African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 513: Chapter 191: German Ambassador

First Town, riding the momentum of the East-Portuguese War, Germany also took the opportunity to dispatch diplomats to station in First Town.

After more than a decade of development, First Town was no longer the small town it once was, having become an elegant, civilized, and flourishing new city.

It possessed both a European classical style and the atmosphere of a modern city. Visually, it was not too different from European cities, but the convenient life brought by the Industrial Revolution was evident everywhere in First Town. Ernst was not one to make do with life, so he was particularly attentive to the planning of First Town.

Walking down the streets of First Town, Klein was filled with a myriad of emotions. He felt that his previous understanding of African countries had been overturned.

”Sigh, I didn’t expect East Africa to develop so well. Looking at the planning and population, it seems to be more prosperous than Stuttgart! Along with Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, it feels as if there is not much difference from Germany,” he mused.

Von der Leyen cast a skeptical glance at German Ambassador to East Africa, Klein, feeling there was an underlying meaning in his words!

”Ha ha, Mr. Klein, you must be joking. How could East Africa possibly compare to Germany? East Africa is only well-developed in its coastal areas; the cities are newly built in recent years, so they appear decent. The convenient transportation is the reason for the large population, but a large population does not mean much. Moreover, Germany’s population is inherently larger than East Africa’s. Our gaps with Germany exist in many aspects.”

Klein did not quite agree. Recently, he had also visited Dar es Salaam and Soga near First Town. As he knew, Bajamojo was not far from First Town. From the canal north of First Town, one could see the ships of Bajamojo. Thus, the cities in East Africa seemed to have a cluster development tendency, which reminded Klein of Germany’s Ruhr area.

Of course, East Africa’s cities could not be compared with the Ruhr area, which had two to three dozen towns and a high level of industrialization.

These cities in East Africa mainly benefited from policies and transportation advantages. First Town and Soga were supported by policies, while Bajamojo and Dar es Salaam were excellent coastal ports in East Africa.

In fact, according to the current East African division, Dar es Salaam should now be two cities: one south, one north. The northern part, which was the original city of Dar es Salaam, focused on commerce and services, while the southern part emphasized industry and manufacturing. So, accurately speaking, there are five cities around First Town, including Zanzibar across the sea.

The biggest shortcoming of East Africa’s coastal areas was still the lack of resources, but the convenience of maritime transport offset this disadvantage. Goods from inland would also be gathered and distributed here, so development was quite good.

”Mr. Von der Leyen, you are being polite. East Africa has had too short a time to start developing, and to achieve such a level, I think is already quite good. Some small European countries’ development is probably not even as good as East Africa’s,” Klein said.

Klein realized how great it would have been if Germany had focused on colonizing East Africa initially! However, back then, Germany was not even unified and naturally had no spare energy for overseas colonization. In fact, Austria had the conditions to do so, but Austria’s energy was all caught up with Prussia. Only the Heixinggen royal family had the foresight. Fortunately, East Africa was also German, thus our own people, much better than leaving it to Britain or France.

Only in recent years, after unification, did Germany begin to pay attention to the importance of colonies, mainly due to the influence of the larger environment as other powers were causing trouble all over the world, while only Germany was nesting in Europe doing nothing.

And with German industry developing rapidly, strength could not be compared to the past, so naturally, they were not quite satisfied with the current international order. However, Chancellor Bismarck was someone who could keep his cool. Ernst particularly admired this.

Germany was somewhat like the Far East Empire that was suppressed by the United States in the past life, seemingly like the rising sun, but in fact faced significant issues.

Germany’s difficulty lay in its geopolitical disadvantage; both France and Russia were top-tier powers, so Germany found it very hard to maneuver in Europe, with virtually no room for expansion. On the other hand, the Far East Empire’s disadvantage was that global energy and mineral sources were controlled by the United States. If, in the past life, the Far East Empire had solved the energy and mineral issues, it would not have feared American suppression.

The world hegemony currently lay in British hands, but the British hegemony was quite limited. Both Russia and France had the capability to challenge British hegemony. Germany and Austria-Hungary were a bit behind, but German industrial development was skyrocketing, Austria-Hungary could still rely on its reserves, and Spain was half-dead yet could still maintain the facade of a great power. The United States, East Africa, the Far East Empire, and the Ottoman Empire could all manage fairly well because of their size.

This East-Portuguese War essentially established East Africa’s international status. Although Portugal was not strong, none of the countries ranked ahead of it were weaklings.

Thus, Klein said, ”In the future, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and East Africa—our three countries—represent the influence of Germans in the world. Germany’s national strength is the strongest, Austria-Hungary’s power is not bad, and East Africa’s potential is promising. If the three countries unite, they can change the discourse power of the world.”

Upon hearing Klein’s confident statement, Von der Leyen poured cold water on the idea: ”I hope to see that day come, but it is probably impossible now. Without two or three decades, there won’t be significant changes in the world order. Britain alone suppresses us so much we can barely breathe. Unless Britain completely declines, everything else is just fantasy.”

Von der Leyen’s words also woke Klein up to the fact that Britain was indeed an insurmountable mountain. The current Britain was at the peak of its power, showing no signs of decline, and becoming even more formidable.

Klein replied, ”Yes, Britain is indeed strong. At least on the oceans, it’s still the British who call the shots. No one can challenge Britain’s position. We can only accumulate strength and wait for the British to encounter their own issues.”

Von der Leyen further struck: ”It’s not just Britain, for you Germans, there’s also France and Russia. These countries don’t want to see a rising Germany.”

In fact, Von der Leyen also wanted to include Austria-Hungary, because if Germany became too strong, it wouldn’t be good for certain people within Austria-Hungary. However, such things were hard to articulate. In the past, Austria had poor relations with Prussia because of their struggle for control over Germany. Now that Austria was out of the game, naturally, they had no interest in troubling Prussia, while Hungary had become Austria’s biggest headache.

Subsequently, Klein and Von der Leyen discussed many things, but all conveyed one message—the envisioned alliance of Germany, Austria, and East Africa.

According to Klein, East Africa’s current strength wasn’t bad, so naturally, they wanted East Africa to stand with Germany. However, East Africa wasn’t buying it, as they hadn’t fully assimilated themselves and were not too concerned with international affairs.

East Africa only needed to develop steadily for another two or three decades to firmly establish itself as a major world power. Uselessly getting involved in international disputes brought no benefits to present-day East Africa.

Thus, East Africa had little inclination to take sides. As long as Britain did not initiate war against East Africa, East Africa was not interested in Britain. Even if Britain started a war with East Africa, East Africa was not afraid.

At this stage, East Africa and the United States were quite similar, both uninterested in international affairs. Of course, the United States was slightly more ambitious, with its strong influence and control over the Americas.

East Africa did have its own interest claims in the Indian Ocean, but Ernst had only set up the Lan Fang Republic without establishing something akin to the Monroe Doctrine like the United States. So East Africa was relatively straightforward. As for how East Africa acquired its over ten million square kilometers of territory, it all integrated naturally as national power grew. Ultimately, it’s strength that matters, so East Africa just needs to focus on enhancing its national power. In the future, it could seize the initiative in changes to the international order. Ernst thought Bismarck had similar plans, only William II later lacked Bismarck’s patience.