Chapter 884: In-Depth Cooperation

The Abyssinian Empire fully embraced East Africa in terms of culture and society. 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 than other countries in the region.

North Africa is all Arab cultural areas. Relatively speaking, the mainstream religion of Abyssinia is also a branch of Christianity. At the same time, after years of turmoil, the country is destined not to become a great power or even a regional power in the future.

First, there is no access to the sea. Second, the land area is small. Even if the population is placed in Europe, it can only be regarded as a medium-sized country. Third, the country lacks natural resources.

Of course, this lack of resources is only compared with East Africa. In fact, the reserves of the Abyssinian Empire's advantageous mineral resources are not small. The coal and iron needed for the First Industrial Revolution are distributed in the country, and it is also one of the important gold producing areas.

However, the problem of no access to the sea will continue to plague the Abyssinian Empire in the future, unless the coast of the Red Sea colony occupied by the Kingdom of Italy is recaptured.

But this hope is slim. Today, the 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 colony has reached at least 900,000. Even if the region becomes independent in the future, there will still be a large number of immigrants, and it is impossible for it to return to the Abyssinian Empire.

This is exactly what Ernst wants to see. If there is an outlet to the Red Sea coast, how can Abyssinia be so focused on climbing the high branch of East Africa.

In order to further control the Abyssinian Empire, on March 19, 1894, the East African ambassador to Bahir Dar, Ramons, met with Johannes IV again at the Bahir Dar Palace to discuss further in-depth issues between the two countries.

From the level of East African diplomats stationed in the Abyssinian Empire, it can be seen that East Africa attaches great importance to the Abyssinian Empire. For backward countries of the same level as Abyssinia, most countries except Europe and the United States (continent) only send minister-level diplomats to East Africa.

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

"Your Majesty Johannes, although East Africa and Abyssinia have always had a harmonious relationship, for the long-term development of our two countries, the Abyssinian Empire should try to avoid direct competition with East Africa and achieve staggered development, so that each can play its own advantages on different tracks."

Ramons said directly in the Bahir Dar Palace, which also attracted the interest of Johannes IV.

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

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 that the Abyssinian Empire can defeat.

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

Ernst was very clear about this. As one of the few African countries that firmly resisted the colonists in the past life, the Abyssinian Empire also won Ernst's respect for this.

Just like in the war with Italy, the Abyssinian Empire never wavered from the bottom line and resolutely resisted to the end. Although it ended in failure, the courage of the Abyssinian Empire is worth mentioning.

Ramons said: "East Africa and Abyssinia are both located on the African continent. At the same time, they are both plateau-dominated countries on the continent. The natural climate of the two sides is similar, which makes it inevitable that there is convergence in the agricultural development of the two countries."

"Well." Johannes IV nodded in agreement and said: "This is indeed the case, especially after our country lost a lot of land in the east and north."

Among the territories lost by the Abyssinian Empire, except for the southeastern region, which has farming value, the 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 belongs to the most economically developed area of ​​the Abyssinian Empire.

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

Because of East Africa, the southern Oromo forces were exiled to West Africa in large numbers, or entered East Africa to work, so the Oromo people in the political map of the Abyssinian Empire were destined to not be able to influence the politics of the Abyssinian Empire as in the previous life (the Oromo people accounted for 27% of the country's population in the previous life).

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

However, as the Tigray people move southward, the two ethnic groups will merge in the future and are expected to form the main ethnic group of the Abyssinian Empire, which is good news for the future of the Abyssinian Empire.

The central province of the Abyssinian Empire today is the Amhara State in the past, and the large-scale migration of Tigray people will inevitably intermarry and merge with local forces. This is the general trend.

In the past, Ethiopia had more than 80 ethnic conflicts, and the ethnic conflicts were very serious, especially in the southeastern Somali region and the northern Tigre region, where the intention of secession was the most obvious.

Although Tigre was the main founder of the civilization of the Abyssinian Empire, it lost power in modern times, especially after the capital was moved to Addis Ababa.

It should be noted that although the Tigre region is small in area and small in population, its total economic output accounts for more than 40% of the country, and it has long played the role of a conqueror in the history of the Abyssinian Empire, so the Tigray people have the most serious tendency to split, which is somewhat similar to 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 Tigre and Amhara, including the Oromo, Somalis, Alpha, Omo Valley primitive tribes and other ethnic groups, which actually reduced the ethnic conflicts in the Abyssinian Empire.

Now the two major ethnic groups, the Amhara and the Tireg, are actually of the same origin. The Amhara actually comes from the Tireg region and was formed after the Tireg forces moved south, so there will be no resistance to the integration of the two ethnic groups.

The overall stability of the Abyssinian Empire is what East Africa is happy to see. East Africa is not the United States, which will deliberately do some self-interested behaviors around it. After all, regional stability is also conducive to East Africa's border stability and economic development.

"The Abyssinian Empire has fully turned to the plateau economy, which means that the Abyssinian Empire will inevitably form a certain competition with East Africa in agriculture in the future. Therefore, for the coordinated development between the two countries, we plan to carry out agricultural division of labor and cooperation with the Abyssinian Empire. For example, the Abyssinian Empire grows some tropical economic 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." Lemons said.

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 form competitiveness with other tropical regions in the world.