Chapter 884 In-depth Cooperation
The Abyssinian Empire fully embraced East Africa at the cultural and social levels. Although the two countries were slightly different due to factors such as religion, the Abyssinian Empire was much more pleasing to East Africa than other countries in the region.
North Africa is an entire Arab cultural region. Relatively speaking, the mainstream religion in Abyssinia is also a branch of Christianity. At the same time, after experiencing years of turmoil, the country is destined to not become a great power, or even a regional power in the future.
First, it has no access to the sea. Second, its land area is small. Even if its population is placed in Europe, it can only be regarded as a medium-sized country. Third, the country is short of natural resources.
Of course, this resource scarcity is only compared with East Africa. In fact, the Abyssinian Empire's reserves of advantageous mineral resources are not small. The coal and iron needed for the First Industrial Revolution are distributed in the country, and it is also one of the important gold producing areas.
However, the problem of having no access to the sea will continue to plague the Abyssinian Empire in the future, unless it retakes the Red Sea colonial coast that was occupied by the Kingdom of Italy.
But this hope is slim, and the Kingdom of Italy today is not as ambitious as it was during World War II. Instead, it is more pragmatic. Today, the number of Italian immigrants in the Red Sea colonies has reached at least 900,000. Even if the region becomes independent in the future, there will still be a large immigrant population, and it is impossible for it to return to the Abyssinian Empire.
And this is exactly what Ernst wanted to see. If Abyssinia had access to the Red Sea coast, how could it concentrate on climbing the ladder in East Africa?
In order to further control the Abyssinian Empire, on March 19, 1894, the East African Ambassador to Bahir Dar, Ramons, met with John IV again at the Bahir Dar Palace to further discuss the issues between the two countries.
The level of East African diplomats stationed in the Abyssinian Empire shows how much East Africa values the Abyssinian Empire. For backward countries of the same level as Abyssinia, most countries except Europe and the United States only send diplomats at the minister level to East Africa.
The East African Embassy area is very conspicuous in Bahir Dar, less than 700 meters away from the Bahir Dar Palace. Apart from East Africa, currently only the Egyptian and Italian embassies are located in Bahir Dar.
"Your Majesty Johannes, although East Africa and Abyssinia have always had a harmonious relationship, for the long-term development of our two countries, the Abyssinian Empire should try to avoid direct competition with East Africa and achieve staggered development. This way, we can play to our respective advantages in different tracks."
Ramones spoke directly to the point in the Bahir Dar Palace, and his words also attracted the interest of Johannes IV.
He asked: "Ambassador Lemons, I don't know what you mean by the dislocated development?"
If the Abyssinian Empire could avoid direct competition with East Africa in some areas, it would naturally be a good thing. After all, East Africa was not something the Abyssinian Empire could defeat.
Of course, if it is some interests that cannot be given up, Johannes IV will naturally not give in. Although the Abyssinian Empire is backward, it is also proud.
Ernst was very clear about this. As one of the few African countries that firmly resisted the colonists in the past, the Abyssinian Empire also won Ernst a certain respect for this.
Just like in the war with Italy, the Abyssinian Empire never wavered in its bottom line and resisted to the end. Although it ended in failure, the courage of the Abyssinian Empire is worth mentioning.
Lemons said: "East Africa and Abyssinia are both located on the African continent, and both are plateau-dominated countries on the continent. The natural climates of the two countries are similar, which makes it inevitable that there will be convergence in the agricultural development of the two countries."
"Yes." Johannes IV nodded in agreement, "That is indeed true, especially after our country lost a large amount of territory in the east and north."
Of the territories lost by the Abyssinian Empire, except for the southeastern region which had arable land value, the rest of the northern and eastern regions were mainly deserts.
Of course, although the north is a desert area, it also has relatively complete water conservancy facilities and many rivers flowing into the plateau area, so the agricultural conditions are actually quite good.
Otherwise, the Tireg region would not have been the core territory of the Abyssinian Empire in ancient times. The Tireg region itself is the most economically developed area of the Abyssinian Empire.
Unfortunately, most of it has now been taken over by Italy, which caused the Tireg people to migrate to the territory of the Amhara people. Originally, Abyssinia had three major ethnic groups, namely the Tireg people, the Amhara people, and the Oromo people. The Tireg people have long been in a dominant position in the Abyssinian Empire, and Johannes IV is one of its representatives.
Because of the reasons in East Africa, a large number of Oromo forces in the south were exiled to West Africa, or went to East Africa to work. Therefore, the Oromo people were destined to not be able to influence the politics of the Abyssinian Empire as they did in their previous lives (in their previous lives, the Oromo people accounted for 27% of the country's population).
So now the main population of the Abyssinian Empire is the Tiregs and the Amharas. The Amharas have always been the largest ethnic group in Abyssinia, but have long been a subordinate force of the Tiregs.
However, as the Tiregs move southward, the two ethnic groups will merge in the future and are expected to form the main ethnic group of the Abyssinian Empire. This is good news for the future of the Abyssinian Empire.
The central province of the Abyssinian Empire today is the Amhara State in the past, and the large-scale influx of Tigray people will inevitably intermarry and integrate with local forces. This is the general trend.
In the past, Ethiopia had more than eighty ethnic groups, and ethnic conflicts were very serious, especially in the southeastern Somali region and the northern Titireg region, where separatist intentions were most obvious.
Although Tireg was the main founder of the Abyssinian Empire civilization, he lost power in modern times, especially after the capital was moved to Addis Ababa.
You should know that although the Tigray region is small in area and has a small population, its total economic output accounts for more than 40% of the country, and it has long played the role of a conqueror in the history of the Abyssinian Empire. Therefore, the separatist tendency of the Tigray people is the most serious, which is somewhat similar to Catalonia in Spain.
Now, with the joint efforts of East Africa, Italy and Egypt, the Abyssinian Empire has actually lost other major ethnic groups except the Tiregs and Amharas, including the Oromos, Somalis, Alphas, primitive tribes of the Omo Valley and other ethnic groups. This has actually reduced the ethnic conflicts in the Abyssinian Empire.
Today, the two major ethnic groups, the Amhara and the Tireg, are actually of the same origin. The Amhara actually originated from the Tireg area and were formed after the Tireg people moved south. Therefore, there will be no resistance to the integration of the two major ethnic groups.
The overall stability of the Abyssinian Empire is something East Africa welcomes. East Africa is not the United States, which would deliberately do things that harm others and benefit itself around it. After all, regional stability is also conducive to East Africa's border stability and economic development.
"The Abyssinian Empire has fully shifted to a plateau economy, which means that in the future the Abyssinian Empire will inevitably face a certain degree of competition with East Africa in agriculture. So for the coordinated development of the two countries, we plan to carry out division of labor and cooperation in agriculture with the Abyssinian Empire. For example, the Abyssinian Empire plants some tropical cash crops that are different from those in East Africa. In this way, the agricultural production cooperation between the two countries will be greater than the competition, which is a good thing for both countries." Lemons said.
In other words, East Africa intends to fundamentally transform the agricultural development of the Abyssinian Empire into what East Africa needs, integrate it into the East African economy, provide East Africa with cheap agricultural products, and then become competitive with other tropical regions in the world.
(End of this chapter)
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