Chapter 1588: Exploring the Mediterranean Market
In the short term, the secularization of the Ottoman Empire did enhance its national strength and affect the regional balance, but East Africa was not too worried about this.
The only way for the Ottoman Empire to go south to the Indian Ocean is through the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf, which is just like the Austro-Hungarian Empire was confined to the Adriatic Sea before. Not to mention that the Ottoman Empire is now weak. Even if the Ottoman Empire has the same national strength as the United States, the East African Navy has the confidence to suppress it in the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea.
In the long run, the secularization of the Ottoman Empire was also a suppression of Arab forces. After all, the Ottoman Empire was indeed the leader of Arab countries. In fact, not only the Ottoman Empire, but also East Africa was promoting the modernization process of Oman and northern Iran.
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Darfur, 1935.
By the end of last year, the North African Railway in East Africa had been fully completed, and East Africa had built six new military airports in Darfur.
During the same period, East Africa also built three military airports in southern Germany facing North Africa.
With these nine airports as a network, East Africa can ensure that in wartime, the air force can be dispatched to bomb major targets including important towns, military facilities and other major targets in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria.
This series of actions by East Africa shows the importance East Africa attaches to North Africa.
In the town of Al-Jawf.
Major General Cheng An of the East African Defense Force also arrived at the end of the inspection to inspect the military facilities and garrison troops in Al-Jawf.
He was giving a speech to Lieutenant Karls and other resident officers in the town of Al-Jawf.
"My journey started in Wanja and ended in Al-Jawf via the railway. Now that the southern end of the North African railway has been opened, the construction progress of important towns in Darfur, such as Al-Jawf, will be further accelerated."
"It is expected that the entire North African railway will be completed in the second half of this year and will become an important route for trade between the Empire and Italy."
In 1934, the construction of the North African railway was significantly accelerated, which was mainly the result of the joint efforts of East Africa and Italy. In Italian Libya, only 600 kilometers were left to connect the Port of Benghazi and the northernmost railway in Darfur.
Major General Cheng An said: "Jawf is the northernmost military town of the empire. It serves as the logistics and command center for the entire northern Darfur."
"At the same time, this also concerns the future safety of North African railways. Therefore, the facilities in Al-Jawf must be regularly maintained and kept in a state of readiness at all times."
"During my visit to Jiaofu, I found that you have done a good job overall. However, there are also many problems, especially at some of the outposts under Jiaofu Town. Due to a lack of supervision, discipline is lax."
"That's obviously not feasible, so you must regularly inspect the military outposts under your jurisdiction. Of course, in addition to strict requirements, you must also try your best to reflect the material and spiritual needs of the soldiers in difficult areas."
Lieutenant Karls listened to the major general's criticism with a serious expression. He said, "General, we did make some mistakes in the past, but that was mainly due to insufficient resources. Now that the North African railway is open, our supply and transportation problems have been greatly improved. We will definitely strengthen the training and supervision of grassroots soldiers and pay attention to the soldiers' livelihoods."
As the only town in northern Darfur, Al-Jawf governs a vast area of hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Of course, most of it is desert and Gobi, and only a few oases are worth developing.
Therefore, it is naturally very difficult for Jiaofu Town to supervise the situation of the outposts and military strongholds below.
Major General Cheng An said, "That's good. The North African railway will surely become a busy trade route, greatly improving transportation and supplies. If you can't do your job well, I will hold you accountable."
"Right now, the situation in Europe is becoming increasingly chaotic. I'm sure you've heard that the Austro-Hungarian Empire has experienced severe turmoil, and two other countries, Yugoslavia and Dalmatia, have become independent."
"In addition, Germany also took the opportunity to strengthen its control over the Austro-Hungarian Empire. If nothing unexpected happens, the two countries will merge into one in the future."
"The changes in Europe have far-reaching implications for the world landscape. The Empire will inevitably strengthen its cooperation with Italy while also paying attention to developments in North Africa."
It is not surprising that East Africa is strengthening its cooperation with Italy. After all, the construction of the North African railway indicates that the two countries will take further steps in economy and trade.
Of course, East Africa’s attention to Italy has now increased further, which is also affected by the changes in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In the past, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was the most important hub for East Africa to connect with European trade. However, now that the Austro-Hungarian Empire is controlled by Germany, it is obvious that Germany will not give up more interests to East Africa like the Austro-Hungarian Empire did in the past. Instead, it will affect the export of East African industrial products to the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
In terms of industry, East Africa and Germany are both highly developed industrial countries. Previously, under the rule of the Habsburgs, the Austro-Hungarian Empire dominated both ends, and East Africa still had the opportunity to compete fairly with Germany.
