Chapter 1520 Agreement on Commercial Navigation on the Paraná River
After the Chaco War, East Africa took the opportunity to enter Bolivia, and under the auspices of East Africa, in late 1931, consultations were held with the five countries of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia on issues such as navigation, management and development of the Paraná River.
Montevideo, Uruguay.
East African Foreign Minister Freer personally led a team to the capital of Uruguay and communicated and negotiated with the countries in the Paraná River basin.
“The Paraná River is the second largest river in South America, but from the perspective of economy, population, agriculture, etc., it is undoubtedly the most important river in South America, far exceeding the Amazon River, the largest river in the world.”
"Its drainage basin covers an area of nearly four million square kilometers and is more than four thousand kilometers long. The hydropower, shipping, and irrigation value of the region are extremely high, so the comprehensive management of the Paraná River will contribute to the common economic development of southern South America."
Obviously, the Paraná River mentioned by Freer here is the Paraná River in a broad sense, which includes the La Plata River and the Uruguay River.
Because in a strict geographical sense, the Rio de la Plata, the Uruguay River and the Paraná River are three separate rivers, not one river, and even whether the Rio de la Plata is a river is controversial.
If the La Plata River is defined as a bay and part of the Atlantic Ocean, then the Paraná River and the Uruguay River flow directly into the Atlantic Ocean and are naturally independent rivers.
And if we regard it as a river, it means that the La Plata River is the La Plata River where the Paraná River and the Uruguay River finally merge into. They share a channel to the sea, and the three can be regarded as a whole.
In order to maximize its interests, East Africa chose the latter. Of course, in order to prevent loopholes, the draft treaty specifically noted this point.
Foreign Minister Freer said: "The Paraná River Basin is the most essential region in South America and the essence of the territories of various countries. Therefore, all countries should put aside their prejudices, cooperate sincerely, and jointly promote the overall development of the region in the basin, and achieve common progress and prosperity."
This statement is basically true, but not entirely correct. At least for Bolivia, the importance of the Paraná River Basin is not very important. As a landlocked country, Bolivia has three options for going to the sea, namely through Peru, then through Brazil, and finally through the countries in the Paraná River Basin.
Peru and Bolivia have a relatively close relationship, and the two countries even once became one country. Therefore, most of Bolivia's cargo exports are transited through Peru.
Then it goes through Brazil, because the northeastern part of Bolivia also belongs to the Amazon River basin. In the last century, in order to obtain Brazil's consent for Bolivia's river access rights, Bolivia even gave up part of its eastern territory.
Of course, looking at it from the perspective of future generations, this was an extremely stupid decision. First of all, in terms of resources, the world's largest Muton iron ore mine in the previous life became shared by the two countries. Secondly, the Paraguay River, an important tributary of the Paraná River, was also out of reach of Bolivia. This route was obviously not worse than those tributaries in the Amazon River basin.
Finally, it passed through the Paraná River Basin. The reason why Bolivia is not important at present is entirely due to policy. Bolivia’s focus is not on the southeast, and the failure of the Chaco War has made it miss some important waterways.
Until the 21st century, Bolivia was unable to develop the local area, which made it impossible to develop its rich iron ore resources in the southeast.
Theoretically, if the Muton Iron Mine can be developed, Paraguay may become an important resource-based country in the world with the help of this place, and it will be no less powerful than Australia and Brazil in iron ore trading. After all, Bolivia's size is different from these two countries and it has a small population. One Muton Iron Mine can feed the whole country.
However, it doesn’t matter if the Bolivian government does not have such vision. Now that the East Africans have arrived, they will naturally make relevant arrangements, and the Paraná River Commercial Navigation Agreement is one of them.
Foreign Minister Freer said: "East Africa will help countries develop cities, ports, industries, agriculture and other fields along the river."
“We will focus on promoting the construction of important port cities such as Asuncion, Rosario, Corumba, Suárez, and Salto, and strengthen investment and support for various countries in the industrial and agricultural sectors.”
Asuncion is the capital of Paraguay and the earliest region where East African capital entered South America. However, although Asuncion is located on the banks of the Paraná River, it cannot change its geographical location as an inland city.
This also means that East Africa cannot strengthen its control over the entire Paraná River basin through Paraguay. Its estuary is basically controlled by Argentina and Uruguay. Therefore, if East Africa wants to make the Paraná River navigable, it must deal with these two countries.
Uruguay has basically no ability to resist East Africa, so the biggest obstacle to East Africa's control of the Paraná River shipping comes from Argentina.
