Africa is Africa for Africans. In fact, we can see that East Africa's influence in Africa is limited to itself. North Africa is the traditional sphere of influence of Arabs. The country with the greatest influence in West Africa is France. South Africa and the United Kingdom are also strong. In addition, Spain, Italy, Belgium and other countries are all involved in Africa. This shows that Africa is currently diverse, not Africa for Africans as some people say. I want to ask who are Africans? Who represents Africans? Germany can't, France can't, and Arabs can't, so Africa for Africans is just an empty anxiety."
Will's interview received widespread attention in Europe because East Africa had previously been quite low-key in Europe, but the Portuguese-Speaking War was the first time that the entire European society became interested in East Africa, an African country.
Portugal, the old colonial power, has lost all face this time, and domestic public opinion in Portugal has been quite critical of East Africa and the current government.
Just like in the Times, the Portuguese mainstream media portrays East Africa as the biggest threat in Africa.
After all, Portugal lost face this time. Portugal was heartbroken by Brazil's independence. It was understandable that Portugal failed in the competition with Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom in the past, but being defeated by an African country and ceding land in exchange for peace was simply a great humiliation.
The current Portuguese government fell as a result, and after the new prime minister came to power, he emphasized the need to recover lost territories through various means and announced sanctions against East Africa.
The more anxious Portugal is, the less East Africa will take Portugal seriously. Sanction East Africa? It's ridiculous. East Africa regards Portugal as a clown, while other countries are beginning to dig deep into the reasons behind Portugal's humiliation.
What follows is an assessment of East Africa’s national strength. Because East Africa practices isolationism, the East African Navy is the most intuitive manifestation of East Africa’s national strength.
Then everyone was surprised to find that the East African Navy had unknowingly reached the seventh place in the world, only after the Austro-Hungarian Empire and above Germany. The army could only be guessed by various countries, but based on the East-Portuguese War, it can be calculated that East Africa has at least 200,000 ground forces.
So from the perspective of military strength, East Africa can be considered a world power. It is not clear how strong it is, but it is definitely stronger than Portugal.
What followed was the East African threat theory. In fact, the East African threat theory has existed for a long time. This argument began to appear after East Africa occupied South Africa, but most of it was suppressed by the media controlled by the Hei Xingen Group.
As for Africa for Africans, no matter how stupid East Africa is, it will never make such remarks, because everyone knows that Africans generally refer to black people, and East Africa will not rush to expel itself from German citizenship.
However, the sour comments from the Times and the Portuguese media also reveal the true mentality of Britain and Portugal. The East-Portuguese War can be said to have ended because Britain forced Portugal to surrender. Britain knew one thing, that is, East Africa had not yet exerted its full strength, but Portugal's two colonies had already drained all their potential.
The direct consequence of the Portuguese-Eastern War was that some countries began to seek to develop friendly relations with East Africa, among which Italy and Belgium were the most active. The colonies of both countries were next to East Africa, so for the sake of their interests, they had to establish good relations with East Africa.
As a result, Italy and Belgium both sent diplomats to Dar es Salaam to discuss the establishment of diplomatic relations with East Africa. This was the first time that a European country took the initiative to establish diplomatic relations with East Africa. The Dutch also sent diplomatic officials to discuss the matter with East Africa later.
In fact, East Africa has diplomatic relations with these three countries, but they are similar to the German Chamber of Commerce established in the Far East Empire during the East African colonial period, but it was a step closer after the Portuguese-Eastern War.
The Netherlands has always had good relations with East Africa and has had a lot of cooperation. In addition, the Netherlands may have also noticed East Africa's actions on the island of Kalimantan, so a timely and formal negotiation platform is needed to prevent conflicts between the two countries.
The Lan Fang Republic is not large in area, so it doesn't matter if it is given to East Africa, but there are Dutch colonies next to it. If a conflict comes between the two countries, it seems that East Africa is really capable of cutting off the connection between the Netherlands and the East Indies.
East Africa certainly welcomes these friendly countries, but the embassy area planned in East Africa is something to complain about.
The embassy area planned by East Africa is in Dar es Salaam, not the capital town. However, East Africa is relatively sincere. It tells various countries that Dar es Salaam is the most prosperous city in East Africa, and the construction level of the first town is too backward to provide corresponding services.
The level of commerce and service industry in the First Town is indeed not as prosperous as that in Dar es Salaam, but it is not as bad as described in East Africa.
However, Ernst considered it from a practical point of view. The relationship between East Africa and these countries was not good enough for them to move to the capital of East Africa. As a highly centralized country, the officials in the first town knew more intelligence and there was a risk of being bribed. Therefore, it was better to place the diplomats of these countries in Dar es Salaam.
Anyway, Dar es Salaam is not far from the first town. It only takes less than an hour by train, and there is also telegraph communication.
In addition to these countries that have practical interests in East Africa, there are also some countries that simply have good relations with the Hechingen royal family or East Africa, so they set up embassies in East Africa.
Ernst established embassies of these countries in the First Town, including Germany, Austria, the newly independent Romania, Sweden, the Far Eastern Empire, Paraguay, etc.
Of course, the Far Eastern Empire Embassy is rather special, and it is hard to say what its relationship with East Africa is like, but for the Far Eastern Empire, East Africa is definitely a country with relatively good relations among all countries, at least it is easier to talk to.
In fact, there is a third type of national embassy district in East Africa, that is the Zanzibar Island Embassy District. The countries settled in the Zanzibar Island Embassy District include the Ottoman Empire, the United States, Japan and other countries.
Therefore, the diplomatic construction in East Africa is heavily mixed with Ernst's personal feelings, which also indirectly reflects that as an absolute monarchy, the Hechingen royal family has unparalleled control and influence over East Africa.
The three embassy areas in East Africa also reflect the differences in East African diplomacy. The ones in the First Town are definitely the friends of East Africa, the city of Dar es Salaam represents friendly countries, and Zanzibar Island is a hodgepodge.
This division of embassies also has confidentiality arrangements. For example, Ernst did not want to reveal East Africa's mixed economic system. With the Paris Commune in the past, East Africa did not want to have anything to do with it. Although the two are completely different things, many policy-related things have too high a duplication rate, which would not be good if someone with ulterior motives could use them to interpret them. Moreover, whether it is monarchy, class despotism, or slavery, they do not seem to be very popular in current countries. East Africa is indeed too reactionary.
(End of this chapter)
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