African Entrepreneurship Record

”Your Excellency Count, you flatter us. Submarine technology is still unstable and cannot compete with powerful battleships. Its position in the navy is at most auxiliary, and in this aspect, our East African Navy is far inferior to Germany,” Clintman said with great humility.

Tirpitz was not surprised by Clintman’s humble attitude. After all, before coming to East Africa, Tirpitz had learned that East Africans are not as flamboyant as Europeans, nor are they overly humble like the current Far East Empire people.

This is actually quite understandable. When the strength is inadequate, lowering one’s head is not a bad thing. Think about the description of foreigners by the Far East Empire before the fifties; it was actually very dismissive.

Even in the Self-Strengthening Movement, its core idea was ”Learn the strong points of foreigners to control them,” while ”foreigner” in the Far East Empire was by no means a good word.

Ignoring Clintman’s deliberate self-depreciation, Tirpitz said, ”It seems that during our visit to East Africa, we need not only to strengthen cooperation on naval strategy and tactics, but also to reach some collaborations on East African Navy’s unique skills, especially in technology.”

Before arriving in East Africa, Tirpitz originally overlooked some technologies mastered by the East African Navy. After all, the East African Navy originated from the Austria-Hungary Navy, and even early officers were Austria-Hungary Navy personnel, with its commander being Archduke Ferdinand, the former head of the Austrian Navy.

So previously, Tirpitz thought the East African Navy might still be inferior to Austria-Hungary in technology and shipbuilding.

In fact, this is not a problem at all. When it comes to shipbuilding nowadays, although East Africa’s scale has already surpassed Austria-Hungary, there’s still a technical and quality gap compared to Austria-Hungary.

Currently, Austria-Hungary’s shipbuilding capability is actually stronger than in history. After all, having Venice provides Austria-Hungary with more options, whereas in the past, Austria-Hungary could only rely on Trieste and the underdeveloped coastal areas of Dalmatia.

However, in military shipbuilding, East Africa has completely freed itself from reliance on Austria and even surpassed Austria-Hungary in certain fields.

The main reason is that the position and role of the navy in the two countries differ. Austria-Hungary is not like Germany, Franz is not William II, thus Franz’s perception of his own country is much more mature than William II.

There’s a saying that William II pushed for the German offshore navy plan because he was stimulated by attending the British Royal Navy inspection ceremony celebrating Queen Victoria’s 60th jubile on in 1897, which subsequently led to the vigorous development of the German Navy, sowing the seeds for the outbreak of World War I.

When faced with the vast fleet of the Royal Navy, ”Germany’s best battleship,” carefully selected by William II, was completely overshadowed, greatly hurting William II’s self-esteem.

According to Ernst’s understanding, this rumor is very likely true. After that, William II often made ”inappropriate” statements in public, including ”Germany’s future lies on the ocean,” and ”Germany is a world power,” among others.

Of course, William II’s ideas also have supporters in Germany. Recently, German scholars have claimed in newspapers: ”Germany’s goals... German influence, German capital, German business, German industry, and German intelligence are competing worldwide with other powerful countries... and all of these require a strong navy.”

Tirpitz, the newly appointed Minister of the Navy, is also a supporter of William II, and he was a naval general who escorted William II to Queen Victoria’s birthday inspection ceremony in 1897.

In fact, it was after the inspection ceremony that, under William II’s instructions, Tirpitz led the grand German naval development plan spanning twenty years — the ”Tirpitz Plan”. According to this plan, the German Navy will become at least the world’s second-largest navy, capable of vying against the British Navy.

If it were Franz or Ernst, they definitely wouldn’t do that. After all, Germany’s current naval strength is not weak. To maintain interests, just securing the Baltic Sea would be enough. Even if the German Navy hardware reached the level of the British Navy, it couldn’t escape geographical disadvantages.

In contrast, Austria-Hungary seems ”rational,” with its navy positioned for coastal defense, ensuring its presence within the Mediterranean rather than a naval force on the ocean.

East Africa is similar. Despite East Africa making the British Army suffer in the South African War, it doesn’t affect the reputation of the British Royal Navy at all.

If East Africa, like Germany, also initiated a ”grand navy” plan at this time, it’s likely to spark a new round of war between the two countries.

Currently, the East African Navy has already posed a significant threat to Britain, including monitoring communications between India, Australia, and the homeland under the watch of the East African Navy.

Of course, even with increased naval investment, East Africa cannot gain an advantage over the Royal Navy in the short term. Germany has already proven this in the past; even if Germany tried its best to strengthen its national naval power, Britain could still outperform.

Moreover, both Britain and Germany have far greater financial resources than East Africa, so participating in naval competition in the current environment would only yield nothing for East Africa. It’s better to invest more resources in domestic development and industrial growth, which is why East Africa’s current focus is civilian shipbuilding, a striking contrast amid the global naval arms race.

However, East Africa’s approach certainly aligns with Britain’s current philosophy. The outcome of naval arms races in various countries has the most negative impact on the British Royal Navy. Before the arms race, Britain was already the first, but with other countries expanding their naval arms, the Royal Navy has to keep up, investing more funds, which is inherently a drain on national potential.

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After visiting the East African submarine, Tirpitz and the representatives of the German Navy returned to Bajamojo, where they proposed relevant suggestions to Archduke Ferdinand.

Since Ernst moved the capital to Rhein City, Archduke Ferdinand and his wife remained in Bajamojo. Although Archduke Ferdinand no longer leads frontline work, his influence within the navy is enormous, and in Bajamojo and even throughout East Africa, the status of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife is second only to the Heixinggen Royal Family members.

”Germany’s new Minister of the Navy?” Archduke Ferdinand asked.

”Yes, Your Excellency Grand Duke, our German Navy intends to enhance exchanges and cooperation with the East African Navy, which is the purpose of my visit to East Africa this time,” Tirpitz replied directly.

”Hmm, I know a bit about you. What ideas do you have for the future development of the German Navy?” Archduke Ferdinand addressed the junior.

Archduke Ferdinand is well-known worldwide in naval circles. Apart from the blemish of being Emperor of Mexico, he once served as the Austrian Navy Commander and later created the East African Navy single-handedly, which are quite remarkable achievements. The East African Navy also has combat experience from the South African Naval Battle, so its combat power is recognized by various countries.

This has also transformed Archduke Ferdinand’s image. Although his career as Emperor of Mexico was somewhat anticlimactic, the development and expansion of the East African Navy make it easy for people to credit Archduke Ferdinand with the success. After all, when he took over, the East African Navy was entirely ”zero,” and now it has become one of the few powerful navies in the world.