Chapter 720 Development of Military Industry in East Africa
February 3, 1888.
Constantin inspected the Mbeya Arsenal to observe the development of East Africa's military industry. The Mbeya Arsenal is an advanced representative of East Africa's independent military industry and has been the most important military construction in East Africa since the late 1960s. One of the units.
The senior management of the Mbeya City Arsenal led Constantine to visit various weapons production workshops, among which the artillery production workshop is still one of the places of greatest interest to Constantine, a former European war general.
"Improving the French 1807 75mm field gun effectively solved the recoil problem and greatly strengthened the army's firepower problem. So far, the entire army has been equipped with a total of 378 pieces of land mobile support artillery. An important component of the force, the annual output is maintained at around 30 units," the director of the Mbeya City Arsenal introduced to the king.
"In the past three years, our factory has also cooperated with the Austro-Hungarian Empire to produce 120 mm heavy artillery, but it has few application scenarios and has produced a total of forty-nine guns."
"The self-developed 1883 type thrower A total of more than 2,000 cartridges were produced, and more than 130 Maxim machine guns were imitated. "
East Africa is a country that does not strictly enforce patent laws, so it mainly imitates Maxim machine guns. It has a lot to do with the national conditions of East Africa.
At present, the most open coastal zone in East Africa is still a semi-open market, and the inland areas are basically not open, so patents are not effective in the inland areas.
This is also a problem in attracting investment in East Africa. It is basically impossible to exchange technology through the market. Just like Maxim will definitely not invest in and build factories in East Africa. After all, East Africa currently does not pay much attention to intellectual property rights, so After the birth of the Maxim machine gun, East Africa could only purchase and imitate it. The imitation was successful in 1885, and a factory was built in 1886. By 1888, large-scale mass production had begun.
Of course, this itself benefited from Ernst's emphasis on weapons such as machine guns. Long-term research was carried out in East Africa before the Maxim machine gun.
It’s just that this kind of research process cannot match Maxim’s genius thinking, so East Africa can only imitate the principles of the Maxim machine gun, which is not entirely plagiarism.
“So far, the East African Army has been equipped with more than 6,000 artillery pieces of various types, mainly coastal defense artillery and small-caliber artillery.”
In East Africa, the artillery is 75 mm. The caliber is the standard. Anything lower than this value is a light artillery, and anything higher than or equal to this value is a heavy artillery.
This standard is actually in line with international standards. For example, the British heavy artillery standard has a caliber greater than or equal to three inches, which is 76 mm. East Africa is a metric country, so for the convenience of calculation, the metric system is mainly used. This results in 75 mm standard.
The current number of large-caliber artillery in the world cannot be compared with that of later generations. The 75mm caliber is also considered a relatively large artillery value.
Moreover, large-caliber artillery is inconvenient to transport. The East African Army, which relies on animal power as its main power and has imperfect road conditions, naturally prefers light artillery.
Of course, the road conditions in East Africa are actually among the best in the world. In the 1970s and 1980s when large-scale infrastructure was built, the road quality in East Africa was higher than that of Tsarist Russia, and basically equal to that of the United States. However, the United States has longer roads and more roads. East Africa is even better in terms of quality.
As for other European countries, due to land area issues, they are not suitable as references for horizontal comparison of East African roads.
Of course, land transportation in East Africa is not only roads, but also includes railways and inland water transportation, but it does not have advantages compared with European and American countries.
One is that the mileage of East African railways is short. Even if the Hessian railway is opened, the East African railway has only completed its preliminary network, and it is mainly based on the two main arteries of the Central Railway and the Northern Railway. The second is water transportation. The rivers in East Africa have poor traffic and cannot connect the whole country. They can only provide transportation within the region. This is especially characterized by the developed lake transportation. There are four large lakes in East Africa, even on the world map. It can also be seen at a glance, and the smaller lakes are also among the largest large lakes in other areas of the world, such as King's Lake (Albert Lake), Constantine Lake (Edward Lake) Lake), Lake Hechingen (Lake George), Lake Kivu, Lake Mweru, Lake Rukwa...
