Chapter 639: Unequal Transaction
"Technology is multifaceted and involves various industries, not necessarily limited to the industrial field. For example, the medical industry and handicrafts industry. East Africa has always attached great importance to the development of medicine, but this is not the strong point of a new country like us in East Africa. Although we have absorbed a lot of the essence of the traditional medicine industry, we also need the help of the Austro-Hungarian Empire."
Ernst said this. In fact, the industrial development of the Austro-Hungarian Empire has only begun to make great progress in recent years, and among the top powers, it may be only slightly stronger than Tsarist Russia.
Of course, backwardness is only relative to the three countries of Britain, France and Germany, and now it is also far beyond the reach of East Africa.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire's main traditional foreign markets were the Balkan Peninsula and the Ottoman Empire, while the domestic market was a large internal circulation market, which was the case with the relationship between Austria and Hungary.
However, the large domestic market of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was not stable. The most important reason was that there were many contradictions between the economies of various ethnic groups, which affected the stability of this market. The multi-ethnic nature intensified the market stability of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which was an obstacle to the industrial development of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The same problem, such as the allocation of resources in East Africa, the coal resources in the Southern Frontier Province have helped the development of industry in East African coastal cities. People in the Southern Frontier Province would not think there is anything wrong with this.
But if it happened within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it would easily cause misunderstanding: "The Austrians are plundering our resources."
Therefore, it was very difficult for Austria to integrate the Austro-Hungarian Empire. On the contrary, it could still negotiate with speculators like Hungary, but when faced with extreme nationalism like that of Serbia, it would directly strike hard at the big empire.
Past experience has proven that even without the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Serbia would never have been able to become the leader of Yugoslavia or the Balkan Peninsula. Its success was due to extreme nationalism, and its failure was also due to extreme nationalism.
In contrast, East Africa's ethnic policy of cutting off the root of the problem has better achieved harmonious coexistence among various ethnic groups or races in East Africa and consolidated national consensus.
Of course, the effects are not yet apparent, as the first generation of German immigrants are still proud, but when they intermarry with people of other nationalities and races, they naturally become family members.
"We can only serve as a bridge in this regard, but if you really want to learn something valuable, you can only rely on yourselves," Franz said.
Franz had no say over the resources in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, unless they were state-owned enterprises or royal enterprises. After all, "private property is sacred and inviolable."
The situation in East Africa is the opposite. The assets in East Africa are in the hands of the state, in other words, in the hands of the Hechingen royal family. Therefore, Ernst can mobilize the resources of the entire country, but Franz cannot do it.
However, with the support of the Austro-Hungarian government, East Africa can save a lot of trouble. Although they cannot contribute, it would be easy for them to hinder the progress if they really want to.
…
In this transaction with Franz, Ernst did not gain any advantage and even suffered a loss. The benefits obtained by both parties were not equal, but this is the price that backward countries must pay.
Moreover, the Austro-Hungarian Empire did provide enough help to East Africa. For example, the East African Navy could not have been established without the help of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This alone was very rare.
There is also the Austro-Hungarian Empire's support for East Africa in education, which is also priceless. Therefore, Austria has been dedicated enough to its ally in East Africa. It is reasonable for it to help Austria digest some of its industrial products. It is a kind of reciprocity.
Just like the Far Eastern Empire becoming the world's factory in the previous life, it was achieved by pretending to be a grandson for more than ten years. Such a big country, and a nuclear power at that, pretended to be harmless and endured humiliation. Ordinary countries could not do this at all. If it were our northern neighbor, our defense would have been broken long ago.
In this comparison, East Africa's behavior is nothing. If Japan could encounter such a good thing at this time, I am afraid it would even acknowledge the enemy as its father.
Of course, the fact that East Africa did not gain any advantage from Franz this time also indirectly shows that East Africa had learned or gained too much from the Austro-Hungarian Empire before.
If they wanted it now, that would be the Austro-Hungarian Empire's specialty. No normal country would do such a thing as teaching the apprentice to starve himself to death, so Ernst was very satisfied to get something from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In fact, Franz was also quite troubled. He had chosen Ernst, a "beggar". This also indirectly shows that East Africa, as a country, is developing rapidly. Many low-end industries are no longer valued, or already owned, so they want to move further to the mid-to-high-end.
The fundamental reason for this result is that East Africa is not a small country at all, and it cannot be dealt with by simply giving it some money and aid.
If black people are counted in East Africa, the population directly exceeds 50 million, which is directly larger than the population of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In this case, the Austro-Hungarian Empire simply cannot lead it.
Therefore, the two countries can only cooperate more closely from a military and political perspective, which is mainly reflected in the navy. Although Africa is not far from Europe, it is separated by the Mediterranean Sea.
Moreover, the number of East African army is similar to that of Austro-Hungarian Empire, but the territory of East Africa is several times larger than that of Austro-Hungarian Empire. When the business is too big, it is easy to focus on the head and ignore the buttocks. This is also the reason why East Africa adopts the "defend the north and attack the south" foreign policy.
The countries in the south, namely Britain and the Portuguese colonies, were very hostile to East Africa, while the threat from the northern countries was much smaller, so East Africa adopted a conciliatory attitude and supported Belgium and Sigmaringen, which had friendly relations with East Africa, as a barrier.
A larger territory requires more troops to defend it, but East Africa cannot afford too many troops, so maintaining a force of 200,000 to 300,000 is a reasonable range. The United States simply saves on the army.
The cost of a regular army of more than 300,000 European level troops is not a small amount, and only wealthy countries like Germany can afford it.
Therefore, military expenditures in East Africa have always been maintained at a high level, and the Austro-Hungarian army just happened to be maintained at around 300,000, which has already caused the Austro-Hungarian Empire to feel a certain amount of pressure.
Moreover, the defense pressure on the Austro-Hungarian Empire is even greater than that in East Africa. None of the three countries, Germany, France and Russia, are easy to deal with. That is why the Austro-Hungarian Empire is now in an alliance with Germany and Russia, otherwise 300,000 troops would not be enough.
Russia alone has a million conventional troops. Although their level is not up to the standards of other countries, it is more than enough to deal with the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This is Ernst's idea. After all, after the reforms of Alexander II, Tsarist Russia has been very close to the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the industrial field. Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Empire can still keep the enemy out of the country. A fragile military balance is maintained between European countries.
In the 19th century, there was one thing that was better than later generations, that is, as long as a country had autonomy and worked hard to develop industry, it would have the possibility of catching up. Without autonomy, it could only serve as a colony. As long as you worked hard to develop industry and were willing to pay, it would be easy to achieve results in this era, because the technological barriers were not as strict as in later generations.
Take the equipment level of various countries as an example. There is almost no generation gap between the great powers, and it is also very easy to imitate weapons, especially army equipment. The real barrier is the high-tech military branch such as the navy. This is also an important reason why the United Kingdom can maintain its naval leadership.
(End of this chapter)
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