Chapter 1522 - 46: European Consensus_2

Chapter 1522: Chapter 46: European Consensus_2

That’s over a million square kilometers, involving Central and West Africa, South Pacific, the Far East, and other regions, achievements of decades of overseas colonization since Germany’s unification, ultimately easily acquired by East Africa.

Clearly, East Africa doesn’t see it this way. From East Africa’s perspective, it was entirely a mutual and fair transaction. After all, if Germany hadn’t sold these colonies to East Africa, they would have only been taken over cheaply by countries like England and France.

But now that the war is over, Germany wants to reclaim these colonies, East Africa certainly will not agree.

This is one of the major disagreements between the two countries. For Germany, given the final results of World War I, what Germany gained wasn’t enough to offset what they lost, and the loss of these overseas colonies was particularly painful for Germany.

In terms of territory, post-war, Germany only gained 50,000 square kilometers of new land in Eastern Europe, which pales in comparison to the millions lost overseas, making it challenging to be reconciled.

On the economic front, not only is Germany not grateful to East Africa, but they complain that East Africa reaped too much wealth from Germany during World War I.

As Germany’s most important supplier during the war, the more East Africa profited, the more heartache it caused Germany after the war. Germany fought bitterly in Europe, paid a heavy price, yet with little effort, East Africa managed to deplete the wealth Germany had accumulated.

That’s not all; during World War I, East Africa also seized many of the overseas markets that Germany had painstakingly cultivated, such as arms and electrical equipment markets.

Although there were differences between East African and German weaponry, there were also many similarities, like rifles and artillery. Many of East Africa’s technologies originated from Germany and Austria.

However, during the war, Germany was engulfed in conflict, weapon exports halted, and countries that originally imported military supplies from Germany naturally sought alternatives. East Africa, with its numerous similarities to German equipment, was undoubtedly the best choice, allowing East Africa to inherit Germany’s pre-war carefully nurtured overseas arms market.

Once a country that previously equipped its forces with German products sees its equipment largely replaced with East African products, reverting back is evidently not easy.

In the international arms trade market, brand, quality, performance, and price are significant influencing factors. On these fronts, German military industries didn’t hold any significant advantage over those of East Africa; both are "German systems." Even though East African industrial levels aren’t as advanced as Germany’s, in the military industry, they’re relatively comparable.

German weapons might indeed have a quality advantage over East African ones, but it’s also a fact that East African weapons are cheaper than German ones.

On a political level, the range East Africa can influence is clearly broader than Germany’s, which is a crucial advantage for East Africa in seizing what used to be German overseas military markets.

Take, for example, the Far East Empire, a vast arms market in the early 20th century. Due to its weak military industry and frequent wars, it imported vast amounts of foreign military products annually.

Which country’s products to import clearly has to be considered from a political perspective, after all, many forces are backed by different countries.

The most typical examples are Russia and Japan, hostile neighbors. Being close to the Far East Empire, these countries can easily manipulate and interfere in its domestic affairs, thus obtaining many military orders.

In this era, Russian and Japanese military products were undoubtedly nothing to boast about among major powers and could even be described as "scrap," yet the fact that these countries could obtain numerous military orders in the Far East Empire explains a lot.

Reflecting on Germany and East Africa, East Africa clearly holds an advantage, with numerous colonies in the Far East and a navy stationed in the Pacific Region, influences Germany lacked.

The war lasted five full years; a large part of the German and Austrian overseas military market was completely taken over by East Africa, so it’s odd for Germany to hold any fond feelings for East Africa over this issue.

So, in the eyes of William II, Herman, and other Germans, East Africa is the "thief" in the international market, stealing what should have largely belonged to Germany.

However, despite their discontent with East Africa, Germany can only keep it to itself now. Germany’s attitude towards East Africa is quite conflicted for the moment.

William II said, "Although East Africans are annoying, right now our main enemy is still Russia. Reaching an agreement with the United Kingdom on the International League issue to unite all of Europe against Russia is indeed a good idea."

East Africa is a distant worry, and it shouldn’t even be an issue Germany has to consider. Germany can’t even get out of Europe right now, whereas England, France, and East Africa’s interplay over overseas interests are even deeper. It’s just that East Africa simply irritates Germany more, which is why William II and Herman have so much to say.

Herman said, "To deal with Russia, we must first stabilize the front line and look for opportunities to end this war, preventing other countries from reaping benefits in the background. After all, we cannot take down Russia now, and a war with Russia will only be disadvantageous for Germany."

"We need a period of peaceful development to heal the wounds of the war. After recovering the national economy, we can then consider military investments and the future direction of the country."