Chapter 1592: Three Major Political Centers
With such a corrupt regime and such a decadent and incompetent group, Magna was naturally filled with contempt for Liberia.
Even though they look down on it, Magna and the United States behind it still have to support this country with almost no bottom line.
"East Africa is a world power second only to the United States, but it is also a barbaric country with an aggressive nature," Magna said.
"In the more than half a century that East Africa has existed, most of the ethnic groups and countries on the African continent have disappeared into the dust of history."
"Before the mid-19th century, the vast expanse of southern Africa was dotted with black communities of all sizes. But now, across East Africa's 13 million square kilometres, there's not a single black person to be seen."
"So, Berger, do you think that if East African influence spreads to northwest Africa, especially Liberia, will the East Africans tolerate people like you?"
Magna can be said to have asked a very fatal question. For the black people in Liberia, historically, East Africa is obviously not an easy country to deal with.
From East Africa to South Germany, to the Abyssinian Empire, Belgian Congo, and Togoland, wherever the East African sphere of influence is, there is no soil for black people to survive.
This does not mean that East Africa discriminates against the black community in Africa. After all, East Africa is also ruthless in cracking down on the Arab white forces in North Africa.
Berger didn't care about the fate of the Arab white forces, but what Magna said made him break out in a cold sweat.
Although they do not want to admit their black identity, East Africa obviously will not act according to the judgment standards of American-Liberian blacks like Berger. In the eyes of East Africa, they are no different from the native Liberians.
It has to be said that Berger's idea turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Although East Africa has changed its strategy in diplomacy and expansion since the 20th century, especially in recent years, East Africa has followed international rules most of the time.
But this does not mean that East Africa has really changed.
At least Ernst himself has never stopped thinking about the fundamental strategy of how to eliminate the black population in West Africa.
Although the countries surrounding East Africa have now completely become non-black countries under the transformation of East Africa, the huge black population in West Africa still makes Ernst feel pressured.
In the past, by the beginning of the 21st century, the population of West Africa exceeded 400 million, and the population of Nigeria alone exceeded 200 million.
Ernst believes that in the 21st century, the population of West Africa may be larger than the official statistics. After all, given the organizational capabilities of West African countries, they are likely to fail to do a good job in population statistics, resulting in a large number of people not being counted.
Therefore, it is not impossible that the black population in West Africa will reach 500 million by the beginning of the 21st century.
What does a population of 500 million mean? In the early 21st century, the total population of Europe was about 700 million. The West African region is enough to support a population the size of a continent.
Therefore, in Ernst's view, there are still too many black people in West Africa, and East Africa needs to support more non-black countries and forces locally to compete with them for land and water resources and compress their development space.
Otherwise, by the 21st century, East Africa will enter a state of slow population growth due to its advanced development, and a large number of poor black people in West Africa will pour into East Africa, just like the Latin American immigrants who smuggled into and poured into the United States in previous lives.
Then Ernst’s whole life would have been in vain!
Therefore, as long as Ernst is alive, he will continue to squeeze the living space of African blacks and Arabs.
Magna looked at the uneasy Berger, raised his lips and said, "So, the United States is building a military base in Liberia not only for its own interests, but also for the security of Liberia."
"Your government should unwaveringly follow the baton of the United States. In the future, the American troops in Monrovia will be your important guarantee."
…
Outside the Port of Monrovia, about five kilometers on the Atlantic Ocean, Thalmann, commander of the East African frigate Sunset, was observing the construction of the Port of Monrovia with a telescope in his hand.
"The Americans have really invested a lot of money in building Monrovia. Compared to a year ago, Monrovia looks completely different almost every month."
"A year ago, this was just a fishing village, but now it has taken shape as a city, and is also a military port town with all kinds of modern military facilities."
It's no wonder that Thaelmann felt amazed. Although it is obviously not difficult for the United States to build a military port overseas, one must know that the United States has just emerged from the impact of the Great Depression and is under great internal financial pressure.
During this special period, the United States is carrying out large-scale construction overseas and using it for military construction, which shows the importance it attaches to its East African strategy.
