Chapter 1541 Overseas Railway Business
The northern mountainous area of Dezful looks like a land of ravines and ravines, with endless yellow-brown and skinny peaks. The route of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway passes through this extremely complex terrain.
East African Railway engineer Tryon looked at the mountains in front of him and said, "It is a miracle that Persia can maintain national unity for a long time despite its complex terrain."
"The entire Zagros Mountains are under its control. The terrain and ethnic groups are complex, and it borders the outside world, but there are no major problems overall. This can only show that Persia has its own unique features in the fields of culture and system."
"For example, the Khuzestan Plain and the Persian capital of Tehran are separated by such a huge mountain range, but Persia can still govern it relatively effectively, which is a testament to the problem."
Khuzestan is the plain area in the southwest of Persia, adjacent to Iraq and connected to the Mesopotamian Plain. The local population is mainly Arabs.
Although this place belonged to the first Persian Empire, the birthplace of the Achaemenid Empire, Persians have now become a minority in the area.
Ismail, the Persian foreman beside Trion, said: "Persia has been able to overcome the transportation disadvantages under complex terrain for a long time, maintain the stability of a multi-ethnic country, and form national identity over a long period of time. These are the advantages of our Persian culture."
"No matter which ethnic group ruled Persia in history, they would eventually integrate into the local civilization and maintain Persia's independence."
What Ismail said is indeed true. In terms of the assimilation ability and inclusiveness demonstrated by Persian culture, perhaps only the Far Eastern empire can be compared with it.
This is not an exaggeration. Historically, this place has been ruled by Macedonia, Arabia, Mongolia, Turks, etc., but Persia still maintains its ideological and cultural independence.
Even the ancient Arab Empire, which had the most profound influence on the local culture, could only adapt to Persian culture. For example, the Persian language, although Arabized in writing and using Arabic letters, its grammar and vocabulary are independent of Arabic. Also, the Persian religion, although also belonging to Arabic, was the minority Shia sect in the ancient Arab Empire.
This was the ancient Arab Empire, which was very strong in terms of ideology and culture. After other empires such as the Mongols and Turks occupied and ruled the local area, they basically directly adopted the local political system, laws, and culture, and eventually completely integrated into Persia.
In short, Persia has a strong sense of national and cultural identity, which is also an important reason why East Africa’s attempt to divide Persia failed in the previous stage.
Previously, East Africa hoped to exert influence on Persia and then separate Persia under the East African sphere of influence from Persia under the British sphere of influence, but with little success.
As for the reason why East Africa did this, it was naturally because it did not want a strong country to emerge along the Indian Ocean coast. Persia's area and strength could make it a regional power, which might threaten East Africa's hegemony. However, East Africa finally gave up this plan.
In addition to the internal unity of Persia, East Africa also had to consider the influence of the Soviet Union on the Middle East. At least before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Persia was still a unified country, which made it easier for East Africa to use it to hinder the southward advance of Soviet forces.
As for whether Persia might have a negative impact on East Africa's influence in the Middle East in the future, the threat in this regard is actually not as great as imagined.
After all, from the past to the 21st century, its population was less than 100 million, and it was restricted by natural conditions, industrialization and high administrative costs, so its upper limit of development was nothing more than a regional power.
In later generations, although some people were optimistic about Persia's territory and population, objectively speaking, Persia was not outstanding in these two aspects. In terms of population, Egypt and Pakistan in later generations had more than Persia, and the latter even had more than 200 million.
Although Persia has a large territory, it is mostly mountainous and desert, and water resources are relatively scarce. In addition, there are many ethnic groups within the country, making it difficult to form a joint force.
In short, Persia's potential is limited unless it can integrate the resources of the entire Middle East and become a great empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa, like the First Persian Empire.
However, this is difficult to achieve. Even at this stage, the Ottoman Empire has a higher possibility of achieving this than Persia. Therefore, even if East Africa wants to suppress the development of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire will rank first, and then Persia will be the turn.
Of course, these are all things that the East African government has to consider. Tryon is a railway engineer. His main goal is to assist in the construction of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway project. He has no bad intentions towards Persia.
