Chapter 1483 North African Railway

December 7, 1929.

Benghazi.

This is a town located in the northeast of Libya, now an Italian colony. After Benito came to power, it was difficult for him to realize his ambitions as he did in his previous life due to the constraints of national strength.

However, he was obviously a man who could not sit still. In order to achieve Italy's territorial expansion, Benito set his sights on eastern Libya, which happened to be where the British and French forces intersected. Although most of it was desert, there were some habitable areas along the coast, and Benghazi was located in this area.

As it turned out, Benito's action was very successful. Out of their own interests, Britain and France acquiesced to Italy's expansion in the region. Before that, Italy had always been an ally of Britain. Although France entered Libya at the beginning of this century, its interests were in the western region headed by Tripoli.

Benghazi was the second largest city and the most important port in Libya in the past. Now, it is only the size of a town. However, considering the population of Libya, although Benghazi is not large, it is also one of the most prosperous and developed cities in the region.

Especially after Italy took control of this place, it strengthened the construction of Benghazi, which finally allowed Benghazi to start its modernization process. However, Italy's own economy is not strong, and there are no decent resources locally, so its investment in Benghazi is very limited.

But this year, things are changing in Benghazi because East Africa has set its sights on it.

Belit, an expert from the East African Northern Railway Construction Company, and his inspection team are conducting project research in Benghazi.

Belit: "Benghazi and Tobruk are the only two ports in Italian Libya with relatively good conditions, so the North African Railway can only choose one of these two towns as the terminus of the North African Railway."

"The conditions of other ports cannot meet the future cargo transit needs of the North African Railway. Although many people are not optimistic about the cargo volume of the North African Railway, we cannot only look at the North African Railway from the perspective of the Empire. After all, the Empire can be said to be a super-large country. The annual throughput of many ports is unimaginable for some small countries and regions. The entire population of Italian Libya may not even be one million. Even if the Empire leaves a little, it will be an astronomical figure for Italian Libya."

The actual situation is even more exaggerated than what Belit said. Not to mention Italian Libya, even if French Libya is included, Libya's population is less than one million, only 700,000 or 800,000. Moreover, most of this population is distributed in the western part of French Libya. The total population of Italian Libya may be only about 300,000.

His assistant, Yelier, asked, "Sir, do you think the Empire can make back its investment in building this railway within 20 years?"

Belit shook his head and said, "It's probably difficult, but it's not certain. It depends on whether domestic companies are willing to choose this trade route. After all, the North African Railway is closer than the Suez Canal or the two sea routes in the Gulf of Guinea. If you pursue timeliness, then this railway may not be a bad choice."

"The most fatal problem of the North African railway is that the route from Libya to Darfur is basically deserted, which means there is almost no demand for passenger and freight transportation along the route. Of course, if high-value minerals can be discovered in Libya, that would be another situation."

Libya certainly has abundant resources, especially the local oil and gas resources. Even the oil resources in Italian Libya alone are enough to compete for the number one position in Africa. In the past, most of Libya's oil producing areas were under the control of Italy, and in the past, Libya was the largest oil producer in Africa.

However, Libya's rich oil reserves, which were previously inconspicuous, did not attract people's attention, and Italy was sitting on a treasure trove without realizing it.

Of course, if the Italians really discovered local oil, it might not be a good thing, because many important oil fields, although in the Italian-controlled area, are not far from the French-controlled area.

As for Libya's oil resources, once they are discovered, there is a high probability that a war will be triggered, and even Britain may join in. Italy will not be able to defend it at all.

Belit naturally didn't know the huge potential of the land under his feet. After all, he was just a railway engineer. As for the East African government, Ernst knew about the rich underground treasures in Libya.

However, now is not a good time for East Africa to enter Libya. Although North Africa borders East Africa, the Sahara Desert is a natural geographical barrier that is difficult to cross.