Christine, the chief political officer of the Sunset, was not surprised by the US construction of the Monrovia port. Instead, she said, "Compared to Dakhla, where we are about to go, Monrovia is truly blessed with unique conditions."
"There's a natural bay and ample water from the Mesurado River. The surrounding vegetation is also relatively rich, and there's a certain population and urban infrastructure. But the conditions in Dakhla are too harsh, and even drinking water needs to be solved step by step."
In fact, among the ports in northwest Africa, Monrovia has very average conditions. However, ports are a scarce resource in northwest Africa, which even means that the Port of Lomé controlled by East Africa can be regarded as a naturally excellent port.
However, here Christine is comparing Dakhla, which was just acquired in East Africa, with Monrovia, so the configuration of the former is too shabby.
Apart from the shelter provided by the Dakhla Bay, Dakhla has no advantages over other ports in the region. In fact, Dakhla is not a port at all.
Of course, if the conditions in Dakhla were not so bad, Spain would not have agreed to trade this place to East Africa.
This not only involves territorial transactions between Spain and East Africa, but also geopolitics and international influence.
For example, if East Africa had captured not Dakhla but other places, countries like Britain and France would not have been able to simply turn a blind eye and choose to be blind.
The poor conditions in Dakhla itself were one of the conditions they could initially accept. The second was that Western Sahara, where Dakhla is located, has a harsh environment, is sparsely populated, and is almost entirely desert. It is impossible for East Africa to infiltrate the northwest interior of Africa through Western Sahara.
Thälmann said: "The conditions in Dakhla are indeed difficult, but this is an outcome that countries like Britain and France can accept. Even Morocco further north, Mauritania further south, and Senegal could provoke their sensitive nerves."
"From Dakhla, if we want to influence either side, the distance is at least 500 kilometers of desert. There is no value in expanding inland, so we can make them feel at ease."
"However, I think Dakhla is not without advantages at all. The Empire directly purchased the 50-kilometer peninsula of Dakhla, making it a legitimate overseas territory in the hands of East Africa."
"Even if the region becomes independent or experiences unrest in the future, other countries will have no excuse to take Dakhla back from East Africa."
Dakhla is not a colony, but a piece of land that East Africa bought for 40,000 Rhine guilders. This is very important. East Africa can freely decide how to deal with it. At the same time, by obtaining Dakhla, East Africa can also participate in the future development of maritime rights and interests in northwestern Africa.
The most direct result is that in the future, East African fishermen will be able to participate in fishing activities in Northwest African fisheries with confidence.
The four major fishing grounds in the world today are the Hokkaido fishing ground, the Newfoundland fishing ground, the North Sea fishing ground and the Peruvian fishing ground.
However, in the 21st century, the ranking of the four traditional fisheries has undergone major changes due to overfishing, ecological destruction and other problems.
Among them, the Newfoundland fishing grounds collapsed directly and existed in name only, while the Hokkaido fishing grounds and the North Sea fishing grounds also fell into the ranks of important regional fishing grounds and recovered with difficulty.
The new four major world fishing grounds in the 21st century are the ever-strong Peruvian fishing grounds, followed by the Northwest African fishing grounds, the Southwest African fishing grounds, and the California fishing grounds of the United States, three up-and-coming ones.
These four major fishing grounds are related to the world's four coastal cold currents. The Peruvian fishing grounds correspond to the Peruvian cold current, the Northwest African fishing grounds correspond to the Canary Current, the Southwest African fishing grounds correspond to the Benguela Current, and the California fishing grounds in the United States correspond to the California Current.
Among the four major fishing grounds in the 21st century, the Southwest African fishing ground also happens to be located on the southwest coast of East Africa and is shared with South Africa. This is also the most developed area of marine fisheries in East Africa.
In addition, there is the Somali fishing ground on the east coast of East Africa, but the scale of Somalia does not reach the first tier of the world's fisheries. More importantly, this fishery is only a seasonal fishery.
In recent years, with the development of East Africa's economy and logistics industry, the market has paid more and more attention to marine fishery resources.
East Africa itself is a superpower with a population of 200 million, so being able to obtain new sources of fishery resources is no small matter for East Africa.
