African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 488: Chapter 166 Taking Action

The British government was calculating the strength of East Africa, and the more they calculated, the more they realized that they had no good strategy against East Africa. Although its size wasn’t large, in Africa’s context, it was akin to a behemoth.

After all, apart from Cape Town and North Africa, Africa could not find another power that could compete with East Africa’s white population. Moreover, East Africa was composed of Germans, albeit not purely, but its cultural allegiance naturally leaned towards Germany.

What did this mean for Britain? A single Germany was already enough to give Britain a headache. If you add in Austria-Hungary, the influence of the German people was enough to change the entire world. If East Africa further became a resource supply base for these two industrial powerhouses, then Britain’s position as an overlord would be greatly threatened.

Thinking of this, Benjamin said with a solemn expression, ”East Africa is not an ordinary country. This kind of private colonial company, which monopolizes several million square kilometers in Africa, severely disrupts regional peace and stability. As custodians of world order, we cannot let East Africa grow unchecked; we must strike hard!”

Benjamin explicitly defined East Africa as a private colonial group similar to the British East India Company. Although the British East India Company’s glory lay in occupying India, the Indian colony also covered only three million square kilometers. The East African kingdom was considered by the British government to be more than double the size of India. Although East Africa might not have India’s advantageous territory, nor its rich population, such a vast land would eventually accumulate enough people to become a force that could influence the world order. Even without influencing the global order, the situation in the Western Indian Ocean had already changed.

Benjamin continued sternly, ”We can search for proxies in other regions of the world to deal with potential enemies we find hard to overcome, achieving strategic balance. But in Africa, please name a competitor that can rival East Africa?”

”Moreover, East Africa’s ambitions don’t stop here; they are still expanding. Their presence has already been noticed on the eastern coast of the Atlantic, and Southwest Africa is about to fall into East African hands. Furthermore, there’s vast inland Africa ripe for action. East Africa’s territory is currently seven million square kilometers, and tomorrow it could be tens of millions. Will it one day monopolize Africa?”

At this point, Benjamin himself realized he felt a tinge of fear towards East Africa, but he tried to calm down again.

The Minister of Finance said, ”Prime Minister, perhaps the situation is not as severe as we think. Although East Africa has a large land area, I believe its potential is at most on par with Canada and Australia. We also have colonies in Africa, and the conditions are definitely much better than those in Africa. Both the Gold Coast and Cape Town are among Africa’s most valuable lands. But honestly speaking, the importance of these two colonies to the British Empire isn’t prominent in the overall system, especially considering their economic value isn’t high. So for East Africa to develop, land alone isn’t enough; development in Africa is absolutely challenging.”

The Minister of Finance wasn’t considering collecting revenue from East Africa at the moment, primarily because the government was genuinely out of money. The Navy, a money-guzzling entity, saw its budget rise year after year. Coupled with government spending due to economic crisis and the significant focus on expenditures in South Asia, the increasingly unruly Russians posed a threat, breaking through blockades with apparent intentions. Russia wasn’t like East Africa, a nation that had uncertain potential; it was a genuine threat capable of breaking British hegemony, even more significant than the threat posed by Germans.

”Now that Tsarist Russia’s reforms are complete, Alexandria II is indeed a mighty leader, and the threat of Tsarist Russia should be at the forefront. While Germany is developing rapidly and there’s a French watchful eye next to them, and there’s interest discord between Austria-Hungary and Tsarist Russia, Tsarist Russia in Central Asia and the Far East is unmistakably the greatest threat, even directly related to Indian security concerns.”

East Africa had considerable naval strength, but Britain did not take it seriously. With the Royal Navy in India alone, they could firmly hold East Africa at bay. However, Tsarist Russia was different; its strategic focus was on land, which happened to be Britain’s weak spot.

Instead of making Benjamin relaxed, the Minister of Finance’s words weighed on him even more. Russia, America, Germany, the Far East considered as half, and East Africa barely considered as half, these countries had been developing well over the past few years. Correspondingly, the voice of power held by Britain and France, as world order maintainers, was challenged.

Benjamin sighed, ”Competitors are growing in number, and the cost to maintain the Empire’s status is increasing, leaving us stretched thin!”

Switching the subject, he said, ”However, precisely because of this, we cannot ignore East Africa’s existence. We can’t add a new challenger to the Empire; everyone think of a way to snuff out East Africa while it’s still in its cradle.”

