Chapter 1408 Technological Progress
In fact, if you think about it, you will understand this truth. If the Nile Basin is suitable for human habitation, Egypt or other North African civilizations would have gone south long ago. From the distribution map of Arab religion in Africa, it can be seen that they communicated more frequently with West Africa. There are a bunch of black countries and tribes who believe in Arab religion in West Africa, which further proves the harsh environment in the intersection of East Africa and North Africa.
Of course, apart from climate factors, ancient African indigenous peoples were not as easy to bully as they imagined. At least in the era of cold weapons, even the relatively backward blacks had the power to fight against the Arab civilization in North Africa.
In the Nile Province, the area with relatively good economic development is also the northern desert area. As for the south, there is basically not much population except a few cities.
For the specific reasons, in addition to the harsh climate, frequent flooding in the southern region is also an important reason. Just imagine that there was originally a rainy season in the Nile Basin, and the river water in the rainy season in the upper Great Lakes region was also drained here at this time, so the probability of flooding in the local area is naturally higher.
After the rainy season, the Nile Basin is prone to drought, which mainly involves repeated torture, so East Africa has always lagged behind in the construction of the Nile Province.
Ernst said to this: "The climate in the entire northern East Africa is worse than that in the central and southern regions, and there is no great advantage in resources. Therefore, the Great Lakes region is the livable area closest to the north. Naturally, you must also shoulder the important task of driving the economic development of the north."
"After the establishment of the Southeast African Common Market, the Great Lakes Region was at the center of this regional economic cooperation organization. The intersection of land trade between countries such as the Belgian Congo colony, the Kingdom of South Germany, the Abyssinian Empire, and the Italian Red Sea colony was in the Great Lakes Region."
"Even further expansion, this place may become a land trade intersection between North Africa, West Africa and Central and South Africa in the future."
The geographical location of Beidahu Province is figuratively the East African version of the "Hexi Corridor". The terrain and landform on the east side are relatively complex. The terrain difference is large from the East African Plateau to Somalia and other plains. Further north, it encounters mountains and canyons in southern Ethiopia, and there are many deserts passing through the middle, which is very expensive to build and difficult.
On the west is the Congo rainforest, which is even more unfavorable to transportation construction. This makes East Africa's transportation routes concentrated in the Great Lakes area, and then diversion from the Great Lakes area to North Africa and West Africa and other areas.
This can be seen from the characteristics of railway construction in East Africa. There are only two north-south railway lines in the eastern Great Lakes region, while there are only two railway lines in the Congo rainforest area on the west side.
These railway lines are all trunk railways built by the East African government from a defense perspective, which facilitates East Africa's control over the northern region.
In contrast, there are as many as five railway trunk lines passing through the Great Lakes, three north-south directions and two east-west directions, which makes the Great Lakes region one of the important railway hubs in the country.
Moreover, in addition to the main line railway, Dahu District also built many branch lines and local railways, forming a relatively developed railway network.
From an economic perspective, the gap is even more obvious. It is basically difficult to make a profit without passing through the railway trunk line in the Great Lakes region, because the population, towns, economy and resources along the route are difficult to support the recovery of railway construction costs.
Especially the central railway passing through the hinterland of the Congo Basin, not only has poor economic benefits, but also has high maintenance costs. The original intention of this route was to facilitate the rapid assembly of East African troops to the northern region.
After all, in the era of the construction of the Central Railway, Egypt, as an important British colony, may pose a certain threat to East Africa. Objectively speaking, there are more neighbors in northern East Africa, and the national defense pressure is relatively high.
Although as far as the current situation is concerned, the countries and colonies of various countries are full of mud, who can predict whether there will be countries in the north to change their destiny in the future, thus threatening the security of the border areas of East Africa.
In short, the railway and other land transportation construction is the most cost-effective for choosing the Great Lakes area. Other areas are not impossible to build, but the cost is too high, that is, the country can support the construction of railways that run through tropical rainforests and deserts.
