Chapter 1576 Naval Strength

Not to mention the future Far East Empire, even the current Nanjing government is at least a nominal official government, recognized by various warlords and local forces. It is impossible for Europe to form even such a nominal unified government.

Therefore, the Far Eastern Empire will inevitably become the dominant player in future East Asian affairs. Coupled with the checks and balances of the Soviet Union and the United States, East Africa will not be able to play a leading role in this region.

In the entire Pacific region, East Africa's strategic fulcrum is the South Pacific. This area is also the main manifestation of East Africa's interests in the East. For example, energy, minerals, colonies, markets, etc. are all controllable.

Although the Far Eastern Empire market is huge and attractive, entering it requires high investment and huge risks. The Russo-Japanese War in the early 20th century is an important manifestation of this. Russia suffered a setback in Northeast Asia, its prestige was destroyed, and it eventually became an international laughing stock. This also accelerated the subsequent development and growth of the Soviet Labor Party.

At the same time, even if they succeed in entering the Far Eastern Empire market, it can only play a temporary role. Britain, which was once at its peak in the Far Eastern Empire, is now shrinking in influence, and it is impossible for other countries to suppress the Far Eastern Empire for a long time.

After all, the people of the Far Eastern Empire are not India, and their spirit of resistance is stronger. According to historical laws, if it were not for the collusion with imperialism, the Far Eastern Empire would most likely have changed dynasties in the 19th century.

…

The Indian Ocean ranks second in East Africa's world strategy, mainly because controlling the Indian Ocean can bring the greatest benefits to East Africa.

Although South America and West Africa in the South Atlantic are not small in size, they are still inferior to the Indian Ocean. The Indian Ocean directly connects three continents, Eurasia, Africa and Oceania, and at the same time controls the core of world trade, that is, the Eurasian route.

The market around the Indian Ocean is far larger than that in South America and West Africa. The population of South Asia alone exceeds 300 million, and the smallest Oceania market has a population of over 6 million.

At the same time, the Indian Ocean is directly related to trade between Europe, Asia and East Africa, which is something that South America and West Africa cannot do. East Africa can rely on the Indian Ocean to gain control of both sides, while South America and West Africa have much stronger autonomy.

Ernst said: "Controlling the Indian Ocean has low costs and high benefits. Controlling this ocean can directly affect most countries in the world, especially the many powerful countries in Eurasia."

"If you want to control the Indian Ocean, you must first control the South China Sea. I have my homeland to the west of the Indian Ocean, but I still share the east of the Indian Ocean with other forces."

If East Africa wants to control the Indian Ocean, it must control both the east and west sides of the Indian Ocean. On the west side, East Africa's powerful national strength can completely cover the sky with one hand. Even though Britain is guarding the Red Sea passage, as long as the East African navy makes a little effort, it can block the Eurasian route in the Gulf of Aden.

On land, East Africa also has an absolute advantage and can make Britain's colonies in Egypt, Somaliland and South Africa disappear in an instant at any time.

But if we reach the East Indian Ocean, the situation changes. First of all, the East Indian Ocean is a certain distance away from the mainland of East Africa. Secondly, in the South Pacific and South Asia region, East Africa is now just one of many forces.

The influence of Britain, France and the Netherlands in Southeast Asia is no less than that in East Africa. Secondly, they can also cooperate tacitly with the United States and Japan to prevent East Africa from becoming bigger in Southeast Asia.

On the surface, these countries are not united, but in dealing with the pressure from East Africa, the giant in the Indian Ocean, it is impossible for them to have no tacit understanding.

Therefore, if East Africa wants to break the geopolitical pattern of Southeast Asia, it must let them fight among themselves first, and the thugs selected by East Africa are "Japan".

Crown Prince Friedrich said: "The Empire wants to control the Indian Ocean, and the South Pacific region is the key. Therefore, strengthening and luring Japan has been an important direction of East African diplomacy in recent years."

"According to our estimates, the size of the Japanese Navy has reached the fourth largest in the world, with a total tonnage of approximately 700,000 tons. They are also secretly building new battleships and other advanced large ships. Their strength is not much different from ours and the United States."

Obviously, the strengthening of Japan mentioned by East Africa mainly refers to the Japanese navy. After all, only when its navy is strong will it be more likely to go south and take advantage of the situation.

At the same time, the East African side also stepped up its public opinion offensive to influence political opinion in Japan, such as advocating the benefits of the southward plan.

However, now that Japan has taken action against the Far Eastern Empire and has achieved great actual results, Japan is temporarily hesitant to move south.

