Chapter 566 Comparison
In short, Japan's national conditions are inherently deficient. If it only relies on local resources for development, the level it can achieve is quite limited.
However, this is not absolute. A country's development has a great relationship with its own resource endowment, but national governance ultimately depends on the governance of people.
Japan has great potential in the area of human governance. Firstly, it knows its shame and then becomes brave, and is good at learning from the strong. Secondly, Japan has a large enough population. There are always advantages to having more people. It depends on how to transform it. , turning the population from a burden into a wealth.
For example, Japan’s raw silk industry is very competitive in the world. It is because the labor cost is too low, and the Japanese can endure hardships and work diligently. The government does not hold back and strongly supports industry and commerce. development, so Britain and the United States are naturally willing to invest in such a country, and by the way, they can also contain the Far Eastern Empire.
Similarly, a large number of Japanese work abroad, bringing a large amount of remittances to Japan.
Overseas remittances are important to national development, especially in countries with extremely overpopulated populations, such as Egypt, the Philippines, and Bangladesh in the previous life. Overseas remittances are one of the important sources of national income. If they rely solely on their own countries to provide jobs, , which will inevitably produce a large number of refugees.
In addition to low-end industries, especially labor-intensive industries, Japan has innate advantages. Japan also attaches great importance to education and science, which is extremely rare in this era. This provides a foundation for Japan's future industrial upgrading. Therefore, if Japan becomes the only great power in Asia in a few decades, it is because of its own efforts.
"General Glaish, I would like to ask, if Japan really goes to war with you, what are your chances of winning as the top commander in East Africa?" Luo Yijun asked curiously.
Although there are many Chinese in East Africa, it can only be regarded as a half-foreign country, but it is also a Western country, and the West is now powerful. East Africa is not the top among Western countries, but it is not weak either, so Luo Yijun is very I want to know what kind of sparks will come out of this "mediocre" Western country compared with Japan, the second most powerful country in the Far East.
Glaish is not arrogant. He knows the Japanese navy relatively well. Although it is not strong, if the whole country uses its strength, it can still have a chance to compete with its own fleet.
So he was a little modest, or conservative, and said: "About four or six! Of course, our side is six and the Japanese Navy is four, but the navy is the most unpredictable service and it is easy to subvert common sense. After all, the sea is quite dangerous.
According to your Far Eastern Empire, fighting depends on timing, location and people. I can be sure that timing and location are not on our side. Our East African Navy has just arrived, so it is natural. The sea area here is not very familiar.
So the only thing that the East African Navy and the Japanese Navy can compare with is people and people. We have some advantages in terms of people and people, but I don’t know much about Japan. ”
Hearing a German in Glaish talk about Eastern culture made Luo Yijun quite proud. It is always a happy thing for one's own culture to be recognized by other countries.
He said: "I didn't expect the general to have a lot of research on Far Eastern culture. What you said is right. Our Eastern sages summed up the three aspects of time, location, and people, and summarized the three decisive factors for the war. I just don't know how precious it is. What are the advantages of the people of the Chinese Navy?”
Glaish did not mince words and said bluntly: “This has to talk about three aspects. First of all, it is generally accepted that that is the Chinese Navy. The ships and equipment are one level better than Japan's.
Secondly, let's talk about the officers. Our advantage in East Africa is that the commander-in-chief is Archduke Ferdinand, who was the former commander-in-chief of the Austro-Hungarian Navy. The other officers are either from the Austro-Hungarian Navy, or like me, they studied at the Austrian Naval School.
In addition to the officers, let’s talk about the sailors. Our sailors are more educated than Japan. It is very helpful for mastering and commanding ships. After so many years of development, the minimum requirement for the navy now is a primary school education. "In the previous life, the Japanese only universalized compulsory education in 1907. This is completely incomparable with East Africa today, and East Africa also borrowed it. The advantage of universal compulsory education in Germany is that there are not many professional teachers, but teachers who follow the textbook can easily spread the education.
This is easy to understand. There are not a few pure Germans in East Africa, and almost all Germans have gone to school. East African immigrants are mainly young people, so most Germans have not returned their knowledge.
Speaking of this, Ernst was very grateful to the German countries for their kindness. It is self-evident how effective compulsory education has been for Germany. Historically, the United States has reaped this part of Germany’s dividends, so If many knowledgeable immigrants come to the United States to develop, it will be difficult for the United States not to develop.
Now with Ernst’s intervention, these people have taken advantage of East Africa and contributed to the construction of East Africa.
Although most of them are only primary school students, there are still five to six million pure German immigrants in East Africa. That is several million primary school students. Coupled with the literacy movement and the popularization of education in East Africa, as long as they develop step by step, East Africa will certainly have a bright future.
In this regard, the United States is a bit worried. It has intercepted so many high-quality immigrants from East Africa and has blocked so many black people. Ernst shudders just thinking about it, although there are also many black people in East Africa. , but in an era when the average life expectancy is only thirty-five years, if we wait thirty or forty years, this problem will not exist in East Africa.
In the past, Ernst had some conscience and thought of finding a way out for black people and sending them out after a few years. Now he is completely immune. Once the bottom line is breached, there will be no bottom line.
Blacks represent economic interests, especially for East Africa. Blacks account for half of the nearly 50 million people. Therefore, at least half of the national economy in East Africa is created by blacks.
Especially the tropical cash crops in East Africa, coffee, cotton, rubber, etc., many of which require black people to complete, saving East Africa a lot of labor costs.
Faced with huge economic benefits, the East African government even wanted to introduce more black people, but this was vetoed by Ernst.
The huge number of primary school students in East Africa means that both the navy and the army lack high-quality soldiers, especially the navy, a high-tech branch.
Even middle school education is common in the East African navy, and there are also a lot of college students. In this regard, the Japanese navy is far from comparable to that of East Africa.
After all, even if compulsory education is universalized in Japan, it will inevitably be difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without rice. The knowledge of compulsory education needs to be learned from Europe. A large amount of education funds are invested in international students, and studying abroad is relatively expensive, and there is no such thing in East Africa. In this regard, because the Hechingen royal family has schools and fiefdoms in Europe, it can save a lot of costs, and there are enough people in East Africa with primary school education.
As a militaristic country, Japan invests a lot of money in the industrial and military fields. Compared with other countries, Japan’s education funding is actually very limited. Therefore, Japan’s universal compulsory education will not show results for half a century. .
(End of this chapter)