Chapter 501 Four Seas, Two Lakes, and Two Inland Areas
"On March 2, 1498, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama led a fleet to India. On the way, he passed through the "Port of Mozambique" and was warmly received by the local Sultan. The Sultan's name was Muza Alu Bique, which the Portuguese heard as "Mozambique", which is also the origin of the name of Mozambique. Now Mozambique still exists, but the Port of Mozambique, the origin of the Mozambique colony, is in our hands. I wonder what the Portuguese in the city think."
Lieutenant Commander Roald of the East African Navy proudly told his subordinates that the Port of Mozambique, like the Sultanate of Zanzibar, was actually an offshore island, and Mombasa in East Africa was very similar to the Port of Mozambique.
Ernst didn't quite understand this. The Arabs seemed to like occupying the islands along the coast of East Africa, so why didn't they move further towards the mainland!
It is nonsense to say that these islands are more livable than the mainland. Basically, the islands along the coast of East Africa are more humid and hot, and are not ideal places for settlement. However, these islands were indeed convenient for controlling the Indian Ocean trade routes in the past.
However, the Port of Mozambique has been in a period of rapid decline, all of which can be attributed to the decline of the slave trade and the opening of the Suez Canal. Therefore, the economic value of the Port of Mozambique has plummeted. However, the navy has taken a fancy to this place, and it has been transformed into a new naval base.
The Dutch once fought with the Portuguese for this place, so they built quite solid military fortifications on Mozambique Island. The East African Navy could move in right away without much preparation.
Ernst was not very interested in developing Mozambique Island. In the northern part of Mozambique occupied by East Africa this time, there were several bays with much better conditions for port construction than those on Mozambique Island.
The most important of these are Nacala and Pemba. These two areas are actually deserted ports now, but in the past they surpassed Mozambique Island to become the third and fifth largest ports in Mozambique. As for Mozambique Island, it was no longer ranked among the many ports in Mozambique in the 20th century.
The Port of Nacala is located at the southern tip of Bengo Island in northern Mozambique and has the best deep-water port in South Africa. It is a large port with a channel that is 800 meters wide and 60 meters deep.
Pemba Port can actually be called Pemba Port, which is the same name as Pemba Island in East Africa. In fact, the bay where Pemba Port is located is called Pemba Bay.
The Port of Pemba developed very late in the Portuguese colonial era. It was built in 1904 and later developed into a port called Port America, which is the same name as America, so the name of the Port of Pemba was just given by Ernst.
In its previous life, Pemba Port was ranked fifth in Mozambique. In fact, Ernst believes that Pemba Port's ranking can be adjusted higher.
Because the conditions here are good in Africa, but in the past, Mozambique's economy was too backward, urbanization was low, trade demand was weak, and there were many ports, so it could not be fully developed.
If this port were located in the Far East, it should be able to develop into a super port, not inferior to Jiaozhou.
First of all, the area of Pemba Bay is not much different from that of Jiaozhou Bay, it is slightly smaller, but the conditions inside the bay are much better than those of Jiaozhou Bay, and the water conditions are better than those of Jiaozhou Bay. The shapes of the two are also relatively similar inland bays, with small mouths and large bellies.
Moreover, the economic hinterland of Pemba Port is wider than that of Jiaozhou. There are mountains in inland Shandong that block the connection between Jiaozhou and the inland economy, while the area west of Pemba Port all the way to Lake Malawi is plateau plain.
The only pity is that there is competition between the Port of Nacala and the Port of Pemba, which makes it difficult for Ernst to choose which port to focus on developing.
It's like there is a competitive relationship between Lianyungang and Jiaozhou. Of course, Lianyungang's economy and scale are indeed not as good as Jiaozhou.
However, these two ports in East Africa are still wastelands. If they are allowed to develop freely, it will be difficult to tell which one is better or worse.
The problem is that East Africa is currently a country that attaches great importance to planning, and it is impossible to allow the two places to develop freely. Therefore, which of the two ports will rise first depends entirely on how Ernst positions the two ports.
For example, the First Town was just a small town attached to Dar es Salaam in its previous life, but now it has become the political hub of East Africa.
However, Ernst did not think about it for too long. He suddenly realized that Nacala and Pemba could be developed into twin cities. Ernst was mainly afraid of wasting resources, but considering the development speed of East Africa, his worries were unnecessary.
In the future, the economic center of East Africa will definitely be the eastern region, so the coastal economy is unlikely to decline. Next, as long as East Africa does a good job in immigration, the economic scale of northern Mozambique will naturally increase.
The Central Province now has the rudiments of an urban cluster, so Mozambique can also develop in this way. In the past, the Far East had three economic zones: the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. The eastern part of East Africa can also develop a similar coastal economic zone.
Ernst thought that the same could be done when Maputo was taken over in the future. With the help of South Africa's mineral resources and the transportation conditions of southern ports such as Maputo and the Port of New Hamburg, it would be equivalent to the South African version of the Pearl River Delta.
In the middle is the central urban cluster headed by the ports of Pemba and Nacala, which plays the role of the Yangtze River Delta. If the navigation capacity of the Zambezi River was not too poor, Ernst would definitely not do this.
In fact, the coastal urban agglomeration envisioned by Ernst also took into account many factors, such as the poor environmental carrying capacity in northern East Africa. Otherwise, Ernst would definitely focus on the development of Mombasa. Now the development of Mombasa relies on the northern industrial belt, and the coordinated development with Nairobi and the Great Lakes region. In the future, Mombasa will become a large city in the north, but it will definitely not develop into an urban cluster.
The three places selected by Ernst have something in common, that is, they have many ports, flat terrain, large economic hinterland, excellent climatic conditions, and excellent comprehensive conditions that can accommodate the development of multiple cities.
Of course, if we follow the above advantages, Angola can also plan one in the future. These are the settings for coastal cities, and the inland areas are certainly indispensable. The conditions in the Great Lakes region are good, and Lake Malawi can also do the same. Matabele Province (Zimbabwe) is definitely the same routine, and Swabia and Hohenzollern provinces can also develop together (Zambia and southern Congo).
Ernst called this layout the East African economic pattern of four seas, two lakes and two inland areas, with four coastal city clusters, two lakeside economic clusters and two inland city clusters.
In fact, the pattern in Ernst's previous life in Africa (within the East African region) was almost the same. The biggest difference was that South Africa no longer existed.
In the past, South Africa was the most economically developed region south of the Sahara, especially the area in the former Transvaal Republic, with Johannesburg and Pretoria as the core.
Ernst actually incorporated this area into Zimbabwe and the eastern coast (mainly southern Mozambique), making it a raw material supply base for industrial development in both places.
As for why local industry is not vigorously developed, it is because local water resources are relatively scarce and the ecological environment is fragile. Over-development may cause the Kalahari Desert to expand eastward. Ernst does not want to go down the path of exhausting resources.
Ernst is not an environmentalist, but he is quite wary of desertification, especially grassland areas, which are most likely to become deserts due to human development.
The mining industry produces a lot of wastewater. If we develop industry locally, the water demand will be too high. In the past, South Africa established a South-to-North Water Diversion Project to divert water from Lesotho to alleviate the water problem. East Africa has no such demand at all. East Africa has a vast land area and many more options than South Africa.
(End of this chapter)
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