Chapter 1086: France as the bottom line

The details of the game with the British government must naturally be handed over to a professional team. Ernst cannot reach a deal with the UK based on his personal likes and dislikes. Moreover, the East African economy is involved, and the reshaping of the diplomatic circle must be cautious.

Of course, British Ambassador Russell also thought so. Although he promised Ernst some general conditions, the final decision was still made by the London government, and he also had to prepare for the next negotiations.

The two people with their own ulterior motives ended the meeting in a hurry. Ernst convened a meeting of government officials, and Russell also had to go back to report to London.

…

In the meeting room.

Ernst communicated the details of his conversation with Russell with government officials.

"This time the British government does want to exchange some interests with us. What do you think of the British government's proposal?" Ernst asked.

Siwei Te was the first to speak: "Britain's demands are nothing more than restricting the expansion of our navy. From this point, it can be seen that Britain is now facing tremendous pressure in the navy. However, we certainly cannot restrict the development of our navy. After all, when other countries in the world are engaged in naval competition, we go against the trend. The final result will inevitably lead to our country being at a disadvantage in international competition."

Military power is the foundation of East African independence, and the East African navy has experienced a long period of suppression. There is a large gap between its scale and other world powers. Now it is far behind Britain, the United States, Germany, and France. Even Japan, a small East Asian country in the eyes of the East African government, is suppressing East Africa in the navy. This is obviously unacceptable to East Africa.

Although the Austro-Hungarian Navy even ranks behind East Africa, the navy is only more than 200,000 tons, only about half of East Africa, and ranks seventh in the world, but the Austro-Hungarian Navy is positioned as a regional navy, and it cannot even go out of the Adriatic Sea.

East Africa is not a small natural ocean country like the Austro-Hungarian Empire. East Africa has a long coastline and a vast territorial waters area that needs to be guarded by the navy. At the same time, East Africa's external trade also relies on the ocean, which is completely different from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Although the ocean is very important for the Austro-Hungarian Empire's foreign trade, it is not too dependent on it, because the Austro-Hungarian Empire is located in the inland center of Europe. In the Austro-Hungarian Empire's foreign trade, the Central and Eastern European market is the main market, followed by the Italian Peninsula and the Ottoman Empire, which can all be achieved through land.

Although East Africa also borders many countries and colonies, the economic conditions of these countries and colonies are difficult to describe. The only ones worthy of East Africa are the Abyssinian Empire and Egypt.

Moreover, although Egypt has a good size, it belongs to the British sphere of influence, and because the land route is blocked by the Sahara Desert, the trade between East Africa and Egypt is mainly completed through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean route.

In other words, if all the colonies and countries around East Africa are put together, the market size is less than 20 million, not to mention that those colonies are economically controlled by their sovereign countries.

In this way, the bulk of East Africa's foreign trade will be implemented outside the African continent, and a strong naval force is bound to be needed to safeguard East Africa's interests.

In this regard, Ernst explained: "Building a strong navy has always been an important goal of our country, and this naval force must be able to deter other countries. Of course, we have not yet considered it in one step. In this case, there is also room for flexibility in the size of our navy, and this flexibility is our bargaining chip in negotiations with the UK."

The flexibility of the East African Navy is indeed relatively large. Although Ernst told Russell before that he had no intention of competing with the British Royal Navy for the world's first position, assuming that the total tonnage of the British Royal Navy is 2 million tons and the East African Navy is 1.99 million tons, then the British Royal Navy is still the world's first, but is this what the British want!

Of course, this is a bit exaggerated. There is definitely no country, including East Africa itself, that East Africa will build a navy according to this idea, but whether it wants to and whether it has the ability to do it are two different things.

From an economic perspective, the United States and Germany can certainly do it. As the world's number one economic power, the United States can theoretically build a powerful naval force that exceeds the Royal Navy. Although Germany is not as economically advanced as the United States, its industrial strength is sufficient to support Germany to do so.

Merke: "I think if our navy wants to ensure our economic interests, the overall strength should at least reach the level of France. The total tonnage of the French navy is more than 800,000 tons, and the United States and Germany are about the same level, so 800,000 tons is our bottom line."

Bruce, the current commander-in-chief of the navy, retorted: "It is far from enough. 800,000 tons is just the standard of the current world's naval powers. If it does not exceed 800,000 tons, it is embarrassing to say that it is a world naval power. Moreover, 800,000 tons is far from the upper limit of the navies of the United States, Germany and France. These countries are actively expanding their armaments. In a few years, more than one country in the world will have a navy exceeding the level of one million tons. Therefore, conservatively estimated, the goal of our navy should at least exceed one million tons."

In the context of naval military competition, the current naval strength of various countries is far from reaching the upper limit. In this way, East Africa cannot use the current standards to measure the development of the navies of other countries in the world.

Bruce went on to say: "And as a two-ocean country, East Africa actually has much more power than that. In addition to the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, East Africa also has huge interests in the Pacific Ocean. So from a realistic perspective, our navy should have been above the German and French navies, so the current tonnage of the navy is far from enough, even if it reaches the level of France and Germany."

In fact, Bruce underestimated France. To discuss the world's naval power, France definitely plays an important role. To some extent, the French Navy is the executive force second only to the United Kingdom in the current world navy.

As the world's second largest colonial power after the United Kingdom, the French Navy is responsible for areas second only to the United Kingdom, such as the Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, the South American waters, the West African waters, the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, the Far East, the waters east of Madagascar, the South China Sea, and even India. There are French colonies.

So according to France's actual needs, France should theoretically be equipped with the world's second most powerful navy, but this cost is unaffordable for France's economic situation.

Take Germany for example. Although Germany has acquired some overseas colonies in recent years, most of them can be ignored. Even if they are considerable in area, most of them are located in corners that no one cares about. For example, some of Germany's colonies in the Pacific can be easily controlled by Australia, a prisoner exile place.

As for Germany's high seas fleet, its capabilities have always been compressed by Britain in the Baltic Sea. However, if it only wants to play a role in the Baltic Sea, then Germany naturally does not need the existence of a high seas fleet that is useless.

However, Germany has built a stronger navy than France with its strong industrial strength, and has posed a huge threat to Britain, so the navy does not simply consider the needs of its own navy.

Take the current East African economy as an example. The economic size of East Africa ranks fourth in the world, after the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. When discussing industrial strength, East Africa is only second to the United States and Germany, ranking third in the world. Considering East Africa's demand for the navy, economic conditions, and industrial capacity, the size of the East African navy should be ranked second to fourth.

Siwei Te said: "So from the perspective of economy and demand, our navy should at least not be weaker than France in theory. We should use the French navy as a reference to formulate a basic strategy suitable for the development of our navy."

Why France was chosen as a reference? In fact, it is because the French navy can be seen as the bottom line of the navies of the current world powers.