Chapter 1548 Libya Localization
The number of Soviet exiles each year is approximately several hundred to several thousand people. In recent times, the number has increased to around ten thousand. They cross borders and flee to the Far East, Europe and even various countries in the Middle East.
However, compared with Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Soviet Union's population outflow can only be said to be dwarfed. At present, the entry and exit management of Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is still relatively relaxed.
It was easy for citizens of both countries to leave, as long as they could find a place to stay, but the Soviet side had to consider whether they would be caught by border management departments.
Of course, East African governments are not interested in the current population exodus from the Soviet Union. Ernst said: "The people fleeing the Soviet Union at the moment are nothing more than dissidents or groups that are being treated differently."
Of course, there is one thing Ernst did not say, which is that most of the current Soviet exiles are "inferior" resources. They are either some social critics, scholars, cultural creators who are incompetent, or ordinary people who have no skills and high education.
Ernst said: "Now we should focus on Germany and Austria, especially Germany. However, we should also focus on identifying German science and engineering talents, especially the 'Jews', and find out their backgrounds and connections."
“East Africa can accept science and engineering talents and scientists among the Jewish people, but we must ensure that they do not form groups after coming to East Africa and be exploited by Jewish capital groups.”
"Of course, restrictions can be relaxed for German scientists and talents in science and engineering who are not Jewish."
This time, East Africa's desire to snatch talents from Germany and Austria is very strong. After all, those scientists who escaped from Germany in the previous life were all very influential, such as Einstein, Perhn, Schrödinger and so on.
Of course, the current exodus of German talent is definitely different from the past. For example, Schrödinger is now a citizen of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, not a German (Germany and Austria-Hungary merger). Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire is in difficulties now, these high-end talents do not have a strong desire to leave the country.
East Africa is willing to give the green light to talents in these cutting-edge fields. After all, if they really let them run to the United States, Britain and other countries, it would be a kind of "aiding the enemy" for East Africa. Even if these people just eat and wait for death in East Africa, it is better than strengthening the national strength of other countries.
Therefore, Ernst said: "We should cheat as many people as possible. Even if they cannot be used by us, we should not let these talents flow into the United States and other countries easily."
Although Germany's science is very strong, East Africa is not much behind nowadays. East Africa itself has a large reserve of high-end talents, such as nuclear physics research, aerospace engineering, missile development, etc. At present, the core team is mainly composed of East Africans. If there are no talents in these fields, then East Africa's title of the world's first industrial power would be too untrue.
It is also because of this that East Africa has the confidence to "keep" some German talents.
Friedrich wrote down Ernst's words one by one, and then he asked: "Father, should we intervene in the current situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? Emperor Rudolf has already sent us a signal for help."
Ernst was somewhat hesitant about the current situation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, or the Habsburg family. After all, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a mess. Although Ernst hoped that the Austro-Hungarian Empire would continue to exist, even with the full support of East Africa, it might not have much effect.
After Ernst pondered for a moment, he said, "The Austro-Hungarian Empire still needs to be saved, but we can't have too high expectations. The fundamental problem of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is internal ethnic conflicts."
"This requires the Habsburgs to have extremely sophisticated means to maintain their rule. We can help them economically. Provide them with some weapons, food, and trade support."
There is a high possibility of civil war breaking out in the Austro-Hungarian Empire at present. Therefore, if the Habsburg family wants to continue to rule the empire, they can only suppress other forces through war.
This requires that its basic base, that is, Austria and Hungary, should not have problems. Hungary is still easy to deal with, but now it is afraid that the Austrians will oppose the Habsburg family. If Austria collapses, the Austro-Hungarian Empire will basically be beyond the reach of even gods.
All in all, Ernst was pessimistic about the current situation of the Habsburg family.
He said to Friedrich: "We must also consider the possibility of the disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and be prepared for both situations. Starting today, we will strengthen our ties with the Kingdom of Dalmatia."
The Kingdom of Dalmatia is the only nail that connects East Africa to the Mediterranean and Europe, so it cannot be lost. If the Austro-Hungarian Empire disintegrates, the Kingdom of Dalmatia will become the only strategic fulcrum that East Africa can rely on in Europe.
…
Italian Libya.
After entering 1933, Italy's Benito government strengthened its control over Libya and began to promote a colonial settlement policy in an attempt to fully localize the area.
In the Italian Governor's Palace in Benghazi, Governor Badoglio and other government officials were discussing the matter.
Governor Badoglio said with a serious face: "Now there is news from the country that in Libya, the kingdom will fully implement localization in the area and make final preparations for incorporating it into the empire."
"The kingdom is facing a severe overpopulation problem, with limited arable land and great pressure on food supply. Therefore, Prime Minister Benito has instructed that for the fate and development of the Italian nation, the localization of the Libyan region must be implemented with iron-clad tough measures to expand the living space of the Italian nation."
"In addition to making Libya the empire's new granary, it will also be an important channel for future trade between us and East Africa. Through trade, we can further strengthen the empire's food security."
Since the late 19th century, East Africa has been an important food supplier to Italy. However, before this, East Africa's exports of food and agricultural products to Italy were completely dependent on the Suez Canal.
The Suez Canal was in the hands of the British, so Benito did not think this passage was safe.
If the Libyan railway is opened to traffic, trade between Italy and East Africa will no longer have to go through the Suez Canal, and the two countries can conduct trade activities directly.
Of course, compared to relying on imports to ensure local food security, Benito obviously prefers self-sufficiency.
Therefore, the Italian government tried to implement a localization strategy in Italian Libya, turning it into the empire's granary and alleviating Italy's food pressure.
