African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1029 Defense Industry
This structural change is the inevitable result of East Africa's development in line with its national conditions. In the past, East Africa planted a large amount of wheat, which was actually affected by the source of immigrants.

The early immigrant population in East Africa came from Europe or the northern Far East Empire (mainly the Huanghuai Plain). The food grain traditions of these two places greatly influenced the development of early agriculture in East Africa.

However, as a tropical country, East Africa has the conditions to grow wheat like India, but in the final analysis it is more suitable for rice cultivation, but rice cultivation is highly dependent on water resources.

The early territory of East Africa was mainly Tanzania and Kenya in the previous life. Because many places were relatively dry or had poor water conservancy facilities, it was naturally more reasonable to plant drought-resistant crops such as wheat and millet.

Now the water conservancy construction in East Africa is relatively complete, and with the incorporation of water-rich areas such as Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, or the Great Lakes region into the East African territory, it is natural that the scale of rice cultivation will expand.

Similarly, the planting area of ​​high-yield crops such as corn and potatoes in East Africa is also expanding. The overall latitude and climate of East Africa are actually similar to those of South America, so the two main food crops in South America are also widely planted in East Africa.

As for the crop of potato, although Siberian potatoes are more famous, the world's potato home is still South America. Peru and Chile are both famous potato kingdoms, with thousands of potato varieties alone. East Africa has naturally also introduced some potato varieties. It has to be said that the Native Americans have made important contributions to modern agriculture.

In contrast, among the indigenous Africans, only the Abyssinians, apart from the Egyptians, cultivated teff suitable for large-scale cultivation.

This also indirectly shows that Africa's latitude is not an excuse for Africa's agricultural crop cultivation to lag behind other continents. It's just that Africa, as a chosen land, has made the most basic form of hunting and gathering agriculture too deeply rooted, so that the indigenous people of Africa have no motivation to develop the planting industry.

This also led to the early grain crop cultivation in East Africa being introduced in large quantities from other regions, and it was almost impossible to find native grain varieties.

In general, the changes in the grain production structure in East Africa are due, on the one hand, to changes in the country's agricultural production situation, and on the other hand, to positive feedback on international grain demand. Currently, agricultural development in East Africa has moved from having enough to eating to eating well.

Under this general situation, it becomes very reasonable for East Africa to introduce high-quality wheat or livestock products from Eastern Europe and South America.

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In addition to light and heavy industries and agriculture, East Africa's defense industry also achieved remarkable results during the First Five-Year Plan.

During the First Five-Year Plan, the East African aviation industry officially started. From 1901 to 1904, the East African government invested in the construction of three aircraft manufacturing plants. This is one of the biggest highlights of the national defense industry. The current aircraft manufacturing industry is obviously completely focused on meeting military needs.

As for the civil aviation industry, even if an East African branch line is opened, it is estimated that no one would dare to take it, at least Ernst himself would not dare to do so. We have to wait until the technology is mature, and the current aircraft capacity does not meet the standards.

In addition to East Africa, other countries in the world also developed aviation industries. The early development of the aviation industry was mainly represented by France. As early as 1784, the Robert brothers in France built the first airship in human history. In 1851, the Frenchman Giffard solved the power problem of the airship and became the inventor of the powered airship. In 1884, the "France" electric motor airship completed its first landing back to the take-off site. The hot air balloon before the airship was also the first to be developed by the French.

Of course, the person who brought airships to the pinnacle of the aviation industry in the past was Count Zeppelin of Germany. The Zeppelin airship could be said to be the only practical airship used on a large scale in the civil aviation industry before the advent of airplanes. In other words, it is not an exaggeration to say that the emergence of the Zeppelin airship opened up the emerging industry of civil aviation.

At present, the development direction of aircraft in the mainstream industrial countries in the world is still mainly airships, while East Africa has taken the lead in turning to airplanes. This is a different technology tree, and the gap between the two will be reflected in a few years. At present, the main customers of East African aircraft are other government departments besides the military. At present, the Meteorological Bureau or the Ministry of Agriculture are very interested in aircraft, but they have only purchased two to test the waters. The military still has to pay for the bulk of the purchase, so now the aviation industry is completely controlled by the defense industry department.

The second highlight of the defense industry is the development of automobiles and armored vehicles. East Africa's automobile manufacturing industry has developed to a relatively large scale, ranking first in the world and far ahead of other countries.

As for the research and development of armored vehicles, the progress is also accelerating. It is worth mentioning that the current development of armored forces in East Africa is still relatively conservative. Although the products are relatively mature, they are somewhat expensive, so they are only equipped on a small scale in the army. This also makes East African cavalry still the mainstream of mobile forces.

However, as the army infantry is equipped with vehicles on a large scale, the disadvantages of the cavalry are becoming increasingly obvious. Currently, there are only three armored units in East Africa, and the cavalry units will definitely be completely replaced in the future.

In addition to the high-tech that the East African Army has mastered, East Africa is also gradually improving in the production of rifles, artillery and other military industries. This is mainly because the widespread use of alloys has greatly improved the upper limit of East African military industry quality. Originally, the gap between East Africa and Europe and the United States in the basic military industry of the army was not large. With breakthroughs in East Africa's military scientific research field and abundant talent advantages, the East African Army can now be said to be the most advanced in the world.

The only unfavorable factor restricting the development of the East African Army is "peace". Without the promotion of war, the military reforms in East Africa will naturally not be too radical. This is also the main reason why the East African cavalry can be retained.

Compared with the army, the development of the navy seems not so leisurely. The navies of countries around the world are developing rapidly, and shipbuilding technology is changing with each passing day. This means that although East Africa has not participated in the naval arms race, the naval technology competition has never been interrupted.

Moreover, the East African shipbuilding industry developed relatively late, which means that the East African shipbuilding industry has a lot of lessons to learn, and the same is true for the military shipbuilding industry.

The development of East Africa's military shipbuilding industry is relatively independent, but it has only been in recent years that the gap with the great powers has been truly narrowed. It has also benefited from the technological boom in East Africa.

The Navy is already at the world's top level in the manufacturing of two major military ships, submarines and battleships. However, the development of the East African battleship is currently affected by the Russo-Japanese War and is temporarily at a standstill. The navies of Japan and Russia are needed to provide more data in order to infer the future direction of naval technology development.

However, this time will not be too long. According to the navy department's estimate, the decisive battle between the Japanese and Russian navies should be around May to June this year, which is the approximate time when the Russian navy enters the East Asian waters.

The development direction of battleships has been tested by the navies of Japan and Russia, but there is no clear reference for submarine construction. Benefiting from the first-mover advantage, East African domestically produced submarines are currently the most advanced in the world. Among other countries in the world, France and Germany are most interested in the role of submarines.

The main reason why Germany's naval high-ranking officials wanted to find a new way to assist battleships in fighting against the British Navy was that their strong strength in the field of science and technology made it easy to achieve results. However, France felt that it was somewhat powerless in the naval competition.

Battleships are expensive to build, and France's rivals, Britain and Germany, have more advantages than France. As for other countries, they do not pay much attention to submarine research and development, or are unable to do so.

After all, military research and development has technical and financial thresholds, and basically only the world's powerful countries can afford it.

(End of this chapter)