Chapter 1407 Important Position
The natural conditions in the Great Lakes region were considered top-notch in the agricultural era. This can be seen from the densely distributed kingdoms here in the last century. Apart from the coastal areas, the kingdoms in the Great Lakes region were the regions with the highest political civilization in East Africa.
Of course, although the conditions in the Great Lakes region are good, it is not without its disadvantages. There are many swamps and tropical jungles here, and the climate is very similar to that of the ancient Jingchu area of the Far East Empire.
Therefore, in order to effectively utilize local natural conditions, the population and civilization must reach a certain scale, which the original indigenous kingdom obviously could not do.
This also explains why the Great Lakes region has become the region with the highest unit grain yield in East Africa. As for the soil alone, due to the existence of a large number of swamps and seasonally flooded areas, the soil here is mostly black-gray clay.
These poorly drained lowlands and wetlands are conducive to the rapid accumulation of organic matter, and decomposition is slow because of the accumulation of water, high altitude, and relatively low temperatures.
Therefore, the land around the Great Lakes region can be regarded as the black soil of East Africa. Its soil fertility is among the best in East Africa. What is even more difficult is that the Great Lakes region is vast in area, which is one of the important reasons why it has become the granary of East Africa.
The black clay area, in particular, is most suitable for the growth of rice crops, and East Africa can ensure stable yields regardless of drought or flood as long as water drainage projects are well implemented.
East Africa itself was 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, the Northern Lakes Province has adjusted its policies from ensuring food production to giving equal importance to agriculture and industry.
Senior official Manfred said: "Your Majesty, the two industrial zones in our province are now under construction. By then, two major industrial clusters will be formed to accelerate the economic development of the region."
The reason why Northern Great Lakes Province can build two industrial zones at the same time is due to its energy distribution. The northern part of Northern Great Lakes Province is rich in oil, so related industries are arranged around oil, while the southern part is rich in water resources and has convenient transportation. A number 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, making full use of the hydropower resources of the Nile River and its tributaries to support high-energy-consuming industries such as oil refining, metallurgy, electrolytic aluminum, and chemicals."
If the Great Lake, which is Lake Victoria in the previous life, is considered the upper reaches of the Nile River, then the entire Great Lakes region belongs to the Nile River basin.
The Northern Great Lakes Province is mountainous on both sides, and its northern part is the transition zone between the East African Plateau and the Nile Basin. The terrain difference is large, so the potential for hydropower development here is huge.
Therefore, in terms of energy, the Northern Great Lakes Province has unique advantages in developing industry. In addition to coal, it has considerable reserves of natural gas and oil. Coupled with hydropower development, this makes the electricity cost in the Northern Great Lakes Province relatively low.
However, the oil resources of the Northern Great Lakes Province are mainly supplied to the whole country, because the oil fields in the Northern Great Lakes 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 rich oil resources, they have not yet been effectively developed and utilized.
East Africa, or Ernst itself, is not very enthusiastic about developing the latter two regions. Now that East Africa has a stable oil supply channel overseas, it has no interest in further developing its own oil resources.
Domestic oil production is reasonably controlled within a certain range, mainly to ensure that in the most extreme case, domestic oil supply will not be difficult due to overseas blockades.
But as for imposing a blockade on East Africa, in reality, basically no country can do this, so this possibility can basically be ignored.
East Africa's current overseas oil imports mainly come from three lines, corresponding to the Americas, Europe and Southeast Asia. America mainly imports the United States, Canada and Venezuela, Europe imports Hungary and Romania, and Southeast Asia imports its own East Kalimantan colony.
Today, the total amount of oil imported by East Africa from Europe is declining year by year. After all, many European countries are short of oil, especially Germany. In this case, the Austro-Hungarian Empire prefers to consume its own oil or export it to Germany, while the oil in Romania is also mainly bought by Germany.
As for Russia, formerly Europe's main oil producer, it had long since withdrawn from East Africa, and because of the war, Russia's oil field production capacity has been slow to return to pre-World War I levels.
In short, East Africa's oil imports to Europe have basically reached the final stage. After a while, this line is also the most vulnerable to being cut off in East Africa, after all, it has to pass through the Suez Canal controlled by the British.
In the Americas, the United States' oil exports to East Africa have been relatively stable, but in recent years, Canada and Venezuela's oil exports to East Africa have been increasing.
Finally, there is East Kalimantan colony in East Africa itself. Its oil producing areas are basically the oil fields of Indonesia in the previous life. East Africa's utilization of the oil resources here has led to the increase in the exploitation of local oil in the North Kalimantan colony under British control. A large part of it has also been sold to East Africa, Germany and other countries. After all, Britain itself cannot digest it.
Judging from the overseas oil import situation in East Africa, if one wants to block East Africa’s oil transportation channels, unless a country can simultaneously block the East African navy in the waters near East Africa in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic, it is obvious that no country can do this.
From the 1980s to the beginning of this century, Britain had the ability to take advantage of the weakness of the East African navy and contain East Africa on the African continent, but to achieve this, it would probably require the full deployment of the Royal Navy. As for why it was after the 1980s, it was because East Africa had no decent navy before that.
In fact, since the South African War, Britain has basically lost the ability to impose a comprehensive blockade on East Africa. At that time, the East African navy had developed to a certain scale, and as the world hegemon, it is impossible for Britain to only focus on one country in East Africa and let other countries take advantage.
This also explains the decline of British hegemony to a certain extent. This cannot be achieved by simply trying one's best to suppress East Africa. After all, from the perspective of the British at the time, the threat from the United States, Germany and even Russia was greater than that from East Africa.
Among these countries, it would not have much effect if Britain suppressed one or both of them. For example, in the past, the only country that was actually suppressed by Britain was Germany, but in the end Britain's hegemony was still disintegrated by the United States and the Soviet Union.