Governor Badoglio explained: "According to the estimates of experts in agriculture and water conservancy in the empire, if a large number of water conservancy projects can be built in the coastal areas of Libya to improve the efficiency of local land use, Libya will even be able to supply food for one million people in the future."
This is a relatively optimistic expectation, but in reality it is difficult to achieve this goal.
In the past, Libya's total population was about six or seven million, and its food self-sufficiency rate was less than 30 percent. Of course, in peacetime, that is, during the Gaddafi era, Libya's food self-sufficiency rate was still able to exceed 30 percent through means such as water conservancy construction.
However, the part of Libya currently controlled by Italy is not complete. It is only the eastern region of Libya in the past, that is, Cyrenaica. Even if the local water resources are fully utilized, the maximum population that can be supported is only about one million.
However, Italy has no other choice. Even if the land is bad, it is better than nothing. The population pressure in Italy is too great, so it has to take measures to develop Libya.
Governor Badoglio said: "The total population of the Red Sea Colony has now exceeded three million, and Libya will have to exceed half a million in the future."
Italy's Red Sea colonies include Eritrea and eastern Ethiopia in the past, and currently have a population of over three million. This is a very exaggerated figure because the population of the Red Sea colonies are basically Italians.
That is to say, in just a few decades, the Italians in Italy's Red Sea colonies grew to the size of a small country.
The East Kalimantan colony in East Africa was at this level at the same time, which also illustrates Italy’s dilemma on the land issue, and the number of immigrants to the Red Sea colonies continued to increase rapidly.
But this is easy to understand. In the eyes of the Italian government, the Red Sea colonies are the "second home of Italians". The area of Italy's Red Sea colonies is almost as large as that of Italy itself. It can be said that the existence of the Red Sea colonies has greatly alleviated Italy's population pressure.
With this precedent, Italy has become more concerned about the development of Libya, trying to build it into a new granary.
Of course, Benito's ambitions go far beyond this. In his view, after the Red Sea colonies and the Libyan colonies are fully developed, Egypt, which is sandwiched in between, may not be impossible for Italy to take over in the future.
In this way, Italy's colonies in Africa could be connected, and Egypt itself was one of the regions with the best agricultural conditions in the entire North Africa, while also controlling the important transportation routes of the Red Sea and the Suez Canal.
The reason why Benito dared to set his sights on Egypt was not without confidence, that is, he believed that the decline of Britain was irreversible, and that in the future British power would inevitably shrink back to its homeland, that is, the Atlantic Ocean, and withdraw from the Mediterranean region.
As for the Mediterranean area, Benito believed that no country was more suitable than Italy to be the overlord of the region.
Of course, in order to achieve this goal, in addition to Britain, Italy must also deal with two major concerns: the Austro-Hungarian Empire and France.
Benito's ultimate goal is to restore the territory of the ancient Roman Empire, and North Africa is the key to it, but France's influence in North Africa is too great.
Benito was particularly envious of the three regions of Western Libya, Tunisia and Algeria. The straight-line distance between Tunisia and Italy was only more than 100 kilometers.
Of course, these are Benito’s long-term plans. What he needs to achieve first now is to promote the localization of Italian Libya, and then use it as a springboard for subsequent expansion activities.
If we want to achieve the localization of Libya, we need to solve a "small problem".
Regarding this "little trouble", Badoglio said: "Libya is the Libya of the Italians, so there is no need for the local indigenous people to continue to exist."
"Only by completely eliminating the local resistance forces can we annex the local land and serve Italy."
These words were full of murderous intent. In fact, Italy had been carrying out genocide activities in the local area. Before Italy, the local population was about 600,000 to 700,000.
By 1932, the local population had dropped to just over 300,000. In contrast, the Italian population was growing rapidly. As of now, there are more than 100,000 Italian immigrants in the area.
Therefore, the Italian government believed that the time was ripe to completely eliminate the indigenous population, and even if the indigenous people were completely slaughtered, it would not have much impact on local production.
The so-called "localization" is actually similar to the United States and East Africa, where the local population is completely replaced by Italians.
Governor Badoglio said: "Although this may bring us a bad name, we have to do this for the future of Italy. A completely Italianized Libya is what we need, not just a colony."
"In the future, Italian Libya will completely become a province of the kingdom and be incorporated into the empire's governance system. It will also be an important fulcrum of the empire's strategy in North Africa."
"Therefore, all departments must actively cooperate with the Kingdom's military to thoroughly eliminate all unstable factors in the area."
In fact, Italy did the same thing in Libya in the past. They plundered the land of the locals and then immigrated from mainland Italy to cultivate the local land.
However, due to the failure of World War II, this policy was not continued. Otherwise, it would have been possible for Libya to become a complete part of Italy.
In this time and space, the Italian government has become more radical. In the previous life, because Italy was more powerful, they could still keep their eyes on Ethiopia and other richer regions such as the Balkans.
But now, in Ethiopia, because of the existence of East Africa, the Abyssinian Empire was able to maintain itself, and Italy's expansion in the region had to stop. In the Balkan direction, the Austro-Hungarian Empire blocked its possibility of eastward expansion, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also occupied its Venice and Eastern Lombardy lands.
In this situation, Italy can only concentrate all its energy on its existing colonies. However, this is not without its advantages. The resources that Italy used for the Ethiopian War or the Balkans in the past can now be concentrated on the development of the Red Sea colonies and Libya.
This made Italy's rule in the area more stable, at least there was no need to worry about resistance from local ethnic groups, because Italians now had an absolute advantage in the land.
Although the Italian population in Italian Libya is smaller than the local indigenous people, with Italy's military strength, nearly 100,000 immigrants from its own country, and support from its homeland, it is only a matter of time before the local indigenous population is completely wiped out.
(End of this chapter)
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