Previously, Argentina was deeply influenced by British capital, so the government was basically controlled by pro-British factions, and Britain was obviously unwilling to see the smooth expansion of East African forces in South America.
Before 1931, Argentina's relationship with East Africa was not tense, but basically one of mutual non-interference. The Argentine government did not want East Africa to interfere in its internal affairs, and at the same time did not want East Africa to enter South America, but it did not have the courage to provoke East Africa.
Therefore, Argentina’s response measure in its South American policy with East Africa is “non-cooperation”, that is, not participating in various activities of East African organizations in South America and staying out of it. At the same time, it calls on countries in the region to maintain their independence and reduce the space for intervention by major powers.
In other words, Argentina has always wanted to be the boss in South America, but it is completely unable to stop big countries like the United States, Britain, and East Africa. It dares not make big moves, but it has made many small moves in secret.
Coupled with the idea of "making friends with distant countries and attacking nearby ones", Argentina is more inclined to win over Britain to balance its "neighbor" in East Africa.
However, this situation changed significantly in 1930. On the one hand, due to the economic crisis, the commercial cooperation between Argentina and Britain was basically disintegrated, and the interests of the two sides in the field of trade could not be unified.
Previously, Britain was Argentina's most important buyer of agricultural products. However, after the outbreak of the British economic crisis, Britain was naturally unable to maintain its original trade cooperation. At the same time, compared with its own countries such as Canada and Australia, Britain's agricultural imports naturally prioritized satisfying its own colonies.
Economically, the severance of trade between Argentina and Britain directly led to a decline in Argentina's income, the bankruptcy of a large number of farmers and citizens, and triggered an internal political crisis in Argentina.
So in 1930, the Argentine military government came to power, and its coming to power further exacerbated the conflict between the two countries.
Of course, the relationship between the Argentine military government and East Africa is not very good, because its ruler Uriburu is an "extreme nationalist" who advocates the "Italian model", that is, the Benito regime.
The common feature of extreme nationalists is their great ambition. In Uriburu's mind, Argentina is the natural leader of South America.
This conflicted with East Africa's strategy. East Africa's massive expansion in South America to some extent blocked the implementation of Uriburu's ideas.
For example, in his previous life, he interfered in Bolivia’s internal affairs, tried to overthrow Bolivia’s democratically elected government, and competed with Brazil.
Now, Bolivia and Paraguay are controlled by East Africa, and East Africa's influence on Uruguay is also increasing. Therefore, if Argentina wants to expand its influence and sphere of influence in South America, East Africa has become the biggest obstacle.
Under such circumstances, Argentina's relations with East Africa should have further deteriorated, but the fact is just the opposite. After Uriburu came to power, he not only did not oppose East Africa, but unprecedentedly strengthened cooperation with East Africa at the current stage.
The reason is very simple, that is, Uriburu's position is not legitimate and he is unpopular in Argentina.
This is fundamentally different from the Benito government in Italy, where Benito first became the Prime Minister of Italy and then mobilized Italian nationalism and took control of the country's power.
Uriburu came to power by directly launching a military coup. Therefore, Uriburu has many opponents in Argentina and his rule is not stable.
Suppose that East Africa is offended at this time, and East Africa uses the illegality of the Uriburu government as an excuse to win over various opposition forces in Argentina, then the Uriburu government is very likely to be overthrown.
After all, Uriburu relies on the army, so he can suppress the opposition through force. However, what East Africa lacks the least is military force. As long as East Africa's army enters Argentina under the banner of restoring Argentine democracy, there may be a large number of supporters. Of course, the premise is that East Africa withdraws later.
Now, East Africa has troops stationed in Bolivia, Paraguay River, not to mention the entire South Atlantic. The East African Navy is the only one that dominates. Therefore, Uriburu is very wary of East Africa, but because of its strength, it has to bow its head.
In addition, Argentina's current economic situation also requires Uriburu and East Africa to cooperate to curb Argentina's current poor economic situation.
In short, in order to maintain its own interests and rule, Uriburu not only did not dare to offend East Africa, but actively wooed East Africa.
Therefore, the Argentine military government also sent representatives to actively participate in the "Paraná River Merchant Navigation Agreement" and seek to gain more benefits for the country.
For example, the city of Rosario mentioned by Foreign Minister Freer earlier, this city is located on the Paraná River. It is the third largest city in Argentina and an important railway and shipping center in Argentina. It is also the hometown of Ernesto Rafael Guevara de la Serna, a well-known international labor party fighter in his previous life.
