African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 1057: Arms business first

In Ernst's view, Germany's diplomatic form should not be like this. Although Germany is currently the most powerful country on the European continent, it does not have an absolute advantage over France and Russia. At least this is the common concept among European countries. .

As far as France is concerned, although French industry and population have been far behind Germany, France's military strength has been growing rapidly over the years. It can be said that the French army is completely prepared for Germany, both in quantity and quality. Not inferior to Germany.

Before the outbreak of World War I in the previous life, France declared that it had the strongest army in Europe. After the outbreak of World War I, the performance of the French Army was indeed impressive.

Therefore, France alone is not a hard nut that Germany can easily chew off. If Britain and Russia are added to it, Germany will eventually be surrounded and suppressed by the Allied Powers.

Of course, the poor quality of Germany's allies was also the main reason. The Austro-Hungarian Empire was in a mess, and its military actions were completely inconsistent with its status as a traditional European power. And Italy, a young kid, jumped directly to the Allied camp before the war started.

All in all, the current development of the world situation has completely separated from Ernst's judgment. In the absence of Italy, whether Germany can launch a war is a question.

Of course, due to the needs of its own development, East Africa naturally hopes that European countries will fight hard. No matter which side wins, East Africa will gain a lot of benefits. It is estimated that the United States has a similar idea.

The key to the outbreak of World War I was Germany. In order for this war to break out, Germany must be strengthened, allowing it to expand and eventually detonate the entire Europe.

Therefore, helping Germany control the Ottoman Empire is just a matter of convenience for East Africa. In order not to disrupt Germany's layout, East Africa must take Germany as the mainstay in the Ottoman Empire.

In January 1908, the East African diplomatic mission formally communicated with German diplomats in the Ottoman Empire. Germany responded positively to the "gift package" sent by East Africa.

After all, the main purpose of this action in East Africa is to cause trouble for Britain and Russia, and the two countries also have a certain consensus on supporting the Ottoman Empire.

With Germany acting as a bridge of communication, East Africa and the Ottoman Empire easily reached some cooperation, and the prerequisites for these cooperation basically cannot circumvent Germany's approval. After all, an important prerequisite for Germany to influence the Ottoman Empire is the presence of the Ottoman Empire's army. Support pro-German forces.

For example, if Germany helped train the Ottoman Empire's army, it would easily lead to an error if East Africa did not consult with Germany.

The German Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire emphasized: "The current military training in the Ottoman Empire should be led by our instructors. East Africa should not interfere too much. Even if it intervenes, it should be consistent with Germany. It is best not to conduct it as an East African, but as an East African." German identity."

It is very common to have an influence on a country's military through military instructors and consultants. For example, in the previous life of Germany and Japan, the United States dispatched military personnel or consultants within the army of the Republic of China government in the Far East Empire.

Therefore, Germany does not want East Africa to establish contact with the Ottoman Empire army in a separate capacity. Since Germany has invested a lot of resources, if East Africa acts alone, it is easy for people to suspect that East Africa is here to "pick peaches."

East Africa readily accepted Germany's request. East Africa did not expect its country to have much influence on the Ottoman Empire. As long as the Ottoman Empire could exert a certain restraint on Britain and Russia, East Africa's goal would be achieved.

Germany was naturally very satisfied with East Africa's cooperation, and the Ottoman Empire also had a very friendly attitude towards East Africa. After communication between East Africa and Germany, the Ottoman Empire mistakenly believed that East Africa belonged to Germany, and allowed the Ottoman Empire to continue to maintain this wonderful misunderstanding. It will be beneficial and harmless to East Africa.

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Compared with the smooth development of diplomatic activities in the Ottoman Empire, East Africa's diplomatic activities in Persia were more complicated. The main reason is that the strength of the country of Persia is far from comparable to that of the Ottoman Empire. Facing Britain and Russia, Persia does not even have the intention to resist.

"We have communicated with the Persian government, but Persia has been dealing with Russia and the United Kingdom all year round. The Persian government has always been the loser. It is not as enterprising as the Ottoman Empire government, so it is difficult to achieve anything."

The Al-Shabaab currently in power in the Ottoman Empire has a relatively high spirit. It can be regarded as the "Westernization faction" of the Ottoman Empire. It is not willing to keep bowing its head in front of Western countries.

Persia is completely different. Regardless of whether it faces Britain or Russia, Persia has to be too "weak" in the eyes of East African diplomats.

"The top-level government in Persia has no ambition at all, and although Persia has political forces that hate Britain and Russia, they are not popular, so it is more difficult for us to make an issue out of Persia."

"The Persian government's attitude towards us is more of vigilance and use to check and balance Russia and Britain."

Ernst was not surprised by this idea of ​​the Persian government. He said: "Persia is an important country in the Persian Gulf. If we want to intervene there, we cannot avoid Persia. Since Persia does not have the confidence to confront Britain and Russia, we will As long as giving them confidence can arouse the fear of Britain and Russia, even if it only has a small effect, our goal will be achieved. As for supporting Persia, it has never been our real goal. "

East Africa just wants to confuse the situation in the Middle East and Central Asia, and does not really want to contribute to local development, so Persia's attitude is not important.

"First expand the local arms trade market. As long as weapons flow into the Persian Gulf, the headache will not be for us, but for Britain and Russia. By then, Britain and Russia will inevitably negotiate with us."

In fact, the Middle East and Central Asia have always been the arms markets of East Africa. The local arms trade in East Africa has already begun in the 1970s. The most typical one is the war in Afghanistan. East Africa exported a large number of weapons to the local armed forces, which made the British at that time I had a headache for a while.

With the expansion of this round of arms trade in East Africa, it is not just Afghanistan, but all the people in the region who can become potential customers in East Africa. The inflow of large amounts of arms will inevitably bring about the establishment of local rule by Britain and Russia. turmoil.

Of course, in addition to disrupting the local situation, Ernst also had an important purpose, which was to strengthen East Africa's own military industrial production capacity.

At present, the East African military industry is not too big due to the size of the army, especially when it comes to rifles, machine guns, artillery and other weapons. After all, the total number of East African defense forces does not exceed 400,000, which is not even comparable to Germany and France.

In Ernst's view, the military industry was relatively profitable in a short period of time. If one really waited until the outbreak of World War I to temporarily expand military production capacity, it would be easy to be in a hurry.

The current round of military industrial capacity expansion in East Africa, in addition to strengthening the country's military strength, is also mainly aimed at making a huge profit when World War I breaks out. When the First World War breaks out, military products will definitely be very popular, and even in order to make it easier for both parties to take advantage of it, East Africa must not only maintain weapons that meet its own standards, but also adapt to weapons popular in other countries on the market.

Even if the European arms market could not be squeezed in, other regions of the world would temporarily lose their way to purchase arms due to the wars in Europe during World War I. Therefore, Ernst judged that there would be a window period in the arms market in the future. This window period This is a good time for East Africa to make huge war fortunes.

At that time, East Africa's main competitor was the United States. Unlike East Africa, the United States' potential for weapons production actually exceeded that of East Africa at this time. After all, the United States was a country that did not ban guns, so the American gun manufacturing industry could be said to be flourishing, and in the 20th century In the early days, the variety of weapons was far less abundant than in later generations. Many countries relied heavily on rifles, which was also reflected in wars. Only the great powers could engage in large-scale artillery bombardment.

(End of chapter)