Chapter 1407 Important Status
The natural conditions of the Great Lakes Region are also considered to be a top-notch existence in the agricultural era. It can be seen from the densely distributed kingdoms here in the last century that in addition to the coastal areas, the kingdoms in the Great Lakes Region are the highest areas with East Africa's political civilization.
Of course, although the conditions in the Great Lakes area are good, it is not without its shortcomings, that is, it is densely covered with water and many tropical jungles, and the climate is very similar to the Jingchu area in the ancient Far Eastern Empire.
So, if you want to effectively utilize local natural conditions, you must reach a certain scale of population and civilization, and the original indigenous kingdoms obviously cannot do this.
More often explains why the Great Lakes region has become the highest grain-efficiency area in East Africa. As for soil alone, due to the existence of a large number of swamps and seasonal flooding, the soil here is mostly distributed with black and gray clay.
These low-lying areas and wetlands with poor drainage are conducive to the rapid accumulation of organic matter, and the decomposition speed is slow due to the accumulation of water, high altitude and relatively low temperatures.
So, the land around the Great Lakes can be regarded as the black soil of East Africa. Soil fertility is the first echelon in East Africa. What is even more difficult is that the Great Lakes area is vast, which is one of the important reasons why it has become the granary of East Africa.
Especially in the black clay area, it is most suitable for the growth of rice crops. As long as East Africa does a good job in water discharge projects, it can achieve stable harvests in drought and flood.
East Africa itself is one of the infrastructure maniacs from the late 19th century to the early 20th century, and the Great Lakes Region has always been an important food production base in East Africa, so East Africa's construction of local water conservancy facilities is obvious to all.
However, Beida Lake Province has now adjusted its policies, from the original guarantee of grain production to the equal emphasis on agriculture and industry.
Senior official Manfred said: "Your Majesty, the two industrial zones in our province are now under construction. At that time, two major industrial clusters will be formed to accelerate the economic development of the region."
The reason why Beida Lake Province can build two industrial zones in the province at the same time is due to its energy distribution. The northern part of Beida Lake Province is rich in oil, so related industries are arranged around oil. The southern part is rich in water energy resources and convenient transportation. A group of relatively developed cities, including the provincial capital Kampala, are concentrated in the south.
"In recent years, our province has built several large hydropower stations to make full use of the hydropower resources of the Nile River and its tributaries to support high-energy-consuming industries such as petroleum smelting, metallurgy, electrolytic aluminum, and chemical industry."
If the Great Lake, which is the upper reaches of the Nile River in the previous life, was the entire Great Lakes area belonging to the Nile River Basin.
There are mountainous areas on both sides of Beidahu Province, and the north is a transition zone between the East African Plateau and the Nile Basin. The terrain difference is large, so the hydropower development potential here is great.
Therefore, in terms of energy, Beidahu Province's advantage in developing industry can be said to be unique. In addition to coal, natural gas and oil reserves are relatively considerable. In addition to hydropower development, this makes Beidahu Province's electricity cost relatively low.
However, the oil resources of Beida Lake Province are mainly supplied to the whole country, because the oil fields of Beida Lake Province currently serve as the most important oil-producing area in East Africa. Although the western coastal areas and the northern Nile Basin also have abundant oil resources, they have not been effectively developed and utilized.
East Africa or Ernst itself is also relatively low in enthusiasm for the development of the two regions. Now East Africa has a stable oil supply channel overseas, so it is not interested in further developing its own oil resources.
The local oil production is reasonably controlled within a certain range, mainly to ensure that in the most extreme cases, the local oil supply will not be difficult due to overseas blockade.
But in order to impose a blockade on East Africa, in reality, basically no country can do this, so this possibility can be basically negligible.
There are three main lines of overseas oil imports in East Africa, corresponding to the three regions of America, Europe and Southeast Asia. The Americas are mainly the United States, Canada and Venezuela, Europe is the European-Hungarian Empire and Romania, and Southeast Asia is its own East Kalimantan colony.
