Chapter 1073: Chapter 82: Proactive Foreign Policy

This kind of tug-of-war certainly won’t produce results in the short term, but East Africa’s approach has allowed Tsarist Russia to gain an advantage on the sidelines, which is inevitable, considering that East Africa and Tsarist Russia are separated by the United Kingdom.

Tsarist Russia surely won’t be content to compromise with the United Kingdom. Without the bitter defeat of the Russo-Japanese War, Russia wouldn’t willingly yield to the United Kingdom.

However, the emergence of East Africa has given Russia a breathing opportunity. Now, as long as Russia can absorb its influence in the north of the Middle East and Central Asia and wait for East Africa and the United Kingdom to compete, the Russian government also believes that its national strength can recover somewhat during this period.

"Our activities in the Middle East and Central Asia shouldn’t be too hasty, as these areas don’t originally belong to our sphere of influence. The temporary intervention is primarily to lay the groundwork for the future," Ernst said to the officials of the intelligence and diplomatic departments.

The United Kingdom has accumulated over a century of advantage in the Middle East and Central Asia. Generally, as long as there is no direct conflict, it’s almost impossible for East Africa to eliminate the United Kingdom’s influence.

"The layout in the Middle East and Central Asia is a long-term task. Our goal is to gradually build our own advantage, so that when the United Kingdom encounters an unexpected situation, we can smoothly take over its influence in the region."

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The Far East Empire.

As the internal power struggle within the ancient Empire becomes increasingly intense, East Africa also has to make corresponding changes to ensure its interests within the Far East Empire.

East Africa’s consul general in Jiaozhou, Abets, said, "Nowadays, the politics in the Far East are becoming more complex. To secure our interests amid political turmoil, we must support relevant political forces, especially local forces within the Huaihai Economic Zone that cooperate with us, to enhance their influence."

The arrival of the 20th century accelerated the decline of the Far East Empire’s Central Government’s power, and in this political shift, it’s easy for other forces to seize opportunities. East Africa must first guard against Japan.

With minor clashes occurring between the United Kingdom and East Africa in the Middle East and Central Asia, Japan, the United Kingdom’s pawn, is once again dragged out by the United Kingdom to create trouble for East Africa.

This is quite alluring for Japan. If it can replace East Africa, it would greatly alleviate its current economic pressures.

Of course, the pie drawn by the British won’t be easy for the Japanese to chew. Having just endured losses from the Russo-Japanese War, Japan is not in a much better situation than Russia. Moreover, with Russia retreating, Japan has more room to play in Northeast Asia.

Moreover, thoroughly offending East Africa is not something Japan can afford to do, even if the Japanese Navy holds an advantage over the East African Navy. As long as Japan wants to do business with Europe, East Africa has ways to trouble Japan. The cost, of course, might be East Africa being squeezed out from the Far East.

Hence, Japan and East Africa both have concerns. Japan can’t be easily pulled out by the United Kingdom as cannon fodder, and Japan can see the conflicts between East Africa and the United Kingdom. From Japan’s perspective, if the United Kingdom and East Africa could both suffer heavy losses, then in the Far East Empire, the only competitor to Japan would be the United States.

Therefore, for Japan, East Africa must always be vigilant. Consul General Abets instructed his subordinates: "Especially in Jiaozhou and the region, where forces related to Japan are involved, we must strictly monitor them. If ties with Japan are confirmed, we must firmly strike them, preventing Japan from infiltrating the Huaihai Economic Zone through various means."

Years of dealing with Japan have given East African intelligence agencies a lot of practical experience, and the more they engage with Japan, the more East African security departments understand Japanese tactics.

Japan’s superiority in intelligence work had become evident during the Russo-Japanese War. By using businessmen, various groups, and diplomats, Japan had woven an effective intelligence network in Northeast Asia, laying the information foundation for defeating Russia. Thus, East Africa naturally has to guard against Japan’s actions in the Huaihai Economic Zone.

Moreover, unlike Russia, which has a strong military presence in the Far East Empire and the chance to regain strength from the north, East Africa’s Huaihai Economic Zone can only be considered a semi-economic colony.

This is also unavoidable. East Africa, a semi-industrial nation, holds a natural trade advantage with the Far East Empire. Whenever trade occurs, East Africa benefits, and the Far East Empire’s development cannot escape this trade format.

However, being a semi-economic colony makes East Africa’s control over the Huaihai Economic Zone rather weak. East Africa then has to enhance cooperation with local forces to ensure its potential sphere of influence.

These local forces hold significant autonomy, such as bypassing East Africa to collaborate with British and Japanese capital to gain greater benefits. For such forces lacking foresight, they naturally become targets for East Africa’s strict crackdown, especially those in contact with Japan.

"Meanwhile, according to the orders from the Central Government, as long as the legitimate upper government of the Far East Empire still exists, our people should not interfere in the internal power struggles within the Far East Empire," Abets warned.

Even if the Qing Government collapses, the north won’t face fragmentation like the south into numerous political factions, as Beiyang Government will likely take over the national government, even if only in name. East Africa will maintain a neutral stance.

is clearly a tumultuous year for East Africa. On one hand, with the end of the Russo-Japanese War, countries worldwide, especially the United Kingdom, start to shift their focus to other regions, including East Africa. Any opportunity to dismantle East Africa won’t be passed up by the United Kingdom.

On the other hand, with the development of East African industrialization, the demand for overseas markets grows, prompting East Africa to reinitiate more proactive foreign policies to pave the way for industrial exports.

In such circumstances, East Africa primarily focuses on Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia, and the Far East as major markets, while vigorously developing the South American market. As for West Africa, with too many European forces involved, it is temporarily not considered.

Thus, in 1908, East Africa’s diplomacy shifts noticeably proactive, increasing its influence in several hot regions and solidifying its base.

In the global market, Central and Eastern Europe and the Far East markets are crucial for East Africa and must not be lost, while the Middle East and Central Asia, and South American markets are developing, indicating East Africa’s expansion in trade.

It is directly reflected by the increase in East African industrial exports, attacking and capturing ground in the global market, further intensifying economic competition pressures among countries worldwide.

Meanwhile, East Africa’s diplomatic activities become increasingly frequent, especially in South America and the Middle East, engaging directly with local high-level governments to reach relevant cooperation agreements.

Of course, as a great power, East Africa would also use intimidation, threats, and other means, but due to limited naval capabilities, it can only exert certain effects on neighboring countries.

So, compared to other great powers, East Africa is relatively amicable, which isn’t unique globally. The United States and Austria-Hungary are in similar situations.

The commonality among the three countries is the influence limitation on external regions due to the rules and international system set by Britain and France, preventing effective exertion.

Unlike Germany and Russia, whose military capabilities are widely recognized as strong, providing them higher status in international discussions, other countries, especially East Africa, face skepticism over military strength.

Of course, here, military strength mainly refers to the assessment of combat effectiveness. Among European countries, evaluations of non-European military often tend to be negative, like the United States, which often faces neglect of its military strength despite having a powerful Navy.

Currently, East Africa’s naval strength cannot compete with top-ranking countries. Although East Africa possesses the world’s second-largest number of Dreadnoughts next to the United Kingdom, the gap in other warships is too vast, and two Dreadnoughts and one Quasi-Dreadnought cannot offset this discrepancy.