African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1562 Entering the Mediterranean

The Reichstag bombing quickly became a hot topic in Europe and the world. However, the reactions of different countries varied. The Soviet Union strongly condemned the German government, while most European countries, especially Britain and France, praised Adolf.

Contrary to popular belief, although Britain and France were wary of Germany, in reality, both countries adopted a policy of appeasement towards Germany.

In reality, as long as Germany does not disrupt the old international order maintained by Britain and France, or threaten their hegemony, Germany may well be seen as a good "ally" by Britain and France.

Adolf could easily launch a war to expand Germany's territory and market, since the Soviet Union was the closest and largest market to Germany, capable of satisfying Germany's appetite. Moreover, the Soviet Union was extremely rich in resources and had a vast territory, which could make up for Germany's resource shortage.

In other words, Britain and France supported Germany's military and expansion, but only under the premise that Germany and the Soviet Union were enemies.

Adolf's crackdown on the German Labour Party was seen as a positive factor by Britain and France.

Currently, capitalist countries in Europe have actually leaned towards extreme nationalist parties, thereby stifling the development of the European Labour Party and protecting their own interests.

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Compared to neighboring Germany, Adolf constantly purged his opponents and consolidated his power, and by early 1934, the Habsburg family's rule in the Austro-Hungarian Empire had been further weakened.

As the imperial order crumbled and deteriorated, the Habsburg family's determination to find a way out was further strengthened.

1934 2 Month 31 Day.

In Vienna, Emperor Rudolf quietly signed the Dubrovnik Port Lease Agreement with East Africa.

The signing of this agreement was overseen by Alfred, the new foreign minister of East Africa. At this moment, Rudolf and Alfred were talking at Schönbrunn Palace.

"Dubrovnik is one of Dalmatia's important ports. According to the agreement, the port will be operated by East Africa, and the East African Navy will be allowed to enter and build military facilities." Rudolf pointed to the southernmost city in Dalmatia and said, "I believe East Africa can use this to strengthen its influence in the Mediterranean, which is also a symbol of the traditional political friendship and mutual trust between the two countries."

Dubrovnik is the southernmost port in the entire Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is located near the southern Black Mountains and situated in a natural bay.

As for the importance mentioned by Emperor Rudolf, that is debatable. In Dalmatia, the most important ports for the Austro-Hungarian Empire were first Zadar, and then Splint.

Dubrovnik did indeed have a glorious history, even rivaling Venice, but that was hundreds of years ago. In 1667, a massive earthquake struck Dubrovnik, completely destroying the city. After that, Dubrovnik's economy rapidly declined, and it did not recover during the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

By the 19th century, Dubrovnik had become a city whose main attractions were health resorts and cultural sites, rather than an economic and military center.

In this day and age, health resorts and cultural sites are not very competitive, to put it bluntly. Dubrovnik is just living off its past glories.

Of course, in recent years, Dubrovnik's economy has improved to some extent, mainly due to the growth of Dalmatia's population and economy. A large number of Germans have poured into the area, giving this ancient city a renewed vitality.

However, Dubrovnik has missed its best opportunity for development, most notably the Mostar Railway project.

For the Kingdom of Dalmatia, one of the most important aspects of its economic development was providing commercial and trade transit services to the inland regions of the Balkans.

For Bosnia, Hungary, and Serbia in particular, Dalmatian ports are important outlets to the sea.

However, Dalmatia's terrain is dominated by mountains, which isolates it from the inland areas. Therefore, only a few gaps in the mountains can be used to build roads and railways to connect with the inland areas and expand its economic hinterland.

Dubrovnik also had the advantage of having a railway built between it and Sarajevo by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in its previous history.

However, influenced by East Africa, the Mostar Railway was built ahead of schedule, which directly promoted the rise of the port of Ploche. Ploche is only about 70 kilometers away from Dubrovnik. Since the railway was opened first, Dubrovnik naturally did not need to build it again.

This caused Dubrovnik to miss a golden opportunity for development, but it was an inevitable outcome.

The main reason East Africa chose Ploche as the starting point for the railway was to expedite the flow of pro-East African immigrants to Dalmatia and the Balkan interior.

