Chapter 822 Cabinda
Cabinda.
As an important port established by Portugal in Angola, Cabinda was established too late to be compared with Luanda or Benguela.
At present, Cabinda is actually a small village on the Atlantic coast left by the Portuguese, or a small military fortress. Not to mention the small area, all the infrastructure is imperfect.
Luanda and Benguela have a development history of more than a hundred years, while Cabinda is a northern coastal fortress city that the Portuguese only started building in the 1980s. If the Berlin Conference had not been held and the Belgian colony was established, The Portuguese had no interest in this coastal rainforest area.
Of course, Cabinda also has an important role, that is, to curb the outlet of the Congo River. Before, East Africa and Portugal had a hostile relationship, so the Portuguese developed Cabinda with the purpose of blocking East Africa's outlet from the Congo River.
Now East Africa has decided to expand and rebuild this west coast military town, which is only the size of a fishing village.
“The Portuguese stronghold in Cabinda is less than 300 meters long from east to west and covers an area of more than 5,000 square meters. There are less than 300 buildings in this area. About a dozen people lived there before. "About a thousand people."
East African urban designer Delca said to Cabinda's military governor Balko: "So the demolition of Cabinda is not difficult. The difficulty lies in the huge rainforest around it. This is not conducive to urban construction, so a large number of manpower is needed to cut down and destroy the tropical rainforest before making room for the construction of Cabinda Port."
Cabinda is currently the headquarters of the 2nd Brigade and 4th Regiment of the 331 Division. , Balco was the commander of the regiment. During the South African War, the 331st Division captured this place. However, Cabinda was too small and could only accommodate a small number of troops, so the fourth regiment stayed here.
In fact, it is a bit reluctant for a regiment of troops to be stationed here, because it is really difficult to transport supplies here.
Previously, the 331st Division conquered Cabinda through land, which can be said to be a forced trail. Now this trail has been completely covered by vegetation, restoring the original appearance of the rainforest.
Now the main supplies of the Fourth Regiment are actually mainly transported by sea, bypassing Cape Town from the New Hamburg Port and then transporting them to Cabinda.
In fact, this transportation route also includes ports and strongholds in Southwest Africa. The main reason is that sea transportation is more convenient and the cargo volume is large.
Luanda is more convenient, but Luanda destroyed all the ships before Portugal evacuated, and land transportation is inconvenient, especially the Congo River. Every time crossing the Congo River is actually an adventure.
The flow of water in the lower reaches of the Congo River is too turbulent and is not suitable for small ferries to pass. Of course, the fundamental reason is that the lower reaches of the Congo River are completely undeveloped. If East Africa wants to cross the river directly, it can only use local materials to build simple rafts. There is no problem with this kind of raft for temporary use. , after all, time was tight during the war. Of course, of course, the 331st Division's crossing of the river had been completed in Kinshasa. There was actually no difficulty in getting from Kinshasa to Brazzaville.
Of course, Kinshasa can also transport materials, but Kinshasa itself has limited capabilities. The cities of Bangui and Kisan upstream are both remote areas in East Africa, and East Africa wants to build Cabinda, relying on these few cities Cities simply cannot achieve that.
So the development of Cabinda will ultimately depend on Luanda, and then rely on sea transportation between Luanda and Cabinda.
But now the land route between Cabinda and Luanda is impassable, and the shipping conditions are not up to standard, so East Africa can only make a big circle.
In times of peace, there is no need for East Africa to take risks and let soldiers cross the river on rafts. During the war, many soldiers going south and their rafts were washed into the Atlantic Ocean by the Congo River.
And although Luanda can now directly connect with the interior of East Africa through land, without railways, the time and energy consumed are not as convenient as sea transportation. “Cabinda’s geographical location is very important. It is the beginning of the western coastline and the border area between our country and the Belgians. From Cabinda to Pointe-Noire, the capital of the Belgian Congo, the straight-line distance by sea is only 90 kilometers, and it is only 90 kilometers away from the French territory. Gabon’s Port of Chitil is only 600 kilometers away,” Balko said from a strategic perspective.
The capital of French Gabon is Libreville, which is also the largest port city in Gabon. Port Chitil is an important port in the central coastal area of Gabon. Currently, French Gabon The only two ports were at the same time the two most important ports in Gabon in the past.
As an old colonial empire, France has an impeccable vision in selecting colonial locations. The geographical conditions of both Libreville and Port Chitil far exceed those of ports in the Belgian Congo and the west coast of East Africa.
Lipperville is located at the outlet of the Como River and is backed by a natural harbor. It is a typical port with dual attributes of a bay port and an estuary port. It can not only undertake maritime transportation, but also connect Gabon's inland shipping.
Most ports in East Africa, such as Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, are bay ports, relying on bays to build ports. Bagamoyo is similar to Lipeville.
But Lipperville and Bagamoyo are basically on the same level, and the Como River is not a small river that can be compared with the Little Rhine (Ruvo River).
Of course, in terms of economic attributes, Bagamoyo is currently far more valuable than Piberville. The large tropical rainforest area within the French Gabon colony is difficult to develop even if it has excellent ports and inland shipping value.
The economic value of Bagamoyo is based on the premise that the interior of East Africa has been effectively developed, and Cabinda on the west coast obviously cannot be compared with Lipperville or Port Chitil. This is true in every aspect.
The Portuguese did not encounter this problem before because Portugal itself is a maritime country, and most of the inland areas have been occupied by East Africa. Only developing the coast can meet their needs.
East Africa is obviously not satisfied with this. The purpose of East Africa is to connect Cabinda with the interior of East Africa and build Cabinda into a bridgehead for the future economic development of East Africa and Atlantic countries.
“In the future, this will be the center of exchange between East Africa and the Belgian colonies. To open up this node, the current Cabinda must undergo an all-round transformation, especially in terms of transportation.”
"The easiest thing to achieve now in Cabinda is to restore sea transportation. As for land transportation, there are many difficulties that need to be overcome, especially the Congo River, which is a natural chasm between Cabinda and Luanda. However, Kinshasa can be used as a temporary option for the time being. The only difference between Kinshasa and Cabinda is a road.”
Currently, Brazzaville on the other side of Kinshasa is a small military stronghold. There is only one platoon deployed there and it is under the jurisdiction of Kinshasa, so Bal. The road Co said was built from Brazzaville to Cabinda in the previous life. This is the only condition that can be considered for land transportation at present.
When conditions are ripe, a road or even a railway can be built between Luanda and Cabinda. As for the Congo River, it can be temporarily solved by ferry.
This requires East Africa to first build shipyards and other facilities on the lower reaches of the Congo River, or directly introduce small ships and build ferries.
This will take a long time for the impoverished Angola region. Under Portuguese rule for hundreds of years, Angola has not been developed at all except for the development of a small part of the planting industry, especially the transportation problem. It is the biggest headache for East Africa.
When fighting in Angola and Mozambique, the biggest headache for the East African army was transportation between the two areas. Fortunately, many areas in these two areas are grasslands, which alleviated this problem.
But the climate around Cabinda is a typical tropical rainforest. This is the biggest problem in developing Cabinda in East Africa.
(End of this chapter)