African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1141: Chapter 150: The Beginning

With the arrival of 1914, East Africa’s new economic policy had initially achieved compatibility with the planned economic system. According to the East African government, this was an economic path with East African characteristics, guided by a planned economy and also fostering market freedom. The new economic policy was smoothly implemented amid criticism and rebuttals.

While East Africa underwent significant reforms in its national economic system, new disturbances were brewing on the European Continent, poised to drag Europeans into the abyss.

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”In Greek mythology, the Sirens used their songs to lure sailors, and any ship that succumbed to their songs would crash onto the rocky shores. Today, the leaders of various European countries seem to have heard the song of the Siren, leading Europe unwittingly to the brink of war,” wrote an East African journalist in the February 1914 issue of the Rhine People’s Newspaper.

Europe heading towards war had become a consensus among most countries worldwide, though no one could imagine the massive devastation this war would cause.

In reality, war was not an unfamiliar term for Europe. European history was full of group conflicts like the Thirty Years’ War, the Seven Years’ War, and the Napoleonic Wars, involving many participating nations and lasting a long time.

However, when these wars occurred, the destructive power of weapons was still limited. After nearly fifty years of peace, Europeans had forgotten the pains of past wars and ignored the terrifying enhancement in weapon lethality today.

The last notable war in Europe was the Prussia-France War. Despite its decent scale, it was short-lived, with Germany holding the upper hand from the start, causing little harm to both nations.

In the Balkan Wars, conflicts between the Balkan countries were also concluded in a short time. For example, the Balkan League’s war against the Ottoman Empire or Bulgaria and the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance were completed within months, with both Balkan Wars lasting less than a year combined.

At present, many European politicians have the ”quick victory” and ”decisive battle” mindset, believing the war would end quickly once it began.

Before World War I, almost all the warring countries were full of confidence in the war, confidence accumulated from colonial wars, regarding warfare as the best way to acquire military honors.

Particularly among those old nobility, gradually declining since the two industrial revolutions, there was a strong desire to reshape their family’s glory through war. These individuals became the most radical war advocates, using their power and status to promote the grandeur of war through public opinion.

In the United Kingdom, for instance, widespread optimism existed, believing the war could end in just a few weeks. Having not experienced a major war since the Napoleonic Wars, the British had long forgotten its brutality. Even in the American War of Independence, they easily dominated the opposing side without much loss.

Moreover, due to East Africa, the UK was spared the lessons from the two Boer Wars, not becoming a laughing stock among European countries. Although losing to East Africa was somewhat embarrassing, it was better than being schooled by the Boers in the past.

Although France suffered devastating losses in the Prussia-France War, a strong sense of national pride plunged the entire nation into a frenzied state of revenge, desiring a war of blood and fire to cleanse past humiliations, completely unaware of the massive damage war could bring.

Dominated by Prussia, Germany had practically no defeats in recent years, winning several vital wars, with its domestic economy swiftly developing and industrial strength advancing rapidly, inflating its confidence beyond measures.

Before World War I, in the European consciousness, Europe was the ruler of the world. Both traditional powers like the United Kingdom and France and the rising power Germany had unprecedented successes.

European armies were invincible in colonies, bulldozing any native resistance like a steamroller. Accompanying this was European capital’s global spread, dominating the economic lifelines of most regions worldwide, from the Ivory Coast to the Molucca Islands.

Currently, European civilization demonstrated astounding pervasiveness, as if global civilizations were classified simply as European and barbaric, marking Europe’s golden age.

Under such a backdrop, European citizens possessed an extremely strong sense of national superiority and pride. This superiority and pride were not solely the results of propaganda—they indeed achieved extraordinary success.

Their view of war differed from modern perspectives, seeing war as a common pathway for national development, looking up to force far more than modern people.

In other words, from top to bottom, Europe now harbored an extreme desire for war, viewing it as a crucial avenue for changing national and personal destinies.

Summing it up, Europeans in the early 20th century were essentially a group of war maniacs disguised as civilized people.

As the extremism in European societies escalated, and their interest competition intensified with irreconcilable contradictions, the footsteps of war drew nearer. External Great Powers and significant nations, like the Far East Empire, East Africa, the United States, and Japan, prepared to stand aside.

As for Europeans, they didn’t worry at all about internal conflicts allowing these outer powers or Great Powers to snatch the so-called center of civilization from Europe. European pride and arrogance justified such confidence in this era.

Of course, East Africans had no time to understand this European mentality. Currently, East Africa’s economy was equally vibrant, and most people had no interest in the happenings on the European Continent.

Yet, a few individuals spotted opportunities through East African news coverage. Connecting with the European battlefield meant massive profits!

With the advent of the new economic policy, East Africa saw the emergence of a group of relatively powerful private merchants over the last three years. To open up sales channels in Europe, they dared to employ new technologies, crafts, and concepts.

Although the European war had not yet commenced, many recognized this as an opportunity not to be missed. In 1914, many East African merchants ventured to Europe to explore the market.

This was also related to East Africa’s domestic economic overheating. The booming East African market fostered a belief that investments always paid off, sparking numerous enterprises engaged in various types of production activities.

This naturally led to one outcome—a massive surplus in East African industrial production, necessitating a search for outlets to offload products, especially for private enterprises. In the overseas market, Europe’s consumption level was the highest and closest to East Africa, prompting many East African private enterprises to start the trend of going abroad.

And as a migrant nation, East Africa inherently shared deep cultural connections with Europe, making overseas ventures relatively convenient, especially in German and Slavic areas.

Under such circumstances, numerous East African merchants emerged in European countries, attempting to sell East African industrial goods across Europe. This was Europe’s first substantial contact with so many East Africans thus far.

Previously, due to East Africa’s isolationist policy, Europe rarely saw East Africans except for students and officials. Now, many East African faces appeared in various European nations. As a mixed-race people, East Africans were easy to identify.

This also sparked European curiosity about East African countries, and through these self-sufficient cultural disseminators, Europeans began to properly understand the situation of this nation for the first time. However, by then, it was too late, as Europe was just one step away from the quagmire of war, leaving it unable to focus elsewhere.