Chapter 1484 The End of the Chaco War
The importance of the North African Railway is self-evident, but precisely because of this, the choice of its terminal must be cautious. There are limited ports in Italian Libya, and the best ones are Benghazi and Tobruk. Apart from these two existing ports, other ports are not large-scale.
Belit sat on the sand with his legs casually crossed, unfolded the map, and introduced his team.
"Objectively speaking, the comprehensive natural conditions of Tobruk Port are superior to those of Benghazi, making it an excellent safe haven, while Benghazi is more susceptible to various natural disasters such as storms, sandstorms, and floods."
"However, Benghazi's economic influence is wider. It is the center of the entire eastern Libya. During the Libyan Kingdom period, it served as the capital with the same status as Tripoli."
"Historically, Tobruk was used more as a military supply station and played a very limited role in Libya's economy."
"Therefore, Benghazi must be chosen as the terminus of the North African railway. In addition to these advantages, choosing Benghazi can also greatly shorten the length of the North African railway and reduce construction costs."
Yeril added, "Sir, there is another point, that is, Benghazi's location is more conducive to our trade with Europe, because Tobruk is too far to the east and close to Egypt, so it is easy for it to overlap with the Suez Canal in terms of function, but Tobruk obviously cannot compete with the Suez Canal as a shipping route."
Looking at the map, Benghazi faces the Italian Peninsula, while Tobruk faces the Balkan Peninsula. The former is more conducive to trade with Central and Western European countries, while the latter is Central and Eastern Europe.
However, Central and Eastern Europe itself is an important market in East Africa, and the development of this market depends on the Suez Canal.
Of course, whether choosing Benghazi or Tobruk, the impact on trade between East Africa and Europe is not very large, because the straight-line distance between the two places is less than 400 kilometers.
The purpose of the East African government is not to replace the Suez Canal, but to provide a strategic backup to ensure trade and connections between East Africa and Europe during wartime, just as Britain cut off the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar during World War I, forcing East Africa and countries such as Germany to trade via the Middle East.
Once the construction of the North African railway is completed, East Africa will have one more option, although this option is not so safe. After all, the entire Mediterranean is dominated by Britain. They can blockade the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar, and they can also blockade the terminal port of the North African railway.
The British military base in Malta is only about 700 kilometers away from Benghazi, and Tobruk is less than 1,000 kilometers away. Both warships and aircraft can strike these areas.
Whether Britain could successfully blockade the terminus of the North African railway actually depended on whether other countries had the ability and willingness to break the blockade. For example, the Austro-Hungarian Navy controlled the Adriatic Sea, which was just opposite Libya. If the Austro-Hungarian Navy had the courage to fight outside the Adriatic Sea, it might be possible to open up the North African railway and thus ensure trade with East Africa.
The same could be done if Italy could allow the stationing of troops in East Africa at the terminus of the North African railway. Unfortunately, the bottom line of the Italian government obviously does not allow them to do so.
However, these things are not something that small people like Belit and Yelier can consider. They are now only discussing the North African railway issue from the perspective of economics and engineering.
Belit said: "Yeril, you said it very well. Although Benghazi and Tobruk are not far apart, we still have to consider the impact of the Suez Canal as much as possible. It would be great if we can reduce the competition with the Suez Canal, even if the impact is minimal."
"So, there is another reason to choose Benghazi as the destination. In the past, trade between the Empire and the Mediterranean coastal areas could only rely on the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar. Compared with Tobruk, Benghazi is more central to the two. This will maximize the role of the North African Railway."
"In this way, the North African railway will play a role in the future trade between the Empire and Austria-Hungary, the Balkan countries, Tunisia, Italy and France."
The common point of these countries listed by Belit is that their Mediterranean coastal territories are relatively central, while the Suez Canal is located in the east and Gibraltar is located in the western Mediterranean, which can minimize direct competition with these two key shipping routes.
…
While the Libyan section of the North African railway was still in the process of site selection and design, the Darfur section in the south was already ready to start construction. As for the East African section, it had been completed several years ago.
