African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1061: The Age of Dreadnoughts

As time went by, the East African Navy had built two dreadnoughts by 1908, second only to the wealthy British Royal Navy. Although dreadnoughts were more advanced warships than pre-dreadnoughts, the number of two and a half ships was obviously not enough to control the overall situation.

Currently, the two dreadnoughts of the East African Navy are deployed in the Indian Ocean Fleet, while the quasi-dreadnought Bagamoyo belongs to the Atlantic Fleet, which also reflects the core position of the Indian Ocean in East Africa's maritime strategy.

In fact, the popularity of dreadnoughts spread very quickly. In 1907, both Germany and Austria-Hungary had begun building their own dreadnoughts. The technology of the Austro-Hungarian Navy mainly came from East Africa, while Germany's technology was mainly a combination of its own technology and a very small part of East African technology.

Including the United Kingdom, there are already four countries in the world that own dreadnoughts. Other countries, except France, which prefers cruisers and other types of ships, also plan to join the race.

The country that was most troubled by this result was Britain. At the same time, the fact that East Africa, Germany and Austria-Hungary successively possessed dreadnoughts also caused a small tension in the "German" threat theory among countries around the world.

The combined number of dreadnoughts of the three countries was greater than that of Britain. For this reason, Britain increased its dreadnought and battlecruiser construction plans in 1907.

The difference between a battlecruiser and a dreadnought is mainly reflected in speed. Battlecruisers are more maneuverable. Currently, only the United Kingdom owns battlecruisers.

Germany followed closely behind and began building battlecruisers in 1908, which were expected to be launched next year. In this regard, East Africa was slightly behind.

Of course, the boundary between the two types of warships is not actually too clear, mainly because of the different focuses. In the view of the East African Navy, the battlecruiser is more of a transitional product.

In the past, Britain, the United States, Germany, Japan and other countries had different positioning of battlecruisers. Fisher, the inventor of the battlecruiser, believed that the battlecruiser was a battleship, while some people believed that the battlecruiser was a large heavy cruiser.

There are different opinions on battlecruisers within the East African Navy, but adhering to the principle of "if others have it, I have it too", the Navy is also actively developing this type of ship. However, East Africa still has a certain gap in national strength and technological level compared with Britain and Germany, so it cannot be formed for the time being.

The reason why East Africa was able to follow closely in terms of dreadnoughts was that it had the Bagamoyo as a foundation and was the result of early layout. However, as long as Britain and Germany adjust their development direction, they will soon catch up. This also reflects the current gap between the East African Navy and the world's top naval powers.

Of course, this is mainly the result of the gap in financial resources and industrial base. In the field of shipbuilding, East Africa is at most at an upper-middle level, while the United Kingdom is undoubtedly ranked first in the world in this field. Germany has experienced a technological explosion in recent years and has a strong industrial base, making German shipbuilding no less inferior to that of the United Kingdom. Apart from the two countries, the United States ranks third in the world.

As for other countries, I won't mention Russia and Austria-Hungary. Their navies and armies were disappointing. France also found it difficult to keep up with Britain, the United States and Germany. The main reason was that after the Franco-Prussian War, France's industrial development was not ideal, at least compared with Germany. France did not have the strong financial resources like Britain for its navy to squander, which led to the French navy being in a mediocre position.

In the East African naval development plan, the main reference is still the British Navy. Due to different national conditions, there are certain cognitive differences between the East African and German navies.

As a country bordering two oceans, East Africa attaches more importance to long-distance warfare, while Germany lacks the motivation in this regard. Therefore, the East African Navy believes that battlecruisers are a type of ship suitable for long-distance force deployment, especially against countries with weak naval strength, and have great deterrent power.

At the same time, because of the different focus from battleships, differentiation can enable the two main battleships to play more tactics, so the East African Navy is determined to obtain battlecruisers.

In short, after 1905, the East African Navy began to accelerate its development in all aspects. In terms of expectations, the East African Navy did not seek the position of the world's first navy, but to ensure that East Africa would not fall out of the first echelon. With the development of naval military competition, in fact, many countries have gradually failed to keep up with the development speed of the British, German and American navies, such as France, Austria-Hungary and Russia.

The East African Navy has just started to make efforts. After all, East Africa did not participate in the naval military competition in the pre-dreadnought era. This allows the East African Navy to devote more energy to the dreadnought era. According to past experience, dreadnoughts can be used at least until World War II and were only replaced by aircraft carriers in the middle and late stages of World War II. Therefore, East Africa does not have to worry about directly withdrawing from the stage of history in this track in the short term due to technological changes.

The current direct goal of the East African Navy is to reach the top five level in the world. Now the East African Navy should be in the seventh position, behind Britain, Germany, the United States, France, Japan and Russia. Although the Russian Navy suffered a great loss in the Russo-Japanese War and lost more than half of its navy, its total tonnage still ranks ahead of the East African Navy.

However, the Russian Navy and the Japanese Navy are unlikely to recover in the next few years, so the country that East Africa really wants to surpass should be France.

If the East African Navy surpasses that of France, it can be foreseen that France's international status will really be replaced by East Africa, because in terms of total industrial output and other aspects, East Africa has already surpassed France. Currently, East Africa's industrial competitors are mainly the United Kingdom, which ranks third in the world.

Of course, Britain has certainly fallen behind Germany and the United States in the industrial field, but in terms of economy it may be on par with Germany.

In fact, Russia's total economic output may be higher than France's, but due to factors such as population and industry, Russia has only size but not quality. So in general, it can be considered that France's national strength is higher than Russia's, at least in terms of efficiency and utilization.

With France's organizational ability and military strength, if it fights a war with Russia, France can at least have an advantage in the early and middle stages. This is mainly based on the experience of the First World War in the previous life. After all, France and Germany were evenly matched in the First World War, and Germany suppressed Russia militarily on the Eastern Front.

Of course, with Russia's size, there is a high probability that it will be able to turn defeat into victory. After all, the main reason for Russia's defeat in World War I was the turbulent domestic situation, and Russia's war potential was not fully reflected.

Therefore, the national strength of Russia and France is similar, and East Africa and France also have their own advantages and disadvantages, but comparing Russia and East Africa will give a different result.

Currently, Russia's military strength is above that of East Africa, at least on paper. Russia's army has always maintained a strength of over one million, while East Africa's is less than half of Russia's. The fact that the Russian navy lost nearly half of its strength after the Russo-Japanese War but still has a larger total than East Africa is very telling.

Of course, in reality, Russia's military strength is definitely not as good as that of East Africa, such as weapons and equipment, mobilization capabilities, etc. What's more, the East African army has initially achieved motorization, and the navy has also caught up with the trend of dreadnoughts. It is only a matter of time before it surpasses the Russian navy.

Putting aside the military field, East Africa is crushing Russia. On the one hand, the scale of East Africa's industry is larger than that of Russia, and on the other hand, the quality of East Africa's industrial development is also better than that of Russia.

It is not easy to compare the industries of France and Russia, after all, the two countries have different sizes. However, it is different between East Africa and Russia. Many quantities of the two countries can be directly compared. Both are large countries with an area of ​​over 10 million square kilometers and a population that is not much different. Therefore, the comparison between East Africa and Russia is more obvious.

Basically, it can be said that Russia has many advantages over Europe, which East Africa also has, but some of Russia's disadvantages may not be the case for East Africa.

(End of this chapter)