Chapter 932 French and Spanish Ambassadors

Hans Leiden's idea was first reported to the Hanseatic Provincial Government in New Hamburg, then to the central government, and finally reached Ernst's hands.

Sweet, who had already served as the director of the National Planning and Economic Commission, reported the plans of the Maputo Municipal Government to Ernst and asked: "Your Highness, what attitude should we take towards this matter in Maputo?"

Ernst: “This matter is indeed very controversial. However, although Hans Layton’s idea does not conform to the understanding of most people in the East African environment, in my opinion it is a good thing. It is very meaningful to give full play to the initiative of local governments on the basis of government plans.”

After pondering for a while, Ernst said: "We will not deal with this matter for the time being. We will look at the effect first. When Hans Layton's term is up, we will look at the specific effect. If the effect is good, we will expand the scope. , practiced throughout the Hanseatic provinces,”

Thinking nodded and said: "I understand, His Highness means to use Maputo City as an experimental field."

"Yes, we have our own national conditions in East Africa. East Africa is a complex country, and its economic structure is different from that of most countries in the world. Therefore, if we want stable and sustainable development, we must continue to trial and error, and then correct our mistakes." Regarding institutional issues, no country’s system is perfect in the current environment. What we need is to grasp the balance according to the times.”

Ernst said these words not only to Sweet, but also to himself. As the actual ruler of East Africa, the monarchy is impossible for the Hechingen royal family to give up, but it is impossible for East Africa to completely follow the autocratic monarchy system. To govern the country, the royal family will inevitably be liquidated in the future, so balancing the balance between the royal family and the East African system is also an important goal of Ernst.

The world is either black or white, but no one can tell clearly what is black and white. It can only be said that there is white in black, and black in white. Only by mastering the elite of the "mushy mud" can the East African royal family survive.

In fact, what Ernst was thinking about was the ideological issue of East Africa's future. This ideology cannot be extreme. After all, in their view, the monarch is dispensable. In this case, it is better to muddy the water, so that it will be difficult for everyone to Inseparable.

…

February 17, 1898.

While East Africa is busy with its economic transformation, the world situation is not calm. The East African government, which originally thought that it would not have any major interactions with Spain after the purchase of Mindanao, was unexpectedly dragged into the vortex by France today.

"The Ambassador of France to East Africa, Gleide, and the Ambassador of Spain to East Africa, William, have requested a meeting with His Highness."

If it were just the French, then Ernst didn't know what France's plans were for coming here this time, but with the Spanish and this delicate timing, Ernst already had a plan in mind.

"Let them wait in the living room for a while!" Ernst ordered.

Prior to Ernst's arrival, Glade and William were communicating.

"Ambassador William, this time the Americans obviously deliberately created a dispute. We are definitely on your side regarding your country's experience. However, among the major powers in the world, we are the only ones in France who cannot influence the attitude of the US government. Several other countries are also relatively ambiguous, so we must win over allies as much as possible so that Spain will not fall into a passive situation. "

William deeply believed in what Glade said. He complimented: "France has always been our best partner in Spain. We support France in the European order, but the attitude of the East African government..."

Glad said: "Don't worry about this. As a monarchy, as long as we convince the Hechingen royal family, it won't be a problem."

In fact, William also understood this. Although Spain is also a monarchy, the Spanish royal family obviously does not have as much power as the Hechingen royal family. Moreover, what he is most worried about is not actually the relationship between Spain and East Africa, but the fact that the French are acting as spokespersons. The customer is unreliable.

After all, I don’t usually see how good the relationship between France and East Africa is, and the Hechingen royal family belongs to a branch of the Hohenzollern family. The relationship between the German royal family and the Hechingen royal family...

Of course, even if he thinks so in his heart, William will not say it out loud, because Spain is really desperate this time, and the only one who can help Spain tide over the difficulties is France.

This is actually easy to understand. The current world situation is actually dominated by several great powers. When Japan has not yet matured, there is no doubt that the great powers in the world at this stage are Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Austria. There are eight countries in the United States, West and East Africa, and these eight countries basically dominate the changes in the international situation. As for Italy and Portugal in their previous lives, they have been completely eliminated.

As a big country, East Africa has become one of the great powers that can dominate the world. In fact, it was also affected by the South African War. After the South African War, East Africa's international status rose rapidly. In fact, under the praise of the British, East Africa is currently Its military strength is even higher than that of "Spain" and "Austro-Hungary".

As for Spain, which has become the goalkeeper of the great powers, there is no dispute about this. After all, they cannot achieve the same strong record as East Africa in the South African War. Not to mention the United Kingdom, Portugal alone, a country that has been kicked out of the ranks of great powers, is not It's easy to deal with. As a neighbor of the Iberian Peninsula, Spain understands Portugal better.

In fact, if East Africa had not appeared, Portugal would not have ended in disgrace. East Africa stepped on Portugal to get to the top, and now Spain is also facing the same situation, that is, the Americans also want to step on Spain to get to the top.

However, facing the aggressiveness of the United States, Spain lacks confidence. After the development of the United States Navy in recent years, it has surpassed the Spanish Navy.

Although the two are not much different in size, Spanish weapons are outdated, and the performance of many warships is no longer enough to compete with the rising star of the United States Navy.

Of course, it is not impossible for the weak to defeat the strong, just like the Austro-Hungarian Navy was in this situation during the Battle of Lissa, but it turned the tables by relying on the quality of its personnel.

Spain naturally does not have such ambitions. They only hope that their country can achieve the record of the East African Navy and the British Royal Navy in the Battle of South Africa.

Of course, this does not represent the position of most people in Spain, because Spain does not want to go to war with the United States now. In fact, the United States has been the aggressive party for decades, provoking Spain and hoping to squeeze Spanish power out of the Caribbean.

Or because of the location problem, just like the South African War, why does East Africa have the confidence to go to war with two powers at the same time? The main reason is that the location of East Africa is destined to make the two countries unable to deal with East Africa with all their strength.

The United States has the same calculation. The Spanish cannot possibly defeat themselves at the "doorstep of the United States". If a war breaks out between the two, the advantage will be on the United States' side from the beginning.

The Spanish government also knows this, so they are afraid of war, which leads to the Spanish government's greater hope that the international community will mediate the conflict between the two countries.

Now the Spanish government has only won over one supporter, that is, the French government, but no matter how powerful the French government is, it is impossible to directly intervene in the conflict between the United States and Spain. After all, the United States does not seem to be easy to mess with.

Of course, it would be best if the United States and Spain could avoid going to war because of this, so the French government needs to increase its bargaining chips, but after testing the attitudes of various countries in Europe, the situation is very delicate. In this case, France has turned its attention to the major powers outside Europe, and the only major powers outside Europe are East Africa and the United States.