African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 929: Navy’s Thoughts

With Ernst's order, the East African Defense Force finally bore all the brunt of the consequences. The armored force experiment that had been decided before 1900 was delayed until the next century, in fact, three years later.

For the army, the delay of the armored forces does not have a big impact, because there is no generation gap between the East African army and the European and American armies.

Of course, East Africa's military size is not as large as that of European and American powers. This is mainly in terms of the sum of the navy and the army. Although the US Army and the East African Defense Force are confident that they can defeat ten of them alone, the US Navy has expanded too rapidly in recent years, which has widened the gap between them and the East African army.

"Ernst, why is the navy budget being cut again? According to the original agreement, the navy will not expand, but I can't reduce it!"

Soon, Archduke Ferdinand angrily found his son-in-law to demand an explanation. After the South African War, the navy entered an era of slow development. Although the East African Navy was still among the top ten in the world, other countries in the world were not idle and were frantically expanding the size of their navies.

East Africa is already unusual enough, and now the naval budget has to be cut, which makes Archduke Ferdinand uneasy.

"After the South African War, in 1892, the British built the world's first battleship with an all-steel hull - HMS Royal Sovereign. Now is a period of change for the navy. How can we take military funds from the navy? I think it would be better to let the army pay more. Not to mention the armored unit that has not yet appeared, we can simply reduce the number of fast mobile units."

This was the main reason why Ferdinand was anxious. The Royal Monarch, a new generation of main battleship developed by Britain, was first launched in 1892.

This level of warship had a famous name in the past, that is, the pre-dreadnought battleship. Of course, this name corresponds to the later dreadnought, and the even crazier super dreadnought.

The East African Navy naturally followed the trend and rushed to develop or import pre-dreadnought battleships with other countries to fill their own navies. Currently, the East African Navy's first pre-dreadnought battleship, the Seawolf, has completed most of the progress at the Bagamoyo Shipyard.

As the head of the East African Navy, Archduke Ferdinand naturally wanted to increase construction efforts on this basis and allow the East African Navy to enter the battleship era in the future. However, this time, Ernst's stick of cutting military spending hit the navy hard.

"Father-in-law, don't be anxious. I understand what you just said, and this military budget cut is not only for the navy, but also for the army. As for your suggestion of cutting the army's mobile forces, this is impossible. The biggest feature of the army's mobile forces is the use of cars to replace animal power such as mules and horses, and the current development of the East African automobile industry cannot be separated from the support of military orders." Ernst comforted.

It is true that the production of civilian vehicles in East Africa is not low, but military orders are equally important. The early development of the German automobile industry in the past was inseparable from the support of the military.

"The automobile industry is indeed important, but our navy's new warships are not bad either. No, they are more important. After all, the main military pressure on East Africa now comes from the ocean. Didn't we just take Mindanao a while ago? Together with the Kingdom of North Hawaii, as well as the coasts of Mozambique and Angola, the size of the East African navy has long been insufficient. You still want to cut naval spending. This simply doesn't make sense!" Ferdinand said loudly.

The defensive pressure on the East African Navy is indeed great from the perspective of East African territorial expansion, but after the South African War, no country dared to provoke the East African tiger on its doorstep, unless the British made a comeback. However, the British obviously do not want another South African War. After all, it has only been seven years since the South African War.

Behind the British, the navies of Germany and the United States are expanding rapidly. Under such circumstances, it is even more impossible for them to focus on East Africa, so it is a good thing that the size of the East African navy is not expanding.

After all, Germany and the United States are enough to give the British a headache, and if East Africa intervenes, it will only make the situation more chaotic. Of course, as the main force, the navy must not be too weak, so Ernst said: "What you said makes sense. Now the waters controlled by East Africa extend all the way to the Pacific Ocean. According to the current size of the navy, it is indeed powerless, so the navy's new ship construction plan cannot be delayed. So before 1905, we will build four new battleships, which should be enough."

"Four are too few! We need at least seven or more, otherwise our number of battleships will not even reach half of that of other countries," said Constantine.

In fact, Ernst's psychological expectation was that before 1905, building two or three ships would be enough. However, East Africa was not a small country after all, and two or three ships were indeed too tiring, so the number was reluctantly raised to four.

As for the future, after 1906, if nothing unexpected happens, the dreadnought battleship will appear, and then we can increase the number of warships.

Of course, Constantine certainly didn't know about these. He just knew that the pre-dreadnoughts were powerful enough now, and the large naval plans of other countries were too crazy. Even the small island country of Japan in East Asia was ambitious. It would be too embarrassing for East Africa to be surpassed by this tiny country in the future.

"Isn't the navy currently working hard to equip its submarine fleet? So battleships are indeed useful, but we also have other options. Anyway, after two or three years, when East Africa's financial situation improves, I will definitely give priority to funding the navy to develop ships."

Ernst chose to procrastinate. After all, the East African government's expenditure was too high. After this period of time was over, he could naturally loosen up the East African army.

"Submarines are turtles on the seabed. They don't have the momentum and deterrence of battleships. The importance of deterrence to the navy of a great power is self-evident," said Ferdinand.

Ernst doesn't think so. Compared with today's mainstream ironclad ships and battleships, submarines have enormous potential. Even in the 21st century, they will still be an important deterrent force for the navy. This is why Ernst began investing in the research and development of East African submarines as early as the 1970s.

Moreover, submarines are cheap, which is the main reason why Ernst wants the navy to temporarily use submarines to make up the number. Although the cost of submarines is relatively high due to technical and other reasons, it cannot compare with the money-eating beast that is a battleship. The cost of a battleship is enough to cover the cost of twenty or thirty submarines.

"Don't worry! Father-in-law, the country is in economic difficulties now. If the economic situation improves in a while, the navy will have an opportunity. In the first decade of the 20th century, the scale of our East African navy will definitely expand greatly." Ernst gave Constantine a reassurance.

Of course, this reassurance was full of traps, because Ernst did not specify a specific time. If there were no unexpected events in history and the time of World War I remained unchanged, East Africa would have to start preparing before 1914.

Therefore, after 1905, the army and navy in East Africa had to prepare, because Ernst didn't know whether the war would be fought earlier or later. After all, the sound of gunfire in Serbia might disappear due to historical interference. Now Rudolf is still alive and kicking!

The assassinated Crown Prince Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the previous life now doesn’t even have the chance to become the crown prince of the empire, so the future is full of variables, and Ernst is also dancing on a tightrope, trying to maximize the interests of East Africa.

(End of this chapter)