Compared with the prosperity of lake transportation, river transportation is completely at a disadvantage. In an embarrassing situation, the rivers with the highest shipping value are all measured in units of 100 kilometers. The only ones that can reach units of 1,000 kilometers and are unimpeded are the White Nile and the Congo River. However, these two rivers are sparsely populated areas along their banks.
The Zambezi River flows through an important economic region in East Africa, but due to canyons, dangerous shoals and rapid waterfalls, only some sections of the river can be navigable.
As of 1888, there were a total of twenty-three artillery factories in East Africa, three in the Northern Industrial Belt, six in the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone, four in the Central Province, seven in Matabele Province, and Ho There are two in the province of Henzollern and one in the province of Swabia.
Overall, the focus of artillery production is in the central region. The Lake Malawi Industrial Zone, headed by Mbeya City, is also relatively close to the central region. Therefore, the overall military production in East Africa has completed the transition to the inland. This layout is beneficial to East Africa. Defense production security.
Three of the four artillery factories in the Central Province serve the navy, and one is a military industrial enterprise affiliated with the Guards Division. At the same time, the Central Province is also the place where it is easiest for technical exchanges with Europe in East Africa, so the military industrial enterprises in this region have the most technologically advanced technology. Excellent, while other artillery factories rely more on resource and transportation advantages for construction.
Of course, some artillery factories are just subordinate units of the arsenal and are not only responsible for artillery production. There are a total of forty-three arsenal units in East Africa. The arsenals directly under the army are mainly concentrated in eight provinces in the central and eastern regions. In addition, There is also an arsenal in the southern port city of New Hamburg, and the Navy has seven directly affiliated arsenals, including three military shipyards.
Take the Mbeya City Arsenal as an example. In addition to artillery, it also produces rifles, machine guns, etc. It is a giant military industrial enterprise. This was the first move by Mbeya City in the early development of the military industry in East Africa. Advantages.
Back when Matabele and other central resource provinces were not yet integrated into East Africa, the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone became the only heavy industry production base in East Africa.
It is also a key area for the military industry. The industrial city cluster along Lake Malawi, headed by Mbeya City, formed the earliest coal-iron complex in East Africa. It was not until the establishment of Matabele Province that the status of the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone was gradually replaced.
So far, the military production in the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone still accounts for nearly 30% of the total in East Africa, because once the industry is formed, it is not easy to migrate, and the technology accumulation is also higher than that of Matabele Province. The three central provinces are stronger.
Many domestically produced equipment in East Africa were first born in the Lake Malawi Industrial Zone, especially in the manufacturing of weapons and equipment, which was the absolute leader at the time.
Of course, military products are not limited to weapons and equipment. Light industrial products are also an important guarantee of the military's combat effectiveness, and this is mainly borne by the northern industrial belt.
Nairobi and Mombasa in the northern industrial belt are both important textile industry centers in East Africa, including the cotton and linen textile industry, and the leather industry, which dominate East Africa.
At the same time, Mombasa and Nairobi are also the most important food processing industry centers in East Africa. The northern industrial belt area is rich in coffee, tea, and various types of economic or food crops. It is also an important animal husbandry center, close to the north. Pasture, and is connected to the Indian Ocean to the east and the Great Lake (Lake Victoria) to the west. The northern mountain plateau is also an important forestry area, and there are almost no shortcomings in the agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery industries.
Mombasa is also the bridgehead for East Africa’s foreign exchanges. It is very convenient to introduce advanced European technology and machinery. There is also a northern railway connecting the economic development of the northern industrial belt. Therefore, the northern industrial belt has a considerable role in the light industry in East Africa. Thirty-seven percent of East Africa’s military and light industrial products are provided by the northern industrial belt.
Of course, the shortcomings of the northern industrial belt are also very obvious, that is, it is short in resources, but this is also an important reason for the northern industry to focus on light industry as its main development direction.
(End of this chapter)