African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1082 Industrial Axis
This round of East African National Canal plan still follows the previous idea, by building a number of new artificial waterways to connect the national water network and indirectly achieve the goal of river-sea transport.

Including the canal projects built in East Africa before, once the East African national canal plan is realized, the total length of East Africa’s artificial canals will reach an astonishing 5,000 kilometers. It should be noted that the length of the Congo River is only more than 4,000 kilometers. If these artificial canals are connected in series, it would be no less than digging a Yellow River.

Of course, there are examples of horrific projects like the one in East Africa. The Soviet Union and the Far East Empire in the past could be described as "insane" in their canal construction, which is incomprehensible to most Western countries.

The Karakum Canal built by the Soviet Union in Central Asia alone is more than 1,400 kilometers long. The Soviet Union also built the White Sea-Baltic Canal, the Volga-Don Canal and other artificial canal projects. The Far Eastern Empire was even more of a canal construction "maniac", and has never stopped similar projects from ancient times to the present.

Of course, the East African National Canal project is mainly biased towards shipping, and Ernst's main purpose is to reduce the cost of transportation in the country.

With the rise of East Africa's own industry and transportation industries, East Africa is also facing severe problems with energy issues. Therefore, the diversification of public transportation modes is an important guarantee for the economic and transportation strategic security of East African countries.

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Before one wave of troubles subsides, another wave of trouble arises. The East African Navy's trip to South America has attracted the attention of the British. Ever since East Africa caused trouble in the Persian Gulf region last year, Britain has been dissatisfied with East Africa, and East Africa's diplomatic activities in South America can be said to have once again irritated the British.

Since the 19th century, Britain has been trying to expand its influence in South America. For example, Britain invaded Rio de Janeiro in the early 19th century. Although it ultimately failed, Britain's infiltration into South America has never stopped. Later, the Guano War and the Paraguayan War were both inseparable from the shadow of Britain.

By the end of the 19th century, Britain had actually controlled the South American economy and became the largest investor in South America. Moreover, Britain's economic colonization of South America was more aggressive than in history.

The main reason for this result is the rise of East Africa. We must know that when the British Empire was finally formed in the past, Africa, especially East Africa today, occupied a large part of its territory. Uganda, Rhodesia, Kenya, South Africa, etc. are all called the "crown jewels" by the British.

The emergence of East Africa can be said to have cut off most of Britain's interests in Africa. Although Britain's colonies in West Africa were retained, it faced fierce competition from a number of European and American countries.

As a result, Britain can only shift its attention to other parts of the world, and South America is undoubtedly a piece of fat meat. Although most of the South American countries are ruled by Spain or Portugal, the two countries are now in decline. Portugal has been crippled by East Africa, and Spain has been half-dead by the United States. This also provides more favorable conditions for Britain's infiltration into South America.

Britain's infiltration into South American countries has made it the country with the largest interests in South America. The activities in East Africa will obviously not make the British happy.

Asquith, the current British Prime Minister, said: "In the past two years, East Africa has been very active in the world. It is clear that East Africans are behind the unrest in the Persian Gulf region. Now East Africa is reaching out to South America. These two regions happen to be where the empire's interests lie."

There is no way around it. As the world's largest colonial power, Britain's influence is spread throughout the world. It can be said that any changes in most countries or regions will involve the interests of the British.

Take East Africa as an example. East Africa is surrounded by British colonies or economic colonies in the four directions of east, south, west and north. Egypt in the north, the Persian Gulf and India in the northeast, British West Africa in the northwest, Australia in the east, South Africa in the south, and South America in the west are also British economic colonies.

No matter where East Africa expands or extends its influence, it will inevitably have an impact on Britain.

Finance Minister George said: "East Africa has been evil since its birth. At least the incompetence of the government has led to its expansion on the African continent. In recent years, East Africa's industry has developed rapidly, even causing a certain impact on the Chinese market. Many cars produced in East Africa can be seen on the streets of London."

"This also means that East Africa's industrial capacity has developed to a certain extent. From a global perspective, Germany, the United States and East Africa have formed an axis of new industrial power, and the empire is surrounded by these three emerging industrial powers." In fact, East Africa, the United States and Germany are the three major centers of the Second Industrial Revolution. It's just that East Africa's industrial foundation is far inferior to that of the United States and Germany, so the East African center began to fully exert its strength after the 20th century.

At this point, Asquith frowned and said, "The Empire has successfully fought against many challengers in the past, but there are always new forces rising up and posing new challenges to the Empire's hegemony. Germany, the United States and East Africa are representatives of this new type of forces, and their threats are even greater than those of France, Austria-Hungary and Russia."

France, Austria-Hungary and Russia can be said to be Britain's former competitors. France has been greatly weakened by the Franco-Prussian War, and Austria-Hungary is even more of a hopeless case and no longer poses a threat. As for Russia, it can only lick its wounds after its defeat in the Russo-Japanese War.

Britain's last move was to support Japan in dealing a huge blow to Russia, causing this powerful competitor of British hegemony to be defeated.

However, no matter how strong Britain's diplomatic and military capabilities are, once it is caught up in this endless competition, it seems powerless.

"Germany still has countries on the European continent to check and balance it, but the United States and East Africa are the real big troubles. They are outside the control of the empire, and we do not have good countermeasures to check and balance these two countries." Asquith said.

In fact, Britain is well aware of the threat posed by the United States. After all, in recent years, the United States has been causing no less trouble around the world than in East Africa.

The Spanish-American War marked the beginning of the outward expansion of American power, and the United States then infiltrated into Central and South America and the Far East.

East Africa and the United States are like two sickles, frantically harvesting political influence in regions outside of Europe, one in the south and one in the north, one in the east and one in the west, and the first to bear the brunt is Britain, the dominant power in the current world order.

George said on the side: "It is impossible for the United States to be completely suppressed. As for East Africa, perhaps we can still think of a way. After all, its development time is short and it has not yet reached the strength and status of the United States."

Asquith sighed and said, "That's a bit taken for granted. In fact, the United States is easier to deal with than East Africa, because at least we can have an impact on the US economy and politics, while East Africa is like a copper wall and iron wall that is difficult to penetrate."

"East Africa is arguably the world's most closed country. If East Africa were like Russia, perhaps we wouldn't have so many troubles."

Russia's economy is controlled by foreign countries, which is Russia's fatal flaw. Other countries can use economic sanctions and other means to make Russia behave itself, but this is obviously not the case in East Africa. The UK has done so before, but observing the development of East Africa over the past decade or so, it is clear that it has not had much effect.

After the South African War, war was no longer within Britain's consideration. Britain essentially hoped to restrict East Africa's industrial development through economic sanctions, but the opposite happened, and East Africa became increasingly powerful.

What impressed the British most was the emergence of the East African dreadnought. At that time, Britain's first dreadnought had just been launched, and East Africa followed closely behind, becoming the second country in the world to own a dreadnought. It was hard for East Africa not to attract Britain's attention.

Britain is naturally well aware of the difficulty of manufacturing such a powerful weapon. It is almost impossible to achieve without a strong shipbuilding foundation. East Africa had dreadnoughts almost at the same time as Britain. Does that mean that in a certain sense, East Africa's shipbuilding industry is no less advanced than Britain's?

(End of this chapter)