Of the two countries, East Africa and United States, Franco is obviously more inclined to deal with East Africa. After all, East Africa itself has colluded with Franco in Spanish Civil War, and East Africa and Spain are traditional friendly countries.
Franco said, "It is natural for Spain to establish cooperative relations with East Africa."
"We and East Africa are very complementary. In East Africa's trade with Europe, Spain has long played the role of 'middleman'."
"And the economic connections between Italy and East Africa are relatively frequent, especially after the opening of North African Railway."
"Italy can do this, and if we follow suit, Germany has nothing to blame, unless they can persuade Italy to sever ties with East Africa."
This situation is almost impossible to happen. Let alone Italy, even Germany cannot fall out with East Africa at the current stage.
For Germany, the role played by East Africa now is very similar to the role played by the Soviet Union before Germany went to war with the Soviet Union in its previous life.
When the Soviet Union was clearly hostile to Germany, Germany had to increase its dependence on East Africa in the fields of energy, minerals, and food.
In previous lives, most of these materials were provided by the Soviet Union to Germany. In terms of energy, East Africa is the most important oil producer in the world. Germany can basically only import oil from the Soviet Union through smuggling and other means, which is more costly and the risks are uncontrollable.
In terms of minerals, East Africa is a country with mineral resources that is not inferior to the Soviet Union. In addition to its rich local mineral resources, East Africa also controls important mineral resources in many areas of Southeast Asia, Indian Ocean and South America.
Grain is another important resource controlled by the Soviet Union. Although the Soviet Union's agricultural development model has many problems, it controls the most extensive and fertile arable land resources in Europe, which destined the Soviet Union's grain to be of great significance to Europe.
However, the Soviet Union did not catch up with the good times, because the rise of East Africa also led to more intense competition in the international grain market.
The emergence and rise of the country in East Africa itself is a huge impact on the original world agricultural market. Agriculturally, East Africa's grain output can fully meet the needs of its population of more than 200 million, and there is still room for export.
The 200 million people in East Africa can solve the problem of food and clothing, which will have a huge impact on the world.
After all, if you look at the distribution locations of East African mainland and overseas colonies on the map, you can see that they are mainly in Africa and Southeast Asia. These areas were important food import areas in the past, not to mention achieving self-sufficiency in food.
Of course, Franco is not concerned about these issues now. Spain is not a highly developed industrial country, so its dependence on energy and minerals is not high.
As for agricultural issues, Franco currently does not realize the seriousness of the matter in the future, but Spain does have a need for food imports.
The agricultural conditions in Spain are actually relatively poor, especially the lack of water resources and drought. In fact, much of the land in Spain is no different from Morocco opposite Mediterranean Sea.
This may be one of the reasons why Arab religious influence was able to establish a long-term regime in Spain in ancient times, rather than elsewhere in Europe.
Franco said, "For post-war recovery and economic development work, we urgently need more loans and assistance from overseas. East Africa is a better choice than Germany and Italy."
For Spain now, if we want to recover and develop after the war, borrowing money is an unavoidable problem.
Franco does not want to rely too much on Germany and Italy. Except for the civil war alone, the Franco government already owes too much debt to both countries.
"If we continue to borrow money from Germany and Italy, we must mortgage more important national assets and even make concessions to Germany and Italy in terms of sovereignty."
"Conditions in East Africa should be relatively relaxed."
This is Franco's judgment. East Africa does not belong to Europe after all, and East Africa is not urgent about what Spain can plot.
Blanco also said, "The most important thing in East Africa is our location. Spain can be said to be the bridgehead between Europe and South Atlantic. Therefore, our importance to East Africa is reflected in East Africa's West Coast trade with Europe."
"We can focus on this to strengthen economic ties with East Africa, and even further attract East African companies to invest in Spain."
"Politically, this is also a good insurance for us. If Germany declines in Europe in the future, we can use our connections with East Africa to avoid being in the wrong team."
"Of course, it would be great if we could reach a certain consensus with United States."