Darfur is already a colony in East Africa, but its population is only more than 60,000. However, the North African Railway in Darfur accounts for almost half of the North African Railway, which is more than 1,000 kilometers.
Just imagine, building a railway of more than 1,000 kilometers for a region with a population of only more than 60,000. Obviously, this is a business that is doomed to lose money.
At the Rhine Palace.
Ernst said to Friedrich: "If the North African Railway wants to recover its costs as soon as possible, the population of Darfur must grow as quickly as possible. Although the local environment is harsh, it can still feed millions of people without any problem."
"At the same time, Darfur has a lot of resources and minerals, and we need population support to develop them. So Darfur's population is far from enough. We need to bring in more immigrants from the Far East Empire and completely relax the local immigration restrictions."
Ernst is not worried about the immigration problem in Darfur at all. Even if the local population is entirely composed of immigrants from the Far East, it will not have any impact on East Africa. After all, given the natural conditions in Darfur, the upper limit of the population is unlikely to exceed 10 million.
Assuming that Darfur's population limit exceeds its carrying capacity, this will not have too much negative impact on East Africa. After all, in Ernst's understanding, East Africa will inevitably enter an aging and population decline stage in the future, and East Africa will just need to introduce labor at that time.
Compared with the Arab believers in North Africa, the immigrants from the Far East Empire obviously made Ernst feel more at ease. At least they would not have religious conflicts and contradictions with East Africa.
Ernst continued: "Darfur's total population of about five million should be a reasonable range that can ensure full development of the area while avoiding environmental collapse, thus achieving sustainable development."
In the previous life, the population of Darfur was about six million. However, the Darfur colony in East Africa was larger than the Darfur region in Sudan in the previous life, so the five million population mentioned by Ernst was already a very conservative number.
"We can also think of ways to deal with the oasis areas in southern Libya. France and Italy don't pay much attention to these places anyway."
Libya is nominally ruled by Italy and France, but its southern part is actually a no-man's land because it is too sparsely populated and the environment and transportation are too poor, making it a completely lawless area.
This gave East Africa an opportunity. No one wanted these places now, but after the North African railway was built, it would become possible to control these areas.
In the past, East Africa chose to turn a blind eye to these places because of transportation. From Darfur to Libya, it is almost all desert, without a single road or railway. The cost of governance can be imagined. It is impossible to rely entirely on camel caravans to transport supplies and troops, and it is almost unprofitable.
Crown Prince Friedrich nodded and said, "The biggest drawback of the North African Railway is that there are too few people and towns along the line. If the population problem can be solved, the North African Railway will not only not be a loss, but will be a perfect route for trade with Europe."
In fact, the North African Railway is very similar to the Central Asian line of the Eurasian Continental Bridge in the previous life, but the biggest disadvantage of the North African Railway is the population problem. The Eurasian Continental Bridge passes through Central Asia, and the climate is indeed much better than that along the North African Railway, but the improvement is limited. There are also many deserts, and there are many mountains with complex geological conditions in the east. However, the population of Central Asia in the previous life exceeded 70 million.
East Africa does not expect the population along the North African railway to reach this number. If it can exceed 10 million, the significance of the entire North African railway will be completely different, but this is obviously a difficult goal to achieve.
In the past, Libya’s national population only reached seven million in the 21st century, and that was despite the huge amount of oil resources.
Therefore, if one wants to increase the population along the North African railway, the heavy responsibility still falls on the Darfur region. The natural conditions in Darfur are better than in most parts of Libya, especially in the central and southern parts close to East Africa. The rainfall is sufficient for agricultural development and the land is relatively fertile.
In general, the reason why Darfur is more suitable for agricultural development than most parts of Libya is that there are many mountainous plateaus in the area, so more precipitation can be generated. This also applies to the Libyan region. For example, Benghazi is located between the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains along the Libyan coast. This is why Benghazi is prone to floods.