Now, East Africa will inevitably be suppressed by German companies in its industrial exports to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, especially in relatively high-end industrial markets such as automobiles, power equipment, and home appliances. East Africa faces strong competition from Germany in Central and Eastern Europe.
Not only the former unified domestic market of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but also those areas of influence of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire and East African industrial exports may be affected. After all, the former Austro-Hungarian Empire was one of the hubs for East Africa's exports to Central and Eastern Europe.
In the past, East Africa had three most important hubs for exports to the Central and Eastern European markets: Trieste, Istanbul, and Odessa.
With the help of Trieste, East African goods can be sold to most parts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and with the help of its domestic transportation network, goods can be shipped to Germany, Switzerland, Poland and other countries.
Istanbul mainly targets the Ottoman Empire market and the Balkan Peninsula region.
Odessa mainly trades with the former Tsarist Russia, now the Soviet Union.
Among these three places, East Africa's influence is now greatly weakened. After Trieste fell into the hands of Germany, in order to consolidate Germany's economic position in Central and Eastern Europe, Germany will inevitably impose some restrictions on East Africa, such as raising tariffs on East Africa.
As for Istanbul, due to the reforms of the Ottoman Empire, the development of its own industry, and the influence of Germany, the total export volume of goods from East Africa has also decreased.
Finally, there is Odessa. Odessa can be said to be East Africa's biggest loss in the Central and Eastern European market. In the past Tsarist era, the domestic industry of Tsarist Russia was very backward. But now, the Soviet Union's industrialization has been quite effective, and the Soviet Union has strong economic independence and autonomy, which has greatly reduced the Soviet Union's imports of external goods.
In the past, Tsarist Russia was a huge market with a population of nearly 170 million, and its domestic industry was extremely underdeveloped. The relationship between East Africa and Tsarist Russia was relatively good. When Tsarist Russia existed, there were no geopolitical conflicts between the two countries. Therefore, East Africa could gain huge advantages from Tsarist Russia's huge market.
During the Tsarist era, Russia's trade with East Africa alone accounted for more than 60% of East Africa's entire Central and Eastern European market.
Therefore, it is absolutely correct to say that the demise of Tsarist Russia was the biggest loss to the East African and Central and Eastern European markets.
Major General Cheng An said: "With the dramatic changes in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it is estimated that within a few years, the Central and Eastern European market will be completely replaced by South America."
"In the future, the scale of the Empire's trade with Central and Eastern Europe, especially exports of industrial products, will decline significantly."
"At this time, the importance of countries like Italy is reflected. In order to make up for the lack of the Central and Eastern European market, the Mediterranean market will become the empire's main strategic direction."
In Europe, the most developed regions are Western Europe and Northern Europe, followed by Central and Eastern Europe and Southern Europe. Now that East Africa's market share in Central and Eastern Europe has sharply decreased, Southern Europe will inevitably become a key area in the East African strategy.
Of course, the market size of Southern Europe is obviously not comparable to that of Central and Eastern Europe, so East Africa proposed the concept of the "Mediterranean market".
Among the countries around the Mediterranean, Italy, Spain and the Ottoman Empire are all of considerable size. The combined population of these three countries is close to 80 million. Combined with the Balkans, North Africa and other regions, the Mediterranean market is also a huge market with a population of over 100 million.
"Of course, more importantly, East Africa can more easily exert influence on the Mediterranean market than on the Central and Eastern European market."
“Although the Central and Eastern European market as a whole is considered an underdeveloped region in Europe, it has world powers like Germany and the Soviet Union, which can easily drive East Africans out.”
The Central and Eastern European market is indeed larger in size and has stronger consumption power, making it more attractive to East Africa. However, politically, this region is also the most difficult to control for East Africa.
For example, if Germany and the Soviet Union targeted their local interests in East Africa, East Africa would have limited means of countermeasures and might suffer losses.
This is similar to the economic suppression of the Far East Empire by the United States in the past. Indeed, the products of the Far East Empire are of high quality and low price, and are the most competitive in the world.
However, the United States still holds the world's military, political, cultural and other hegemony. As long as they nod slightly to the countries below, some countries will dare to infringe on the interests of the Far Eastern Empire and make it difficult for the Far Eastern Empire's normal business activities.