However, this does not affect the overall situation. After all, the important strategic resources that Japan lacks, such as oil, rubber, copper, etc., are all distributed in the South Pacific and Oceania regions, which the Far East Empire cannot provide to Japan.

Although the mineral resources of the Far Eastern Empire are also very important, their help to Japan is limited. For example, after Japan occupied the northeastern region of the Far Eastern Empire, it could not immediately obtain the expected benefits.

After all, no matter what, the Far Eastern Empire's industrial base is too weak now. After Japan occupied its northeast, it had to increase investment and improve its transportation and industrial facilities, while also facing harassment from armed forces behind enemy lines.

Moreover, Japan's occupation of the Far Eastern Empire also brought about a bad effect, which was to further intensify the contradictions between the two countries, while the Far Eastern Empire was Japan's largest overseas market.

On the contrary, if Japan had chosen to invade Southeast Asia first, there might not have been such a problem. After all, most of Southeast Asia's countries are colonies. If Japan launched a war against these regions, it would be insignificant in the eyes of some Southeast Asian countries. Even if Japan treated these regions slightly better than Britain and France, it might have been welcomed.

The reason why Japan was unable to make up its mind to move south was, after all, because it was concerned about the Western powers. The key to breaking this psychological barrier lies in the navy. However, judging from the recent expansion of the Japanese navy, they clearly had a plan to invade Southeast Asia.

After all, Japan maintains the fourth largest navy in the world not to deal with the Far Eastern Empire, but also exceeds Japan's needs to maintain its own national defense security.

The London Treaty mainly restricted major ships such as battleships, aircraft carriers and cruisers, and Japan basically exceeded the standards.

As of 1934, the ranking of naval strength of various countries was roughly as follows. Britain was undoubtedly still number one, with a total naval tonnage of approximately 1.2 million tons.

Next are East Africa and the United States, with both countries having around 800,000 tons. East Africa is relatively active in expanding its navy, so it may be slightly higher than the United States.

The reason is very simple. After all, East Africa is the third largest colonial power in the world. Its overseas territories and maritime interests require a greater navy than the United States. Moreover, East Africa is more proactive than the United States in international strategy.

The United States now pursues strict isolationism, which, in the final analysis, means that it wants to dominate the Americas. This passive strategy naturally does not require much effort in armaments.

Of course, although East Africa has its own ideas about naval development, it also keeps its focus. On the one hand, this helps maintain East Africa's international image. On the other hand, if East Africa does not abide by the treaty, some countries will not be able to sleep well.

These countries are mainly the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. The United Kingdom will be very wary of any country that wantonly expands its navy. There are two negative examples now, such as Japan and Germany. Japan in particular has always been hypocritical towards the United Kingdom, which has led to an extreme deterioration in relations between the two countries in recent years.

The second is the United States. There is a direct conflict of interest between the United States and East Africa, especially in South America. Therefore, if East Africa engages in a naval competition, the United States will inevitably be unable to sit still.

Finally, there is Japan. Although East Africa does not take Japan seriously, Japan is a pawn chosen by East Africa, and East Africa is afraid that expanding its navy will scare Japan away.

Therefore, the development of the East African Navy is very cautious. When it comes to warships, it does not blindly pursue scale, but pays more attention to technological improvement and tactical improvements.

For example, East Africa pays more attention to the development of aircraft carrier technology and the research on the application of aircraft carrier combat systems. It also upgrades warship technology in East Africa by strengthening communication technology, naval gun power, armor and engine performance to improve the combat and survivability of East African warships.

Compared with directly piling up the number of warships, these measures are less likely to arouse the vigilance of other countries. The number of warships can be discovered by other countries, just like Japan secretly built warships and was observed by East Africa. Then, a behemoth parked in the dock will inevitably be discovered as long as a little force is used.

In terms of improving technology and accumulation of numbers, Germany and France form a good contrast. Now France ranks fifth in the world in naval tonnage, and Germany ranks sixth in the world, but the true strength of the two countries' navies is probably difficult to say.

The French Navy has actually been in a period of relative decline since the end of the 19th century, especially after World War I. Constrained by financial pressure, France had to cut its naval spending on a large scale, but the French Navy had to be maintained at a certain size.

After all, France is a colonial power, and its colonies in West Africa, Southeast Asia and other regions need naval support.

This resulted in very slow progress in the French Navy's warship technology, which ranked it at the bottom among the world's powers and was adjacent to Spain.