It's like the Ethiopian Plateau and the East African Plateau. They can become the water towers of East Africa, but the plains in the middle are extremely dry and form the saltwater lake Lake Turkana.
Similar examples include the Italian Red Sea colonies, Yemen and other places, where rain is basically concentrated in the mountains.
Of course, the rainfall in Darfur is only relatively more than in most areas of the Sahara Desert, but it is still relatively small. A large number of water conservancy facilities must be built to feed a larger population. In order to build water conservancy facilities, there must be a certain population size, which requires more immigrants.
The East African government can provide funds and technology, but it is impossible for it to let its own workers build these projects. Therefore, the construction of Darfur will ultimately have to rely on immigrants.
From the beginning to the end, East Africa had no intention of incorporating Darfur into its territory. After all, the territorial scope of East Africa has already reached a limit. Annexing Darfur will only bring very limited benefits to East Africa's national strength, but will instead cost more.
At the same time, East Africa needs Darfur to become part of East Africa's demographic wall to ensure that East Africa is separated from Arab countries. This requires this demographic wall so that the population can grow steadily.
With the progress of East Africa's industry, in the next few decades, East Africa's natural population growth rate will inevitably decline, and may even become negative, thus following the old path of European and American countries in the past.
Therefore, Ernst said: "We just need to ensure that Darfur remains a subordinate force of the empire. Anyway, it is impossible for it to be separated from East Africa in the future. Darfur is deep inland, and the development of various fields can only rely on East Africa."
"This time, we can take advantage of the opportunity of North African railway construction to solve the population problem in Darfur and cultivate a reservoir of immigrants and a vassal market in the future, so as to ensure that East Africa will not be infiltrated by Arab immigrants in the future."
Although Friedrich had not witnessed the immigration chaos in European and American countries in his previous life, he had no doubt about it under Ernst's words and deeds, because the demographic data of East Africa in recent years also showed a fact, that is, the birth rate in East Africa has been on a downward trend. Although this trend is very slow, one day, many ordinary people in East Africa may not want to have children.
A decline in population means problems with labor, consumption, real estate, etc. Therefore, East African governments must plan ahead and make plans for the future.
Colonies like Darfur, East Kalimantan, and other East African colonies all had this consideration in their policies. In addition, other non-East African colonies, such as the Kingdom of South Germany, the Empire of Abyssinia, the Kingdom of Imerina, and even the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Venezuela, were subtly influenced by East Africa.
After talking about these things, Friedrich did not leave. Instead, he mentioned the current war between Paraguay and Bolivia to Ernst.
"Father, the war between Paraguay and Bolivia has also come to an end. With our support, Paraguay has successfully taken over the entire Northern Chaco region and has already advanced its troops into Bolivia."
"It is estimated that the Bolivian government will surrender soon. Their main force on the front line has been completely defeated. If it were not for the slow efficiency of Paraguay's logistics supply, Bolivia would have suffered a bigger setback this time."
Ernst was not surprised to hear the news. It was because Bolivia's repeated defeats had left a deep impression on him. It had failed to win any foreign war and had even lost its access to the sea. Bolivia was unique in the entire Americas.
Moreover, Bolivia's ethnic policy can be said to be the worst in the entire Americas. Its main ethnic group is Indians. On the one hand, the country discriminates against them, and on the other hand, it has to rely on them to work for its own ambitions. If such an army can win battles, it can only be said that the commander is a man of character.
Ernst said: "Since Bolivia has already become like this, it is our turn to mediate. We can discuss Bolivia's garrison, economy, road construction, mineral development, etc."
East Africa has previously given so much support to Paraguay just for the purpose of harvesting Bolivia today. If the current Bolivian government knows what's good for them, East Africa doesn't mind the country continuing to exist. If it doesn't...
"The Asuncion-Lima railway is an important part of our global trade and a major transportation route to strengthen our control over southern South America. Bolivia's resources, especially its rich iron ore resources, are of great significance to the future empire's market voice in the world's iron ore resources. Therefore, the country of Bolivia must be controlled by us, just like Paraguay."
(End of this chapter)
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
