Chapter 1614 Seventh Five-Year Summary
There is no clear boundary between the South Atlantic and the North Atlantic, especially in dangerous areas between oceans such as the Suez Canal, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Strait of Malacca.
Therefore, it is impossible for the East African Navy to completely "inlandize" the South Atlantic and prevent the navies of European and American naval powers from re-entering the South Atlantic waters.
It can only be said that as a country along the South Atlantic coast, East Africa has a natural competitive advantage in the South Atlantic waters over those countries along the North Atlantic coast.
Ernst said: "We can't block the exchanges between the North Atlantic powers and the South American countries, so we must strengthen surveillance of the South American region to prevent them from turning to other powers and sacrificing the interests of East Africa."
Dollfuss nodded and said, "Your Majesty is right. The situation in the South Atlantic is different from that in the Indian Ocean. Although there are four key nodes in the Indian Ocean—the Suez Canal, the Cape of Good Hope, the Strait of Malacca, and the Sunda Strait—we in East Africa only control one, the Sunda Strait."
"However, we also have contingency plans in the other three locations, so that when necessary, we can block the Indian Ocean and prevent major powers outside the region from entering the Indian Ocean."
The Suez Canal, the Cape of Good Hope, and the Strait of Malacca are nominally controlled by the British, but after so many years of planning in East Africa, the restrictions of these three places on East Africa have been greatly weakened.
South of the Suez Canal, the East African Navy can also block the Red Sea channel in the Gulf of Aden. West of the Strait of Malacca, East Africa has the Phuket base, which can monitor the western exit of the Strait of Malacca. In the direction of the Cape of Good Hope, other powers need to escape the surveillance of the East African Atlantic Fleet and the Indian Ocean Fleet at the same time before they can enter the Indian Ocean.
In addition to East Africa's many colonies throughout the Indian Ocean, it is no exaggeration to say that any country that attempts to enter the Indian Ocean to challenge East Africa will be "shut down and beaten."
…
1936 was an important year for East Africa, as it marked the beginning of East Africa's Eighth Five-Year Plan. This was also the first year that Crown Prince Friedrich presided over the formulation of East Africa's economic development goals for the next five years.
In Rhine City, the East African government summarized the achievements of the previous five-year plan.
Director of the National Macroeconomic Research Bureau: "During the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, the country's economic development was severely affected by the 1929 global economic depression. Foreign trade and domestic industrial development were both challenged by the Great Depression."
"However, the Empire withstood the pressure and became one of the few countries in the world that maintained economic growth during the Great Depression, and achieved tremendous economic and industrial development achievements by the end of the 1970s."
"During the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, the Empire's economic and industrial development rate was second only to the Soviet Union among the world's major powers, far exceeding other major economies. This further consolidated East Africa's position as the world's leading industrial power and the world's largest economy. In particular, it has closed the gap in economic size with the United States."
It is true that the Soviet Union's industrialization progress has been astonishing in the past five years, but due to its weak industrial foundation, the Soviet Union still cannot compare with East Africa and the United States.
East Africa’s first economic reference is naturally the United States. In the 1920s, the United States’ economic development was not much inferior to that of East Africa, and it has always been keeping a close eye on East Africa.
However, during the 1970s in East Africa, affected by the Great Depression, the U.S. economy was brought back to its original state and was once again left behind by East Africa.
"By 1935, my country's urbanization rate had reached 49.7 percent, close to 50 percent, and was essentially on par with the urbanization levels of major economic powers in Europe and the United States."
In terms of urbanization development, apart from the United Kingdom, which has basically achieved urbanization, other European and American countries are only slightly ahead of East Africa.
Including Germany, the United States and France, their urbanization rates are all above 50 percent.
Originally, Germany's urbanization rate was close to 70%, but with Germany's annexation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany's urbanization data was lowered again.
At the same time, the urbanization rate in East Africa has reached nearly 50 percent, which means that the total urban population in East Africa is close to 100 million.
This is a very astonishing number. After all, in 1935, there were only a few countries in the world with a population of over 100 million.
"The number of cities in the Empire with a population exceeding one million has increased to seventeen, firmly ranking first in the world. Among them, Mombasa has a population of over 2.4 million, and Dar es Salaam has a population of over two million."
Mombasa and Dar es Salaam still maintain their population advantage over other East African cities, both exceeding two million.