Now, the total amount of oil imported from East Africa from Europe is declining year by year. After all, many European countries lack oil, especially Germany. In this case, the oil of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is more inclined to digest or export to Germany itself, and the oil in Romania is also mainly bought by Germany.
As for Russia, the original Europe's most important oil producer, East Africa has long withdrawn. Moreover, due to the war, Russia's oil field production capacity has not yet recovered to its pre-World War level.
In short, East Africa's oil imports to Europe have basically reached the final stage. After a while, this line is also the easiest way to be cut off from former East Africa, after all, it has to pass the Suez Canal controlled by the British.
In the Americas, the United States' oil exports to East Africa have been relatively stable. In recent years, Canada and Venezuela's oil exports to East Africa have been increasing.
Finally, there is East Africa's own East Kalimantan colony, whose oil production areas are basically Indonesia's oil fields in previous lives. East Africa's utilization of oil resources here, and the North Kalimantan colony under the control of the United Kingdom has also increased the exploitation of local oil, and a large part of it has also been sold to countries such as East Africa and Germany. After all, Britain itself cannot digest it.
From the overseas oil imports of East Africa, we can see that if we want to block the oil transportation channels in East Africa, unless there is a country that can block the East African navy from the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic at the same time, however, it is obvious that no country can do this.
Britain from the 1980s to the beginning of this century had the ability to conquer East Africa on the African continent while the East African navy was weak, but if we wanted to do this, we would probably have to dispatch all the Royal Navy. As for why it was after the 1980s, because East Africa did not have any decent navy before.
In fact, since the South African War, Britain has basically lost the ability to blockade East Africa. At that time, the East African navy had developed to a certain scale. As the world hegemon, Britain could not only focus on one country in East Africa and let other countries get cheap.
This also shows to a certain extent the decline of British hegemony. This cannot be achieved by trying all the best to press East Africa. After all, from the perspective of the British at that time, the threat from the United States, Germany and even Russia was still above East Africa.
If Britain pressed one or both of these countries, it would not have much effect. For example, in the previous life, Germany was actually the only country that was really pressed by Britain, but in the end, Britain's hegemony was still dismantled by the United States and the Soviet Union.
In this time and space, the British were in a more difficult situation. With Ernst's intervention, the British could not even settle Germany, and overseas had no choice but to do anything to the United States and East Africa. At present, the Russian industry has not yet developed, otherwise it would be another country that Britain could not settle.
In other words, the so-called world overlord of the UK can be regarded as a nameless and unreal "reputable title". However, judging from the current situation, the major powers in the world have not yet thought of removing a reputation title from Britain. Of course, Germany wanted to do this before, but failed, while East Africa and the United States were much more stable than Germany.
After all, even if the fig leaf of Britain is lifted, everyone will not be able to get the throne of "world hegemony", and they will still restrain each other, so it is better to let Britain continue to be this "virtual king".
However, the British king has not been a void for too long. It is mainly because Britain itself is powerless, and the world overlord represents power and also represents responsibility.
The current situation is that Britain's power is shrinking due to the rise of other major powers, as well as the national awakening of colonies and backward areas. It cannot get the actual benefits, but it still bears the responsibility of the world hegemon.
Just like many countries and regions now conflict, everyone will choose the "boss" of the UK as the mediator, this is obviously a thankless thing.
In the past, as the world hegemon, Britain was strong and wanted to keep conflicts outside the UK, so Britain could make profits. But now, even if Britain tried its best to mediate the conflict, it would be difficult for it to get too much benefits, and it would even be less rewarding due to the intervention of other major powers.
This means that the title of world hegemony is changing from profit to burden for the UK. Of course, at this stage, the UK's profit is still greater than the burden, so the UK is still working hard to maintain the old international system.
But this does not mean that Britain will hold on to this old system and refuse to let go. Although Britain is the developer and builder of this system, as the times develop, the system and system will inevitably age.
Just like the last century Britain went from a major promoter of global free trade to a loyal fan of the "high tariff barriers" now.