Ernst said: "In the future, the Great Lakes region must focus on promoting trade with North Africa and West Africa. After all, the Great Lakes region belongs to an inland area, and the 20th century was the era of the ocean. You were originally geographically worse than the coastal areas."
"So, we should pay more attention to the economic linkage with other domestic regions, as well as North and West Africa, especially the Kingdom of Southern Germany and the Abyssinian Empire."
"The Abyssinian Empire is a large market with a population of over 10 million, and the South German Kingdom has higher potential, and there will be Egypt, Libya and other regions in the future."
"Not to mention industry, the prospects for agriculture are relatively broad. After all, the current grain output of West Africa and North Africa is not optimistic."
"With the help of railways, you can sell food to the inland hinterland of these areas at a lower cost."
The reason why it is inland hinterland is also very simple, that is, West Africa and North Africa also have coastal and coastal areas, and there is more selective food imports.
The advantage of East Africa is to build the most powerful inland railway network in Africa, and has extended this railway network to countries and regions such as South Germany, Darfur, and Abyssinia.
These railways are also the route with the lowest cost of foreign trade and exchanges in the hinterland of these countries and regions.
Unless they can build railways from inland to coastal areas with their own country as the core, the South German Kingdom may be possible, but the Abyssinian Empire is completely a landlocked country, and Darfur is also surrounded by Egypt, Libya, East Africa and South Germany in the heart of Africa. For a long time now and in the future, they can only hold on to East Africa's thighs.
Manfred said: "Your Majesty is relieved to this point. Our province's grain exports have been growing over the years, especially the Abyssinian Empire and the Italian Red Sea Colony are one of the most important overseas customers."
"The only trouble is that the main grain crop in our province is rice, and countries with rice as their main rations are rare on the African continent. Dietary habits are the main constraints that restrict our food exports to North Africa."
Rice can become the largest staple food for East Africans. After decades of promotion, East African immigrants rarely used rice as their staple food. Needless to say, Europe is the same, even the Far East immigrants. After all, most of the Far East Empire immigrants from East Africa came from the northern region.
The reason why rice can be vigorously promoted by the East African government is also very simple, that is, rice is more suitable for planting in East Africa. Although the wheat planting area in East Africa is also quite large, the quality and yield of wheat compared to temperate areas are still much worse.
To put it bluntly, rice has a high unit yield, so it is more likely to be favored by East African governments and is more adaptable to East Africa's climate. Among the staple foods, rice and wheat are the first in the world, and most countries will consider these two according to local conditions. Regarding the problems caused by eating habits to East Africa's food exports, Ernst certainly has no good solution. He can only say: "Food exports generally depend on prices. In fact, we and the United States are the two largest foreign food dumping countries in the world."
"However, wheat is indeed not our strength. Not to mention competing with the United States, even Argentina and some European countries have greater advantages in this field than us."
"In contrast, we can still strive for some extremely backward countries and regions today,"
The rice quality in East Africa is not bad. At least for the Great Lakes and Plain Provinces, the rice taste is relatively good all over the world because the agricultural conditions of these two places are the best, and in addition, it is improved by East Africa's agricultural technology.
Ernst said: "Food is an important tool for the empire's influence on foreign expansion, and its importance is no less than energy and minerals, so it is particularly important to expand our country's food market."
People are iron and rice is steel. No country can do without food. Controlling a country's food will hold the lifeline of this country.
Therefore Ernst emphasized: "In the process of promoting food exports from East and Africa, it is better to make appropriate concessions, especially in economically underdeveloped areas such as Asia, Africa and Latin America."
"For the people in these areas, survival is the first priority, so they pay more attention to the price, and in this process, we in East Africa have room to operate."
Overall, East Africa's food prices are among the cheapest in the world. After all, East Africa can be cooked for more than a year because of its tropical location.
Senior official Manfred said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, this is also an important strategy for our province to export grain over the years. Through large-scale mechanized production, the cost of grain production in our province has been greatly reduced."