In 1935, there were only a dozen cities in the world with a population of over two million.
Among the countries with cities with a population of over two million, only East Africa, the United States and Japan each have two cities with a population of over two million. In East Africa, they are Mombasa and Dar es Salaam, in the United States they are New York and Chicago, and in Japan they are Tokyo and Osaka.
In fact, among the four cities in the United States and Japan, Osaka, which has the lowest population, is close to two million, followed by Chicago with over three million, Tokyo with a population of over six million, and New York with a population of nearly seven million. Therefore, the two cities in East Africa cannot be compared with the two most populous cities in the United States and Japan at all.
Fortunately, East Africa has an absolute advantage in the number of cities with a population of over one million, reaching an astonishing seventeen. In a few years, the number will definitely exceed twenty. After all, the current urbanization rate in East Africa is only close to 50%, and there is still a lot of room for improvement.
Moreover, an important reason why there are so many cities in East Africa with a population of over one million is that the regional economic development in East Africa is more balanced. In addition to the two economic growth poles of the east and west coasts in the past, the development of central and southern East Africa is not much inferior.
In recent years, with the loosening of the economy in southern East Africa, the region has become the fastest growing economy in East Africa.
This is mainly due to three reasons. First, the South is the most resource-rich region in East Africa, and there is no shortage of raw materials for the development of various major industries.
Secondly, in recent years, East Africa has been strengthening the Sunda Strait route and trade with the South Pacific and Australia, which is also an important benefit to the South.
Finally, there is the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in the south, which solved the water resource problem in the South African plateau and promoted the development of inland industry.
The combination of these factors has led to rapid economic and industrial development in the south, and directly brought the populations of the cities of Maputo and New Hamburgo into the million-plus club.
"In 1935, the Imperial Steel Industry also achieved new breakthroughs. During the Great Depression, Imperial Steel was one of only two major economies to maintain positive growth. By the end of 1935, Imperial Steel production had exceeded 60 million tons, far exceeding that of other countries."
"China ranks first in the world in production of oil, copper, electricity, cement, etc."
"Automobile production has also returned to the top of the world, with annual output exceeding four million vehicles, and the scale of the home appliance industry continues to rank first in the world."
"Our aviation industry, chemical industry, coal mining, shipbuilding, and machine tools are also among the best in the world."
Before the Seventh Five-Year Plan, the overall quality of East Africa's industry was not as good as Germany's. However, when the Seventh Five-Year Plan was completed, East Africa's industry not only surpassed that of other countries in the world in terms of scale, but its industrial quality was also not inferior to Germany's.
This also means that since the 1920s, East Africa's economic adjustment and industrial upgrading have been basically completed, and East Africa has become the undisputed largest industrial country and a powerful country.
Even in some industrial fields where East Africa is not good at, the gap with the strong industries of countries such as the United States and Germany has been minimized. For example, Germany's machine tool and chemical industries, and Britain's shipbuilding industry. As for the United States, it is not completely stronger than East Africa's major industries.
Even in the United States' advantageous industrial fields, it can only tie with East Africa, and each has its own strengths.
Since the Great Depression of 1929, East Africa has taken advantage of this window of opportunity to catch up with the United States and Germany in high-end industries and scientific research.
The United States, like East Africa, was originally a lightweight industrial power. However, in the 1920s, East Africa turned around and, with the help of the Great Depression, successfully caught up with Europe.
"During the Seventh Five-Year Plan period, the Empire's light industry also developed significantly. The food industry, textile industry, and home appliance industry have all reached world-leading levels, and the quality of life of the people has been significantly improved."
"The Empire is now an industrial powerhouse that prioritizes both light and heavy industries, with no obvious weaknesses. Meanwhile, the tertiary industry is also rapidly growing."
Until the beginning of the 20th century, East Africa was a country with a very unbalanced industrial structure, just like the Soviet Union today, with relatively backward light industry.
After all, East Africa fully opened its market only after 1910, and through more than ten years of development, East Africa's light industry has also exploded, narrowing the gap with European and American countries.
"During the Seventh Five-Year Plan, my country's major engineering projects, with the exception of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station, were largely completed, including electrified railways, hydropower projects, overseas railway projects, and so on. During the Seventh Five-Year Plan, the country completed a series of key engineering projects."
"This was also an important reason why the empire escaped the Great Depression and maintained the stable growth of the East African economy."
