In the blink of an eye, the time had come to 1905. The Russo-Japanese War had yet to end, and Africa was equally unsettled. Aside from the Kingdom of Southern Germany being occupied with its western campaign, France, Germany, and Britain were all intensifying their penetration into West and North Africa. Spain and Portugal, too, were continuously strengthening their military forces in their African colonies, protecting what few colonies they still possessed there. All of West and North Africa had descended into chaos.
By contrast, the overall situation around East Africa was favorable. Although Italy had designs on the Abyssinian Empire, the Abyssinian Empire had already become an economic colony of East Africa. Its security was naturally guaranteed by its big brother, East Africa, so a potential regional dispute quietly vanished under East Africa's mediation.
For the countries and colonies surrounding East Africa, East Africa had unknowingly become the undisputed giant of the region. Following its absorption of Angola, Mozambique, and other territories after the South African War, even Britain could no longer look down on East Africa as it had before that war.
Britain was already the strongest power around East Africa. Even British Somaliland and the Egyptian (Sudanese) colonies under its control, the most powerful among them, found it difficult to pose any threat to East Africa.
Among the other countries and colonies bordering East Africa, France's colonies of Gabon and Madagascar were too backward to even warrant discussion.
Belgian Congo, the Red Sea colonies, and the Kingdom of Southern Germany were in fact all political forces fostered by East Africa. The only traditional native African country, the Abyssinian Empire, had thoroughly become East Africa's tagalong.
With such favorable geopolitical conditions, East Africa's First Five-Year Plan came to a safe landing, and the East African government could devote