At that time, behind Ploche was the largest and least developed river valley plain in southern Dalmatia, which is why East Africa was able to acquire land on a large scale, build immigrant farms, and allow the immigrant population to expand rapidly.

Dubrovnik lacks such conditions, not because the conditions in Dubrovnik's hinterland are worse than those in Ploche, but because it lacks rivers like the Neretva River for inland connectivity.

In conclusion, Dubrovnik was a bit unlucky. If East Africa had chosen Dubrovnik at the time, it would very likely have developed into one of the most economically developed cities in Dalmatia today.

However, East Africa was not very concerned about Dubrovnik's economic development, but rather valued its military function, which led to this contact with Austria-Hungary.

Minister Alfred first expressed his gratitude to Emperor Rudolf: "Your Majesty, thank you for your support of East Africa. The port of Dubrovnik is indeed of great importance to East Africa, especially in helping the Empire to safeguard its rights in the Adriatic and the Mediterranean."

East Africa has always lacked a strategic foothold in the Mediterranean, and now that Emperor Rudolf has taken the initiative to deliver the opportunity to East Africa, it has naturally done East Africa a great favor.

This means that the East African Navy now has its first stable military base in the Mediterranean, which is of great significance to East Africa.

Although Dubrovnik Port has many shortcomings, such as its geographical location not being particularly advantageous and its limited port conditions, which can only accommodate small and medium-sized military vessels, namely frigates and destroyers.

However, this is still much better than East Africa having no foothold in the Mediterranean region at all. East Africa has tried before, but unfortunately, the powers of the Mediterranean countries have not given it that opportunity.

In the Mediterranean, there are three most important key nodes: the Suez Canal exit, which is controlled by the British; the Strait of Gibraltar, where important ports on both sides are controlled by Britain and Spain, respectively; and finally, Istanbul, which controls shipping on the Black Sea and the Mediterranean, a position that East Africa cannot control.

The Suez Canal and Gibraltar are related to trade between East Africa and Europe, while Istanbul is related to trade between East Africa and the Soviet Union. However, these trade routes are not controlled by East Africa, which is an important reason why East Africa built the North African Railway.

For the time being, it is impossible to make arrangements for the three important trade nodes mentioned above. As for the secondary strategic locations in the Mediterranean, East Africa is also difficult to acquire. For example, Cyprus, Tunisia, Malta, etc. are basically controlled by British and French forces. In addition, Italy, the Ottoman Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also have some good places, but these countries are not weak countries that East Africa can easily control.

This has led to the situation where East Africa has long been unable to establish a stable naval foothold in the Mediterranean.

However, this is understandable. European countries are naturally quite afraid of East Africa, especially countries like Britain and France. If East Africa's influence were extended into the Mediterranean, then the hegemony of the Mediterranean would likely fall into East Africa's hands.

This is by no means an exaggeration. After all, given East Africa's formidable national strength, once it gains a foothold in the Mediterranean, no country can easily drive it out, and it may even directly damage its own interests in the Mediterranean.

For example, Britain, the current hegemon of the Mediterranean, is extremely wary of East Africa. Britain will do its utmost to thwart any attempt by East Africa to gain a stable military foothold in the Mediterranean.

For example, East Africa once contacted Greece in an attempt to lease the port on Crete to build a military base, but this was thwarted by Britain.

Therefore, if East Africa wanted to make a breakthrough in the Mediterranean, it could only turn to cooperating with countries that were not controlled by Britain and France. However, these countries were not pushovers. The main ones were the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, Italy, and Spain. They would not give in easily.

Take the Austro-Hungarian Empire as an example. Before 1934, no matter how much the Habsburg family declined, as the rulers of the empire, they would not easily lease their ports to East Africa.

After all, Austria-Hungary was a major world power with its own interests and dignity. If East Africa built military bases on its own territory, wouldn't Austria-Hungary lose face?

Now the situation has changed. The Habsburgs' rule in the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in jeopardy. At this point, the interests of the Habsburgs and the Austro-Hungarian Empire diverged. Clearly, family interests were more important than an uncontrolled Austro-Hungarian Empire.

