Chapter 1288 Meeting between East and France
Of course, although East Africa still remains neutral, it is not polite when faced with the bait thrown out by Britain and France. It will consider swallowing whatever it can.
Two days later.
"Ambassador Thomson, we in East Africa have always been a peace-loving country. At this stage, we have no consideration of participating in the European war." East African Foreign Minister Freer said with a serious face.
However, Ambassador Thomson still did not dare to take it lightly. Freer said the words "current stage" in his words.
While Thomson secretly scolded the East Africans for being cunning, he pretended to have a smile on his face and said to Freer with a hint of compliment: "Your Excellency Freer, we in France have always known that East Africa is a country that protects the world and the region. A stable country that has made important contributions to world peace and development.”
"In addition, the two countries have a long history and have always maintained friendly relations. Therefore, we in France also support your country in playing a more important role in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic in the future, thereby promoting world peace and stable development."
There was not a word of truth in his mouth. East Africa has a history of nearly 60 years, and it has almost never stopped in these short 60 years. East Africa can be said to be the biggest destroyer of regional stability. Otherwise, East Africa has tens of millions of square meters. Kilometers of land and colonies cannot be picked up by going out.
But the situation is stronger than the people. In order to win over East Africa, Thomson even lost his face. Anyway, as a diplomat, telling lies with open eyes is a basic skill.
Freer said with a smile: "There, there, compared with your country, we in East Africa are just a junior. Your country has a decisive influence in the world, and its colonies are spread all over the world."
"Although we in East Africa are also a world power, we are far behind France in terms of overseas territories. Both Algeria and Indochina are fertile lands."
"Up to now, our colonies in East Africa have only existed in name only. They have been suffering losses and have been unable to make profits."
"So, where we in East Africa have the ability to further promote our influence in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, we are still far behind compared to your country."
In the face of Freer's hypocrisy and subterfuge, Thomson didn't believe a word he said. These "miscellaneous" Germans didn't know whether they were influenced by the Far Eastern Empire, and they liked to engage in this kind of superficially modest talk.
The colonies of East Africans are indeed not wealthy places, but East Africa's overseas colonies are so large!
France has worked hard for hundreds of years, and all its overseas territories add up to only 8 million square kilometers. However, East Africa, which has only a few decades of history, currently has a combined overseas territory of nearly 2 million square kilometers.
At first glance, it seems that there is a big gap between East Africa and France, but if you include the two countries, the situation is completely different.
The two provinces of Cameroon and Gabon, which were recently merged into East Africa, cover more than 600,000 square kilometers, which makes East Africa's mainland area exceed 13.6 million square kilometers.
These two new provinces alone are much larger in area than today's mainland France, which only has more than 500,000 square kilometers, and that does not include the Lorraine and Alsace regions in the previous life.
East Africa, a giant born in the 19th century, is enough to make France envious and jealous. Adding colonies, the area of East Africa is slightly smaller than Russia in its previous life.
Therefore, Ambassador Thomson is now extremely envious of the geographical conditions in East Africa. He has calculated in his mind that if France could take a step ahead of the Hohenzollerns and make drastic changes in Africa, it would probably be no different from the UK now.
Of course, from a practical perspective, France has made considerable efforts in Africa, ranking second only to East Africa in the world. According to normal history, Britain and France carved up Africa, and Belgium and other small countries also drank the soup.
In this time and space, the British were unfortunate. Their African strategy in the previous life conflicted with the expansion of East Africa. This instead allowed France, which focused its energy on West and North Africa, to take advantage.
France's previous overseas colonies before World War I were approximately more than 10 million square kilometers, most of which were concentrated in French West Africa (including North Africa and West Africa).
In this life, the area of France's overseas colonies is only about 8 million square kilometers. One of the important factors is the rise of East Africa, which caused France to lose territory in Madagascar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville and many other places in its previous life.
From this point of view, France seems to be a victim of East Africa. In fact, this is not the case. After all, France basically had little interaction with East Africa during its expansion in Africa.
Moreover, France's concentration on the development of French West Africa relative to Britain's gave France an advantage in its expansion into West and North Africa.
Although Britain also had its own colonial strategy in West Africa, due to previous competition with East Africa in southern Africa, Britain lost an important period of opportunity to support its colonies in West Africa.
After the South African War, when the British had to turn their attention to West Africa, the French had already taken the lead and gained a huge advantage in West Africa. Today, France's colonies in Africa cover an area of about 4 million square kilometers, making it the largest colony in Africa. The second largest force after East Africa.
From the French perspective, the emergence of East Africa actually gave Britain a hard time, which secretly made the French very happy.
There are only two colonies in East Africa obtained from the French, one is Gabon, but Gabon was the compensation given to Germany by the Germans and the French through the exchange of interests due to the conflict between the Germans and the French, and was finally sold to East Africa by the German government, so East Africa gained Gabon will not affect relations between France and East Africa.
Apart from this, the only territorial connection between France and East Africa in Africa was the island of Mayotte. At that time, the Second French Empire had just collapsed. Mayotte was a trophy obtained by the Prince of Hechingen in assisting Prussia in participating in the Franco-Prussian War.
If the French really want to settle these two accounts, they will definitely fall on the Germans in the end. In short, they have nothing to do with East Africa. French people like Ambassador Thomson are very clear about these historical issues. You know it, France can only curse the Germans a few more times.
Ambassador Thomson said: "Your Excellency Freer, you are too modest. No matter how the war in Europe develops, by the time the war is over, East Africa will become an emerging world power."
"We in France fully support East Africa's important role in the Indian Ocean, the South Atlantic, and even the Pacific. Your country has been able to shoulder the heavy responsibility of maintaining world peace after the war."
"Our two countries should also establish relations in advance to deal with competition and threats from other countries, especially countries that may cause obstacles and threats to your country's strategy."
There are only two countries that can pose strategic obstacles and threats to East Africa, and that is the United Kingdom and the United States. There is no doubt that the biggest obstacle to East Africa's desire to dominate the Indian Ocean is the British, and East Africa's potential competitors in the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans It's Americans.
As for France, France's energy is concentrated in three places, Europe, West Africa (including North Africa) and Indochina (Indochina).
Of these three places, only in West Africa, France may have some intersection with East Africa, but currently there is only one colony in East Africa, Togoland, in West Africa. At the same time, this colony only borders the French Upper Volta and the Dahomey colony. The east and west are rich. The colonies are all in the hands of the British, so the one who should be most nervous is Britain, not France.
As for Upper Volta, the border with East Africa is less than 200 kilometers away, and the environment is relatively poor. It is not a place worth coveting. The Dahomey colony is not unique to France. The Portuguese and British have a share. So there is no pressure on the French here.
(End of chapter)