Chapter 1104 Chapter 126 Blackmail

The second Moroccan crisis can also be called the Agadir crisis. Ernst is not familiar with this period of history, but it is still important to leave an impression on him.

In the next few days, the East African intelligence system in Europe continued to convey the dynamics of Germany and France under this round of crisis to East Africa.

"National sentiment is high in the public opinion of Germany and France, and there are signs that the troops of both sides are gathering on the front line. Germany and France may go to war!"

This is the news sent back the day after the outbreak of the Agadir crisis. This made the East African government, especially Ernst, feel a headache. In Ernst's heart, he did not want Europe to fight at this time.

Because at this stage, East Africa is not ready to deal with the European war. In fact, since the Second Five-Year Plan, Ernst has begun to prepare for the outbreak of the European war and adjusted some indicators of the development of the national defense industry and light industry at that time.

However, the Third Five-Year Plan is the beginning of Ernst's large-scale transformation of local industrial development in response to the outbreak of the European war.

In the East African government's vision, if a war breaks out in Europe within a few years, the local industry in East Africa will adapt to the European war state to carry out large-scale production activities to meet the order needs of European countries and quickly expand to the world market outside Europe.

However, the Third Five-Year Plan has just begun, and many East African companies have not yet completed their transformation work. If a full-scale war breaks out in Europe at this time, the benefits East Africa will eventually gain will be greatly reduced.

So for the sake of "peace and stability" in Europe, Ernst issued an order: "Send inquiries to the German and French governments, test the attitudes of the two governments, and try to persuade the two governments not to act rashly."

Germany and France will inevitably have a war, and East Africa also hopes that this war will break out and spread to the whole of Europe, but East Africa does not want a full-scale war in Europe to break out at this time. At least, it is what the East African government wants to see most after the basic adjustment of East African industry is completed.

Following Ernst's order, the East African Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded quickly and began to wander between the German and French governments.

At this time, in addition to the tension in East Africa, countries on the European continent also felt that the storm was coming, and Britain seemed to be at a loss in this round of diplomatic conflicts.

This can be reflected from the British public opinion level. When Germany and France criticized each other verbally and there were signs of fighting, British public opinion was rarely silent.

This is similar to the public opinion in East Africa. In addition to the tension at the government level, there is actually not much reaction from the public. After all, East Africa is far away from Europe. Even if a full-scale war really breaks out in Europe, it is insignificant to ordinary people in East Africa.

However, the silence of British public opinion is quite different. Although Britain is not in the European continent and faces the European continent across the sea, the distance is too close. The possibility of being affected by the changes in the European situation is quite high. Therefore, at this time, most countries cannot figure out what the British government is thinking.

On July 5, the German government finally made a clear response to East Africa, but the response of the German government made Ernst feel speechless.

Foreign Minister Freer reported to Ernst that "Germany's political behavior this time is mostly speculative. According to German officials, they tend to negotiate with France, so as to extort some overseas interests from France to make up for Germany's losses."

What is Germany's loss? To be clear, it is Morocco, which is now being promoted by Germany and involves German interests. Germany's words obviously do not intend to compete with the French government for the dominance of Morocco.

In fact, from a pragmatic point of view, Germany's actions in Morocco this time are somewhat unreasonable, because during the first Moroccan crisis, Germany had reached a temporary consensus with France, which was regarded as tacitly acknowledging France's interests in Morocco.

Moreover, France's colonial activities in Morocco were very early. As a North African region, Morocco and France are only separated by the Mediterranean Sea. France has always wanted to establish a large French mainland across the Mediterranean. Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and even Libya are within the scope of France's attack.

The trigger for the outbreak of the Agadir crisis this time was actually the outbreak of a crisis in Morocco and the uprising of the opposition, so Germany took this opportunity to provoke in Morocco.

Ernst asked: "What do the Germans want to do?"

Frielda said: "They want France's colony in Gabon as compensation for Germany in this incident, and hope that we can support them in the next negotiations between the two countries."

The Gabon colony can be said to be the last colony of France in the Central African region, and the French Gabon colony is very different from the original history.

Because of East Africa, Belgium occupied part of the land of Congo-Brazzaville and Gabon in the previous life, which led to the expansion of the French Gabon colony to the north.

The northern part of Gabon is Germany's Cameroon colony, so the current Gabon colony actually includes most of Gabon in the previous life and southern Cameroon.

Germany obviously wants to obtain the French Gabon colony through Morocco as a negotiation condition. Generally speaking, Morocco is a French colony and is regarded by France as one of the core interests of French African colonization.

Germany's current behavior is equivalent to directly picking up the "dishes" on the French table, and asking France to pay for the meal ordered by Germany, which is eating and taking.

Ernst can imagine how aggrieved France will feel if it agrees to Germany's request. In fact, Germany finally achieved this goal in the previous life, but France endured it.

However, the status of French Gabon today is not comparable to that of the past. You should know that French Gabon was a dispensable existence in the French colonies in the past.

After all, without Gabon, France still has French Congo, but now Congo-Brazzaville is the territory of Belgium, so Gabon has become the only French colony in Central Africa.

Moreover, Gabon now borders East Africa, which can be said to have further improved Gabon's strategic position, because East Africa is not a bunch of fragmented African indigenous countries in the past, but one of the important powers in the world, so the value of the countries or land around East Africa has increased.

Take the Belgian Congo as an example. If it relies on Belgium alone, the Belgian Congo can't play any tricks, but because East Africa is on the side, the colonial government of the Belgian Congo can obtain a lot of fiscal revenue through trade with East Africa, including exporting iron ore, tin ore, potash ore, etc. to East Africa.

East Africa is equivalent to providing these colonies, countries and regions with a channel for rapid cash realization, which drives the value of the entire region to increase.

This is the case with the French Gabon colony. In the trade with East Africa, the economic status of the French Gabon colony in the French colonial system has also been improved, so it must be much more difficult for Germany to obtain Gabon as in the previous life.

Ernst said to Freer: "Germany is really causing us trouble, but if the German government can really obtain the Gabon colony, it may be a good thing for us, but our foreign policy determines that we cannot be overly inclined to Germany, so the Ministry of Foreign Affairs must flexibly play between the German and French governments to ensure our neutral status image."

East Africa certainly cannot listen to the German government's words, so playing the "neutrality" card of the United States is the best solution. If East Africa and the United States are inclined to either side, it is possible to suppress the contradictions between European countries and thus affect the situation of the European war.

For Ernst's request, Freer could only bite the bullet and agree, mainly because it was too much of a test of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In order to avoid problems, Freer had to personally keep an eye on the German and French diplomatic agencies in East Africa to prevent anyone from acting on impulse.

As a German country, East Africa's national sentiment is definitely biased towards Germany, which will inevitably affect some officials in East Africa. Freer wants to prevent them from acting on impulse. If East Africa is really defined as a certain camp, East Africa will suffer a great loss.

On July 9, Germany and the French government indeed started negotiations. The two countries began to argue about the Morocco issue, and Germany's request for Gabon was indeed rejected by France.

However, the two governments were obviously more restrained, or they were not ready for war. In this case, France had to hold its nose and negotiate with Germany.