Chapter 651 Southwest Africa
Walvis Bay.
The only excellent deep-water port on the Atlantic coast of East Africa, and to the north is the East African Naval Port Swakopmund, which is also the most remote base of the East African Navy on its home soil.
"Today is the day when the Mount Whale Highway is officially completed. This is of great significance to Walvis Bay. It means that the traffic between Walvis Bay and the inland of East Africa will be smoother, and the development of Walvis Bay will be further advanced in the future."
The person who was most happy about the opening of the Walvis Bay Highway was the mayor of Walvis Bay, Athold. This also ended the history of no roads from the inland of East Africa to Southwest Africa.
The Walvis Bay Highway starts from the city of Mongu in the western part of the Hohenzollern Province, which is the western terminus of the East African Central Railway. It passes through the province of Leithania and finally enters southwest Africa and arrives at the city of Walvis Bay. The entire highway is more than 1,300 kilometers long and more than 20,000 people participated in its construction.
East Africa has no plans to build a railway between Mongu and Walvis Bay for the time being, mainly because the area along the route is too empty. Although other regions in East Africa are also sparsely populated, they are dwarfed by Southwest Africa, which was Namibia in the previous life.
Although the East African Railway has not made much money in recent years, food, specialty products, minerals, and even industrial products and population along the line have all begun to flow.
However, this effect cannot be achieved if a railway is built between Mongu and Walvis Bay because there is no population, industry or agriculture between the two cities.
Therefore, the East African government decided to build only one road to connect Walvis Bay and the interior of East Africa, which was the most cost-effective and convenient way.
Although the road condition of Walvis Bay is very poor compared with other roads in East Africa, it is better to have it than not. In the past, to reach Walvis Bay from the inland, one could only pass through forests, grasslands, deserts, plateaus and mountains, and there were no obvious landmarks, so there was always the risk of getting lost.
With the Mount Whale Highway, most of these problems have been solved. In addition, there is not much rainfall in southwest Africa, so the roads do not need to be maintained as frequently as in eastern East Africa. The only sections that need special attention are those passing through desert areas.
"Congratulations, Mayor Yasold. From now on, we in Swakopmund may have to borrow the road from you to communicate with the inland. Alas, I'm afraid that Walvis Bay will be the number one in southwest Africa in the future!" The air was filled with a sour taste.
The person who said this was the mayor of Swakopmund, Val. Swakopmund is only 30 kilometers away from Walvis Bay, and the terminus of the Mount Whale Highway is established in Walvis Bay. Swakopmund can only accept its fate, because the conditions in Walvis Bay are better than those in Swakopmund. It will definitely be an important economic center for the development of southwestern Africa in the future.
Moreover, the port of Swakopmund is also a military port, which further restricts its future development. Therefore, Val is very envious of Asold, but not jealous, after all, the two cities have different divisions of labor.
"Haha, Mayor Val is joking. We two are brothers in distress. We came here to suffer together. After all, everyone knows that Southwest Africa has the worst conditions in East Africa. What's the difference between being here and being in exile? It's the same desert, so why are the lives so good in the Northern Province and Juba Province?" Yasold changed the subject.
If we talk about the difference between Walvis Bay and Swakopmund, we can really tell the difference between the big king and the small king. That is, Swakopmund is essentially the sword-wielding guard of Walvis Bay.
Of course, the entire 2,000-kilometer coastline of southwest Africa is within the patrol range of the navy in Swakopmund Port, but Walvis Bay is right next to Swakopmund.
There are only four settlements along the coast of southwest Africa. If Walvis Bay and Swakopmund are considered as a whole, there are only two immigrant settlements left along the coast.
They are the mouth of the Orange River and Lüderitz in the south. Lüderitz is even more desolate, so it is just a stronghold of a few hundred people to prevent anyone from landing on the shore through the Lüderitz Bay.
The population of these four places combined basically accounts for 60% of the total immigrant population in Southwest Africa and East Africa, which is more than 13,000 people, including more than 1,000 navy personnel, more than 2,000 army personnel, and less than 10,000 ordinary people.
There are not many people in East Africa, and there are very few indigenous people in Southwest Africa. There may have been tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of people at the beginning, but now there may be only more than ten thousand. Moreover, these indigenous people who remain should live in the oasis in the inland desert, so they were not captured by East Africa.
There are two places in East Africa where you can never capture all the natives. One is the Congo rainforest, and the other is Southwest Africa (including the Kalahari Basin). Due to the vast area and harsh environment, East Africa can only eliminate those more conspicuous or unlucky indigenous tribes.
But this is not a big deal. There are not too many indigenous people who can survive in such a harsh environment. Just like the Eskimos in the Arctic or the Indians in the Amazon rainforest, their fertility rate is very low.
Just like Namibia in its previous life, the country's population was only over two million in the 21st century. Compared with the neighboring African countries where the population was growing explosively, it seemed out of place. No matter how many people were born, they would not be able to be fed.
Moreover, the indigenous people of Southwest Africa are somewhat different from the mainstream black people in Africa - the Bantu people. Many of the indigenous people of Southwest Africa belong to the Khoisan people, an independent ancient race.
Many of the Khoisan people captured in East Africa were of Bantu descent. After all, the Khoisan were at a disadvantage in the competition with African blacks and were driven to South Africa.
Even in Southwest Africa, it is inevitable that the more advanced Bantu people will occupy some better places. East Africa has now cleared them out, and the remaining ones are basically pure-blooded Khoisan people.
This has been scientifically proven in the past, that is, about 60%-71% of the black population in South Africa have their maternal lineage derived from the Khoisan people. As for why it is maternal lineage, it is naturally because the males were eliminated by the Bantu people.
In Ernst's opinion, the few remaining Khoisan people in East Africa will be fine as long as they stay in the harsh environment of Southwest Africa, which is the same as the Serengeti Nature Reserve in East Africa.
Or to put it more bluntly, it is similar to the Indian reservations in the United States, or the "laws to protect indigenous living habits" in Canada and Brazil.
Of course, the main reason is the remaining small fish and shrimps. It is impossible for East Africa to clean them up completely. Even with the help of satellites in the 21st century, it may not be possible to do this. Therefore, as long as they are not allowed to integrate into modern society, there will be no problem. After all, the indigenous people of the Amazon rainforest and the Eskimos in the Arctic cannot become a disaster. Under this productivity situation, they have no conditions to achieve a population explosion.
In fact, if Europe had not colonized Africa in the past, the number of black people would probably have remained at a certain level instead of doubling. After all, Africa is the only continent connected to the Eurasian continent that has remained without any progress for thousands of years.
Back to the port of Swakopmund, the main role of its garrisoned navy is to prevent colonists from other countries from landing in Southwest Africa. The entire Southwest Africa is more than 100 square kilometers and has a population of only tens of thousands. This makes the coast of Southwest Africa full of loopholes. In case the enemy lands and sneak attacks the inland of East Africa from here, it is indeed easy to catch East Africa off guard.
Therefore, the Swakopmund Navy is to prevent anyone from building strongholds along the coast of Southwest Africa, and then transporting supplies to the inland through the coastal strongholds. In this way, even if they enter the hinterland of Southwest Africa, it will be a dead end.
(End of this chapter)
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