Trion said: "Persia has been able to exist as a regional power in the Middle East. Its long history and culture have played a huge role and have continuity. However, ancient Babylon, Assyria and other Middle Eastern civilizations have disappeared in the long river of history, leaving only a pile of historical relics."
"So, I think your country still has a chance to revive in the future, although this revival is very difficult and requires adapting to the development of modern society."
"The Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is an opportunity for Persia. After the railway is opened, it will strengthen trade within Persia in the economic field and will also be conducive to the spread of modern civilization in culture."
From the perspective of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway alone, it can indeed play the role that Tryon mentioned, but the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is not without its shortcomings.
The biggest problem is that this railway completely adopts East African standards, while the existing railways in Persia were built under the leadership of Britain and Tsarist Russia in the past. The railway gauges of Britain and Tsarist Russia are different from those of East Africa.
This means that the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway cannot actually be connected to the domestic railway network of Persia to form its own system, which also reflects East Africa's careful thinking.
However, as far as Persia’s transportation conditions are concerned, before the construction of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway, Persia’s modern transportation was basically zero. Although there were a small number of railways, they definitely did not reach the level of a “railway network”. Only a small number of relatively economically developed areas had shorter railway lines.
Therefore, at the current stage, the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway still plays a great role in promoting the development of Persia. However, in the future, if Persia wants to unify its railway standards and form a coherent railway network, it must make a choice and choose a single railway standard.
If we consider economic transportation, then there is no doubt that the railway standards of the Soviet Union (Tsarist Russia) or Britain are more suitable than those of East Africa.
It is not because the two countries' rail transit is more advanced than East Africa, but because of Persia's geographical location. It is located on the Eurasian continent, and Persia is even one of the important hubs of Eurasian transportation.
Whether it is the Soviet standard or the British standard, both will help Persia integrate into the Eurasian market, thereby promoting the development of its economic field. If we consider the issue of national security, then the British standard is most beneficial to Persia, and the Soviet threat is too great.
Therefore, the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway, which was built under the leadership of East Africa, seems to have promoted the development of Persian civilization, but in fact it has been planted with "hidden dangers" by the East African government. If Persia wants to unify the national railway standards in the future, it must demolish this East African standard railway.
Of course, Persia could also adopt East African standards for all its railways, but this would not be conducive to the interconnection of Persian railways with other countries in Eurasia and their integration into the Eurasian market.
As an expert in the railway field, Tryon is well aware of this, but he does not think there is anything wrong with it.
After all, the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is essentially a business, and Persia's own choices also played a role in the construction of this railway.
Moreover, as an East African, Tryon naturally hopes that East Africa's railway standards can enhance its output to the world. In recent years, East Africa has achieved good results in this regard, including the construction of East African standard railway lines in the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.
In the Middle East, the Basra Railway was built using East African standards, and East Africa itself has built railways in its Persian Gulf territory. With this calculation, East African standard railways account for more than half of the railways along the Persian Gulf coast.
After all, there are only five countries along the Persian Gulf, namely Oman, East Africa, the Ottoman Empire, Britain (Bahrain, Kuwait) and Persia.
The East African Persian Gulf territories, the Ottoman Empire, and the current Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway in Persia mean that three countries have adopted East African standards for their railways, and Oman may also build such a railway in the future.
In fact, Oman currently has no need for railway construction. It has a small territory, a small population, and many coastlines. Therefore, the use of road and sea transportation can meet its development needs.
In the past, Oman did not consider developing railway transportation until the 21st century due to economic diversification.
In contrast, the Ottoman Empire and Persia were both large countries with vast land territories, so they had great demand for railways and sufficient freight volume to support the development of railways along the Persian Gulf coast.
Ismail attaches more importance to the economic value of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway. He said: "For us in Persia now, the most important thing is to connect the Caspian Sea coast and the Persian Gulf through this railway, and at the same time drive the development of the economy in the middle mountainous area."
"Our Persian capital, Tehran, is close to the coast of the Caspian Sea. Although it has the best industrial and agricultural foundations and favorable natural conditions, Tehran's disadvantage is that it is far away from the ocean. The Caspian Sea is more like a giant inland lake."
