Hidden Internal Crisis

"The deeper reason Germany and France had acted in unison this time was that France had devoted more of its energy to Southeast Asia in recent years. France had gained considerable advantages in Vietnam and Cambodia, basically establishing the core of its Far Eastern colonies."

"By 1883, France had expanded the scope of its Far Eastern colonies to the vicinity of the Northern Bay in the Far East Empire. Vietnam's Nguyen dynasty had completely become a protectorate of the great powers."

"France's greatest progress in Africa had been the northward expansion of its coastal colonies in Gabon, annexing the Kingdom of Oloingu in the west—the ancient kingdom in central Gabon—while its paths westward and southward were blocked by Belgium's Congo Colony."

"Germany had also launched a certain offensive in Africa, mainly centered on the Kingdom of Bam along the Gulf of Guinea, which was part of German Cameroon. This region bordered Spain's Guinea colony, while Britain's Colony of Bonny lay to the west."

From these points, it was clear that France could not throw its full weight into West Africa either, while Germany's colonial enterprise was even more a struggle for survival in the cracks.

There were many methods of colonization, and Germany's colonial policy was conservative. By contrast, East Africa's was aggressive. Indeed, East Africa had never been "colonialism" from the very beginning, but rather an undertaking of "building a nation overseas" promoted by the Hechingen Royal Family.

The two differed enormously in nature. Colonization was industrial and commercial capital from various countries seeking reservoirs, serving the interests of their homelands, pursuing enormous profits from colonies, and promoting domestic development. The homeland always remained the core.

But from the very beginning, the Hechingen Royal Family had possessed no such "homeland core." Before Ernst's transmigration, the Principality of Hechingen had