African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1410: Northeast Africa Game

However, East Africa is obviously unlikely to allow such a country to appear next to it. But this is not entirely certain. After all, there can be a Cuba next to the United States, and Egypt’s relationship with the Soviet Union was relatively close in the past. Moreover, for the Russians, Egypt is obviously more worthy of winning over than Cuba.

There are many countries in the world that are plotting to build the Suez Canal, but Egypt is not a problem that East Africa needs to consider right now. After all, Egypt is still a British colony. In fact, if possible, East Africa would like to see the Suez Canal, an important channel for Egypt, abandoned.

In this case, East Africa will intercept the river water from the upper reaches, and the Suez Canal will be abandoned. Even if Egypt's population wants to grow in the same way as in the previous life, it will be unlikely to achieve.

However, East Africa can achieve the former, but it is unlikely to achieve the latter. The Suez Canal has become the main artery of Eurasian trade. It not only involves Egypt, but also connects the three continents of Europe, Asia and Africa.

……

The Egyptian people are not completely unaware of East Africa's series of actions in the upper reaches of the Nile River.

During the construction of the Xingguo Reservoir in the Great Lakes region alone, the Egyptians discovered that the flow of the Nile River had become smaller, but this change was not enough to have a significant impact on Egypt.

Khartoum.

As the capital of Sudan in the past, Khartoum is now also one of the major cities in Egypt. Relying on the Gezira Plain and the Nile River, Khartoum has a good foundation for agricultural development.

Upstream of the Gezira Plain is the East African city of Gezira. However, trade activities between Gezira City and Khartoum are not active. This is not because East Africa intends to block it, but because the British are afraid that the people in the Sudan region will get in touch with East Africa.

Today's Sudan region is actually a common colony of Britain and Egypt. However, it is correct to say that Egypt follows Britain's lead and regards Sudan as British territory.

Of course, local forces in Sudan actually welcomed British rule.

The reason why this situation occurred is very simple. Compared with the East African imperialism next door, even Britain's colonial rule in Sudan seemed "harmless."

A few years ago, East Africa invaded the Darfur region in western Sudan, and now there is not a single indigenous person to be found on the land of Darfur.

This frightened the Sudanese people and local forces. In order to avoid following the path of Darfur, even if Britain took the initiative to withdraw from here, the Sudanese people would not agree, and their attitude towards the Egyptians also changed.

Compared with the brutal East Africans, Britain and Egypt are now seen as the "saviors" by the Sudanese people.

In fact, East Africa's international reputation in Africa is not much different from that of Russia in Eurasia. It's just that due to Africa's geography, East Africa has fewer land neighbors, so it doesn't have as much room to play as the Russians.

This also led to some European scholars calling East Africa "African Tsarist Russia". If East Africa were much smaller in area, it might not be impossible that it would be called "African Prussia".

To sum it up simply, East Africa is undoubtedly a very "warlike" country in the eyes of other countries in the world.

As for this, many people in East Africa are completely unaware of it because of the peace in recent years, and many people in East Africa have a good impression of the government.

The reason for this illusion is that the wars launched in East Africa in recent years have had almost negligible impact on their own countries, and wars are just "legends" to most East Africans.

But the reality is that East Africa's overseas territory has been greatly expanded. Not to mention the South Pacific region, the East African territory in the Persian Gulf exceeds 100,000 square kilometers. North Africa has taken Darfur, the Horn of Africa in Northeast Africa, and most of the coast of the Gulf of Aden in Somalia are also included. The Togoland colony in West Africa has also been slightly expanded, and there are also some islands in the Indian Ocean that were traded to East Africa by Britain and France during World War I.

Therefore, East Africa was the fastest expanding country in the world from the mid-to-late 19th century to the early 20th century.

Faced with the East African imperialist country with wolfish ambitions and the powers with a history of "massacres" and "genocide", the weak Sudanese people can be said to live in fear every day, fearing that one day the East African army will march north.

The citizens of Khartoum, which is only more than 300 kilometers away from East Africa, also feel the same way, but they have no way out, because the core area of ​​Sudan, like Egypt, is along the Nile River, especially the Gezira Plain, which feeds the vast majority of Sudan's population.

