Chapter 842 Complementary Advantages
East Africa's security in its geopolitical environment is indeed good, and under this geopolitical environment, the main threats to East Africa in the future are from the north and the west, that is, North Africa and West Africa.
But this is very difficult to do. As long as the two regions are not integrated, they will never have the strength to confront East Africa. Now West Africa is full of colonial countries, and in the future there will probably be a bunch of countries with different cultures.
"East Africa has no interest in international affairs, but we are still quite interested in economic cooperation with various countries. This is also the common expectation of the people of both countries." Ernst changed the subject.
There is certainly no problem with cooperation, but East Africa’s current main strategic direction is economic development, and it occasionally makes a move in the South China Sea or the Pacific Ocean to prepare for the future. This is also the major national policy direction of East Africa.
Of course, the main reason is that there is nothing left to expand to other places. In this regard, East Africa and Germany are actually in a similar situation. Except for some scraps in the Pacific Ocean, there is basically no room for expansion in the entire world, and the main areas are in the hands of Britain and France.
Of course, East Africa is a little stronger than Germany and has many colonies in the Pacific region. This is mainly because East Africa has a geographical advantage over Germany. After all, Germany colonized many colonies in Asia and the Pacific in its previous life, but eventually gave them up because it had to bypass too many sea areas.
In fact, the situation in East Africa is similar. Although some gains have been made in the Asia-Pacific region, as long as the Strait of Malacca is in the hands of Britain, the colonies in East Africa will not be safe.
However, unlike Germany, East Africa’s desire for colonies is not actually too strong. After all, the development of East Africa itself is enough for East Africa to digest for dozens or even hundreds of years.
Moreover, most of it is not the kind of frigid land that is difficult to develop like the one in Tsarist Russia. If more than 13 million square kilometers are developed, the potential presented will be amazing.
Caprivi felt a little sorry that East Africa had no intention of forming an alliance with Germany, but economic cooperation was enough.
After all, Germany’s primary goal now is to open up markets and raw material production areas for its own industry and commerce, thereby further boosting national strength. This is also an important policy guideline of Caprivi’s “new route”.
"Well, there are not many German countries in the world. Apart from Germany and East Africa, the others are just some small and dispensable countries, so cooperation between our two countries is an inevitable choice," said Caprivi.
He reluctantly counted East Africa, a country with a large proportion of Chinese immigrants, as part of Germany. After all, East African culture was fully inclined towards German cultural identity, and the royal family was also a traditional German prince. Now the Hechingen royal family still retained the status of princes of the German Principality of Hechingen, so it was legally justifiable, and East Africa was worth winning over.
Of course, the most important thing is that pure German immigrants account for about one-third of East Africa, and non-German immigrants have undergone relatively thorough Germanization, so some minor problems can be completely ignored.
We have to mention the Austro-Hungarian Empire here. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was not a German country. Only Austria was a part of Germany. Bohemia, also known as Czechoslovakia, could barely be counted as such. After all, Germany's origins can be traced back to the Holy Roman Empire, and Bohemia was also a part of the empire.
Even so, Bohemia can only be regarded as a semi-Germanized region, and now Hungary is on an equal footing with Austria in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, so the Austro-Hungarian Empire does not belong to the category of German countries in any way. If it were the Austrian Empire back then, it could barely make do.
But it was impossible for Prussia to admit it at that time. After all, if Hungary and other regions were included in the German state, it would threaten its voice in the German region.
The weakened Austro-Hungarian Empire is actually what Prussia wanted to see, but the Prussians are happy to see it happen now. I am afraid that they will not be able to laugh when the last fig leaf of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a powerful empire in appearance but in name only, is lifted. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been a little stronger in the past, Germany would most likely not have lost the war, without having experienced the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire not being able to exert even one-third of its strength and being humiliated by Serbia, which had just gained independence.
Of course, the Germans cannot be blamed for being short-sighted. Even the Habsburgs probably could not have imagined that their "powerful" country was so vulnerable.
However, with Ernst's strengthening, the current situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is much better than the same period in history. However, even if the Austro-Hungarian Empire obtained Venice, Ernst was not optimistic about the future of this country.
The reason why East Africa supported the Austro-Hungarian Empire was naturally to be able to better take over the Austro-Hungarian Empire's political assets around the world, mainly in Europe, in the future.
After all, East Africa has no say in the Mediterranean, and the importance of the Mediterranean to East Africa is actually second only to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, and above the Atlantic Ocean.
The Mediterranean coast is truly a place of hidden talents. The main way for East Africa to gain influence and maintain economic interests in the region is to support the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Now the Austro-Hungarian Empire's influence in the Mediterranean is second only to that of Britain and France, and in the eastern Mediterranean it is second only to that of Britain.
Ernst was not interested in Caprivi's compliments, so it would be better to talk about some more tangible benefits.
"East Africa and Germany are both major economies in the world. If our two countries can join forces in the economic field, it will naturally be a win-win situation and will also promote Germany's global influence."
"In my opinion, Germany is a real economic powerhouse, while East Africa is an economic powerhouse that relies entirely on its land and population size. The two can complement each other perfectly. We in East Africa need German talent, technology and financial support, while East Africa can provide Germany with a market and abundant raw materials. Both sides can benefit from this."
What Ernst said was exactly the real purpose of Caprivi's visit to East Africa. The territory of East Africa is really too large. According to the approximate import and export data of East Africa analyzed by Germany in recent years, the benefits therein are not inferior to any European country.
Perhaps the East African governments want to continue to "act as transparent to the international community", but the busy commercial fleets off the East African coast and the developed urban economy along the Indian Ocean coast cannot deceive anyone.
Take the city of Dar es Salaam as an example. Although it is only one-fourth the size of Berlin's built-up area, its economy may be even worse. After all, Berlin is the capital of Germany, and the country's economic and political resources are all converging on Berlin. However, there are not many cities in the world that are one-fourth the size of Berlin.
Especially in Africa, Dar es Salaam is already the most prosperous city, surpassing Cairo in Egypt, and has become the economic center of Africa.
There is more than one such city in East Africa. In fact, the gap between Mombasa and Dar es Salaam is very small, with Dar es Salaam leading Mombasa by only a slight margin.
In addition, earlier developed areas such as the New Hamburg Port, Mogadishu, Kismayo, Mtwara, or coastal cities that are key construction areas in East Africa have developed well.
And this is just the coastal areas of East Africa. According to the intelligence of embassy staff and analysis of East Africa, there are also inland cities with relatively developed economies such as Nairobi, Mbeya, Harare, etc.
Therefore, the benefits of East Africa have exceeded the expectations of most countries. The German government naturally does not believe that the interior of East Africa has not been effectively developed and wants to build a number of economically developed cities.
After all, Germany itself has a colony in Africa, namely Cameroon. To put it bluntly, Cameroon's economic situation is quite bad. The German government has been adding money to it so far, and it is probably a long way to go before it can recover its costs.
With Cameroon as a comparison, Germany naturally knows the excellence of East Africa. After all, the various regions in sub-Saharan Africa are actually similar, and Cameroon can be seen as a smaller version of East Africa.
(End of this chapter)
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