African Entrepreneurship Records

 Chapter 884 In-depth Cooperation

The Abyssinian Empire fully embraced East Africa at the cultural and social levels. Although the two countries were slightly different due to factors such as religion, the Abyssinian Empire was much more pleasing to the eyes of East Africa compared to other countries in the region.

North Africa is entirely an Arab cultural area. Relatively speaking, the mainstream religion in Abyssinia also belongs to the Christian branch. At the same time, after years of turmoil, the country is destined to be unable to become a great country or even a regional power in the future.

 There is no outlet to the sea, the land area is small, even if the population is in Europe, it can only be regarded as a medium-sized country, and the country lacks natural resources.

Of course, this lack of resources is only compared to that of East Africa. In fact, the Abyssinian Empire’s superior mineral resource reserves are not small. The coal and iron required for the first industrial revolution are both distributed in the country, which is even more important. One of the gold producing areas.

  However, the problem of not having an outlet to the sea will continue to trouble the Abyssinian Empire in the future, unless it regains the coast of the Red Sea colonies that were invaded by the Kingdom of Italy.

But this hope is slim. Today's Kingdom of Italy is not as ambitious as it was during World War II. Instead, it is more pragmatic. Today, the number of Italian immigrants in the Red Sea colonies has reached at least 900,000. In the future, even if the region becomes independent, there will still be a large immigrant population. It is impossible On return to the Abyssinian Empire.

This is exactly what Ernst wants to see. If there is an outlet along the Red Sea coast, how can Abyssinia single-mindedly climb the high branches of East Africa.

In order to further control the Abyssinian Empire, on March 19, 1894, Ramones, the East African ambassador to Bahir Dar, met with Johannes IV again at the Bahir Dar Palace on the issue of further deepening the two countries.

From the level of East African diplomats stationed in the Abyssinian Empire, we can see the importance East Africa attaches to the Abyssinian Empire. For backward countries at the same level as Abyssinia, most countries in East Africa except Europe and the United States Only minister-level diplomats are stationed.

The area of ​​the East African Embassy is very conspicuous in Bahir Dar, less than 700 meters away from the Bahir Dar Palace. Apart from East Africa, only the Egyptian and Italian embassies are currently located in Bahir Dar.

  If direct competition with East Africa in some areas can be avoided, it will naturally be a good thing for the Abyssinian Empire. After all, East Africa is not something the Abyssinian Empire can defeat.

"Your Majesty Johannes, although East Africa and Abyssinia have always had harmonious relations, for the sake of the long-term development of our two countries, the Abyssinian Empire should try to avoid direct competition with East Africa and achieve misaligned development, so that it can develop in different countries. Take advantage of each other on the track.”

 Raymonds said straight to the point in the Bahir Dar Palace. These words also attracted the interest of Johannes IV.

Ernst knew this very well. As one of the few countries in Africa that firmly resisted colonizers in the past, the Abyssinian Empire also won Ernst's respect.

Of course, if there are some interests that cannot be separated, Johannes IV will naturally not give in. Although the Abyssinian Empire is backward, the Abyssinian Empire is also arrogant.

He asked: "Ambassador Ramones, I don't know what kind of misplaced development you are talking about?"

Just like in the war with Italy, the Abyssinian Empire did not waver in its bottom line from beginning to end and resisted resolutely to the end. Although it ended in failure, the courage of the Abyssinian Empire is worth mentioning.

Raymonds said: "East Africa and Abyssinia are both located on the African continent, and both are mainly plateau countries on the continent. They have similar natural climates, which makes the agricultural development of the two countries inevitable. sex."

"Yes." Johannes IV nodded in agreement: "This is indeed true, especially after our country lost a large amount of territory in the east and north." Among the territories lost by the Abyssinian Empire, except for the southeastern region, Apart from farming value, other areas in the north and east are mainly deserts.

Of course, although the north is a desert area, it also has relatively complete water conservancy facilities and many rivers in the plateau area, so the agricultural conditions are actually quite good.

 Otherwise, the Tireg region would not have been the core territory of the Abyssinian Empire in ancient times. The Tireg region itself was the most economically developed region of the Abyssinian Empire.

Unfortunately, most of them have been taken over by Italy, which has caused the Tireg people to migrate to the territory of the Amhara. There were three main ethnic groups in Abyssinia, namely the Tireg people and the Amhara people. , Oromo people, and Tireg people have been dominant in the Abyssinian Empire for a long time, and Johannes IV is one of its representatives.

Because of East Africa, a large number of southern Oromo forces were exiled to West Africa, or entered East Africa to work. Therefore, the Oromo people are destined to be unable to influence the Abyssinian Empire in the political map of the Abyssinian Empire as they did in their previous lives. Politics (In a previous life, the Oromo people comprised 27 percent of the country's population).

 So the main population of the Abyssinian Empire is now the Tireg and Amhara people. The Amhara people have always been the largest ethnic group in Abyssinia, but they have long been a subsidiary force of the Tireg people.

However, as the Tireg forces move south, the two ethnic groups will merge in the future and are expected to form the main ethnic group of the Abyssinian Empire. This is good news for the future of the Abyssinian Empire.

 Nowadays, the Central Province of the Abyssinian Empire is the Amhara state in the previous life, and the large-scale migration of Tigray people is bound to intermarry with the local forces. This is the general trend.

In the previous life, there were more than 80 ethnic conflicts in Ethiopia, and the ethnic conflicts were very serious, especially in the southeastern Somali region and the northern Titireg region, where the separatist intentions were the most obvious.

Although Tireg was the main founder of the civilization of the Abyssinian Empire, he lost power in modern times, especially after moving the capital to Addis Ababa.

You must know that although the Tigray region is small in area and population, its total economic output accounts for more than 40% of the country's total economic output. It has long played the role of conqueror in the history of the Abyssinian Empire, so the Tigray people have the most separatist tendencies. Seriously, it's a bit like Catalonia in Spain.

Now, with the joint efforts of East Africa, Italy, and Egypt, the Abyssinian Empire has actually lost other major ethnic groups except the Tiregs and Amharas, including the Oromo, Somalis, and Alphas. The primitive tribes of the Omo Valley and other ethnic groups actually reduced the ethnic conflicts in the Abyssinian Empire.

Nowadays, the two major ethnic groups, the Amhara and the Tireg people are actually of the same species. The Amhara people actually come from the Tireg area and were formed after the Tireg forces moved south. Therefore, the two groups are closely related to each other. There will be no resistance at all to the integration of large ethnic groups.

East Africa is happy to see the overall stability of the Abyssinian Empire. East Africa, not the United States, will deliberately do things in its surroundings that harm others and benefit itself. After all, regional stability is also conducive to East Africa's border stability and economic development.

"The Abyssinian Empire has fully shifted to a plateau economy, which means that the Abyssinian Empire will inevitably compete with East Africa in agriculture in the future. Therefore, for the coordinated development between the two countries, we plan to cooperate with the Abyssinian Empire. The Xinian Empire carries out division of labor and cooperation in agriculture. For example, the Abyssinian Empire grows some tropical cash crops that are different from those in East Africa. In this way, the cooperation in agricultural production between the two countries is greater than competition, which is a good thing for both countries. " said Ramones.

In other words, East Africa intends to fundamentally transform the agricultural development of the Abyssinian Empire into what East Africa needs, integrate it into the East African economy, provide East Africa with cheap agricultural products, and then become competitive with other tropical regions in the world.

 (End of this chapter)