The city of Khartoum was built at the confluence of the Blue Nile and the White Nile, and the plain between the Blue Nile and the White Nile is the Gezira Plain.

Nourished by the two Nile Rivers, the land in the Gezira Plain is extremely fertile, and the extensive water conservancy and irrigation system has produced a large number of high-quality wheat and cotton fields.

In the farmland along the White Nile, Sudanese farmer Saidli was complaining to his sons: "Damn East Africans, since they built a city upstream, the water of the White Nile has become turbid."

This is a very normal situation, because the upstream city of Jezira is an industrial city, especially the cotton textile industry is very developed. At the same time, some highly polluting industries are also located in Jezira.

At the same time, because it is located upstream, the unscrupulous East Africa can discharge industrial and domestic sewage downstream without any scruples.

Under normal circumstances, it is fine, but during the dry season of the Nile River, when there is insufficient water, pollutants will accumulate and then emit a strong "stench".

This undoubtedly caused great trouble to the Saydley family, because their farmland was on both sides of the White Nile and relied heavily on the river water for irrigation.

The White Nile River not only affects the output of their farmland, but is also their most important source of living water. Therefore, they are the direct victims of the pollution of the downstream river water.

Ablide, the eldest son of Saydli, looked at the shiny white surface of the Nile and said to Saydli angrily: "Yes, father, God will not let go of these bastards who polluted the holy river." Like the Egyptians, the residents of Sudan also regard the Nile as a "holy river". After all, without the Nile, Egypt and Sudan would not exist. The Nile is the source of livelihood for residents in desert areas for generations.

The pollution of the White Nile in East Africa is visible to the naked eye. For the East Africans who polluted the White Nile, the Sudanese people, who were already dissatisfied with East Africa, were like adding fuel to the fire and became even more angry.

What makes them angry is that East Africa has defiled this "great" river, but what makes them sad is that they have no way to deal with this "murderer" East Africa.

Saidli sighed and said, "East Africa is one of the most powerful countries in the world. Even Britain can't do anything to them. God! Have you abandoned your people? Allow these unbelievers and demons to wreak havoc on the world?"

What Saydli didn't know was that it was because of Allah he mentioned that Ernst had such a bad attitude towards Egypt.

After all, for a big country like East Africa, there is no shortage of land resources like the city of Gezira. There are many better lands in East Africa than the city of Gezira. There is no need to build numerous industrial projects in such a border city.

For a ruler like Ernst, unless he himself is a beneficiary of religion, religious elements will be troubles and thorns to him, not to mention a religion like Arabism that is prone to produce extremists.

One only needs to look at the Abyssinian Empire next door to Egypt to see the different treatment of two culturally different countries in East Africa.

Although East Africa was not good to the Abyssinian Empire, it was not too bad either. In the early 20th century when colonialism was still prevalent, East Africa's colonial strategy towards the Abyssinian Empire was mainly economic colonization. The Abyssinian Empire could still maintain a certain degree of sovereignty and freedom in development. Compared with traditional colonialism, this was indeed a "progress."

To some extent, the countries that were able to be economically colonized by East Africa were actually "lucky" in a shameless sense. After all, compared with those countries and regimes that were physically destroyed by East Africa, surviving was not necessarily unacceptable.

But in fact, East Africa did promote the social progress of the Abyssinian Empire. With the economic colonization of East Africa, objectively speaking, the social thinking of the Abyssinian Empire has improved. At the same time, the influx of some technologies has also improved the quality of life of the people of the Abyssinian Empire.

Of course, the internal contradictions of the Abyssinian Empire also became more prominent, but this was not caused by the economic decline of the Abyssinian Empire, but because the gap between the rich and the poor in the Abyssinian Empire was aggravated under the stimulation of the development of the new economy.

However, objectively speaking, the agricultural and industrial productivity levels of the Abyssinian Empire have been improved, and they cannot be worse than in the agricultural era. As for most of the people in the Abyssinian Empire, their quality of life has declined instead of increased. In addition to the system and imperialist economic plunder, they themselves are not without problems, such as the high fertility rate.