This is a typical hedging bet, but it is exactly what Franco meant.
Just when Franco was planning to "hedge its bets," the Republic of Yugoslavia, more than a thousand kilometers away to the east of Spain, adopted a completely different diplomatic strategy.
Zagreb.
This is the capital of the original Croatia, and now it is also the political center of the new European country Yugoslavia.
Because after World War I, Austro-Hungarian Empire did not disintegrate like in its previous life, but became stronger. This resulted in Serbia receiving key "care" from the Austro-Hungarian Empire after the war.
The center of the Yugoslavia national movement was completely transferred to Croatia, which was still under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at that time. In other words, Croatia became the leading force for Yugoslavia national independence, so Zagreb became the capital of the new country.
However, this newly independent country is seriously lacking in security, and President Koshutich and the top government officials are filled with such serious anxiety.
At this time, the government chief Foreign Ministry Macek was discussing Yugoslavia's situation with President Koshutich.
Macek Foreign Ministry said with a headache, "Yugoslavia can now be said to be facing serious internal and external troubles, especially after we expelled the Ustaše organization, which caused strong dissatisfaction between Germany and Italy."
"Germany and Italy have both issued warnings to us. Any choice we make now may bring Yugoslavia into a situation of no return."
President Koshutich sighed and said, "No matter what, we will never allow extremely dangerous organizations like Ustaše to exist."
"Their ideas are too extreme, and their methods are too cruel and terrifying. If they are allowed to become government leaders, Yugoslavia will inevitably break out in civil strife. This is definitely not what we want to see!"
"We, Serbia and Slovenia are essentially all Yugoslavs, but they want Croatia to completely override Serbia and Slovenia. This is destroying the unity within the Yugoslavia nation."
"Their control of power will inevitably lead to the division of the Yugoslavia nation and country, or even civil war."
"And the Germany and Italy behind them are also extremely dangerous to us Yugoslavia, especially Germany. It can be said that there is no room for us Yugoslavs to survive in Germany's racial thinking."
Yugoslavia also belongs to the Slavs family, and in the racial ideology of the Adolf government, Slavs belongs to the "inferior race", so Yugoslavia naturally cannot avoid the conflict with Germany in racial cognition.
"And Germany itself does not want to see the existence of a unified Yugoslav state. They want Croatia, Serbia, and even Slovenia and Bosnia to return to their previous status."
"This way Yugoslavia can never become a threat to Germany."
"Italy also covets our territory, especially the coastal part of Croatia. We have real conflicts of interest with Germany and Italy."
Although Chief Macek Foreign Ministry does not completely agree with President Koshutich's statement, his views on ultra-nationalist elements such as the Ustaše organization are completely consistent with Koshutich's.
"Ustaše is indeed the cancer in Yugoslavia. The establishment of Yugoslavia itself is the common ideal of all Croatia, Slovenia and Serbs. It is the restoration of the ancient ethnic group Yugoslavia to bring things back to order."
"So they must not be allowed to dominate or even enter the government."
"However, now that we want to exclude this organization from the government, we must bear the anger from Germany and Italy..."
Being enemies of Germany and Italy, obviously Foreign Minister Macek has no such idea at all, but the reality is that the Yugoslav government must make a choice. It cannot choose to split Yugoslavia, and it does not want to choose to be enemies of Germany and Italy.
When the two conflict, Yugoslavia must make up his mind.
President Koshutich did not think too much about this issue and said categorically, "Yugoslavia will never give in to them just because they are afraid of war!"
"Back then, we were able to defeat Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empire, and we were also not afraid of the threats from Germany and Italy."
Macek Minister said worriedly, "If we are determined, we must prepare for war!"
"France and the Soviet Union have contacted us before. Now that they want to arm the country, we should also make choices, especially negotiations with the Soviets."
"We should also pay attention to the diplomatic work with Kingdom of Dalmatia. Behind Kingdom of Dalmatia is East Africa. If we and Kingdom of Dalmatia can put aside our territorial disputes, this can also reduce our pressure as much as possible."