At the same time, the Habsburgs were already preparing to withdraw from Europe and move to East Africa. As a result, the Habsburgs were more willing to curry favor with East Africa, thus paving the way for their future development.

The Dubrovnik deal arose against this backdrop, and it was proposed by Emperor Rudolf, the head of the Habsburg family.

Of course, even if it was "selling out the country," the Habsburg family couldn't go too far, which is why they chose Dubrovnik as a bargaining chip.

Geographically, Dubrovnik is the southernmost territory of the Empire, far from the core areas, and therefore not easily attracts attention.

Secondly, Dubrovnik was under the rule of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, which itself had support from East Africa, so the local people had no aversion to East Africa.

Finally, Dubrovnik's strategic position is not particularly prominent, and selling it to East Africa wouldn't attract much attention.

For important Austro-Hungarian naval bases like Zadar, Rijeka, and Puk, this would obviously not be possible.

However, East Africa did not actually attach much importance to these important naval ports of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. East Africa preferred to obtain ports in the Adriatic Sea that were closer to the Mediterranean Sea, and Dubrovnik, located at the southernmost point of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, met this requirement. In fact, it was more suitable for East Africa than other ports.

From this perspective, the ports on both sides of the Otranto Strait are what East Africa most desires to acquire, so that the East African Navy can operate more easily in the Mediterranean, protect East Africa's interests in the Mediterranean, and escort its own merchant ships.

However, the Strait of Otranto is bordered by Italy to the west and Albania to the east, neither of which were within the Austro-Hungarian Empire's territory, making it impossible to operate in East Africa.

Even if Dubrovnik falls into the hands of East Africa, the East African Navy would at most be able to conduct minor operations in the Adriatic Sea. In peacetime, this would be sufficient. However, if war breaks out in Europe, or if a conflict occurs between the Mediterranean naval powers and East Africa, Dubrovnik could be blocked in the Adriatic Sea by other naval forces, cutting off its connection with the East African mainland.

Minister Alfred said, "If East Africa could navigate freely in the Mediterranean, it might be able to help you and prevent the situation in Austria-Hungary from deteriorating to this extent."

Austria has always been an ally of East Africa, but this alliance has not been of much significance to cooperation between the two countries, especially in the military sphere.

For example, in the South African naval battle, Austria was unable to bypass the British to provide support to East Africa. Conversely, during World War I, East Africa was also unable to provide much assistance to Austria-Hungary, and could only maintain trade with Austria-Hungary through the Baghdad Railway.

The reason for all this is that neither country has a strategic foothold in the Mediterranean to break through the blockade by Britain and France. If either of them had controlled a single passage through the Mediterranean, the situation would not be what it is now.

Emperor Rudolf sighed and said, "It is indeed a pity. If in the past the empire could have expanded in the Mediterranean direction, even if it had controlled Libya, East Africa and Austria could have helped each other. East Africa was more trustworthy than Germany."

Compared to Germany, East Africa is more complementary to Austria. Of course, more importantly, East Africa is obviously less of a threat to Austria than Germany. Such an ally, which can achieve mutual benefit and does not pose a threat to the Austrian regime, is obviously a better choice for the Habsburgs.

Germany's annexation of Austria was not a bad thing for the Austrians, but it was not good for the Habsburg family, since no one wants to give up their power so easily!
East Africa, on the other hand, is completely different. East Africa has no ambitions toward the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Instead, in order to maintain its interests in Europe and the Mediterranean, it naturally chooses to strengthen cooperation with the Habsburg family and enhance the stability of its regime.

Ultimately, the problem lies in the fact that East Africa is too far from the Mediterranean Sea and Europe, with the harsh Sahara Desert in between, and its maritime routes are not under its control, putting it at risk of being cut off at any time.

At the same time, the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar are too narrow, and there are too many powerful countries and forces in the surrounding area. Even if East Africa truly controls the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, it will face various risks.

Therefore, if East Africa wants to strengthen its influence over Europe, choosing a regional representative is the safest way, and in the past, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the most suitable. Now that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in jeopardy, East Africa has no choice but to find another way out.

(End of this chapter)