The Abyssinian Empire can be considered a densely populated region in Africa. After all, with an area of ​​more than 200,000 square kilometers and a population of more than 12 million, it would be considered a medium-to-large country in Europe.

You should know that in the last century, due to the invasion of Italy, Abyssinia lost a lot of territory and sphere of influence, and its population even fell below 10 million at one point. But now, relying on a smaller land area, the population of the Abyssinian Empire has exceeded 12 million. A big factor for this is the improvement in productivity.

As for the Abyssinian Empire, Egyptians like Saidli were also quite dissatisfied. He said: "East Africa and the Abyssinian Empire are pagan countries, as well as Britain and France. However, these pagan countries have developed much better than our great Arab countries. How can Allah tolerate your believers being bullied by these pagan unbelievers! Is it because we are not pious enough?"

Religion is this kind of "weird" way of thinking. If everything goes well, it is because of the blessings of "Allah" or "God" and other gods, so one must be pious. If things don't go well, it is because the believers are not working hard enough or are not pious enough, so one must be even more pious.

Anyway, under this mode of thinking, everything can be explained. The basic principles of all religions are basically the same. This is why religion can play a role in stabilizing people's hearts. This is actually not much different from liberal democracy.

In the past, America’s ideas of freedom and democracy could also be likened to this kind of “religious thinking”: if a country develops well, it is all thanks to “freedom and democracy”; if it does not develop well, it is not “free and democratic” enough.

However, it is somewhat amusing that Saidli included the Abyssinian Empire in the ranks of imperialist countries such as East Africa in his complaint.

In fact, the Abyssinian Empire was indeed considered an "imperialist" country to the people of Sudan. After all, the Abyssinian Empire also bordered Egypt, and the two countries had always had conflicts and contradictions in history.

In the past, Egypt had the support of the British, so it had an advantage in competing with the Abyssinian Empire. But now the Abyssinian Empire also has East Africa behind it, and the basic conditions of the Abyssinian Empire were originally stronger than those of Egypt. So after introducing some modern agricultural technologies and equipment, as well as certain industries, the Abyssinian Empire did develop better than Egypt.

This also caused the Sudan under Egyptian rule to suffer some hardships. After all, as mentioned before, the development of the Abyssinian Empire had accumulated many contradictions within the country. If the rulers of the Abyssinian Empire wanted to divert these contradictions, there was no better way than to set up a "target".

Italy obviously couldn't afford to offend the countries surrounding the Abyssinian Empire, and East Africa dared not disobey it, so the best choice could only be its old enemy Egypt.

Therefore, over the years, the border conflicts between the Abyssinian Empire and Egypt have become increasingly prominent. For example, in the Gezira Plain area of ​​Sudan, the Abyssinian Empire frequently encroached on this area after it moved its capital to the west.

To the east of the Gezira Plain is the Ethiopian Plateau, and the Abyssinian Empire has the advantage of being "high above".

Of course, the Abyssinian Empire did not dare to go too far. After all, behind Sudan was Egypt, and behind Egypt was Britain. Therefore, the conflicts between the two countries were generally civil conflicts on the border. In the end, both sides stopped, but overall the Abyssinian Empire still had the upper hand.

Therefore, for the people in the Sudan region, the Abyssinian Empire, a "dog" raised in East Africa, is not a good thing just like its master. However, due to the problem of strength, Egypt has no better way to deal with the Abyssinian Empire.

In the past, Egypt developed rapidly because it was closer to Europe, but in the past two decades since the rapid industrialization of East Africa, the Abyssinian Empire has also been able to obtain knowledge, technology, and channels to purchase modern weapons from East Africa.

Over the years, the conflict between Egypt and the Abyssinian Empire has become one of the major hot issues in Northeast Africa, and behind this is actually a fight between the two powerful countries of Britain and East Africa.

Ernst didn't even mind the Abyssinian Empire annexing the Sudan region in the future, because in this way, the countries bordering the East African mainland would basically be Christian countries, thus isolating the East African mainland from contact with Arabism.

(End of this chapter)