In this time and space, the situation of the British was even more difficult. Under Ernst's intervention, the British could not even deal with Germany, and they were helpless against the United States and East Africa overseas. At the moment, Russia's industry had not yet developed, otherwise it would be another country that Britain could not deal with.
In other words, Britain's so-called world hegemony can be seen as an honorary title in name only. However, as things stand, the major powers in the world have no intention of depriving Britain of this honorary title.
Of course, Germany tried to do this before but failed, while East Africa and the United States are much more stable than Germany.
After all, even if the British fig leaf is removed, no one can get the throne of "world hegemony" and they will still restrain each other, so it is better to let Britain continue to be the "virtual monarch".
However, Britain cannot be a figurehead for too long, mainly because Britain itself is powerless. Being a world hegemon represents power as well as responsibility.
The current situation is that Britain's power is shrinking due to the rise of other major powers and the national awakening of its colonies and backward regions. It cannot gain any actual benefits, but still has to bear the responsibilities of a world hegemon.
Just like in many national and regional conflicts nowadays, everyone will choose Britain as the "boss" as the mediator. This is obviously a thankless task.
In the past, as a world hegemon and a powerful country, Britain was eager for constant conflicts outside the UK so that it could profit from them. But now, even if Britain tries its best to mediate conflicts, it will be difficult to gain much benefit, and may even lose more than it gains due to the intervention of other major powers.
This means that the title of world hegemon is changing from a benefit to a burden for Britain. Of course, at this stage, the benefits to Britain are still greater than the burden, so Britain is still doing its best to maintain the old international system.
But this does not mean that the UK will cling to this old system. Although the UK is the creator and builder of this system, with the development of the times, the system and institutions will inevitably become outdated.
Just as Britain changed from being a major promoter of global free trade in the last century to being a staunch supporter of "high tariff barriers" today.
This is the same reason why the United States went from supporting globalization to "enclosing land for self-protection" in the past. Under the original free trade system, the biggest beneficiary has changed, which is unacceptable to the United States.
Similarly, under the international system constructed by Britain, with the decline of Britain's own industry, the beneficiaries became Germany, the United States, and East African countries. Britain naturally could not accept this, but it had no choice.
Britain couldn't even "enclose itself to protect itself" because the size of the British mainland was too small. This doomed Britain's overseas interests to be gradually stripped away by emerging powers in the future. The specific manifestation of this in the past was the complete disintegration 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. It is impossible for East Africa to overthrow Britain's position as the world hegemon in a short period of time. After all, even if East Africa is overthrown, 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 from the complete collapse of the old international order.
In East Africa, this means further enhancing the country's industrial strength, making up for shortcomings in other areas, and continuously expanding its sphere of influence.
Improving the country's industrial strength is undoubtedly the most effective and safest way.
So Ernst said to Manfred and other senior officials from the Northern Great Lakes Province: "The industry of the Great Lakes region determines the lower limit of the country's industrialization to a certain extent. After all, the population size of the Great Lakes region can have a significant impact on various per capita data in the country."
"In the entire Great Lakes region, Northern Great Lakes Province is one of the provinces with the greatest potential. Your energy advantages are not possessed by many other provinces."
"Today, it is no longer the period of the First Industrial Revolution. The impact of coal and iron ore on industry has weakened to a certain extent, and your province happens to lack coal resources."
"So, your province should make full use of the three resources of water energy, oil and natural gas, especially water energy construction, water energy development and utilization, which is not only environmentally friendly but also recyclable."
Although the Great Lakes region also has rainy seasons and dry seasons, due to its proximity to the Congo Basin and the influence of the Great Lakes on the regional climate, seasonal changes in precipitation are not as prominent as in other areas of East Africa. In addition, there are many lakes regulating precipitation, which further improves the utilization efficiency of local hydropower.
Simply put, building a hydroelectric power station in the Great Lakes region can basically achieve non-stop operation throughout the year. In this way, the power supply will tend to be stable, thus providing favorable guarantees for local industrial and domestic electricity use.
Ernst went on to say: “In addition to its own development, the Northern Great Lakes Province should also strengthen its economic ties with neighboring provinces, especially those in the northern region. If possible, the economic reach of the Northern Great Lakes Province should extend to North African countries in the future.”
"Your province is an important fulcrum of the country's regional coordinated development strategy, and it also shoulders the important land transportation fulcrum for connecting trade with North Africa and even Europe."
Initially, one of the important purposes of the East African government setting up the Northern Great Lakes Industrial Zone was to boost the development of the northern region of East Africa. The Northern Great Lakes Province is located at the northernmost end of the Great Lakes region, so the industrial development of the Northern Great Lakes Province is of great significance to the national economic development of East Africa.
Not only that, the Northern Great Lakes Province is the de facto land connection point between the northeast and northwest. Many national trunk railways intersect in the Northern Great Lakes Province. For example, the exchanges between East African east coast cities such as Mombasa and Mogadishu and west coast cities such as Libreville (Gabon) and Douala (Cameroon) must pass through the Northern Great Lakes Province.
In the future, if East Africa and North African countries such as Egypt conduct land trade, the Northern Great Lakes Province will also be an important starting point. Although the Nile Province has a greater advantage in distance, the industry of the Nile Province is too weak and its economic scale is too small to fully shoulder the heavy responsibility.
Of course, the more important reason is that the natural conditions in the Nile Basin are too poor and do not meet the conditions for large-scale development. Its humid and hot climate alone is a major limiting factor. You must know that the interior of the Nile Basin is even hotter than the coastal plains of East Africa. After all, there is still wind in the coastal areas, but the Nile Basin has poor air flow due to its closed terrain.
(End of this chapter)
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