The relationship between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union and Kingdom of Dalmatia is relatively complicated. The former is a difference in the ideological field, and the latter is a dispute over territorial issues.
And these issues obviously require President Koshutich to make decisions.
President Koshutich frowned and said, "As for the Soviet Union, there is no need for us to contact them based on ideological ideas."
"What Yugoslavia is facing now is a matter of life and death. We can talk to the Soviet Union about anything. I think the Soviet Union also wants something from us."
"The pressure they face when facing Germany is no less than ours. The two countries can have equal dialogue."
"The two countries can cooperate in everything, especially in the military and economic fields. We need the support of the Soviets."
"Militarily, we need to arm our own army and build a relatively independent military industry to ensure that our weapons sources will not be cut off during wartime."
"Economically, we must unite Serbia and Slovenia. We need to strengthen the construction of Serbia and other areas and build more railways and roads, factories and enterprises."
Obviously, in order to unite all the people in the Yugoslavia nation, they must enjoy completely equal treatment with Croatia, thereby reducing the gap between the three original ethnic groups.
To achieve this requires financial support, the Yugoslavia government certainly does not have this ability, but with the support of the Soviet Union and France, it is not difficult to achieve this.
General Koshutich continued, "We, the Soviet Union, and France have the same interests on the German issue, so if they want Yugoslavia to withstand the pressure from Germany, they must provide us with unreserved support in all fields."
"We can sign a military alliance with France, and the two countries will advance and retreat together, while the Soviet Union will sign a secret agreement."
After all, there is a certain difference in Yugoslavia's attitude towards France and the Soviet Union. If France is not an option, then President Koshutich will definitely not take into account the political system of the Soviet Union.
However, the Soviet Union is an unpopular country in the international community after all, so it would be best for Yugoslavia to secretly form an alliance with the Soviet Union.
The commander Macek Foreign Ministry nodded and said, "I don't think the Soviet Union will mind us doing this. After all, the only country the Soviet Union can choose in the entire European continent is us."
Yugoslavia After all, France is an option, and the Soviet Union cannot find a completely trustworthy ally in the world, let alone in Europe.
This is also the basis for Yugoslavia to cooperate with the Soviet Union.
President Koshutich continued, "As for the Kingdom of Dalmatia you mentioned before, we should really make a break with Kingdom of Dalmatia!"
"The existence of Kingdom of Dalmatia is an established fact, and East Africa is standing behind it. There is no need for us to play house with them on historical issues."
"It's time to resolve the territorial issue between the two countries. We can make a compromise with Kingdom of Dalmatia and determine the border between the two countries."
"However, Kingdom of Dalmatia should also make concessions to us in the field of transportation, especially the original Dalmatia and Bosnia railways, which should be restored. This is very important for us to accept assistance from France and the Soviet Union in the future."
"If a war breaks out with Germany in the future, Zagreb's position is not safe. We must use Bosnia and Serbia as our strategic rear."
"Especially the mountainous areas of Bosnia and Serbia, I think this is the focus of our defense projects."
Croatia is too close to Germany, and Zagreb, as the capital, is only more than 100 kilometers away from the German border.
This also means that if a war breaks out between the two countries, Zagreb will immediately become a frontline and there is a risk of falling. To put it harshly, this risk is almost 100%.
President Koshutich does not think that Yugoslavia can withstand Germans's troops in Zagreb, and even the entire Croatia cannot do this.
It is precisely for this reason that Koshutich understands better that if Yugoslavia wants to compete with Germany, it must make full use of the terrain advantages, that is, the mountainous areas to the south of the original Austro-Hungarian Empire Bosnia and Serbia.
In this way, the Yugoslavia government must ensure that Serbs and they stand firmly on the same front, because Bosnia and Serbia South itself have an absolute majority of Serbs.
Although there is no distinction between Croats and Serbs on the surface, this is only on the surface. After all, it was too late for Yugoslavia to become independent. It is difficult for the two nations to truly have no grudges.