African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1290 Strategic Location
Ambassador Thomson said: "Your country is of great significance to regional stability, and we in France are willing to support East Africa in playing a greater role in the Indian Ocean. I just don't know what your country's development strategy in the Indian Ocean is."

Diplomacy is a step-by-step process of testing, so even if Thomson decided to make friends with East Africa, he would not easily make any promises to East Africa.

He used East Africa's Indian Ocean strategy as a wedge to open the next topic, making it easier to reach an agreement with East Africa.

In response to Ambassador Thomson's question, Freer understood what he meant. He pretended to be helpless and said, "Although East Africa is based in the Indian Ocean and is a major power in the region, we have always lacked strategic locations in the Indian Ocean, which makes us very passive in the Indian Ocean."

"For example, the Suez Canal, which connects the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, is controlled by the British. The British also have a profound influence on both sides of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, which is second only to the Suez Canal."

"Our east coast of East Africa is also threatened to some extent, such as the Socotra Islands, the Seychelles Islands, the Maldives Islands, the Chagos Islands, etc., which makes us very passive."

The Socotra Islands are islands in the Gulf of Aden. They belonged to Yemen in the past. They are located at the intersection of the Gulf of Aden and the Arabian Sea. They are also a bridgehead for controlling the Red Sea shipping routes and have a very prominent strategic position.

Of course, its importance is obviously not as great as that of the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. If the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are controlled, it would be equivalent to cutting off the lifeline of the Red Sea route.

Controlling the Socotra Islands obviously cannot achieve this effect. After all, passing ships can still choose to pass along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula. The sea area between the Socotra Islands and the Arabian Peninsula is hundreds of kilometers wide. It is somewhat difficult to block the Gulf of Aden using this as a base point, and it will consume more resources.

Of course, although it is not possible to completely control the Red Sea route through the archipelago, it can still pose a huge threat to ships along the route, especially to hostile countries.

In the 20s, in order to compete with the US Navy and to realize the warm water ocean strategy that the Russians had always dreamed of, the Soviet Navy entered the Indian Ocean and became the backer of South Yemen.

The Soviet Union stationed a fleet on Socotra Island and used it as its naval base in the Middle East until the collapse of the Soviet Union.

The Somali pirates, who were quite famous in the past, also used Socotra Island as a material supply point and hiding place, intercepting merchant ships in the Gulf of Aden and obtaining a lot of ill-gotten gains.

Before the rise of East Africa, Socotra Island was controlled successively by Arabs and Portuguese, and now it is in the hands of the British.

It’s not that East Africa does not want to control Socotra Island, but that East Africa’s history is too short. By the time East Africa had the strength to intervene in Indian Ocean affairs, it had already fallen into the hands of the British.

In fact, the value of Socotra Island to the UK is relatively insignificant. After all, the Suez Canal and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait are in the hands of the British, and Socotra Island is extremely dry. The island lacks rivers and lakes, and even basic water sources such as natural rainwater.

The reason why East Africa also attaches importance to the Socotra Islands is that in addition to its location as the gateway to the Gulf of Aden, the Socotra Islands can be said to be the gateway to the East African Ocean.

After passing the Socotra Islands, heading south is the east coast of East Africa, which has some value similar to the South China Sea islands and reefs of the Far East Empire to its maritime strategy.

If East Africa controls the Socotra Islands, it can build a maritime defense line to warn and intercept enemies coming from the Mediterranean or Red Sea, as well as the Gulf of Aden.

There is no need to say more about the Seychelles Islands. It can be said that since the establishment of the East African Navy, it has always coveted the Seychelles, an important Indian Ocean island group.

The Seychelles Islands are located in the southwest Indian Ocean and consist of ninety-two islands. Although the Seychelles Islands are not large in area, their strategic value, especially to East Africa, is extremely prominent.