"Moreover, most of the region was controlled by the Soviet Union and could only develop trade with the Soviet Union. After the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is completed, Tehran and the Caspian Sea coast will be able to establish trade relations with other parts of the world through this railway."
"At the same time, this railway will connect Khuzestan and the Caspian Sea, the two richest regions in Persia, and will also strengthen the development linkage of the domestic economy."
The area around the Caspian Sea is the core of the Persian economy, but Khuzestan’s agricultural conditions are not bad either, and it has advantages in sea transportation. Coupled with the development of local oil, it is also considered a wealthy region in the Persian economy. These were also the two most developed economic regions in Iran in the past.
Therefore, the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway connects the two regions, which is indeed of great significance to the Persian royal government.
…
The construction of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is an important project in the context of exporting East African railway standards. However, its importance is not high for the East African government. In comparison, East Africa pays more attention to overseas railway investment in Africa and South America.
On the African continent, in addition to East Africa, there are also the Belgian Congo colony, the Kingdom of South Germany, the Togoland colony in East Africa, the Darfur colony and Libya, all of which have railway construction projects in East Africa.
This also means that the East African railway standard will have an absolute advantage on the African continent in the future and will be the basic foundation of the East African railway standard. Relying solely on this basic foundation, the East African railway standard will be able to compete with other railway standards.
The South American direction, including Venezuela, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, Uruguay and other regions, has East African railway construction projects and is the most important overseas market for East African Railway Company.
This is even more true in Southeast Asia. Although there are many East African colonies in the Southeast Asian region, they are mainly islands, which limits the construction of railways.
Currently in the Southeast Asian region, only Kalimantan Island has a railway built by East Africa, which is used to connect Lan Fang and the inland areas of East Kalimantan. Mindanao, the second largest island colonized by East Africa, has no railway construction due to its population and cost, not to mention other colonies of East Africa in Southeast Asia.
In the South Pacific region, East Africa mainly focuses on port and airport construction, especially airport construction, which East Africa has paid more attention to in recent years.
However, it is undeniable that East Africa’s overseas railway construction has experienced explosive growth in recent years, and it is this explosive growth that will lay the foundation for East Africa’s railway standards to become the second highest in the world in the future.
Among the seven continents in the world, except Antarctica, there are railways built in East Africa. Needless to say, Africa and South America, the railways built in East Africa in Asia are concentrated in the Far East Empire, the Persian Gulf coast, North America, and the Alaska territory in East Africa, so the local railways are naturally consistent with those in East Africa.
In Oceania, East Africa invested in railways in western Australia to develop local iron ore resources.
Finally, in Europe, the railways built by East Africa in Europe were mainly concentrated in the Dalmatian Kingdom of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Of course, some of the railways in the above-mentioned regions were simply built with East African investment and may not have adopted East African standards, like the railways in the Far Eastern Empire.
Even so, East Africa's railway standards are second only to British railway standards (standard gauge), and its share in the world ranks second in the world.
In fact, the construction of local railways in East Africa alone is enough to support the East African railway standards to occupy this position. After all, the East African railway network is the second largest railway network after North America and Europe. The European railway network cannot be unified at all due to the large number of countries. The railways in the Soviet Union and the Iberian Peninsula are different from those in other countries. There is also the strange existence of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where the internal railways have not yet unified standards.
The UK is also a peculiar case of this inconsistency in railway standards. For example, the UK adopts standard track gauge, but Australia has three types of track gauges: standard track gauge, 1600mm wide gauge and 1067mm narrow gauge. India uses 1676mm wide gauge, 1000mm meter gauge, and 762mm and 610mm narrow gauge.
In short, the world railway standards in the early 20th century were very chaotic, but the standard gauge ranked first. Most countries in Europe and North America adopted the standard gauge. The second was the East African gauge, followed by the Soviet gauge and the Iberian Peninsula gauge...
The strong export of East African railway standards is due to the growing military, economic and influence of East Africa in recent years. Overseas railway construction is also one of the important means for East Africa to cope with the economic crisis.
(End of this chapter)
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