African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1706 Evacuation
There were clearly quite a few French people who shared this view, including General Gamelin himself. The French calculation was simply to see if the Maginot Line would hold up. If it worked well, they might give it a shot; if it didn't...

The French emphasis on the Maginot Line itself indicated that France only wanted to defend its homeland and had no intention of launching an offensive against Germany.

As a result, the French are now subconsciously already halfway to defeat in their competition with Germany.

However, this is understandable. The price France paid in World War I was too heavy for the French people, losing an entire generation of young adults. "We cannot fight such a war again" became a social consensus.

Those young people who should have been energetic, thoughtful, and unwilling to fall behind have died on the battlefield or become disabled, and are now trapped in a miserable, numb, and confused life. The whole society is inevitably affected by this and falls into a state of despair and pessimism.

France was unable to compete with the more powerful Germany in terms of economy, military, and morale.

Colonel Douss was an anomaly in France at the time. Faced with General Gamelin's indifferent attitude, he sighed helplessly to himself: "Perhaps this is also a way for France! France really can't withstand another war."

……

Unlike the lifeless French, Germany, after the signing of the Treaty of Warsaw, is now busy conducting military exercises in Eastern Europe while secretly strengthening its military deployments on the Western European border.

However, Germany also has one urgent task to complete: to secure the spoils of the Warsaw Pact negotiations as soon as possible.

After all, if these gains are not secured now, the cost will be much higher once Germany launches a war. At the same time, these gains will also benefit Germany's strategic planning and increase its chances of winning the war.

However, no matter how fast Germany moves, it can't catch up with its ally Italy.

1938 12 Month 11 Day.

Tripoli, French Libya.

Tripoli was in a state of chaos at this time. There were many French people with tense expressions on the streets, and various items were being packed into boxes at the Tripoli Governor's Palace.

"Don't take these unimportant documents. Libya will no longer be our protectorate. Local economic, security, and other documents are completely meaningless to us now," Libyan Governor Louis de Ponti instructed his subordinates in the governor's palace.

At this moment, his secretary, Clyde, asked, "Your Excellency, if we're not taking these files and documents with us, should we destroy them?"

Clyde made this suggestion because he didn't want the Italians to benefit from it. After all, the French government's cession of Libya to Italy was a huge blow to them, the local colonial officials.

To put it bluntly, they are now unemployed. Although the French government should reassign them after they return home, the job placement for most of them is likely to be unfavorable, or even nonexistent.

Moreover, Libya is a relatively lucrative place for them, even though the local population is only around 600,000.

However, the development of French Libya was among the upper-middle level of France's many colonies, since it was not too far from mainland France, thus attracting some investment from local capital.

Tripoli's infrastructure was far better than Benghazi, the former capital of Italian Libya. It was only in recent years, due to Italian investment in Benghazi and the opening of the North African railway, that Benghazi's development entered a fast track and has completely surpassed Tripoli.

Italy was indeed less economically developed than France, but it put more effort into developing its overseas colonies.

The reason is simple: Italy only had two colonies in the world, while France had far too many. So, although Italy's economy was poor, its average investment in its colonies was higher than that of France's colonies.

In addition, Italy's colonial development strategy differed greatly from France's. France was more interested in extracting profits from its colonies. Apart from Algeria, which France wanted to incorporate into its own territory, it exploited other places more thoroughly.

The two colonies under Italian rule bore the heavy responsibility of relieving the population pressure on the Italian mainland.

Therefore, Italy actively sent its own people to its colonies, but these people were obviously not treated the same as the local natives once they arrived in the Italian colonies.

The Italian government governed its colonies almost entirely as if they were its own territory, providing them with all the necessary infrastructure and welfare benefits. In fact, to attract Italian immigrants, it would add some benefits that were not available in its homeland, such as giving away land for free and tax exemptions.

In this way, the term "Italian colony" is actually quite misleading, and it would be more accurate to describe it as "Italian overseas territory."

Take the Red Sea colonies, for example. After decades of development, they had become entirely inhabited by Italians. The original inhabitants of that area were already few in number, so the Italian colonists easily wiped them out.

The situation is similar in Italian Libya, except that Italy colonized the country later. However, Italians now make up the vast majority of the population, and the original inhabitants have drastically decreased.

Therefore, it is entirely possible to regard Italy's colonies as two provinces within Italy itself, and this is what the Italian government has done.

Therefore, it is not surprising that Italian Libya surpassed French Libya, which originally had better conditions, in terms of economy and construction. Moreover, Italian Libya also encountered the important economic development opportunity of the construction of the North African Railway in East Africa.

Benghazi, the terminus of the North African railway, is rapidly emerging as a new jewel on the southern coast of the Mediterranean.

The opening of the North African Railway has greatly improved Benghazi's transportation conditions. Moreover, due to the distribution and export of goods, the port of Benghazi has undergone modernization, attracting many foreign trade companies to settle in and boosting local employment.

Moreover, as time goes on, Benghazi may further widen the gap with Tripoli, after all, the North African railway has only been open for a short time and it is not yet time to really exert its strength!

The better Italian Libya developed, the more resentful French Libya became as its neighbor. Now, Italy has even taken away the livelihoods of the French Libyan colonial officials, so it's no wonder that Secretary Clyde has a good attitude towards Italy.

Therefore, Clyde didn't mind causing some trouble for the Italians. For example, these files and documents in front of him had lost their meaning for the French, but for the Italians who were about to take over French Libya, it was a completely different story.

These documents help Italians gain a more detailed understanding of the local economy, resources, customs, and various situations.

