Chapter 1128 Beginning
With the arrival of 1914, East Africa's new economic policy was initially compatible with the planned economic system. According to the East African government, this was an economic path with East African characteristics that required both planned economic guidance and market freedom. The New Economic Policy was implemented smoothly despite criticism and rebuttal.
While East Africa is undergoing major reforms in its national economic system, new waves are brewing on the European continent and are preparing to lead Europeans into the abyss.
…
“In Greek mythology, the siren used her song to attract sailors. Any ship that heard her song would be tempted to crash into the rocks on the coast. Today’s leaders in Europe seem to have heard the siren’s song. The same song invariably brought Europe to the brink of war," wrote an East African journalist in the "Rheinische Volkszeitung" in February 1914.
Europe will go to war. This has become the consensus of most countries in the world, but no one can imagine the huge destructiveness of this war.
In fact, war is not an unfamiliar word to Europe. In European history, there were often group wars, such as the Thirty Years' War, the Seven Years' War, the Napoleonic Wars, etc., which were all wars involving many countries and lasting a long time.
But when these wars occurred, the lethality of weapons was still very limited. After Europeans enjoyed nearly fifty years of peace, they have forgotten the pain of the past wars, and even ignored the terrifying increase in the lethality of weapons today. sex.
The last most eye-catching war in Europe was the Franco-Prussian War. Although it was good in scale, it was short-lived. Germany was in an advantage from the beginning and did not cause too much losses to the two countries.
In the Balkan War, the mutual attacks between the Balkan countries were also completed in a short period of time. For example, the Balkan Alliance fought against the Ottoman Empire, or the war between Bulgaria and the Anti-Bulgarian Alliance were completed within a few months. The entire Balkan war lasted less than a year.
Nowadays, European politicians probably have the mentality of "quick victory" and "decisive war". Many people only think that once the war is launched, it will end in a short time.
Before the start of the First World War in the previous life, almost all participating countries were full of confidence in the war. The huge confidence accumulated from the colonial wars believed that war was the best way to gain military glory.
Especially those old aristocrats who have become increasingly lonely during the two industrial revolutions hope to restore the glory of their families through war. These people have become the most radical promoters of war, using the power and status in their hands to promote it through public opinion. The beauty of war.
For example, in the UK, there is widespread optimism that the war will end in a few weeks. After all, the British, who have been in peace for a long time, have long forgotten the cruelty of war. Since the Napoleonic Wars, the British have not experienced a large-scale war, even if It was the American Revolutionary War, and they were also defeating the other side and did not suffer much loss.
And because of East Africa, Britain lost the lessons of the two Boer Wars and did not become the laughing stock of European countries. Although losing to East Africa was more embarrassing, it was still much better than being educated by the Boers in its previous life.
Although France suffered heavy losses in the Franco-Prussian War, its strong national pride plunged the entire country into a state of crazy revenge. They wanted a war of blood and fire to wash away the shame. They did not realize how much the war would bring. of harm.
Prussian-dominated Germany has had almost no defeats in recent years and has won several national destiny battles. Coupled with the rapid development of its domestic economy and the rapid advancement of its industrial strength, its expansion is boundless.
European armies were invincible in the colonies, crushing like bulldozers any foreign natives who dared to resist them. Along with this, European capital spread all over the world, dominating the economies of most regions around the world from the Ivory Coast to the Moluccas. lifeline. Today, European civilization has shown amazing penetration capabilities. It seems that the world's civilizations can be classified as follows: European and barbaric. This is the golden age of Europe.
In this context, European people generally have an extremely strong sense of national superiority and pride. This sense of superiority and pride is not entirely the result of propaganda—they have indeed achieved extraordinary success.
Their views on war are also different from those of today. They regard war as a common way of national development. Compared with today's people, they advocate force more.
In other words, from top to bottom in Europe, whether politicians or ordinary people, there is an extreme desire for war. They regard war as an important way to change the destiny of the country and individuals.
To sum up, Europeans in the early 20th century were actually a group of war lunatics pretending to be civilized.
As the social thinking of European countries becomes more extreme, competition for interests becomes increasingly fierce, conflicts become irreconcilable, and the pace of war is getting closer, large and powerful countries outside the region are preparing to stay out of the matter, including the Far Eastern Empire, East Africa, the United States, and Japan. these countries.
As for the fact that Europeans are not worried at all about internal strife and allowing these foreign powers to **** the so-called center of civilization from Europe, Europe in this era has such pride and complacency.
Of course, East Africans have no time to understand the mentality of Europeans. Now the East African economy is also in a state of turmoil, and most people have no time to pay attention to what is happening on the European continent.
However, there are also a few people who see business opportunities through the exaggeration of East African news. As long as they can connect with the European battlefield, it is not a huge profit!
With the rollout of the new economic policy, a group of relatively powerful private businessmen have emerged in East Africa in the past three years. In order to open up sales in the European market, they dare to adopt new technologies, new processes, and new ideas.
Today, although the European war has not yet started, many people have realized that this is an opportunity that cannot be missed. Therefore, in 1914, many East African businessmen went to Europe to open up markets.
This is actually related to the overheating of the domestic economy in East Africa. Today's booming East African market has made people superstitious about getting returns from investment. A large number of companies have appeared throughout East Africa, engaged in various types of production activities.
And this will inevitably lead to a large-scale overproduction of industrial production in East Africa, so East Africa naturally needs to find a way out to sell goods, especially those private enterprises. In overseas markets, Europe has the highest consumption level, and it is only a few kilometers away from East Africa. It's relatively recent, so many private companies in East Africa have started to go abroad.
As a country of immigrants, East Africa has deep cultural roots with Europe, so it is relatively convenient to go abroad, especially to the German and Slavic regions.
In this case, a large number of East African merchants appeared in various European countries, and they tried to sell East African industrial products to all parts of Europe. This was also the first time that Europe had come into contact with so many East Africans so far.
Previously, East Africa implemented a closed-door policy. Except for international students and public officials, it was almost difficult to see East Africans in Europe. But now there are many East African faces in European countries. As a mixed race, East Africans are relatively easy to identify.
This can also easily arouse Europeans' curiosity about East African countries, and through these cultural disseminators who bring their own dry food, Europeans can correctly understand the situation of East African countries for the first time, but by this time it is already too late, after all Europe is only one step away from the quagmire of war, and Europe will have no time to take care of itself.
(End of this chapter)