Before the Age of Discovery, it even directly isolated sub-Saharan Africa from the Eurasian civilization, so that for nearly a thousand years, progress was extremely slow, even slower than that of the Indians who started from scratch in the Americas.

The Sahara Desert also isolated East Africa and North Africa, especially trade and exchanges in the Mediterranean coastal areas, which was both good and bad for early East Africa.

The good thing is that it was the existence of the Sahara Desert that delayed the Eurasian civilization's conquest of the African continent. Otherwise, it would not have been Ernst's turn to take advantage of the opportunity. I'm afraid that Asia, Africa and Europe would have been completely integrated in ancient times.

The bad thing is that even if East Africa becomes strong, it will be difficult to expand its sphere of influence to the north.

Of course, although East Africa could not extend its influence here before, it did not prevent Ernst from paying attention to the situation in North Africa. This time, the North African railway is an attempt by East Africa to extend its sphere of influence. Of course, the purpose of building the North African railway is not just this.

Whether it is energy, trade, or military and other grand strategic considerations, the North African Railway is of great significance to East Africa. Ernst simply has more knowledge about energy than others.

Belit continued: "However, given the harsh natural environment of Italian Libya, even if there are rich mineral resources, it is not an easy task to develop them."

"With the pitifully small population here, it's probably hard to even recruit workers, let alone supply food and drinking water, provide shelter, etc."

"The resources of Italian Libya are scarce, especially as you go inland, it's almost impossible to see human habitation. There are only a few oases and small tribes."

"Finally, there is the issue of railway construction itself. The North African railway will run through the Sahara Desert. Only a superpower like the Empire would dare to think of and undertake such a project."

Yelier nodded in agreement and said, "So many people in the country oppose the construction of the North African Railway. Although we conducted research and preliminary exploration here as early as the beginning of this century, the follow-up work has always remained on paper. It was only recently that the superiors re-emphasized this century-long project."

The length of the North African Railway will be more than 2,000 kilometers, and it will run through the Sahara Desert, one of the regions with the harshest climate in the world, passing through three countries and regions: East Africa, Darfur, and Italian Libya. Before this, there has never been a railway that runs through the Sahara Desert, so if it can be built, it will not be an exaggeration to call it an engineering miracle.

Belit did not refute his assistant's words. He said: "The economic benefits of the North African railway are indeed not optimistic. The government is naturally aware of this. However, since the government is determined to build this railway, it cannot simply consider the economic benefits."

"Like the Baghdad Railway during the World War, the North African Railway is an important alternative option for countries to maintain contact with Europe after their maritime trade is cut off."

"So, this railway must be built. Its existence in the future means that the empire will be more independent in trade and will not be controlled by others. At the same time, the construction of this railway also has experimental significance."

"If it can bring huge economic benefits to East Africa in the future, then the Empire can consider other options."

Once the North African railway is successfully built and can bring good profits to East Africa, or even losses that meet East Africa's psychological expectations, this may accelerate the process of East Africa's expansion into North Africa.

After all, North Africa itself is a relatively important geographical and political region. In the past, powerful forces in Europe and the Middle East would choose to expand here, such as Egypt, ancient Rome, the Arab Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and today's European countries.

With the rise of East Africa, political forces in sub-Saharan Africa also began to try to extend their tentacles to North Africa for the first time, thereby influencing the Middle East, the Mediterranean, Europe and other regions.

Yelier also understood this truth. He said to Belit: "Such a large-scale national strategic consideration is not something that people like us at the bottom can figure out. However, there is one thing I agree with, that is, the African continent should naturally become the political sphere of influence of East Africa. After all, East Africa itself is a country on the African continent, and it is the most powerful country in Africa."

"This is just like the United States wanting to monopolize and dominate America. As the largest country in Africa and the most powerful country in the world, we in East Africa have not yet established the same dominance in Africa as the United States has in North America. This is indeed somewhat unsatisfactory. For example, North Africa and West Africa are still dominated by European countries."