The Seychelles Islands are more than 1,600 kilometers away from the east coast of Africa, far away from the eastern continent of East Africa. It is only 900 kilometers southwest of Madagascar. It is a shortcut for East African ships to India and the South Ocean.

In the last century, France and Britain had a conflict over Seychelles. At that time, France and Britain were the only two superpowers in the world. The fact that Seychelles was valued by both countries also shows the strong strategic value of Seychelles.

The East African Navy has always hoped to seize the Seychelles, so that the East African maritime defense line can be directly expanded to the east of the Indian Ocean by about 1,600 kilometers, greatly improving the maritime security of East Africa. Because there are almost no usable islands between the Seychelles and East Africa, although there are islands such as Zanzibar and Pemba near the coast of East Africa, they are too close to the East African mainland to play a warning and isolation role.

If an enemy launches a surprise attack on East Africa from the Indian Ocean, the cities and ports on the east coast of East Africa will be very vulnerable.

After all, the sea area from the Seychelles Islands to East Africa is vast, and East Africa has no way of predicting which route the enemy will choose or which city or port in East Africa to attack.

This was also the main reason why East Africa once prioritized deploying a large number of offshore defense projects along the coast.

This can be seen from the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life. After losing the strategic location of the Ryukyu Islands, potential threats from the Pacific direction such as the United States and Japan took the strategic initiative, making the Far Eastern Empire's strategy in the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea extremely passive.

However, there is some good news. The size of Seychelles is much smaller than that of the Ryukyu Islands, and its resources are relatively scarce. This means that the military force that the enemy can deploy here is small and can be easily counterattacked by East Africa.

Assuming that a war breaks out between Britain and East Africa, the East African Navy may forcibly capture this strategic location from all directions, and it will inevitably become a priority target of the East African Navy.

Moreover, the Seychelles Islands are relatively isolated, and it is difficult for the UK to mobilize naval support from other regions.

The first places that could support the Seychelles were the Maldives and Chagos Islands mentioned by Freer, where the British had military bases.

If the Socotra Islands and the Seychelles Islands are the first island chain used by the UK to contain the East African Navy, then the Maldives and the Chagos Islands are the second island chain.

The reason why it is called a containment is mainly because the distances between these strategic locations are too far, making it difficult to coordinate and dispatch, and it is difficult to maintain a long-term and large-scale garrison.

The blockade island chain faced by East Africa is far less exploitable than the two island chains that the United States used against its Far Eastern empire in the past.

Take the Socotra Islands and the Seychelles Islands for example. The straight-line distance between them is more than 1,500 kilometers, and the sea area in between is very empty. It is impossible to rely on these two islands to blockade the east coast of East Africa.

Even if the UK transferred all its naval forces to the Indian Ocean, it would not be possible to achieve a complete blockade of the east coast of East Africa relying on the first island chain.

Of course, the British certainly did not expect that the two island chains would transform the East African Navy into a green-water navy, that is, a naval force for near-shore defense.

The navies of Germany and Austria-Hungary are of this type. Trapped by geographical limitations, they can only dominate the Baltic Sea and the Adriatic Sea and find it difficult to break out of their cage.

Apart from anything else, even if Britain really has the energy to blockade the east coast of East Africa, the problem is that East Africa is a three-ocean country. East Africa itself has not only an east coastline, but also a west coastline facing the Atlantic Ocean. In the direction of the Pacific Ocean, the naval power of East Africa cannot be ignored.

Therefore, the East African Navy is a natural ocean-going navy after being equipped with large ships with ocean-going capabilities.

The maritime situation in East Africa is naturally suitable for the development of naval power. This can be seen from the fact that the East African Navy has become a military branch of the same level as the army since its inception.

The reason why this is mentioned is naturally because the navies of some countries were not positioned like this at the beginning. Germany is a typical example. The original purpose of the German Navy and its current main strategic goal are to assist the German Army in achieving its hegemony over Europe. Even the Prussian Navy was initially composed of many army soldiers.

(End of this chapter)