In the Central and Eastern European market, East Africa will also face this dilemma. The Soviet Union is an overall market, needless to say, and the Central and Eastern European countries outside the Soviet Union.
Take Romania and Bulgaria as examples. If East Africa asks them to open up their markets and Germany asks them not to trade with East Africa, it is obvious that these countries would rather risk offending East Africa and obey Germany's arrangements.
After all, Germany can take advantage of their anger, and East Africa has almost no military presence in Central and Eastern Europe to protect its own interests.
"The situation in the Mediterranean market is very different. We have Dalmatia as a fulcrum in the Mediterranean, and we border North Africa and East Africa. Among the major powers in the Mediterranean, Italy and East Africa also have many common interests, which can replace some of the role played by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the past."
Although Italy is also considered an industrial country, its industrial level is far inferior to that of other European powers, and it is extremely dependent on the import of external resources. East Africa happens to be Italy's main exporter of raw materials. Therefore, the economic interests of East Africa and Italy can be coordinated through negotiations.
At the same time, Italy's expansion in North Africa also required the help of East Africa, as its Libya and Red Sea colonies could exert influence on East Africa.
Therefore, after the Austro-Hungarian Empire became Germany's sphere of influence, Italy completely became the best spokesperson for East Africa's current European interests.
Although the Kingdom of Dalmatia has closer relations with East Africa, the Kingdom of Dalmatia is too small and its location is not prominent, making it difficult to help East Africa expand its interests in Europe.
As for the issue of the extreme nationalist party in power in Italy, it is obviously not important at all to East Africa. After all, the two countries have no conflict in core interests.
Major General Cheng An said: "Therefore, cooperation between the Empire and Mediterranean countries such as Italy will be the key direction of national development in the next few years."
"Learning from the lessons of the Central and Eastern European market, East Africa must establish its own military presence in the Mediterranean market to prevent the Austro-Hungarian Empire from undergoing a dramatic change, which would damage my country's overseas interests and prevent such a situation from happening again."
"The town of Al-Jawf is the core fulcrum of the Empire's military presence in North Africa. From here, the Empire's land and air military power can radiate to the four North African countries."
"This way, imperial personnel will feel more secure when conducting trade activities in North Africa."
When a gun is pointed at the head, some forces will restrain themselves and open their eyes even more brightly, knowing that this is someone they cannot afford to offend.
In the past, East Africa obviously did not have such confidence in Central and Eastern Europe, because no matter how powerful East Africa's military was, it would be difficult to pose a threat to Central and Eastern European countries.
The Mediterranean market is quite different. In this region, there are many national and local forces, but they are not very strong, and the military minions of East Africa have already infiltrated.
For example, the East African navy in the port of Dubrovnik in the Kingdom of Dalmatia can deter small countries such as Montenegro and Albania, as well as some local and tribal forces along the coast of North Africa.
Major General Cheng An went on to say, "Exploring the Mediterranean market requires military support, and the North African Railway is one of the three major arteries for East Africa to deter and strengthen its influence in the North African region."
"Therefore, you must keep your mission in mind, ensure the safety of the North African railway lines, and strengthen equipment maintenance."
In addition to the North African Railway, East Africa's other two routes to the Mediterranean market are the Suez Canal and the Strait of Gibraltar. However, the Suez Canal is completely controlled by the British. Even if the East African Navy wants to pass through, it needs the consent of the British.
Therefore, whether the East African Navy wants to cross the Suez Canal into the Mediterranean to safeguard its own interests depends entirely on the mood of the British.
In comparison, the situation in the Strait of Gibraltar is relatively better. If it does not threaten the direct interests of the United Kingdom, the East African Navy will not encounter any trouble passing through Gibraltar. However, the role of the Strait of Gibraltar is also limited.
The North African Railway is completely different. Even if Italy has a conflict with East Africa in the future and wants to block the North African Railway, it will have to think twice. After all, the North African Railway is along land, and the south is completely controlled by the Darfur colony in East Africa. The military forces of East Africa are capable of moving north without worrying about suffering too much loss.
Not to mention that after East Africa deployed air force forces locally, almost half of North Africa is within the coverage of the East African Air Force's firepower.
The Suez Canal can be blocked, and the Strait of Gibraltar can also be blocked. It would be extremely difficult to hinder the influence of East African military on North Africa from land and air, unless the other party is far stronger than East Africa, but there is no such country in the world.
(End of this chapter)
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