This would help the Italian government take over the area more smoothly and establish a ruling order, which is not what Secretary Clyde wanted to see, hence his advocacy for the destruction of these documents.

“Secretary Clyde, although I also don’t have a good impression of the Italians, for us, it’s a foregone conclusion that Italy will take over the area. It was the politicians in Paris who gave up on this place on their own initiative.”

"Let's not overdo it and create trouble for ourselves. If we offend the Italians because of this and cause new diplomatic setbacks, we'll only be asking for trouble."

Governor Deponty rejected his secretary's proposal, mainly because it would not benefit him personally, unless there were specific instructions from Paris. The Paris government did indeed give Governor Deponty instructions, but rather than acting on impulse, their instructions were pragmatic: emphasizing that Governor Deponty cooperate with the Italians in completing the handover.

The reason is simple: France's attitude toward Italy is consistent with its attitude toward Germany.

That is, France absolutely cannot provoke France at this stage, especially the two core Axis powers, namely Germany and Italy, in order to trigger a war between the Axis powers and France.

In this situation, they specifically instructed Governor Deponti not to cause trouble for the Italians and give them a pretext for criticism.

Governor Deponty also intended to comply with Paris's wishes, as Paris had promised him some compensation upon his return if the matter was successfully completed.

As a colony, especially half of Libya, Libya was actually of little importance to France, and the position and status of Governor-General de Ponti were not as valuable as one might imagine.

Therefore, it is not difficult for the French government to make arrangements for Deponty and provide some compensation.

Of course, the French government could only make such a promise to Deponty, the governor of French Libya; the personnel of the colonial administration of French Libya certainly could not do so.

With Paris's promise, Governor Deponty naturally didn't want to cause any further trouble.

However, he also reassured his subordinates, saying, "It's true that Italy gained an advantage from us French this time, but it won't be easy for them to take control of this place smoothly, even without our interference."

"So you don't need to deliberately target the Italians; someone will naturally cause them trouble."

Clyde, who had been somewhat disappointed, perked up a bit upon hearing this and asked, "What does Your Excellency the Governor mean?"

He couldn't think of anyone who might cause trouble for Italy, since France wasn't planning to get involved this time and was even going to cooperate with Italy in taking over the area.

“Naturally, they are the local Libyans,” Governor Deponti gave the answer directly.

“We French did withdraw from this area, but the local Libyans have no goodwill towards Italy; in fact, they are natural enemies of Italy.”

At this point, Governor Deponti said with a hint of wickedness, "Hmph, those Libyan extremist groups that used to antagonize us, now they've finally found some use."

"Now the Italians will have a headache."

The French colonization of Libya was not without its challenges, and the local Libyans' resistance against the French colonizers never ceased.

In the past, these people were headaches for Governor-General Depont and the French colonial government. Now, these hot potatoes will directly become a problem for the Italians in their colonization of Libya.

After a sudden realization, Secretary Clyde's eyes lit up, and he also drew inferences from this example.

“Your Excellency, not only that, you should know that back then, quite a few refugees and resistance groups from Italian Libya also fled to the area under our jurisdiction.”

“These people and the Italians have always been sworn enemies. If the Italians come, they will definitely retaliate.”

During its colonial period in Italian Libya, Italy almost completely exterminated the local Libyans. After all, Italy itself did not lack people; on the contrary, it faced population pressure at home. Therefore, in order to make room and land for its own population, Italy massively resettled immigrants in Italian Libya.

The land and houses of these Italian immigrants were basically seized from the locals by the Italian colonial authorities.

This unsurprisingly provoked anger and fierce resistance from the indigenous people of Italian Libya, but ultimately failed to gain traction in the face of the Italian government's tough stance.

On the one hand, the local population of Italian Libya was not large, only a few hundred thousand. Without the support of external forces, it was impossible for such a small population to cause much trouble for Italy in order to fight against it.

However, during the Italian colonization of the region, no other country caused trouble for Italy. Eastern Italian Libya was within the British sphere of influence, the south was East Africa, and the west was France.

However, Britain and France have been declining since World War I, especially when facing the Axis powers.

East Africa was not concerned about Italy's colonial activities in Italian Libya, and even welcomed them, since East Africa had plenty of opportunities to take over the land if it really wanted to.

However, Italy's current colonization of the region is actually more beneficial to East Africa, especially in reducing the influence of the local Arab population.

East Africa has consistently used various means to suppress the living space of Arabs in the African region, and Italy's rule over Italian Libya aligns with this strategic direction in East Africa.

Look at the former Red Sea colonies; now, Arab believers have become a rare breed. East Africa hopes for a similar future for Italy-controlled Libya.

On the other hand, Italian Libya is very close to mainland Italy, so it is not difficult for the Italian government to suppress the local resistance forces.

In both of these scenarios, the indigenous people of Italian Libya faced only two possible outcomes in the face of the Italian government: defeat or annihilation.

Many of the defeated Libyans fled to French Libya to continue their struggle against the Italians, but because it was a French colony, the Italians had little control over them.

But things are different now. French Libya will become new Italian territory, and the former French Libya will no longer be a haven for resistance organizations.

These people will inevitably clash directly with the Italians. In addition, the original inhabitants of French Libya will also inevitably rise up in resistance against Italy.

The reason is quite simple: they have witnessed firsthand how Italy gradually eradicated the indigenous people of Italian Libya over the years. Having learned from this experience, they naturally have no illusions about the Italians.

Secretary Clyde could already foresee the upcoming conflict between the Italians and the locals. He said maliciously, "When dogs fight, they'll fight to the death. Hopefully, neither side will let the other off easily, which will be a way for us to vent our anger."

(End of this chapter)