African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1253 Indo-Pacific Bridge
Although East Africa has always attached importance to the military's tropical jungle combat training since the 1970s, it has basically been carried out in the local tropical rainforest areas and lacks large-scale combat experience.

East Kalimantan is a real battlefield, which has profoundly tested the tropical jungle combat capabilities of East African armies over the past two years.

As for the final result, it can only be said that it was barely above the passing line. In order to encircle and wipe out the remnants of the two sultanates, the casualty data in East Africa was not too good.

This is not surprising, after all, Ernst knew very well that East Africa's colonization in the Southeast Asian region was different from that of other countries.

Other countries emphasize winning people over with "virtue". As long as they can appease the local upper class and make them willing to serve other countries, fierce wars and conflicts will basically not break out.

The most typical example is India. For example, some uprisings and riots in India were resolved on their own by Indian princes and nobles without even the need for the British to intervene.

The two actually have a symbiotic relationship, and they unite together to parasitize on the grassroots people. To put it simply, they are the imperialist powers and the compradors they support.

They can coexist, so there is no need for them to fight to the death.

On the other hand, it is different in East Africa. Its colonial activities in Southeast Asia do not require the support of compradors at all. East Africa has always implemented the policy of "removing people and keeping the land".

This also means that local forces will work together to fight against East Africa, their mortal enemy.

Cristiano said: "As long as the Isthmus of Kra is dealt with, the empire's colonial system in the Southeast Asia region will be basically formed. At this time, whether or not the Strait of Malacca is controlled will no longer be a decisive factor for East Africa."

After all, the Strait of Malacca is not the only route from East Africa to the South Pacific. In fact, the East African Navy can also take the Sunda Strait between Sumatra and Java.

Even the fastest route from East Africa to the Lan Fang overseas province is the Sunda Strait, while going through the Strait of Malacca requires a longer route.

This is mainly related to the geographical location of East Africa. East Africa straddles the equator, with its territory extending to both sides, while its economy and population are concentrated in the south, as are its ports.

For example, the thousands of miles of coastline in Somalia is difficult to utilize and develop. In addition to factors such as desert areas and small populations, the Somali coastline is too smooth and lacks good ports.

However, if the ship departs from southern East Africa, the Sunda Strait is actually closer, and the significance of the Malacca Strait to Europe and Asia is greater.

Cristiano said: "The Sunda Strait is one of the alternatives to the Strait of Malacca. In addition, there are other channels between the Dutch East Indies. Our early acquisition of the Isthmus of Kra further strengthens our strategic security between the East Indian Ocean and the South China Sea."

"But the Sunda Strait is not in our hands after all. It is controlled by the Dutch. Although the Netherlands and the UK are two countries, we also have to consider the possibility of being sanctioned by both countries at the same time, although this possibility is very small."

The Netherlands certainly did not have the courage to do so, otherwise East Africa would not have been able to take East Kalimantan from the Netherlands so easily, and even the original Lan Fang overseas province was within the Dutch sphere of influence.

If the Netherlands dared to blockade the Sunda Strait, the entire East Indies would probably be in chaos the next day.

"So the establishment of the Isthmus of Kra means that the empire has three stable and economically significant channels between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea."

"The connectivity security issues between the mainland and the South China Sea have been basically resolved, thus expanding the effective radiation range of our navy from the mainland to the East Indian Ocean and the South China Sea."

"The Indian Ocean Fleet is ready to provide effective support for any conflict in the South China Sea."

"The role of the Isthmus of Kra is to provide us with a strategic support point in the eastern Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Siam."

"As long as the Isthmus of Kra is in hand, other countries will not be able to cut off the communication and material supply between the Empire and the Pacific Fleet." In the past, the biggest threat faced by the Pacific Fleet was the cutting off of sea transport channels. After all, the Pacific Fleet was not small in scale, and the supply of materials was too dependent on the Strait of Malacca and the Sunda Strait.

This would be tantamount to handing over the Pacific Fleet's logistical supply lines to the British and the Dutch, and East Africa would certainly not tolerate this risk continuing.

But the situation is different with the Isthmus of Kra. Even though the Tabihe Plain is not included in the territory of the Isthmus of Kra, it is impossible for East Africa to pay the high cost to build the Kra Canal.

The fact that the Kra Canal was proposed in the past shows that it is still cost-effective. After all, it can indeed shorten the shipping distance between Eurasia.

In the absence of the Tabernacle Plain, building a Kra Canal would cost several times more. Although East Africa is not incapable of construction, it will certainly not do such a loss-making business.

Cristiano said: "The Isthmus of Kra Territory can build an Indo-Pacific road bridge to connect East Africa between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean through rail and road transportation."

"This way we can secure the ports on the east side of the Isthmus of Kra and maintain a potential route for supplies and trade through land transportation."

"This requires us to build shipyards, oil depots, war reserve material warehouses, etc. in the eastern part of the Isthmus of Kra to provide supplies and ship maintenance services to the Pacific Fleet at any time."

"And the cost is that we only need to build one or more 100-kilometer roads to achieve our goal. The narrowest part of the Kra Isthmus is only about 100 kilometers, and it is impossible to go more than 200 kilometers if we bypass the complex terrain."

One thing that needs to be made clear here is that the Isthmus of Kra and the Isthmus of Kra Territory in East Africa are two completely different concepts.

The Isthmus of Kra includes the territories of three countries: Siam, East Africa, and Britain, and the Territory of the Isthmus of Kra is simply East Africa's description of its own colonial area on the Isthmus of Kra.

If it is the Kra Isthmus, its narrowest part is actually only more than 50 kilometers, but this narrowest part is not within the territory of the Kra Isthmus in East Africa.

Instead, it was Chumphon and Ranong provinces in Siam to the north, which were the areas that the British tried hard to prevent East Africa from obtaining. If East Africa obtained these two areas, it would only need to build a 100-kilometer canal to connect the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean.

As for other regions, if East Africa continues to implement the canal plan, it will take at least two to three hundred kilometers, and it will not be able to use the waterway of the Bi River.

In other words, if the Tabi River Plain had fallen into the hands of East Africa, East Africa would have only needed to dig an artificial river channel of several dozen kilometers and then build a number of infrastructure such as locks and dams to achieve this goal. After all, using the original channel of the Tabi River could save a lot of costs.

In other words, the scale of the project was not much larger than that of the Panama Canal, and Sir Clare of Britain at the time naturally saw this, so he tried his best to prevent East Africa from achieving this goal.

Of course, East Africa, or at least Ernst himself, had no intention of building the Kra Canal from the beginning. After all, East Africa could have chosen to bypass the Sunda Strait, or choose the farther eastern part of Java Island to bypass the Strait of Malacca, such as the Lombok Strait.

This is also what the East African Navy is actively doing. It can be said that the hydrological and geographical data of the East Indies waters mastered by the East African Navy is much more than what the Netherlands has accumulated in hundreds of years.

Some merchant ships from East Africa would not choose to take the detour through the Strait of Malacca if they were not restricted by the poor infrastructure conditions in the Sunda Strait.

After all, before East Africa, there were basically not many ships choosing this route through the Sunda Strait, so the urban infrastructure conditions on both sides of the Sunda Strait were far inferior to those of the Strait of Malacca.

Cristiano finally said: "Through land construction, connecting the two sides of the Kra Isthmus, this is a very short land bridge, which we call the Indo-Pacific Road Bridge."

Although the Indo-Pacific Road Bridge is an important channel connecting the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean, it does not have the amazing span of a continental bridge, which can easily be thousands of kilometers. Instead, it is only more than 100 kilometers, so it can only be said to be a road bridge.

(End of this chapter)