African Entrepreneurship Record-Chapter 726 - 30: Fearless in Battle
For the matter of war mentioned by Edllis, Wells was not surprised, even thinking it was only natural, related to the long-term low-intensity wars in East Africa.
East Africa has been at war for nearly a decade, and the new generation like Wells has almost grown up amidst the annual wars in East Africa, even the villages in East Africa often had conflicts with tribes and beasts in the past.
But for Mary, this German felt uneasy about it!
"Wells, does East Africa often go to war too?"
Germans actually have a strong awe of war, especially for German civilians, every war in Europe is extremely brutal because there is not much difference between the warring parties, so they can only consume each other with large numbers of cannon fodder.
As for the prevailing militarism, it was actually forced, not developing the military would only mean getting beaten up, the various German states understood this most profoundly, Germany is essentially the Central Plains of Europe, a natural battlefield for various forces, if Germans didn't fight for themselves, they couldn't escape being attacked by others, so it would be better to unite and actively attack others.
"Hehe, Mary, don't worry, wars in Africa are not as brutal as those in Europe because the opponents in East Africa are not strong. We in East Africa often fought against the natives before, and this is not something surprising."
The wolf does not fear the flock, which is the current state of development in East Africa. Previously, the strongest military power in Africa was Egypt. East Africa reined in a bit, but now East Africa has firmly secured its position as the number one military power in Africa, so it should be the surrounding forces fearing East Africa instead.
Edllis chimed in: "War is not unfamiliar to East Africans, but in most cases it is we in East Africa invading other countries and tribes. Be it in terms of population, military power, or economic and political strength, East Africa holds an overwhelming advantage over its neighbors."
"Moreover, in recent years, the development of the East African navy and army has been more rapid than before, and there is no technological gap in weapons and equipment with Europe, with its own armament factories, so wars will not have much impact on civilians."
Mary didn't believe a word they said because her living environment from childhood painted war as terrifying. After all, before the unification of Germany, most of the German states were on the receiving end.
Similarly, besides the descriptions of war, the descriptions of Africa follow suit. Although the African continent under East African rule has changed greatly, Europe's stereotypes of Africa have never changed.
Previously, Mary was not very willing to leave Germany, but her husband was from East Africa, so they could only move to East Africa as a family. Fortunately, East Africa was not the barren land as described by Europe.
This is also understandable, although East Africa actively promotes itself, wooing immigrants, it instead hampers positive public opinion about East Africa in the German region.
Because most who believed in the advantages of East Africa had already immigrated, they couldn't form a ripple effect, after all, East Africa is quite far from Europe, and there are more disparagements than praises, ordinary people cannot deeply appreciate East Africa's development without leaving Europe.
This is analogous to how in a previous life the Western World had a natural "filter" for other regions of the world. Europe is the center of civilization, this is politically correct, even the US, which has a history of a hundred years, isn't seen favorably in European public opinion, let alone East Africa with just a few decades of history.
"Don't worry about the war, the place you're going, Bulawayo, is actually in the deep rear of East Africa. Even if fighting becomes unfavorable, it won't have much impact there. From another perspective, one province of East Africa is equivalent in size to one country in Europe, these provinces serve as natural buffer zones." Edllis said,
Bulawayo city is in the western part of Matebel Province, quite far from the border, though it's not as safe as Edllis describes.
But East Africa has a geographical advantage, as Matebel Province is seated on a separate plateau terrain, the southern side is divided by the Limpopo River and the South African plateau, the east stands elevated facing Mozambique.
The Mozambique Plain is one of the few true plains in Africa, and this is Mozambique's biggest disadvantage, as the highlands naturally have a military suppression advantage over the plains.
Besides, the area on the Mozambique border with East Africa is underdeveloped, mostly rainforests and swamps, with very poor transportation, only north-south routes are relatively convenient, this is also the reason for Mozambique's narrow and long distribution in previous life times.
The southern South African plateau does indeed have better accessibility but is inland, whereas in these African countries except East Africa, transportation generally is terrible.
After all, other colonies, including Portuguese colonies in Africa with a colonial history of hundreds of years, had no concept of construction, among many colonies in the world, probably only the British had reached a high level of construction in India, and East Africa had already moved beyond the colonial category, so construction of the state is naturally a serious matter.
"However, with years of war, the national territory of East Africa has probably expanded to its limit. If war breaks out again, our opponents should no longer be the natives, right?" Wells thought of a critical issue.
"Most likely the Portuguese, but Portuguese military strength is not impressive in Europe, even we in East Africa have made them cede territory and pay indemnities, so I suppose at best the Portuguese might rank a notch above the natives in the eyes of East Africa." Edllis said.
"Of course, it could also be the Transvaal people, as there exists the greatest hostility between East Africa and Transvaal."
Edllis never considered Britain. Although the relationship between Britain and East Africa is not very good, there probably isn't any deep-seated hatred, even if there is a threat, the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff should have contingency plans.
Mary: "I thought leaving Germany would mean no more wars, but I didn't expect other places in the world to be like this."
"The difference is significant, wars on the Eurasian continent are normal war configurations, while the intensity of wars in other regions cannot compare to Europe, take East Africa for instance, unless East Africa experiences a civil war akin to America's North-South war, any form of war would be a local conflict for East Africa."
East Africa has not experienced the kind of situation where enemies come from all directions as Germany did. It might be difficult to encounter this even in the future as East Africa does not have many neighbors and those it does have are not strong.
Of course, if the British manage to rally France and other European countries to form an intervention army against East Africa, it's another story, but the likelihood of such a situation is practically zero, and it can be said with certainty that Germany and Austria-Hungary would definitely oppose it, while other countries would likely remain ambiguous, this is the benefit of being a big country.
Of course, being a big power is not always advantageous, as the Ottoman Empire and the Far East empire must feel the most, it triggers more suppression from other countries due to their threats.
Just like Europeans couldn't imagine in Ernst's previous life timeline, Americans ruled Europe across the Atlantic Ocean, so-called centers of civilization first became pawns between the US and Soviet Union, ultimately reduced to puppets of America.
However, the US appears unlike a true gentleman ruler, post successfully establishing their global hegemony, their positive image is far inferior to the negative one, as "leaders" of the world, they should set an example and lead other nations towards development.
But in terms of domestic construction, the US has made no achievements, becoming a breeding ground for issues like "guns", "drugs", "race", "homelessness", "gender"… various international community problems.
As for the merits of America, they can't be denied, of course, but their international order and achievements were basically products of the Cold War to compete with the Soviet Union, and after the death of the Soviet Union, America rapidly decayed.
If a nation lacks internal strength and wisdom, and no rival exists externally, its downfall is inevitable.
