African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1184 Take All
In fact, the Sahara Railway is a completely feasible project. At least Ernst knows it very well. After all, in his previous life, the railways in Egypt and Sudan were connected, and in this time and space, East Africa has already expanded the railway to the city of Gezira. So as long as Egypt and Britain are dealt with, there will be no obstacles to the construction of this railway.

The easiest route is to connect to the Mediterranean Sea through Egypt, thanks entirely to the existence of the Nile River. If other regions are chosen, such as construction in Libya, the difficulty and economic benefits will also make East Africa retreat.

Not only is the distance long, but the climatic conditions are more severe, and there is no more densely populated area like the Nile River to recover the cost.

Of course, if it involves mineral resources, that’s another story. There are precedents. In the past, Mauritania built a railway deep into the Sahara Desert to develop its own iron ore resources.

Ernst did not completely deny the possibility of other routes. He told senior government officials: "If we go through Libya, it is not impossible, but the premise is that Libya has enough resources that we are interested in."

"Although Libya's economy and population are basically distributed along the northern coast, this does not mean that there are no resources in the vast desert in the heart of Libya."

"After all, the Libyan region covers an area of ​​more than one million square kilometers. With such a large land area, even the desert must contain rich mineral deposits."

In fact, Ernst's conclusion is completely correct. In addition to oil, Libya also has very rich reserves of minerals such as iron, potassium salt, manganese, phosphate, copper, tin, sulfur, and kaolin.

It’s just that Libya’s oil resources are so prominent that many people tend to overlook other mineral resources in the Libyan region, and Ernst is one of them.

Of course, the difficulty of developing these mining resources in desert areas is obviously much greater than in other areas. After all, the mining industry requires a large population, and desert areas generally lack water resources to supply the production and life of a large population.

Ernst went on to say: "Libya is a French colony, but France's control over Libya is mainly concentrated in the coastal areas. We can send professionals to the southern part of Libya bordering southern Germany to conduct surveys. Maybe we can use it in the future."

Libya does not border East Africa, but rather borders the South German Kingdom, a vassal state of East Africa. The South German Kingdom even annexed a lot of Libya's land in the previous life.

Therefore, if East Africa has the idea of ​​building the western line of the Sahara Railway in the future, it cannot bypass the Kingdom of South Germany. If it goes through Sudan, it is certainly feasible, but there are also closeness and distance between countries, and East Africa will definitely favor the Kingdom of South Germany more.

The discussion about the "Sahara Railway" ends here. According to the current international situation, geopolitics, natural environment and other factors, it is impossible for the East African government to build the Sahara Railway.

Of course, Ernst still left some suspense for some people. After all, the Sahara Desert is in the north of East Africa. If East Africa wants to strengthen its influence on North Africa in the future, the Sahara railway plan may not be impossible to achieve.

Although the Sahara Desert is vast, if the Sahara Railway is really built, its length will only be three to four thousand kilometers, which is not too long. If the Egyptian route plan, that is, the eastern line plan, is chosen, its length will only be more than two thousand kilometers.

Back to the point, the wild idea of ​​the Sahara Railway was proposed at the East African government conference mainly to circumvent British restrictions on trade between East Africa and Europe.

Therefore, the primary goal of the East African government at this stage is to ensure smooth shipping routes as much as possible and safeguard the interests of East African countries.

Ernst said: "The Sahara Railway cannot solve the problem. The railway capacity is limited and the cost is too high. Especially in the desert area, the maintenance cost is hard to imagine. Even if we plan to build this railway now, it will probably take several years. By that time, the war in Europe may be over. So it is totally not worth it. So let's think of other solutions."

In the final analysis, it was the British who did nothing, which also shows the advantage of a maritime power. By controlling several core shipping routes, Britain can block the materials and trade of most countries. Take the overseas colonies in East Africa as an example. Britain only needs to cut off the Strait of Malacca to isolate East Africa from colonies in Southeast Asia, Alaska, the South Pacific, etc., and also cut off trade between East Africa and the Far East Empire.

What's more, Britain also has Gibraltar, Cape of Good Hope, the English Channel, the North Sea, the Falkland Islands near the Drake and Magellan Straits, etc. In addition, there are many important islands such as Malta, Cyprus, Seychelles, etc., coupled with the Royal Navy, this is the foundation for Britain to become the world hegemon.

However, East Africa does not have any important sea routes like the Suez Canal, Gibraltar and Malacca Strait, so it is now in a very passive position.

In the past few decades, East Africa has not planned the places that Britain cares about the most, such as the South African War, which is related to the Cape of Good Hope, so East Africa has not completed the attack.

If these core areas of Britain were really touched, Britain would not be declaring war on Germany, but on East Africa. After all, even if the European continent was unified, it would at most cause serious damage to Britain. However, if these strategic locations overseas were lost, Britain's hegemony would be really over.

Of course, East Africa does not want to confront the powerful Britain. The resources that Britain can mobilize are still very huge. Under the accumulated power over hundreds of years, Britain's overseas colonies are still very loyal, such as South Africa, Australia, India, Canada and other loyal dogs of Britain.

If Britain uses all its strength to deal with East Africa, East Africa will definitely not feel good. Of course, what East Africa cannot accept is that East Africa and Britain fight to the death, and in the end it will benefit the United States, Japan, Germany or France, Russia and other countries.

So it is easy to destroy the old system, but the ultimate beneficiary is not East Africa, and East Africa would rather the old world system continue to survive.

Germany is a typical case. Today, Germany is a warrior challenging the old world order. But even if Germany can achieve final victory, the gains of East Africa and the United States will definitely not be inferior.

If this really happens, East Africa will definitely be the first to take advantage of Britain's misfortune and inherit Britain's legacy in Egypt, India, South Africa, Australia and other places around the Indian Ocean.

That would be equivalent to East Africa directly controlling the trade in Eurasia and controlling the two continents of Africa and Australia. Even if Germany unified Europe at this time, East Africa would in fact become the new British Empire.

Therefore, as long as East Africa does not give up, no matter whether the Allies or the Central Powers win in the end, East Africa will be the biggest beneficiary, which even the United States cannot compare to.

After all, the United States could at most reap a lot of economic benefits from the European war, but could not make any further progress in politics and territory. This had actually been reflected in the early stages of the war.

As the war has developed to this stage, in addition to gaining huge economic benefits, East Africa has also successfully imported military power into West Africa, the Persian Gulf, the South Pacific and other regions, accompanied by the rapid expansion of East Africa's overseas territories, achieving overall dominance in the economic, political, and military aspects.

The United States cannot do this, which is determined by its geographical location. After all, the United States is too far away from the world island. In fact, Africa can also be regarded as part of the world island. After all, Africa borders the Eurasian continent, and North Africa in the Mediterranean has always been an indispensable part of Western civilization.

Therefore, if East Africa's geographical location can be utilized, it will be in no way inferior to the Middle East, which is the crossroads of the world. After all, the crossroads of the world also means a place of war, which has both advantages and disadvantages for the Middle East. However, East Africa is relatively safe and has certain transportation advantages.

After East Africa has integrated its local resources, it has been in a position where it can attack or defend. At least in Ernst's view, East Africa's geographical location is very good.

(End of this chapter)