Therefore, it is very cost-effective to strengthen East Africa's control over the Northwest African fishing grounds, one of the world's four major fishing grounds in the future, through Dakhla.
This means that in the future East Africa will have two world-class fishing grounds at the same time, namely the Southwest Africa and Northwest Africa fishing grounds, thereby promoting the development of East Africa's marine fishing industry.
In addition to marine fisheries, there may also be oil and gas resources along the coast of Dakhla. However, this is not very clear and East Africa is not paying much attention to this at present.
"Those leased ports, even if the agreements were signed a long time ago, face the risk of being reclaimed in the future," said Thälmann. "But Dakhla doesn't have to worry about that happening at all."
"This place is the legitimate territory of the Empire, and there is no centrifugal force that could break away from the Empire."
What Thalman said was complete nonsense. After all, there was no local population in Dakhla, and there were no large settlements around it. Moreover, Dakhla was short of resources, and almost all resources and supplies relied on support from within East Africa, such as food, various equipment, energy, and so on.
After listening to him, Christine said, "You do have some truth in what you said, but if we want to maintain Dakhla, we will definitely have to pay a higher cost than the United States, especially for the initial construction."
"I've seen the Dakhla Bay and there aren't any usable port facilities. It would take a lot of effort just to build a port in East Africa that could accommodate warships."
"It's far less convenient than acquiring other readily available ports. However, as you said, the Northern Countries simply won't allow us to easily acquire such a place."
The northern countries are actually what the eastern countries often refer to as the western countries. Due to East Africa’s location, the northern countries are occasionally used to refer to the European and American powers.
"In fact, the locations of most of the Empire's overseas military bases are not very good," said Thalmann. "But this is not a big problem for the Empire."
"Sooner or later, we will also have access to better resources, especially in the context of the continued decline of Britain and France."
The East African Navy's deployment of power in the world is second only to that of the United Kingdom, and the number of its military bases is second only to that of the United Kingdom and France.
The main reason why East Africa has fewer overseas military bases than France is that East Africa rose too late, and the good locations have basically been occupied by Britain and France.
However, East Africa's overseas military bases are not without advantages. For example, when the wave of national awakening and national independence breaks out in the future world, East Africa will encounter the fewest problems.
Because many areas occupied by East Africa are sparsely populated or not strategically located. At the same time, East Africa is more cautious than Britain and France in handling overseas interests.
Like Dakhla, East Africa directly purchased ownership of the area rather than leasing it.
Even if it is a military base in an overseas colonial political entity in East Africa, East Africa will separate it to prevent these regions from claiming ownership of the locations of these military bases after they become independent in the future.
In this way, East Africa's control over overseas military bases will not be easily affected by changes in local political situations, nor will it be easy to leave behind historical issues. However, this is all based on the consensus among East African governments that the traditional colonial era will eventually collapse.
"In the future, our Dakhla port may become a competitor to the U.S. port of Monrovia, so it is necessary to invest more resources in Dakhla," said Thalman.
"This concerns the strategic layout of the entire northwest Africa."
Northwest Africa plays an important role in the world strategies of both East Africa and the United States. After all, it is a vast region with an area of more than five million square kilometers, a population of tens of millions, and rich natural resources.
At the same time, it is located in the central area of the three major geopolitical plates of East Africa, North America and Europe, and is the intersection of three world political groups.
Whoever controls northwest Africa will have more initiative in the competition with the other two geopolitical blocks.
If East Africa gains this place, it can accelerate its penetration into Europe and greatly eliminate the influence of the United States in the South Atlantic and the east coast of the Atlantic.
If the United States controls this area, it can curb the northward movement of East Africa and cut off the connection between East Africa and European countries.
As for Europe, it will not be able to play a greater political role with the help of Northwest Africa until a dominant country or political organization emerges.
For example, Northwest Africa is now largely controlled by France and Britain, but their main benefit to the local area is economic benefits, that is, the local cheap resources and labor.
However, Britain and France are unable to play a global role with the help of Northwest Africa. This is due to their lack of strength. Even if the two countries join forces, they can at most guarantee that their interests in Northwest Africa will not be damaged.
(End of this chapter)
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