Chapter 810 Coastline

"It's only over 80 million kilometers, which is really unexpected. It seems that the visual error is indeed quite large." Ernst muttered to himself as he looked at the recalibrated East African coastline.

Ernst had not noticed it before, but now he fully understood the geographical gap between East Africa and those maritime powers.

Comparing it with the coastline of the Far Eastern Empire in the future, we can clearly see the disadvantages of East Africa. Before that, Ernst did not notice this problem because the coastline of East Africa was not complete.

There is no doubt that if East Africa is only counted as a two-ocean country, its coastline should be longer than that of most countries in the world as shown on the globe, but this is not the case in reality.

For example, the Far Eastern Empire is a typical Pacific country. The straight-line span between the north and south ports (only the mainland part, and excluding Outer Northeast), that is, the straight-line distance from Jinzhou to Xuwen Port is about 2,600 kilometers.

The distance from the northernmost port city of Mogadishu to the southernmost port city of New Hamburg (Port Richard) in East Africa is more than 3,700 kilometers.

However, the coastline of the Far Eastern Empire is more than 18,000 kilometers long, while the coastline along the Indian Ocean in East Africa is only about 5,000 kilometers long. Together with Angola and Southwest Africa (Namibia), that is, the west coast of East Africa, the coastline of East Africa is only more than 8,000 kilometers long.

In other words, East Africa, which has two ocean coasts, has an actual coastline length that is less than half of the coastline of the Far East Empire, which only has the Pacific coast.

This also shows that the coastline of East Africa is too straight and lacks good ports. This is similar to India, which faces the sea on two sides (or three sides), but has a coastline of only more than 5,000 kilometers.

But the problem is that India has a land area of ​​only less than three million square kilometers, while East Africa is more than four times the size of India.

Therefore, the area and coastline of East Africa are quite asymmetrical. Many small countries have longer coastlines than East Africa, including Norway and the Netherlands (including the East Indies colonies).

In fact, another country that can be used as a reference is Canada, which has the longest coastline in the world, exceeding 200,000 kilometers, which is much more exaggerated than Tsarist Russia, the world's largest country in terms of area.

However, the value of Canada's coastline is too low. Most of it is located in the mid- and high-latitude cold zones, and there are many bays and islands, the most typical of which is the Hudson Bay in the northeast.

On the other hand, East Africa has less coastline, but its gold content is slightly higher. However, the scarcity of natural ports is a major flaw. Currently, there are only four ports on the west coast that can be used for economic development.

They are Cabinda, Luanda, Benguela and Walvis Bay in Southwest Africa.

The situation on the east coast is slightly better, but not much better. For example, the Somalia region in East Africa has a coastline of 1,600 kilometers, but there are currently only two available ports: Mogadishu and Kismayo.

Among all the continents in the world, Europe should be the one with the least shortage of excellent ports. Although Asia has the largest number of ports, its territory is vast and there are also large inland countries. The distribution of ports is not even. The Far Eastern Empire is one of the best among them.

"It now seems that although we have seized the high-quality coastline along the Atlantic coast, the length of our country's coastline is still not ranked high in the world, especially among large countries of the same size," Ernst said to the map.

The countries that can be compared with East Africa in size are Tsarist Russia, the Far Eastern Empire, Canada, the United States, Australia, and Brazil.

However, only Brazil has a coastline that does not exceed 10,000 kilometers. However, Brazil only has a coastline along the Atlantic coast, which is only about 1,000 kilometers less than East Africa. It's really frustrating to compare yourself with others.

In the past, the length of East Africa's coastline (mainland only) was only ranked 15th in the world, after Mexico (9,330 kilometers) and before Italy (7,600 kilometers).

Of course, there is no need for East Africa to underestimate itself. The maritime conditions in East Africa cannot be judged solely by the length of the coastline. Taking all factors into consideration, it is among the best in the world.

The fact that it faces two oceans alone is enough to make people envious, jealous and hateful. For example, Germany's coastline is actually not short, about 3,000 kilometers.

Today's Germany is not the castrated version after World War II in the previous life. East Prussia is still in its hands, so the coastline is longer than in the previous life, about one-third of East Africa.

However, the German Navy was trapped in the Baltic Sea and was very frustrated. The same was true for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The coastline in Croatia alone was more than 1,800 kilometers, and including Venice and Slovenia, it was about 3,000 kilometers, but it was also trapped in the Adriatic Sea.

Therefore, East Africa's coastline advantage is also very obvious, which was reflected in the East-British naval battle. Except that the Somalia region is difficult to defend, East Africa was able to deal with the British Navy with the help of its marine talents.

East Africa’s current shortcoming is the lack of islands in the Indian Ocean region as a strategic fulcrum, which would allow East Africa’s national security to be taken to a higher level.

However, the main islands in the Indian Ocean are currently controlled by Britain and France. Apart from the offshore islands in East Africa, there is only one Comoros Archipelago that is barely worth mentioning.

Siwei Te analyzed: "Your Highness, the length of the coastline is greatly affected by the coastal terrain. This is something we cannot change. However, after my country seized Angola, it has basically made up for its disadvantages in the ocean. In the future, after completing the port infrastructure on the west coast, our merchant ships and navy can basically sail unimpeded in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean."

"Well, that's right, but we should act now, rather than wait until later. Ports like Luanda and Benguela can already be expanded and developed, so let's get them back into operation first." Ernst pointed to the map of Angola and said, "Although we have seized the land of Angola, our rule is not stable, so we should prioritize solving these key coastal towns on the west coast, and then slowly digest the inland areas."

"In the future, Cabinda and Luanda should be international ports in East Africa that can rival Dar es Salaam and Mombasa, so the development of these two places should take precedence over other areas in Angola."

"As for the interior of Angola, we should get the railway department moving and build two railways first, one from Mongu (a city in western Zambia) directly to Luanda, and one from Lubumbashi directly to Cabinda."

These are actually two plans for the western part of the Central Railway. In fact, there is a third plan, which is the Benguela Railway plan. However, East Africa’s top priority now is to consolidate East Africa’s rule in Angola, especially Cabinda, the starting point of the west coast.

For this point, we can refer to Mozambique. After occupying Mozambique, East Africa was no longer worried about the security of Mozambique. Mozambique was surrounded by East Africa on three sides. After falling into the hands of East Africa, it could not escape even if it wanted to.

Of course, in Ernst's plan, the status of Cabinda was infinitely elevated. In fact, Cabinda was previously just a small border town in Angola that the Portuguese did not pay much attention to.

But Ernst was well aware of Cabinda's potential. As the most oil-rich region in East Africa, Cabinda alone could solve East Africa's energy security problems for nearly a hundred years.

This is not an exaggeration. In the next 20th century, as long as East Africa can effectively utilize Cabinda's oil resources, it can fully meet most of East Africa's needs.

And it is impossible for East Africa to rely solely on the oil resources of Cabinda. There will be no shortage of exploration in other areas within the country. If all else fails, they can go out and "rob" instead.

East Africa has a natural advantage in this regard. The world's oil is mainly distributed in the Middle East, and there is no blocked channel like the Malacca Canal or the Suez Canal between East Africa and the Middle East. As long as East Africa is powerful enough, it can at least ensure the country's future oil security.

Moreover, apart from the Middle East, North Africa and West Africa are also rich in oil resources. In the future, the East African Navy can set out from the west coast and reach the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa directly. North Africa is even directly connected to East Africa by land.

(End of this chapter)