Belit was not disgusted by his assistant's idea, as he himself believed so deep down in his heart, but he still said.

"West Africa has been run by European countries for hundreds of years. It's not bad for us to have a foothold in West Africa now, and we are still expanding."

"As for North Africa, the Mediterranean is still too small. It is not the Atlantic Ocean and cannot isolate Europe and the Middle East from spying on and controlling the region. Even extremely backward ancient civilizations like ancient Greece were able to use small boats to cross the Mediterranean. The powerful Mediterranean powers that came later were even able to turn the Mediterranean into an inland lake. This proves that Eurasia has a much greater advantage than us in conquering North Africa."

"However, this situation may not be impossible to change. For example, the North Africa we are preparing to build now can greatly change the transportation conditions between the Empire and North Africa. Once this transportation condition is improved, the Empire will definitely be able to extend its influence into North Africa in the future."

"Now, the Italian occupation of eastern Libya has given us this opportunity. France and Britain used to try their best to prevent us from entering this area."

Belit's words revealed a very important message, that is, the construction of the North African railway also involves changes in the international situation.

Libya was once dominated by France. Although France and East Africa had good relations, the French knew very well what kind of existence East Africa was. Therefore, they were unwilling to see East Africa extend its hand to Libya. The British, on the other hand, blocked East Africa from entering North Africa through Egypt and expanding its influence deep into the Mediterranean coast.

Now, the Italian expansion in North Africa has solved the political obstacles that East Africa had wanted to build the North African railway in the past. As for whether Italy is worried about inviting a wolf into the house, to be honest, they haven't thought about it that much.

Although the Benito government controlled eastern Libya and expanded Italy's territory, in their perception, this was actually a political achievement project of Benito. The poverty and "scarce resources" in eastern Libya meant that the Italian government could not gain much actual benefits here.

Therefore, this is actually a "loss-making" deal. Italy's investment and garrison here cost money, but Eastern Libya only provides them with some dispensable agricultural specialties. Italy itself has a Mediterranean climate, and Italy can basically grow any crops that can be grown in Eastern Libya.

Of course, apart from the economy, Eastern Libya still has some strategic value, but not much, but it is enough for Italy, a country that does not have many colonies.

Now, East Africans want to build the North African railway, but the Italian government sees this as an opportunity. After all, everyone knows that East Africa is the most important industrial country in the world, with an astonishingly large land area, population, and various products.

Assuming that the North African railway construction is successful and forms a prosperous business route, Italy will have huge profits whether it acts as a middleman or collects taxes. Apart from other things, the fact that Italy can get some leftovers from the construction of the North African railway is not something that can be ignored for Italy.

For example, the construction of this railway will inevitably require a lot of manpower, and what Italy lacks the least is cheap labor. Although Libya has a small local population, Italy has a large local population, and Italy itself is even a populous country in Europe.

Italy does not mind East Africa entering Libya to build railways. On the contrary, it supports it. As a well-known "poor country" in Europe, Italy's way of thinking about the problem is very different from that of big countries like Britain and France.

In fact, Benito's government was not without conflicts with East Africa, especially on the issue of the Abyssinian Empire. The direction that Benito wanted to expand in the most was actually the Abyssinian Empire. After all, compared with the Abyssinian Empire, Libya had almost "no" value.

However, the Abyssinian Empire had long become a protectorate of East Africa, so it was impossible for Italy to bypass East Africa and declare war on it. Therefore, Benito had no choice but to choose Libya, a "bad land" that almost no one wanted, as the direction of expansion.

However, with the restart of the North African railway project, Italy has ignored those contradictions that are not worth mentioning. After all, the North African railway is a piece of fat meat. Even if its final freight volume may be completely insignificant compared with other trades, it is also a trade route between East Africa and the whole of Europe. Just sprinkling some soup out of it is enough to make people jealous.

(End of this chapter)