Chapter 1055 East Africa to the North

At present, there are only three powerful countries in the Indian Ocean region, namely Britain, East Africa and the half-dead Ottoman Empire. Although Britain occupies a dominant position in the Indian Ocean, the British mainland is very far away from the Indian Ocean after all.

Moreover, the Suez Canal or Cape of Good Hope, which are controlled by Britain, are not very solid and are vulnerable to various threats.

If Tsarist Russia expands its territory to the coast of the Indian Ocean, it will be completely different. The territorial expansion of Tsarist Russia is different from that of Britain, because Tsarist Russia may really localize the newly occupied areas. Therefore, if Tsarist Russia becomes an Indian Ocean country, it will be extremely harmful to East Africa.

East Africa does not want a country that can compete with East Africa to appear around the Indian Ocean. Although Britain has great power in the Indian Ocean, they are all colonies and semi-colonies, and colonies can be dismantled by various means.

Take India for example. If East Africa wants, it can fully support anti-British forces in India and continue to torture Britain, but there is no need for East Africa to do so at this stage.

Russia is different. Russia's colonial methods are different from Britain's. This is reflected in Russia's Far East region. Russia has the ability to establish a stable regime there, rather than a region of indirect rule such as a colony.

Ernst went on to say: "Of course, our intervention in the Persian Gulf region will inevitably infringe on Britain's interests, but this is unavoidable, so the competition with Britain must be flexible."

East Africa cannot bypass Britain if it wants to intervene in the Middle East and Central Asia. The main reason is that Britain is too greedy. While East Africa is expanding its territory on the African continent, Britain has also woven a huge and complex network of forces in the Middle East and Central Asia.

This network is mainly distributed along the coast of the Indian Ocean, starting from Egypt in the east, including British Somaliland, Yemen, Oman, the Pirate Coast (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, and finally reaching India (including Pakistan).

Britain also has a great influence in the Ottoman Empire and Persia. In this way, the entire northern coast of the Indian Ocean is almost within the radiation range of Britain, so if East Africa wants to break the situation, it will inevitably snatch food from Britain.

"So we should start with Persia and the Ottoman Empire, at least give them the courage to reject Britain and Tsarist Russia, and make them the key to breaking the deadlock in the Middle East and Central Asia through military assistance to Persia and the Ottoman Empire."

As long as the two traditional Arab powers, Persia and the Ottoman Empire, are not easily controlled by Britain and Russia, the strategies of Britain and Russia will never be realized. As for whether supporting the two countries will have an adverse impact on East Africa, it is not impossible.

For example, if the Ottoman Empire is unexpectedly revived, it will indeed have a major impact on the world pattern, but East Africa does not care about this at this stage, because East Africa is originally at a disadvantage in the competition in the Middle East and Central Asia.

If the Ottoman Empire is revived, it is not entirely a bad thing for East Africa. Instead, it should be Tsarist Russia and European countries that should be more worried.

Moreover, the probability of the Ottoman Empire's revival is extremely low, mainly due to resource limitations. The development of industry requires water and population. Arab countries that have not become rich from oil are mostly poor and their population cannot increase. Food alone is a big problem. In the past, those Arab countries could achieve rapid population growth through oil trade, food imports, and seawater desalination, but this is unlikely at this stage.

Take Saudi Arabia in the past, for example. If there were no oil resources to support it, Saudi Arabia should not have a population of nearly 40 million. In fact, when Saudi Arabia became independent in the past, its population was only more than 4 million. In Ernst's view, if there was no oil, this would have been Saudi Arabia's limit.

After all, Saudi Arabia, which has developed desert agriculture by exchanging oil for advanced agricultural equipment, has barely reached 20% of its food self-sufficiency rate. Without oil, Saudi Arabia would not be able to bear the cost of desert agriculture. Saudi agriculture can be said to have been built with real money.

…

December 1907.

As East Africa decided to take action, the first to react was East Africa's diplomatic department. East Africa has long established diplomatic relations with Arab countries, especially in the Middle East and Central Asia.

Among them, Persia, the Ottoman Empire, Oman, and Egypt all have relatively frequent diplomatic and trade exchanges with East Africa.

East Africa sent three diplomatic missions to Oman, Persia, and the Ottoman Empire, three relatively opposing countries. Except for these three countries, other countries and regions basically obeyed the orders of Tsarist Russia or Britain and did not dare to easily disobey the two countries.

The arrival of the East African diplomatic mission was warmly welcomed by Persia and the Ottoman Empire. As for Oman, it was somewhat indecisive. The Omani government was relatively divided and the internal situation was complicated, especially the British were relatively strong. Of course, as a former Indian Ocean power, Oman’s internal anti-British forces were also very strong, especially traditional Arabs. In the previous life, it was this disagreement that led to Oman’s split into two countries around 1913.

Therefore, some forces in Oman are worth winning over in East Africa, and with the return of the Zanzibar people, the Zanzibar people have also formed a relatively strong political group in Oman, and they are naturally allies of East Africa.

This is quite ironic. East Africa was the culprit for the demise of the Zanzibar Sultanate, but the people of Zanzibar reached a reconciliation with East Africa and, with the support of East Africa, regained a certain voice in the Omani government.

In fact, the Zanzibar people can be understood as compradors supported by East Africa. Zanzibar was originally Omani territory, so it is reasonable for the Zanzibar people to return to Oman. Through cooperation with East Africa, the Zanzibar people have accumulated a lot of wealth. With their connections in Oman, it is not surprising that they return to the political center of Oman.

Compared with the more divided Oman, Persia and the Ottoman Empire are much more enthusiastic about East Africa. In a word, the two countries have suffered from Britain and Russia for a long time.

Of course, the Ottoman Empire has more troubles than Persia. Many European countries have unfriendly relations with the Ottoman Empire. The stronger ones are Britain, France, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. Although the Ottoman Empire needs Britain and France to check Russia, this does not mean that the Ottoman Empire likes Britain and France.

And some weak countries also have a "blood feud" with the Ottoman Empire, especially the countries in the Balkan Peninsula. They are ambitious and eager to replace it and restore the glory of the Eastern Roman Empire, such as Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, etc.

At the same time, the Ottoman Empire also had some religious competitors, such as Egypt, Persia, and other forces that pretended to obey but secretly wanted to split away at any time.

In short, the Ottoman Empire was in a very difficult situation due to internal and external troubles, and East Africa showed a relatively friendly attitude and strengthened relations with the Ottoman Empire, which was naturally very rare for the current Ottoman Empire.

As for Persia, it almost regarded East Africa as a savior. Although the Ottoman Empire was in a bad situation, its national strength could at least barely cope with foreign enemies, while Persia was a complete punching bag. It was sandwiched between Britain and Russia. It was not too much to say that it was beaten twice in three days, and it could not afford to offend either of them. Who could it go to for justice?

In fact, Persia was quite interested in East Africa. As a country on the coast of the Indian Ocean, Persia had long been familiar with East Africa, a world power that single-handedly challenged the British and Portuguese coalition forces in the South African War.

Persia once sent personnel to East Africa to find out the reasons for East Africa's strength, but unfortunately East Africa was not very interested in Persia at that time.

The situation is completely different now. East Africa's intervention in the Middle East and Central Asia is seen as a very favorable opportunity by Arab countries. After all, only when there are more external forces can they be sold at a high price and demonstrate their value to be won over.