Chapter 969： limited cooperation

Chapter 969 Limited Cooperation

"The current national strength of East Africa is not enough to support the construction of an ocean-going navy. Moreover, traditional maritime powers such as Britain and France, as well as the rising star of the United States, have great advantages in their navies. As long as there are no accidents, we will increase naval construction. It will only trigger a naval competition between countries. This kind of chasing after each other cannot narrow the gap between navies of various countries. Therefore, every fund of the East African Navy must be carefully calculated instead of being invested in never-ending naval armaments. Let’s go in the competition,” East African Defense Minister Felix told Tirpitz.

If the two countries cooperate, generally speaking, the stronger the ally, the better. This means that one’s own camp will become stronger. Just like Italy, the ally chosen by Germany in the previous life, it may have a huge impact on the world structure even if it does not hold back.

The East African government is obviously only willing to conduct limited cooperation with the German Navy in areas such as military technology and conventional exercises and training.

Tirpitz was naturally a little disappointed with the lack of ambition of the East African government. In his opinion, East Africa was fully capable of becoming a powerful helper for the German navy in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean.

"East Africa is a two-ocean country, or even a three-ocean country (including the Pacific, and East African colonies are mainly distributed in the Pacific region). You have also defeated the United Kingdom. If you get the full support of our Germany, you can definitely gain a greater say in the Indian Ocean and become a "One of the founders of the new international order." Tirpitz still tried to drag East Africa into trouble, so he tried to make trouble for East Africa as much as possible.

Germany and East Africa are extremely complementary. One of them is in the northern hemisphere, and the other is in the southern hemisphere. There is no conflict of interest, and the culture and race are similar. If East Africa can be tied to the German tank, the German government will laugh even in its dreams. .

Apart from anything else, if the East African navy expands, the most nervous thing will be the British in the Indian Ocean, who can greatly share the pressure of the German navy.

Of course, this is Germany’s idea. The East African government has three routes to choose from. One is to stand completely on the side of Germany, the other is to remain neutral, and the third is to side with the British.

If you choose one, it means that in the future East Africa is very likely to join forces with Germany to fight against the Allied Powers. This is too risky for Ernst. In the previous life, the Allies and the Allied Powers led by Germany were actually partially superior militarily. If East Africa Can a country of this size join the war to change the outcome of the war?

The answer is not necessarily. Although it seems that siding with the Allied Powers in East Africa can increase the Allied Powers' winning rate, East Africa's actual role in the European War is not very big.

This also starts with the geographical location of East Africa. There are three main communication channels between East Africa and Europe, namely the Suez Canal controlled by the British, the British Colony of Gibraltar and the English Channel.

Therefore, even if East Africa wants to support Germany, it cannot be done in the short term. Moreover, Britain and France also have a large blood package, the United States, as a logistics support center, which adds to the uncertainty of the war.

As for option three, it is not very realistic at the moment. The relationship between East Africa and the United Kingdom is too poor. The possibility of cooperation between the two countries is very small. Of course, it is not impossible. After all, there are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests. If the British offer a high price , it is not impossible for East Africa to side with the British.

Finally, there is the neutral route. This route is also attractive to East Africa. In the previous life, the United States followed this route in the early and middle stages of the war. However, this also prevented the United States from changing the original world order after the war and could only continue to look at Britain and France. country dominates the world situation.

Three routes are all feasible, but as far as Ernst is concerned, he prefers neutrality, mainly because it has the lowest risk, and the first two may drag East Africa into the abyss of war.

Of course, in the end, the national policy for East Africa must be chosen based on the actual situation. In Ernst’s mind, the possibilities of these three routes are three to four to three.

However, currently East Africa will definitely not join the conflict between Germany, Britain, and France. This involves Ernst's judgment that a war is unlikely to occur in the next ten years. So Ernst said: "The world structure will be affected by various factors, and we in East Africa are too backward and weak to participate in the game of world power. Of course, in terms of national emotions and interests, we I am definitely more willing to let Germany dominate the future world structure.”

In any case, it is agreed that there will be no money, and there is definitely no problem in complimenting Germany. If faced with France, Ernst might say something similar.

Ernst's words finally had a certain effect. Although they did not meet Tirpitz's psychological expectations, there is no doubt that the current close relationship between East Africa and Germany is an ironclad fact. The two countries have great cultural, political and economic differences. More common interests.

As for East Africa not being keen on the struggle for world power, it is understandable. Although East Africa is developing well, it is still far behind European and American countries. At the current stage, East Africa mainly focuses on developing domestic economy and industry, and does not need to be like the United States and Germany. There is an urgent need to reshape the world structure.

The development of the United States and Germany is close to the limit that their local countries can accommodate, so they urgently need more markets and raw material origins. However, their domestic markets and raw material supply are close to their limits. The comprehensive national strength of the two countries has reached a standard that can compete with any country. .

East Africa has obviously not yet reached this stage of development. There are still a large number of undeveloped areas in East Africa, the degree of industrialization is not high, the national economic and population distribution is also uneven, and there is still great potential that needs to be developed urgently.

Hence, East Africa’s current demand for external markets is not as strong as that of Germany and the United States, and East Africa itself is a resource-rich country. At least at the current stage of industrial development, it does not lack any raw materials, so its demand for raw materials is not as strong as Germany’s.

Hence, the current main energy in East Africa is still focused on the local area. More far-reaching issues will not be considered until East Africa completes its own resource development and economic construction.

Although the East African government's attitude towards cooperation between the two countries does not satisfy Germany's appetite, it is not yet useful, so Tirpitz can only reduce the huge plan he made when he came to meet the requirements of the East African government.

Under such circumstances, it is naturally impossible for Germany to fully support East Africa. In fact, it cannot do so. East Africa is too large, and Germany can at most only play the role of icing on the cake.

In this way, a emasculated version of the "East-German Naval Cooperation Plan" was released. Tirpitz stayed in East Africa for another week before returning to Germany to begin drastic reforms.

East Africa, the German naval cooperation program, mainly realizes the sharing and development of some technical equipment in the field of technical equipment. At the same time, East Africa provides certain conveniences for Germany and supports future German naval activities in the Pacific and other overseas regions.

Sharing and development of technical equipment. East Africa is interested in German battleship technology, while Germany, or Tirpitz, is more interested in East African submarine technology. Scientific researchers from the two countries will carry out exchanges and cooperation in related fields.

Supporting Germany's activities in overseas areas such as the Pacific is mainly to provide port conveniences to the German navy. However, as an independent country, East Africa only supports it. It is impossible to allocate its own territory to Germany for use as a military base. At most, it will be used by Germany. The Navy provides temporary accommodation and maintenance services.

In East Africa, the German naval cooperation plan can only be regarded as limited cooperation. Under this cooperation plan, the East African navy still adopts a conservative policy, but the communication with the German navy is smoother, which is conducive to the country's navy to learn from each other's strengths and offset weaknesses, and avoid working behind closed doors.

(End of this chapter)