The fact that the construction of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station was not completed during the Seventh Five-Year Plan was completely within the East African government's expectations. After all, before the implementation of this project, East Africa's plan was not to complete it during the Seventh Five-Year Plan, but to continue until the Eighth Five-Year Plan.
According to the current construction progress of the Cahora Bassa Hydropower Station, it will be completed in two to three years.
During the Seventh Five-Year Plan, overseas engineering projects were a key development direction in East Africa, represented by the North African Railway. At the same time, East Africa also built a number of infrastructure projects in overseas colonies and South America.
"In general, the Empire's Seventh Five-Year Plan was basically completed smoothly, successfully bringing the Empire's industry and economy to a new level in terms of overall quality."
"It has consolidated the Empire's position as the world's leading industrial power, achieved high-quality economic development, and addressed shortcomings in almost all industrial sectors."
"This enabled the Empire's industrial and economic development speed to steadily rank second in the world, second only to the Soviet Union."
The Soviet Union's current development speed is entirely based on its weak foundation, so it is easier to achieve results. The East African government is not too worried about this. After all, this is the path East Africa has taken before.
However, the speed of the Soviet Union's industrial development had a profound impact on other capitalist countries, especially Germany. If it had not annexed the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Germany would probably not have been able to sleep well next to the Soviet Union.
Crown Prince Friedrich concluded, "The Seventh Five-Year Plan was a period of relatively difficult economic and industrial development for the Empire. We faced enormous external pressure, especially the turbulent world situation, which caused the Empire to lose many overseas markets. Furthermore, the Empire was also affected by the global economic crisis."
During the 1975 period, due to the turbulent situation in Europe, especially the turmoil in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, East Africa directly lost Central and Eastern Europe, which was originally the most important overseas market. In addition, the development of Soviet industry also caused the Soviet Union's import proportion of industrial products from East Africa to drop significantly.
Coupled with the impact of the world economic crisis in 1929, the entire world market shrank significantly.
Therefore, the huge external pressure mentioned by Crown Prince Friedrich is very objective. East Africa can be said to be a major victim of geopolitical changes and economic crises. After all, as the world's first industrial power, East Africa's overseas exports have been severely damaged.
Crown Prince Friedrich continued, "However, we have withstood the adverse trend of the world economy, actively sought new overseas markets, and actively transformed domestic industries and developed the domestic consumer market. Through these measures, we have maintained the steady economic growth of the Empire during the Seventh Five-Year Plan period."
"This is an achievement we should be proud of, but we cannot be complacent because we may face even more severe external challenges during the Eighth Five-Year Plan period."
It can be a challenge or an opportunity. If there is no fundamental change in the world situation during the 85 period, it will definitely be disadvantageous to East Africa. This means that other powers will be able to free up their hands to compete with East Africa, and the world market that was originally divided into several parts will not be able to be reintegrated.
If World War II had broken out during the 1985 period, East Africa would have most likely benefited from the losses suffered by the victims, just like during World War I. Therefore, the East African governments would certainly still hope to replicate the economic development opportunities of the World War I period.
Crown Prince Friedrich said: "During the Eighth Five Year Plan period, the Empire will continue to increase its investment in and maintenance of overseas markets, develop cooperation and exchanges with markets such as South America, West Africa, Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East, and consolidate the Empire's position in the world market."
"At the same time, we will expand into the three major markets of North America, Europe, and the Far East as much as possible. This will provide a good overseas market foundation for the Empire's economic development during the Eighth Five Year Plan period."
The three major markets of North America, Europe and the Far East are special in that in recent years, East Africa's share in these three markets has been shrinking. This is not a problem of East Africa itself, but rather that other powers in the above three regions have used unfair means to undermine East Africa's "free trade" with these regions.
Needless to say, North America is represented by the United States. East Africa is in an advantageous position in the industrial competition with the United States, so the United States has become more radical than in its previous life. After all, there was no country like East Africa in its previous life. The United States had all the advantages in the world's industries and acted like a rogue. After having East Africa, its performance became even worse.
In Europe, Britain, France and Germany also divided their economic spheres of influence, and the Soviet Union even adopted a "closed-door policy" economically.
In the Far East, Japan encroached on the market through war, such as the Northeast region where the Far Eastern Empire had a relatively high level of development.
(End of this chapter)
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