Chapter 1521 - 46: European Consensus

Chapter 1521: Chapter 46: European Consensus

Germany’s situation is extremely awkward. After its failure to challenge UK and France’s hegemony in WWI, Germany only nominally maintained and consolidated its position as the overlord of Europe.

Since the Franco-Prussian War, Germany has been the foremost military power on the European Continent. Although France emphasized its army as the top in Europe in pre-war propaganda, since the Franco-Prussian War, France has never once surpassed Germany militarily. In WWI, France’s army firmly secured the second position in Europe.

However, this did not change the circumstances of Germany, the current overlord of Europe. The idea of seizing the vast overseas colonies of the UK and France through war was thwarted.

Germany could only continue to cultivate its original market and sphere of influence, using it as a base for external expansion, focusing on two directions: Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

Yet, Germany’s expansion in these two directions was evidently not smooth. The Eastern Europe direction faced the Russian Labor Party-led current Russian regime, which still continued the fundamental policy from the Tsarist Russia era of expanding towards Europe.

Any relatively sensible Russian leader would know that Europe is Russia’s core, while the Far East, Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean regions are secondary.

It’s not that these regions are unimportant, but the returns from developing these areas were far less lucrative compared to Europe, and the costs were not low either.

A prime example is Nicholas II, whose eastward policy to change Russia’s declining situation ended up confronting the emerging power of Japan, gaining few benefits and rather losing face.

Then there was the previous Far East Empire which after recovering its national strength, majorly focused its expansion on the neighboring Southeast Asia, avoiding exhausting too much effort on Europe and other areas.

In the previous era, the Far East Empire’s investment in Asia accounted for over sixty percent, while Europe and North America each received only about ten percent, followed by Latin America and Africa, each around seven percent, with Oceania receiving the least, under three percent.

Thus, the expansion of spheres of influence generally extends from near to far, with European nations like the UK, France, Germany, and Russia fiercely battling over European hegemony.

The United States viewed the Americas as its backyard, and Japan concentrated on the Pacific region, especially East Asia.

Compared to these countries, East Africa seemed rather unique, as only recently it developed a common market in Southeast Africa to integrate resources on the African Continent.

This reflected to some extent the wavering nature of East Africa’s expansion policy. With interests in the Middle East, Nanyang, South America, and West Africa, East Africa’s power became dispersed.

However, overall, East Africa still viewed the Indian Ocean Coast countries and regions as its core sphere of influence.

This led to conflicts of interest with countries like Russia, the UK, Germany, and even the Austria-Hungary and Ottoman Empires, as other nations were reluctant for East Africa to control the Indian Ocean, considering its importance as a major artery for Eurasian trade during the maritime era.

Herman said to William II, "East Africa has already grown too powerful. Together with its geographical advantages, its threat to the world is no less than that of Russia."

"To the north, they have the potential to control the entire African Continent, creating an ’African Monroe Doctrine’. To the east, they could block communication and trade between Europe and the Far East by controlling the Indian Ocean."

"To the west, East Africa has already meddled in the Americas and clashed with the United States over interests. In the future, they might even continue moving north along the Atlantic, spreading their influence across the entire Atlantic Coast."

"If Russia could connect Europe and Asia by land, then East Africa is most likely the powerful force capable of splitting Eurasia by land and sea."

At this point, Herman couldn’t help but feel deep jealousy. Compared to Germany, East Africa’s geographical conditions were simply ’invincible’.

Geopolitically, East Africa could advance or retreat, and due to Africa’s unique location, they were more aggressive than the United States.

"Over the years, East Africa has capitalized on this geopolitical advantage to carry out expansion activities globally, establishing new colonies in Nanyang, the Middle East, the Far East, West Africa, and so on."

The reasons for East Africa’s advantages were that on three sides were soft targets. North of East Africa were North Africa and West Africa, which clearly posed no threat to East Africa.

To the east, in the Indian Ocean area, most were colonies and backward nations.

To the west, the strongest two South American countries, Brazil and Argentina, were too disparate compared to East Africa.

Looking at Germany, surrounded by no easy neighbors, this era’s Europe could entirely be described as a ’house of monsters.’

Herman couldn’t even imagine if Germany had East Africa’s geographical position, how advantageous that would be.

William II also gritted his teeth and said, "East Africa’s natural endowments truly provoke envy and hatred, and this is their confidence to maneuver with ease in WWI. The benefits Americans reaped are likely insignificant compared to East Africa."

Why Germany’s attitude toward East Africa is so harsh now is indeed rooted in two major factors: colonies and economic interests.

Before the war, East Africa ’seized the opportunity’ to grab Germany’s colonies. Although objectively, this deal before WWI was ’fair and just,’ the Germans certainly didn’t see it that way, considering themselves the disadvantaged side.