Before Adolf came to power, Germany's navy was concerned about the London Treaty, so it could not expand in scale. It could only invest more funds in technological research and development and speed up the iteration of naval ships. This resulted in no significant progress in the scale of German warships, but the warships remained at the world's advanced level.

However, there are certain problems with the German Navy's technology selection route, that is, it pays more attention to the development of battleships and submarines, and relatively neglects investment in aircraft carriers.

However, this is understandable. The German Navy is restricted by geographical limitations, so it pays more attention to the penetration capability and defensiveness of warships. For the German Navy, breaking out of the Baltic Sea and the English Channel first is obviously the main task.

Aircraft carriers are more suitable for operations in ocean waters. At the same time, at the current stage, the combat capability of aircraft carriers is controversial. Even ocean countries such as Britain and the United States have not put too much effort into aircraft carriers. The United States is not very concerned about the development of its navy, and the United Kingdom lacks understanding of aircraft carrier operations. Many officers even regard aircraft carriers as auxiliary warships of air defense forces.

The only two countries in the world that give priority to the development of aircraft carriers are East Africa and Japan.

The United Kingdom, the United States, East Africa, France, Germany and Japan are the major naval powers in the world today. In addition, the Italian Navy has developed rapidly in recent years and can be regarded as an emerging force.

Other countries, such as the Soviet Union, paid more attention to land power, and their navies were not outstanding. The Austro-Hungarian Navy was also neglected. Due to funding constraints, it was unable to develop and its scale could not keep up.

After these powerful countries, other countries, including the goalkeeper of the great powers, Spain, were completely powerless. Even the construction of warships was difficult, and the main battleships basically had to be purchased.

For example, Spain relies on the UK for its technology in building large warships and cannot complete it independently. However, Spain has maintained some warship construction capabilities, which puts it at the forefront of the world and is in the second tier internationally.

In this second tier, there are also several countries such as the Soviet Union, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Belgium.

As for the third echelon, the military shipbuilding industry can basically be regarded as an assembly plant, represented by countries such as the Ottoman Empire, Brazil, and Argentina.

Finally, there is the fourth echelon, represented by the Far Eastern Empire, Portugal, Greece, etc.

As for why the Far East Empire is so special at this stage, it is not because of its lack of capabilities. After all, with a little effort, it can still squeeze into the third echelon. This is mainly because the current Jinling government does not even want to be an assembly plant, which has completely halted the development of its own military shipbuilding industry. It pursues the idea of ​​"it is better to buy than to make" and neglects the development of its own military shipbuilding industry.

This even led to a major setback in the Far Eastern Empire's military shipbuilding industry. After all, failure to obtain government orders would inevitably lead to personnel losses, operational difficulties, and further technological setbacks.

Now the Far East Empire Navy only has the ability to maintain and modify ships, and is unable to independently build main battleships. It is even hard to say whether it has the ability to assemble and imitate them. In the absence of technology and skilled workers, even if a warship is put together, it will only have numerous problems.

This is why the Far East Empire's military and shipbuilding industries have fallen into the same situation as some small countries, such as Portugal. Now Portugal can be regarded as a small and weak country.

Although Portugal was still a colonial power in name, its few overseas colonies were not significant at all. They were not large enough, had few resources and population, and the profits were basically negligible.

In terms of industry, Portugal also lags behind the whole of Europe. In Europe, it can even compete with the poorest countries. It is at the same level as several small European countries such as those in the Balkan Peninsula, or even worse. As for Greece, it has always been a country that borrows new debts, repays old debts, and lives a life of idleness and waiting to die.

Therefore, if the Far Eastern Empire government was a little more normal, it would not be on the same level as Portugal and Greece. Its lower limit should be the Ottoman Empire. If it works harder, it may even move closer to the second tier.

After all, the conditions of the Ottoman Empire were much worse than those of the Far Eastern Empire. Even if the Nanjing government did not actually control the entire country, the population, land, and resources it controlled were by no means comparable to those of the shrunken Ottoman Empire.

Ernst is not concerned about the current development of the Far Eastern Empire's navy. After all, the current strength of the Far Eastern Empire's navy is not even enough to be used as a pawn or bargaining chip, and it cannot play a restraining role on Japan.

However, this is also a good thing for East Africa. If the Far Eastern Empire's navy now has some strength, the Japanese Navy's focus may be on the Far Eastern Empire Navy.

This is not conducive to the Japanese Navy focusing on regions such as the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean. It is precisely because Japan now has no rivals in East Asia that its navy can concentrate more on studying rivals in the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.

(End of this chapter)