If Ernst were to hear this, he would probably laugh till he cried. Calling it a cradle wasn’t wrong, as East Africa indeed seemed fragile from Ernst’s perspective. However, through years of surreptitious development, East Africa had developed a full set of strategies to handle crises, roughly akin to a giant baby. If Britain wanted to completely snuff out East Africa, they couldn’t afford to underinvest, and with high investment, there was the risk of being ’stepped on by other countries.

Benjamin’s words perplexed everyone. What were East Africa’s weaknesses? According to Ernst, it was trade. Cutting off East Africa’s domestic foreign trade would indeed be difficult for East Africa.

But the British had fallen into a cognitive trap: Did East Africa have foreign trade? The answer was certainly yes, but the trade system of East Africa was more like an extension of German-Austrian trade, disguised as the output of German capital. Thus, while the British felt the competitiveness of German-Austrian goods, they didn’t feel much about East Africa.

Essentially, East Africa was a colony of both Germany and Austria, albeit one with independent thoughts. Economically, East Africa sacrificed significant profits to benefit Germany and Austria. However, these advantages were distributed through the Heixinggen consortium, flowing from East Africa to the consortium, and the consortium was indeed part of German capital. The wealth created in the German region from this capital indeed benefited civilians and commercial groups that had close ties to the government and Heixinggen capital.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs timely asked, ”East Africa is a very closed country, entirely a puppet of Germany and Austria, not integrated into the world market, and sometimes you can’t even feel its existence. They have no diplomatic relations with us, reminiscent of the Far Eastern Empire before we forcibly opened its doors. But the rulers of East Africa are from the Heixinggen royal family, pure German nobles. Why are they doing this? Managing a colony must factor in cost issues. Does the Heixinggen royal family truly want to establish a medieval feudal monarchy solely in Africa?”

The effect of isolation was displayed here: East Africa could peek at world trends through a window while other countries were blinded by its existence. Not everyone was clueless about East Africa; a very few Austrian businessmen investing in East Africa had a clear understanding. Yet they did not widely publicize this, as East Africa’s economic system appeared to defy norms of capitalism, heading in the opposite direction. They also feared the Austrian government might emulate East Africa’s model.

East Africa’s economic system was quite intricate. However, the monarch was undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary, followed by the nobles and bureaucrats of East Africa, and lastly the civilians, conspicuously excluding capitalists. Yet, this model seemed to operate quite efficiently in East Africa, so the businessmen kept the country’s affairs to themselves. Upon seeing this, no one wished to risk the Habsburg family adopting a similar path, especially considering Austria-Hungary’s rail nationalization during economic crises.

On the flip side, one could depict East Africa as a country with medieval serfdom. But the problem was that Austrian businessmen didn’t want to see serfdom either. So, East Africa continued to run its affairs on its own patch of land. As long as it didn’t harm others, collaboration with East Africa could be profitable, and no one wanted to give up this exclusivity.

Indeed, East Africa was complex, incorporating feudalism, monarchy, despotism, serfdom, state-owned economy, collective economy, and monopoly capital. This was an unavoidable choice. Despotic monarchy, per historical progression, should be discarded, but Ernst couldn’t lean liberally. Thus, scraps from various systems were picked, making East Africa an amalgam.

Benjamin: ”If East Africa is truly a closed nation like the Far East was, then we’d have to resort to military resolution, forcing them open.”

This was a last resort. No one knew East Africa’s ultimate goals, leading to the comparison with the Far East. Benjamin hypothesized East Africa wished to emulate the Far Eastern Empire’s self-sufficient economic approach. Thinking this way, there were indeed many similarities, including racial similarities.

”But should we declare war on East Africa?”

”Of course not. We aren’t clear on East Africa’s military strength, so we cannot act rashly. In this case, doesn’t Portugal have colonies on both sides of East Africa? Let’s have Portugal test the waters first. If East Africa is merely showmanship, we’ll dismember it.”

”Prime Minister, but the Portuguese military prowess... I’m unsure about East Africa’s military, but the Portuguese definitely are just showmanship!”

”No matter, if Portugal fails, aren’t we still here? We’ll rope in the French to collaborate, providing some support and arming Portugal’s two colonies. I believe the French have competent military capabilities, especially after losing to the Germans last time, which gives them a perfect opportunity to challenge the Germans in the colonies once again.”