African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1131: Chapter 140: The Balkan Crisis

East Africa has never stopped building its own public-opinion system. Ernst has a deep understanding of how formidable opinion warfare is, so even during the worst periods of East Africa’s economy, infiltration of the Western discourse system was never suspended.

The Titanic was indeed an opportunity for a public-opinion battle. As a textbook ”man-made disaster,” the Titanic, built and operated by the United Kingdom, had its responsibilities completely shrugged off through media narratives, while the United States media took charge of hyping things up, painting American passengers on board, or American ships involved in the rescue, in tragic, heroic colors.

In reality, the sinking of the Titanic was absolutely nothing like the ”beautiful” image portrayed by the British and American media, but the mainstream media in the United Kingdom and United States only selected comments favorable to their own countries to publish, and could even fabricate some information to muddy the waters.

For example, in the previous life, the Brooklyn Eagle in the United States reported on April 19, 1912: ”The only blot was the discovery in the bottom of one of the lifeboats leaving the Titanic of the bodies of two coolies from the Far East Empire and eight living men crowded under the seats... These people... at the very first moment of danger had already rushed into the lifeboat.”

Fake news like this was too numerous to count, and was not redressed until the 21st century. For instance, Tim Martin, a scholar who studies the history of the Titanic, said that there is no evidence whatsoever that the rumors of Chinese survivors disguising themselves or hiding actually occurred. Since the public at the time believed only women and children ought to be saved, he认为这些都是媒体和公众”在事后编造的故事”.

But by the time these false reports were finally corrected, the countries of Europe and America no longer cared about the Titanic at all, whereas the malign impact they left had already lasted nearly a hundred years.

This is not hard to understand. Decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was transformed from an anti-fascist member of the Allies in World War II into an ”accomplice” that helped Adolf invade Poland. Although the Soviet Union’s performance in World War II was far from flawless, the face-turning by European and American media is also a fact. After all, when World War II was underway and they needed the Soviet Union to join in, they were not saying this.

Of course, in the short term, with the Titanic at the center of worldwide attention, Europe and America would not blatantly ignore the facts to erase East Africa’s contribution.

The media in Europe controlled and influenced by East Africa began to exert strength on the second day after the Titanic accident, working to faithfully reconstruct the incident.

Naturally, East African public opinion did not let the Titanic’s owner, the United Kingdom’s White Star Line, off the hook. As the root cause of this disaster, White Star Line’s corner-cutting in construction and mismanagement in operations were the fundamental reasons for the Titanic’s sinking.

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For East Africa, the sinking of the Titanic was merely an insignificant event in the Northern Hemisphere. To put it bluntly, aside from the nation’s own officers and soldiers who participated in the rescue, no one would care how many more people died on the Titanic.

The primary concern of the East African Government was the war on the Balkan Peninsula in 1912. As the powder keg that ignited World War I in the previous life, the shifting situation on the Balkan Peninsula could be said to be the direct trigger for the outbreak of that war.

East Africa had all along been monitoring the situation on the Balkan Peninsula, and had planted its own influence locally through Bosnia, so as to avoid seeing its own say in the region deteriorate.

For the changes on the Balkan Peninsula would likewise have tremendous impact on East Africa. The Adriatic Sea and the Black Sea on either side of the Balkan Peninsula are also important routes for East Africa’s access to the Central and Eastern European Market, which itself ranks first in East African Countries’ trade.

Ernst said: ”The various countries on the Balkan Peninsula have already reached a consensus and are inclined to go to war against the Ottoman Empire. Faced with this war that could break out at any moment, what stance should we adopt, so as to guide the European situation in the direction we desire?”

As one of the world’s major Great Powers, East Africa is likewise a maintainer of the international order, and thus can access a great deal of first-hand information.

For example, if the Balkan Peninsula states wish to wage war against a behemoth like the Ottoman Empire, they must first sound out the Great Powers of the world. To put it bluntly, without someone backing them from behind, these Balkan Peninsula states would not even have been able to achieve independence.

Hence the Balkan Peninsula states attach great importance to their contacts with other Great Powers, and East Africa is naturally not absent among them. Although East Africa is an African country, this is precisely what puts the Balkan Peninsula states somewhat at ease: seeking help from East Africa is better than seeking help from Austria-Hungary and Russia, for if Austria-Hungary and Russia were to join in, it would be much harder to kick them out again.

The same goes for the Ottoman Empire. Because it possesses quite a bit of territory on the Balkan Peninsula, the Ottoman Empire can likewise be regarded as a Balkan Peninsula state, and its relations with East Africa have always been good. So both sides are actively vying for East Africa’s support.

Sivert said: ”At present, the countries on the Balkan Peninsula all have quite good relations with us, particularly Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria-Hungary. We even have military cooperation with these three. As for Greece and Serbia, we also have trade relations with them. So in this war, we in East Africa must consider our position very carefully.”

”But from the perspective of practical interests, we ought to lean toward the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire controls Constantinople, thus blocking the passage between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, and a free-flowing Black Sea is especially important to us. Russia and the other countries along the Black Sea coast have always been major consumer markets for our agriculture and industry.”

”Of course, if the Ottoman Empire were to lose Constantinople in this war, that would be another matter entirely. Given the current condition of the Balkan Peninsula states, this is not impossible. But the relationship between the Ottoman Empire and East Africa does not exist solely in this traffic artery of Constantinople. In the Red Sea and Persian Gulf we also have to deal with the Ottoman Empire, so we must be extremely cautious in our attitude toward it.”

After Sivert had presented his views, Merk added: ”We cannot support the Ottoman Empire too strongly. The sentiments of the Balkan Peninsula states are also something we must take into account. After all, in handling international relations, it is best not to offend too many parties. More importantly, we have no historical disputes to speak of with the Balkan Peninsula states in the first place, so we should not end up turning against them just because we support the Ottoman Empire.”

After others had also offered suggestions, many within the East African Government expressed support for the Ottoman Empire. The fundamental reason for this outcome was that the value of winning over the Ottoman Empire to East Africa outweighed that of the Balkan Peninsula states.

East Africa and the Ottoman Empire, as two important countries along the Indian Ocean Coast, can be said to be the only two independent states not controlled by the United Kingdom or other colonial powers.

Although the Ottoman Empire is practically incapable of exerting influence in the Indian Ocean, it is likewise under British pressure. East Africa and the Ottoman Empire therefore share many points of common language, mainly because of the existence of the United Kingdom as a common enemy. Thus the two countries share the same goal of driving the British out of the Indian Ocean.

Of course, East Africa actually harbors no genuine affection for the Ottoman Empire. The many forms of cooperation between the two countries are purely calculated on the basis of interests.

And since there are those within East Africa who support the Ottoman Empire, there are naturally also those who oppose supporting it.

Constantine said: ”The decline and even disintegration of the Ottoman Empire is highly likely. We should stand with the other European countries, on the side of the Balkan Peninsula states. Only in this way can we conform to the mainstream sentiment of the International Community and avoid being dragged down. Personally, I take a very dim view of the Ottoman Empire’s fate. In this war, the Ottoman Empire is very likely to be in an unfavorable position.”

Constantine’s words are likewise worthy of attention, for standing with the Ottoman Empire would basically be tantamount to cutting ourselves off diplomatically from European society.

Of course, as an African country, East Africa in fact does not feel strongly one way or the other about the life or death of either the Ottoman Empire or the Balkan Peninsula states. As long as no force hostile to East Africa emerges, it can more or less accept any outcome.