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"This is also an important factor in the continuous increase in grain export output in our province in recent years. In addition, our province is also actively striving to improve the image publicity of agricultural products at this stage, so as to enter the mid-to-high-end agricultural market."
"Especially in terms of economic crops, good results have been achieved. The food processing industry in the province has been vigorously developed and a number of excellent agricultural product processing enterprises have been cultivated."
"At the same time, we are actively building and supporting some local foreign trade and commercial companies around the export issue, and focus on this to expand our province's influence in the global agricultural product market."
With only grain crops, the upper limit of the agricultural economy of Beida Lake Province is definitely not high, but as the world's largest economic crop country, especially in the field of tropical economic crops, East Africa has strong capital and advantages.
The cultivation of cash crops in Beida Lake Province also occupies an important position in East Africa. In addition to the animal husbandry, Beida Lake Province can be regarded as an agricultural all-rounder in the agricultural field.
Take the most important grain production base in the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life. For the Northeast, both grain and animal husbandry are good, but they are not suitable for the development of cash crops. The only ones that can be taken are the two fields of sugar crops and medicinal materials.
In comparison, there are too many types of cash crops that can be grown in the Great Lakes area, such as fiber crops, cotton and various hemps, oil crops, peanuts, rapeseed, etc., sugar crops, that is, sugar cane, and beverage crops are even more comprehensive, tea, coffee and cocoa, etc.
In terms of agricultural conditions alone, the basic agricultural conditions of the Great Lakes region are almost the same as the mineral resource endowment of South Africa. South Africa has most of the main mineral resources for industrial development, while the Great Lakes region can blossom in agriculture and animal husbandry.
In comparison, Manfred's summary is: "Our province's goal is to build an important agricultural complex in the world, including the cultivation of various basic agricultural products, as well as the agricultural product processing industry chain, and finally a complete external sales channel."
"To achieve a certain important position in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery, both nationwide and even the world, the most critical of which is the improvement of agricultural planting technology and agricultural product processing technology in the Dahu District, and the construction of agricultural brand."
Ernst agrees with this, saying: "Technology is the driving force for agricultural development, and the country has also put a lot of effort into this, from the past water conservancy construction to the large-scale promotion of agricultural mechanization and agricultural chemical products."
"Now, East African agriculture has reached a new turning point with the development of the times, and the key is technology and brand issues."
"Including cultivating excellent varieties, supporting and building more advanced agricultural production equipment, developing water-saving agriculture, developing regional characteristic agriculture, reforming agricultural management systems, etc.."
"During the 55th Five-Year Plan alone, many key scientific research projects related to the agricultural field will be implemented across the country. You must also seize this opportunity to strengthen cooperation with enterprises, universities, and scientific research institutions."
In addition to the need for agricultural transformation in East Africa, a big reason for this situation is that East Africa made a lot of money in World War I.
The use of this unexpected wealth is of course more investment in some projects that East Africa was unable to carry out in the past, such as a large-scale project such as aerospace, atomic energy, nuclear physics, etc. that are very expensive.
East Africa's agricultural research projects have also obtained a lot of funds. After all, agriculture is the foundation of a country, especially in countries like East Africa that want to expand its influence in the agricultural field and it is best to achieve agricultural hegemony in some regions. Naturally, we must also pay attention to the progress of agricultural technology.
The benefits East Africa gained in World War I not only did, but in addition to obtaining funds for research in many scientific fields, the technology and talents obtained from Europe can also play a big role.
From this point of view, World War I provided basic conditions for helping East Africa achieve leapfrog development of its scientific research cause nationwide, including support in terms of talents, technology and funds.
Although East Africa will still develop according to its own plan without these factors, there is no doubt that it is precisely because it has obtained a lot of benefits from World War I that it can help East Africa greatly shorten the time for economic transformation. Of course, the specific effect is definitely not visible now.
(This chapter ends)