On the one hand, the Argentine military government was afraid of East Africa's interference in Argentina's internal affairs. On the other hand, it needed to find an alternative to Britain, restore agricultural product exports, and develop its own industry.
Therefore, East Africa became an important choice. Before, East Africa itself was one of the important consumers of Argentine agricultural products. During the economic crisis, East Africa was the country least affected in the capitalist world. Therefore, the Argentine military government hoped that East Africa would increase the scale of imports of Argentine agricultural products.
At the same time, East Africa is the world's largest industrial country with unquestionable industrial strength. Introducing East African capital to invest in Argentine cities and industries is also an important cooperation content for the Uriburu government.
East Africa also reciprocated the Uriburu government by promising not to interfere in Argentina's internal affairs. As for the economic cooperation between the two countries, the prerequisite is that Argentina agrees and signs a free navigation agreement with East Africa. As long as Argentina agrees, East Africa will appropriately tilt towards Argentina economically.
This is Argentina, and then Brazil. East Africa does not attach much importance to Brazil's role in the Paraná River Basin. However, if the iron ore resources in northern Bolivia and western Brazil are developed and transported back to East Africa by water, the rivers in Brazil cannot be avoided.
Therefore, Brazil's Corumba Port has become an important project jointly built by the two countries. This port is not far from the iron ore area. In the future, when East Africa imports iron ore from western Brazil, it will most likely be transported through the Corumba Port on the Paraguay River, and finally enter the Atlantic Ocean through the Paraná River and be transported to the steel industry base in western East Africa.
Suarez is a stronghold in Bolivia. It was also the location of the Bolivian Port of Suarez in the previous life, and it is very close to the Port of Colombo.
The reason why East Africa cooperated with Bolivia to build a Suarez Port next to the Colombo Port in Brazil is entirely out of consideration of "don't put all your eggs in one basket".
At the same time, Port Suarez is also an important project for East Africa to strengthen its penetration and control over Bolivia's economy. After the development of the Muton iron ore in the future, Bolivia can basically only export to East Africa through Port Suarez, and iron ore will become an important economic lifeline and pillar of the country.
Finally, there is Salto. Salto is the second largest city in Uruguay and the largest city along the Uruguay River. It is the main city in East Africa that benefits all.
Foreign Minister Freer said: "The Paraná River Basin will become the most developed industrial and agricultural region in South America in the future. Through shipping, the economies of various countries are closely linked. No country should prevent the free passage of merchant ships from countries in the basin and East Africa."
"Otherwise, we will become the target of public criticism. In order to safeguard the interests of various countries, coordinate the management of the Paraná River Basin, ensure shipping safety, safeguard the interests of relevant countries, and resolve disputes among countries, we in East Africa will also increase coordination in this region."
Although it was not stated explicitly, Freer's words also indicated that East Africa would strengthen its military presence in the Paraná River Basin and build military bases in Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia.
As for Argentina and Brazil, although East Africa will not directly build military bases or station troops there, as long as it can gain a foothold in the other three countries, East Africa's dominance over the Paraná River Basin will be basically secure.
Among them, the East African Navy will lease a port in Uruguay as a new military base on the west coast of the South Atlantic to replace Asuncion's past role.
This also means that the East African Atlantic Fleet has for the first time obtained a stable naval base for stationing a large fleet in southern South America, which can deter various countries in the basin, especially Argentina and Brazil.
This is the result of a compromise between East Africa, Argentina and Brazil. Although the East African Navy's deployment in Paraguay poses a great threat to the two countries, it is better than East Africa building naval bases in the two countries' home countries.
Therefore, facing the powerful East Africa, the two countries can only accept it with a pinch of their noses. East Africa is different from the United States, Britain and other countries because East Africa is on the other side of the ocean. This also means that if East Africa really launches a war against the two countries, they can only be beaten.
In the entire South Atlantic, just like the Indian Ocean, the East African Navy can basically go anywhere freely. At the same time, the navies of various countries in the region have no ability to compete with the East African Navy.
As for Britain and the United States, they are countries along the North Atlantic coast. Although their navies are strong, it is inconvenient for them to show off their strength in the South Atlantic like the East African Navy. If they are not careful, they may repeat the mistakes of the Russian Navy in the Russo-Japanese War.
Similarly, this is also the main reason why it is difficult for the East African Navy to play a role in the North Atlantic.
(End of this chapter)
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