Chapter 393: Dongying Civil Conflict
The war against the Transvaal Republic in East Africa ended, but the war in South Africa continued. First, the 123rd Cavalry Division and the 514th Infantry Division in Pretoria moved eastward to join Felix's troops to launch a war against the Zulu Kingdom.
In addition to obtaining rich coal resources, the most important benefit of conquering the Zulu Kingdom is that it can gain access to its eastern seaport. Richards Bay, South Africa's main coal export port in the past, was abandoned there.
Taking this port is of great significance for East Africa to ensure the security of the southern territory. After obtaining Transvaal, the East African Kingdom directly became a long and narrow distribution from north to south. The distance from the core area of East Africa (the East African Federation in the previous life) to South Africa is too long. After conquering the Zulu Kingdom, East Africa can use the Port of Richards Bay to complete the dispatch of personnel and materials through sea transportation.
In the East African territory actually controlled by South Africa, Ernst did not intend to develop large-scale planting industry, but to develop large ranch grazing industry similar to that in northern Kenya.
The difference between here and northern Kenya is that the temperature is lower. It is already subtropical and the climate is cooler. It is considered the best pasture resource in East Africa.
At the same time, Ernst also took into account that in the future, relying on the rich mineral resources, the industry will be developed here, and industrial development is inseparable from water resources. However, South Africa's annual precipitation is worse than that of Zimbabwe, especially in the hinterland, and the fluctuations are relatively large. In some extreme years, it may be only more than 400 mm.
Water consumption is nothing more than residential water consumption, agricultural water consumption and industrial water consumption, among which agricultural water consumption is the largest. If large-scale planting is carried out in South Africa, it is certain that agricultural water alone will not be enough.
Besides, East Africa does not need to develop planting industry in South Africa. Firstly, there is no demand for it. Currently, East Africa has excess food production capacity. Secondly, East Africa has too abundant arable land resources. In Tanzania alone, there are 44 million hectares of arable land resources, or 660 million mu, which is almost 30% of India's arable land. Most of the land is harvested more than once a year, so Ernst does not plan to develop the arable land in Tanzania that is of poor quality or not conducive to irrigation.
In the future, South Africa can import food from the north, so that the limited water resources in East Africa can be used for industrial development.
The importance of water resources to industry can be seen from Shandong Province in the past. Shandong is a heavy industrial province, with traditional industries such as chemicals, steel and coal accounting for about 70% of the industry. The heavy industrial structure also makes Shandong's energy consumption level always among the highest in the country.
However, Shandong's industrial water consumption is only a little over 10% of that of Jiangsu, another major industrial province, which seriously restricts Shandong's industrial development. In addition, Shandong is also a major agricultural province, so there is fierce competition between Shandong's agricultural and industrial water use, or in other words, there is a scramble for water, and the little water from the Yellow River has to be used sparingly.
East African Republic also faces this problem. Ernst's solution is that South Africa will not develop water-consuming agriculture, so there will be no water crisis in the future, and there will even be surplus water resources. Ernst does not believe that the industrial scale of East African Republic will be able to reach the level of Shandong in the 21st century. Not to mention other things, even Shandong has a population of 100 million, which is unlikely to be achieved in East African Republic in the future. It is more realistic for the entire East African Kingdom to have a population of over 100 million.
Without large-scale development of local planting, East African Africa would have to rely on other regions in East Africa for food, and sea transportation would be the lowest cost, which shows the importance of Richards Bay Port.
The conditions of Richards Bay Port are not inferior to those of Durban Port in the south, but because of the Zulu Kingdom, Richards Bay Port has not been developed, so the East African Kingdom needs to build it.
Now the Port of Durban is the political and economic center of the British colony of Natal, and East Africa does not have the courage to touch the tiger of the British Empire.
In addition to the war against the Zulu Kingdom which had just begun, the next step was the conquest war in East Africa south of the Kalahari Desert and north of the Orange River.
This area is currently an unowned land and there are not many indigenous people, so Merk's troops advanced very smoothly and encountered basically no difficulties in the early stages.
However, when approaching the Orange River, the East African army did have a minor conflict with the British Cape Colony.
"Stop! Who are you?"
The Seventh Regiment, the vanguard force of the 411th Division of the East African Army, was blocked by a group of militia. The commander of the Seventh Regiment, Naldovic, was a man with a bad temper and would not tolerate these people.
The name Naldovic sounds like a Slavic word. In fact, he was a Croatian from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. However, the Kingdom of East Africa considered the Germanized Slavs of the Austro-Hungarian Empire as Germans, so Naldovic's career was relatively smooth due to his military achievements.
Naldovic asked from his warhorse: "Who are you? Why are you blocking our way?"
"This is the land of the Grigualan Republic. If you take one more step forward you will be crossing the border!" said a Boer militia.
Damn it, how many republics have these Boers established? Naldovic complained in his heart. In fact, Naldovic didn't know that the Boers also had a new Grigualan Republic in the east, which means that the Boers established two Grigualan Republics.
With the military order in hand, Naldovich didn't care about the republic. He turned the tables and asked, "What the hell is the Grigoran Republic? I've never heard of it. The entire north of the Orange River is our German land. Why are you here on our German territory?"
After Naldovic said this, the Boer militia could not be dealt with, because it just so happened that there were many descendants of immigrants from the German region among this group of Boer militia. If Naldovic said that it was the land of East Africa, the Boer militia would definitely strongly oppose it.
But Naldovic said that this was German land. Then, were the Boers like them who came from the German region considered Germans?
Here we can also see the national identity that Naldovic formed under the assimilation of East African culture. Although he was a real Croat and his cultural life was not much different from the Austrians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Austrians in the Austro-Hungarian Empire would never recognize that the Croatians were Germans. After arriving in East Africa, Naldovic attached great importance to his identity as a "German".
It is understandable that the Boers are concerned about their identity. After all, the concept of Boer has not been around for too long. For example, after the British seized the Cape Colony, many Boers of British descent left Boerdom and joined Britain, which made Germans and French become an important part of the Boers.
But after a moment of hesitation, the Boer militia reacted: "No matter who they are, this is the territory of the Grigualan Republic."
Naldovic: "Oh, Grigualan, I believe that no one in the international community has ever heard of this country. Your actions are stealing the territory of the East African Kingdom. If you surrender now, we in East Africa will forgive you and guarantee your safety at the same time."
Naldovic's words made the Grigualan militia hear a new term, the Kingdom of East Africa, but they were not afraid. What East African Kingdom? They had never heard of it. It was just the same as the Republic of Grigualan!
It is indeed different. The Grigualan Republic is not like the Kingdom of East Africa, which made a lot of noise in Europe when it was established. Maybe they don't understand East Africa, but they know the existence of the Kingdom of East Africa. If you go to Europe and ask about the Grigualan Republic now, most people will probably think it is a chieftain or tribal country in a remote area.
Of course, the greatest confidence of the Grigualan militia does not lie in whether the East African Kingdom is a self-satisfied country like Grigualan, but in the fact that the Grigualan Republic has voted last year to voluntarily join the British Cape Colony. They have the British behind them. With such a background, who would be so blind as to dare to provoke them?
(End of this chapter)
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