This is the same as the United States’ previous life’s past experience from supporting globalization to “enclosing land self-protection”. Under the original free trade system, the biggest beneficiaries have changed, which is unacceptable to the United States.
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Similarly, under the international system built by the UK, with the decline of Britain's own industry, the beneficiaries became Germany, the United States, and East Africa. The UK naturally could not accept it, but the UK could not do anything about it.
Britain could not even "enclose land and protect itself". After all, the size of the British mainland is too small, which destined that Britain's overseas interests will be gradually divested by emerging powers in the future. The specific manifestation of the previous life was the complete collapse and destruction of the old colonial order under the leadership of the United States and the Soviet Union.
Of course, these have nothing to do with East Africa now, and East Africa will not be able to overthrow the UK's world hegemony in a short period of time. After all, if East Africa really overthrows, it will not be able to sit in that position.
Now countries around the world, especially emerging countries, are accumulating strength, so that they can gain as much benefit as possible in the process of the complete collapse of the old international order.
Indicated in East Africa is to further enhance the country's industrial strength, make up for shortcomings in other fields, and continuously expand its sphere of influence.
The improvement of the country's industrial strength is undoubtedly the most effective and safest way.
So Ernst said to Manfred and other senior officials in Beida Lake Province: "The industry in the Great Lakes region determines the lower limit of national industrialization to a certain extent. After all, the population size of the Great Lakes region can have a significant impact on the per capita data in the country."
"And around the entire Great Lakes region, Beida Lakes Province is one of the most promising provinces, and your energy advantages are not available in many other provinces."
"Now, it is not the first industrial revolution, and the impact of coal and iron ore on the industry has been reduced to a certain extent. Weak, and what you just lack is coal resources. "
"So, you must make full use of the three resources of hydropower, oil and natural gas, especially hydropower construction, hydropower development and utilization, which are not only environmentally friendly, but also recyclable."
Although the Great Lakes also have rainy seasons and dry seasons, due to the close impact of the Congo Basin and the Great Lakes on the regional climate, the precipitation season changes are not as prominent as other areas in East Africa, and they also have the regulatory effect of many lakes, precipitation, which further improves the efficiency of local water energy utilization.
Simply put, building hydropower stations in the Dahu District can basically achieve uninterrupted work throughout the year, so that the power supply will stabilize, thereby providing favorable guarantees for local industrial and domestic electricity.
Ernst continued: "In addition to its own development, Beida Lake Province should also strengthen its economic ties with its surrounding areas, especially the northern provinces. If possible, the economic tentacles of Beida Lake Province should be better to penetrate into North African countries in the future."
"Your province is an important fulcrum of the national regional coordinated development strategy, and it also shoulders the important land transportation fulcrum for connecting North Africa and even Europe's trade."
At the beginning, an important significance of the East African government setting up the Beida Lake Industrial Zone around it was to drive the development of the northern region of East Africa, and Beida Lake Province was at the northernmost end of the Great Lake District. Therefore, the industrial development of Beida Lake Province is of great significance to the economic development of East Africa in the country.
Not only that, the Beida Lake Province is also the de facto land connection point between the northeast and the northwest. Many national trunk railways converge in the Beida Lake Province. For example, exchanges between East Africa's east coast cities such as Mombasa and Mogadishu and West coast cities such as Libreville (Gabon), Douala (Cameroon) must pass through Beida Lake Province.
In the future, if North African countries such as East Africa and Egypt engage in land trade, Beida Lake Province is also an important starting point. Although the Nile Province has a more advantageous distance, the Nile Province's industry is too weak and its economic size is small, which is not enough to fully assume the heavy responsibility.
Of course, the more important reason is that the natural conditions of the Nile Basin are too poor and do not meet the conditions for large-scale development. The humid and hot climate alone is a big restrictive factor. You should know that the interior of the Nile Basin is even more stuffy than the coastal plains of East Africa. After all, the coastal areas can still breathe wind, and the Nile Basin has poor airflow due to the closed terrain.
(This chapter ends)