Chapter 1060 Active Foreign Policy

Such a tug-of-war will definitely not produce results in a short period of time, but East Africa's approach has allowed Tsarist Russia to take advantage of it. There is no other way, after all, there is Britain between East Africa and Tsarist Russia.

Tsarist Russia is definitely unwilling to compromise with Britain. Without the disastrous defeat in the Russo-Japanese War, Russia would never willingly give in to Britain.

However, the emergence of East Africa has given Russia a chance to breathe. Now in the Middle East and Central Asia, as long as Russia can digest its own sphere of influence in the north, and then wait for East Africa to compete with Britain, the Russian government also believes that its national strength can be restored to a certain extent during this period.

"Don't be too anxious about our activities in the Middle East and Central Asia. After all, this place does not belong to our sphere of influence. The role of a temporary intervention is mainly to pave the way for the future." Ernst said to officials from the intelligence and diplomatic departments.

Britain has accumulated advantages in the Middle East and Central Asia for hundreds of years. Under normal circumstances, as long as there is no direct war, it is almost impossible for East Africa to eliminate Britain's influence.

"The layout of the Middle East and Central Asia is a long-term work. Our goal is to build our own advantages little by little. When something unexpected happens to Britain, we can take over Britain's influence in the region."

...

Far East Empire.

As the power struggle within the ancient empire becomes increasingly severe, East Africa has to make corresponding changes to ensure its interests in the Far East Empire.

Abetz, the East African Consulate General in Jiaozhou, said: "Today, the politics in the Far East are becoming more and more complicated. In order to ensure our interests under political turmoil, we must support relevant political forces, especially the local forces that cooperate with us in the Huaihai Economic Zone, and increase their voice."

The arrival of the 20th century further accelerated the decline of the power of the central government of the Far East Empire. In this political change, it is easy for other forces to take advantage of it. The first country that East Africa should guard against is Japan.

With the little friction between Britain and East Africa in the Middle East and Central Asia, Japan, the vanguard of Britain, was once again pulled out by Britain to find trouble for East Africa.

This is more attractive to Japan. If it can replace East Africa, it will greatly alleviate the current economic pressure on Japan.

Of course, the Japanese will not easily take the cake drawn by the British. After the loss of the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's situation is not much better than Russia, and as Russia retreats, Japan can play a greater role in Northeast Asia.

Moreover, it is not something Japan can consider completely offending East Africa. Even if the Japanese navy has an advantage over the current East African navy, as long as Japan still wants to do business with Europe, East Africa will have a way to cause trouble for Japan. Of course, the price may be that East Africa is also squeezed out of the Far East.

Therefore, both Japan and East Africa have concerns. Japan cannot be easily pulled out by Britain as a strong man, and Japan can also see the conflict between East Africa and Britain. In Japan's view, if Britain and East Africa can lose both, then the only one who can compete with Japan in the Far East Empire is the United States.

Therefore, East Africa must always be vigilant against Japan. Consul General Abetz said to his subordinates: "Especially for the forces related to Japan in Jiaozhou and the region, we must strictly monitor them. If they are confirmed to be involved with Japan, we must strictly crack down on them to prevent Japan from infiltrating the Huaihai Economic Zone in various forms."

Handling with Japan for many years has enabled East African intelligence agencies to gain a lot of practical experience, and the more they fight with Japan, the more East African security departments understand Japan's methods.

This has been reflected in the Russo-Japanese War. Japan is far stronger than Russia in intelligence work. Through business personnel, various forms of associations, and diplomatic personnel, Japan has woven an effective intelligence network in Northeast Asia, which has laid an information foundation for defeating Russia. Therefore, East Africa must naturally guard against Japan doing so in the Huaihai Economic Zone.

And East Africa is not like Russia. Russia has strong military strength in the Far East Empire. Even if it retreats to the north, it still has a chance to make a comeback, while the Huaihai Economic Zone in East Africa can only be regarded as a semi-economic colony.

There is no way around it. As a semi-industrial country, East Africa is inherently in an advantageous position in trade with the Far Eastern Empire. As long as the two sides trade, East Africa will definitely take advantage. Moreover, if the Far Eastern Empire wants to develop, it cannot get away from this form of trade.

The semi-economic colony also makes East Africa's control over the Huaihai Economic Zone quite weak, which also makes East Africa only able to ensure its potential sphere of influence by strengthening cooperation with local forces.

And this kind of local forces have a lot of initiative, for example, they can bypass and turn around to cooperate with British and Japanese capital in exchange for greater benefits, and for such blind forces, they are naturally the targets of severe crackdowns in East Africa, especially those that have contact with Japan, which are all strictly monitored by East Africa.

"At the same time, according to the order of the central government, as long as the upper legal government of the Far Eastern Empire still exists, our people should not interfere in the power struggle within the Far Eastern Empire." Abetz warned.

Even if the Qing government is finished, the North will not be divided into several local political factions like the South. After all, it is likely that the Beiyang government will take over the national power, even if it is only nominal, and East Africa's attitude is neutral.

1908 was clearly a turbulent year for East Africa. On the one hand, with the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the attention of countries around the world, especially Britain, began to shift to other regions, which naturally included East Africa. Britain would not miss any opportunity to dismantle East Africa.

On the other hand, with the development of industrialization in East Africa, the demand for overseas markets is increasing, which requires East Africa to start to pick up a more proactive foreign policy and pave the way for East Africa's industrial exports.

In this case, East Africa mainly focuses on the three major markets of Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Far East, while vigorously developing the South American market. As for West Africa, there are too many European countries, and they are not within the scope of consideration for the time being.

Therefore, in 1908, East Africa's foreign policy obviously turned to active, increasing its influence in many hot spots and consolidating its base.

In the global market, the Central and Eastern European and Far Eastern markets are the most important to East Africa, so they cannot be lost. The Middle East and Central Asia and South America markets are in the development stage, which is also a manifestation of East Africa's expansion of its own trade scope.

The intuitive manifestation is that the export volume of East African industrial products has increased, and around East Africa as the core, it has conquered cities and territories in the global market, further intensifying the competitive pressure on the economies of countries around the world.

At the same time, East Africa's diplomatic activities have become more frequent, especially in South America and the Middle East, directly talking to the local countries and regions The high-level government has reached relevant cooperation.

Of course, as a great power, East Africa will also use intimidation and threats, but because of its limited naval capabilities, it can only play a certain role on the neighboring countries of East Africa for the time being.

So compared with other great powers, East Africa is relatively friendly, which is not an exception in the world, such as the situation of the United States and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The common point of the three countries is that they cannot effectively exert their influence on countries outside the region due to the rules of the game and the international system formulated by Britain and France.

Unlike Germany and Russia, the military strength of the two countries is recognized to be relatively strong, so they have a higher voice in the international community, while the military strength of other countries, especially East Africa, is most likely to be questioned.

Of course, the military strength here refers more to the judgment of various countries on their combat effectiveness. At least European countries tend to belittle the armies of countries outside Europe. For example, the military strength of the United States is easily overlooked, even when the US Navy is relatively strong.

At present, the naval strength of East Africa cannot be compared with that of the top countries. Although East Africa has the second largest number of dreadnoughts in the world after Britain, the gap in other warships is too big. Two dreadnoughts and one quasi-dreadnought cannot offset this gap for the time being.