African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1146: Chapter 155: Final Preparations

Serbia stands little chance against the Austro-Hungarian Empire; this is not only the opinion of Archduke Ferdinand (Maximiliano I) but also that of the majority of European countries.

However, Ernst rebutted: ”Father-in-law, while what you said is not wrong, if it’s solely Serbia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire can indeed gain an advantage with its national power. But isn’t this just like the perception most countries had of the Ottoman Empire before the First Balkan War?”

Archduke Ferdinand said, ”How can the Ottoman Empire be compared to the Austro-Hungarian Empire!”

Ernst calmly explained, ”Although the Ottoman Empire on the whole can’t compare to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it was nevertheless a formidable force for the Balkan League, but the Balkan League emerged victorious in the end.”

”And one critical reason for this is the support of other European countries behind the Balkan League, which empowered the Balkan League to arm its forces; otherwise, they wouldn’t even have had the startup capital.”

”By the same token, the current relationship between Serbia and Russia is quite favorable. If Serbia were to go to war with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, could Russia possibly stand by and do nothing?”

Of course not; as early as when the Austro-Hungarian Empire annexed Bosnia, Russia was greatly dissatisfied with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially since Russia gained nothing at the time, leaving Russia feeling frustrated for a long while.

And the importance of the Balkan Peninsula to Russia is in no way inferior to its importance to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Several countries on the Balkan Peninsula are home to many South Slavs, especially Serbia, which fully identifies as a Slavic nation. If this could be utilized, Russia could establish a large Slavic state covering the Balkan Peninsula and break through the blockade between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean.

Moreover, the Balkans were originally within the domain of the former Eastern Roman Empire, and Russia always saw itself as the successor to the Eastern Romans. If it could acquire the Balkan Peninsula, Russia’s self-proclaimed ”Third Rome” would virtually be realized.

In this sense, Russia is quite enviable to East Africa, for Russia can further pursue its claims, whereas East Africa has already reached its peak.

The official claim for East Africa is now the ”Rhein Empire,” and this Rhein Empire is already the most powerful nation ever on the African Continent.

Prior to East Africa, besides ancient Egypt, there was hardly any notable civilization on the entire African Continent, whereas the current Egypt has long become a secondary civilization of the Arab culture.

Even ancient Egypt had its activities confined to a corner of North Africa, and could not represent the whole of Africa. But East Africa is different; it occupies the best land on the African Continent, with an area nearly half the continent, and from various other metrics it has elevated Africa to a remarkable status.

Returning to the relationship between the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Serbia, Ernst’s reasoning certainly left his father-in-law worried.

”Russia is indeed a huge problem; let’s just hope that Russia won’t turn its back on the Austro-Hungarian Empire for Serbia.”

It’s almost impossible not to. The Austro-Hungarian Empire is already strong enough, and if it conquers Serbia, Russia will be at a disadvantage in this Balkan Peninsula competition.

This is Russia’s perspective, but Ernst definitely sees it differently; as long as the Austro-Hungarian Empire can’t solve its ethnic problems, even if it takes Serbia, they would rather inherit a huge burden which Ernst himself would not want to bear.

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After chatting idly with his family, Ernst didn’t sit idle; considering the prevailing likelihood of war breaking out in Europe, East Africa must also make final preparations for a possible comprehensive European war.

Once war breaks out, the large stockpile of goods stored in East Africa will be sent to Europe in a steady stream, including munitions, medicines, food, cotton, rubber, and other strategic materials.

”Since three years ago, we have been stockpiling massive reserves of wartime materials at each port zone; as soon as Europe erupts in large-scale war, we will be able to ensure the fastest shipments to Europe,” Sivert explained to Ernst.

The East African Government, guided by Ernst, has long concluded that war will inevitably break out in Europe, thus during the Three-Five Plan it had led the enterprises and other organizations within East Africa to enhance production efforts, amassing large quantities of military and civilian resources.

However, stockpiling resources inevitably leads to a scarcity of products on the East African market, which is also one of the main reasons for loosening the market. Through this means, the East African domestic shortfall in commodities can be offset, while also serving as a crucial supplement for East Africa’s export of goods to Europe after the outbreak of World War I.

”Presently, in the pharmaceuticals sector alone, we’ve accumulated a large stockpile of sanitary napkins, hemostatic gauze, anti-inflammatory drugs, vaccines, and many other products targeting battlefield conditions. Additionally, anticipating possible chemical warfare, we’ve produced a batch of gas masks.”

Gas masks, were a rapidly popularized product during the First World War in a previous era, as both the Allies and the Central Powers employed various chemical agents to create poisonous gases that greatly impacted the war. Therefore, under Ernst’s guidance, East Africa produced many pig-head gas masks.

Although the industrial foundation of European countries is quite good, quickly producing a large number of gas masks to suddenly counter chemical weapons is quite challenging, which means East Africa can earn a considerable amount. Besides the finished products already manufactured, East Africa possesses the world’s largest gas mask production line, so long as the two camps are willing to pay, these production lines can continuously manufacture and supply them to Europe.

In fact, in terms of pharmaceuticals, there are many aspects that Sivert didn’t fully cover, such as controlled drugs, where East Africa also has substantial reserves.

The so-called controlled substances refer to some illegal drugs now circulating in the European market, which are legal in Europe and America but regulated products in East Africa.

In the previous era, the so-called German supermen, Slavic supermen, and Anglo-Saxon soldiers all had a drug addiction problem, thereby enhancing the combat strength of the soldiers, and with millions of soldiers participating from both major camps, how could such a massive market be overlooked by East Africa?

East Africa is now producing these controlled substances, practically producing at a deficit, because the legal constraints severely limit the market for these drugs, therefore, expanding production lines must endure a stage of unprofitability.

Under these circumstances, the East African government has to fund enterprises to expand production lines and perform large-scale production, so currently, a large number of pharmaceutical companies in East Africa are operating under debt pressure, and eliminating these debts naturally requires the blood of European and American soldiers.

This is one of the key reasons why East Africa urgently hopes for war to break out, as many enterprises in East Africa operate under the strain of debt. Currently, East Africa’s foreign debt has already soared to a staggering 150 billion Rhein, equivalent to over five billion British Pounds.

East Africa has become the world’s second-largest debtor nation after the United States, with the difference being these debts were rapidly accumulated over just a few years.

Aside from private debt, the East African government, using its own railways, highways, factories, and numerous other state assets as collateral, has taken substantial loans from various European countries. If these debts cannot be repaid, then several years of accumulation by people across all of East Africa will be lost.

That is why Ernst was particularly excited upon learning of Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination; after all, although Ernst was unfamiliar with Archduke Ferdinand (Austria-Hungary), they were family nonetheless.

And Ferdinand’s assassination means the Austro-Hungarian Empire will surely respond, and if Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, Russia will definitely not remain indifferent; with Russia and Austria-Hungary going to war, it will undoubtedly trigger a chain reaction across Europe, with Germany and France inevitably taking the next step.

After all, Europe’s military competition has been ongoing for so long precisely for the purpose of preparing for a major war, and if war were not initiated, it would be very difficult to bear.

For instance, in the previous era, the Austro-Hungarian Empire first incited the war; without initiating war, the Habsburg Royal Family would still face the pressure of an economic crisis within their country. At least the American economic crisis had been conveyed to Europe, which was also one of the causes for the prior Balkan Wars; a wave of bankruptcies in the Near East forced Balkan regimes to initiate war to divert tensions, just as one of Serbia’s pillar industries, pig farming, went bankrupt due to this economic crisis.