African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1505 Kufra Region

Germany's potential anti-East African sentiment may cause losses to East African investments in some business sectors in Germany. As for not being swayed by emotions, that is completely impossible. Germany is now moving towards extreme nationalism. Even without Adolf, other Germans would be pushed to the forefront of German politics by this countercurrent.

East Africa is not averse to nationalism, but Germany's extreme nationalists do not regard East Africa as "the same nation", at least that's what people like Adolf think.

In fact, the geopolitical and economic conflicts between Germany and East Africa were also an important factor in the drifting apart of Germany and East Africa, especially in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

These regions have one thing in common: they are important markets for both East Africa and Germany. In the last century, as an agricultural country, East Africa's main trade with these regions was mainly agricultural product exports. In the early 20th century, East Africa began to be able to export primary industrial products to these regions.

Today, East Africa has become a powerful industrial country on the same level as Germany. Moreover, because of its complete industrial system, abundant labor force, resource advantages, etc., East African industrial products are more cost-effective and cheaper than German industrial products.

This has in fact created an impact on Germany's traditional commodity market. In the past, there was no competition between East Africa and Germany in terms of export commodities, so naturally both sides benefited. Now, East Africa is essentially taking food from Germany's rice bowl.

In today's world, East Africa, the United States and Germany share one third of the industrial world. The industrial output value of these three countries alone accounts for more than 70% of the world's total.

East Africa and the United States have more choices due to their geographical locations. For example, East Africa has three major markets: Asia, Europe, and South America; the United States has three major markets: Europe, the Far East, and the Americas.

Germany is in a more difficult situation. The only market it can rely on is the Eurasian market, and it also faces fierce competition from East Africa and the United States for this market.

Therefore, it would be strange for Germany to have a good face when facing its two main industrial competitors. "East Africa (the United States) has taken away the jobs of German workers." This has a large market in Germany today.

Not to mention the conflict between East Africa and Germany, Germany has actually become an insignificant country to East Africa. On the European continent, the Austro-Hungarian Empire is much more important to East Africa than Germany.

Economically, as semi-industrial countries, Austria-Hungary and East Africa could not form a competitive relationship for the time being. Cooperation was greater than competition, and even in agriculture, the two countries could complement each other.

Politically, Emperor Rudolf had close relations with the Rhine royal family, and the relationship between the two governments has always been relatively harmonious. At least compared with Germany, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was more willing to cooperate with East Africa on the African continent.

Especially in the non-Austrian regions within the Austro-Hungarian Empire, they did not trust Germany and were even more afraid that Germany and Austria would merge to form Greater Germany, posing a threat to their current status.

On the contrary, Austria, and especially the Austrian industrial bourgeoisie, did not have much affection for East Africa.

In short, the relationship between East Africa and Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire is very complicated. Different regions, interest groups, various political parties, and companies in the two countries have their own understandings of East Africa.

However, these problems will not affect East Africa at all. Everything East Africa does now is centered around its own interests and is progressing steadily step by step.

Today, anti-East African sentiment in Germany is rising. This is simply because Germany has difficulty making any progress economically and can only create "enemies" politically to divert conflicts, while East Africa is still steadily developing its own economy.

……

1931 3 Month 7 Day.

Kufra region in northern Darfur.

Last year, the East African government, with a stroke of the pen, formally incorporated more than 400,000 square kilometers of land in the former Kufra Province in southwestern Libya into the Darfur colony.

This means that the entire Darfur colony covers an area of ​​more than one million square kilometers, but has a population of less than 100,000, with the vast majority of residents concentrated in the south.

As for the newly incorporated Kufra region, its area is close to 500,000, but its population is probably less than a thousand people. It is not an exaggeration to call it a no-man's land locally.

An East African geographical survey team is moving quickly through the vast sea of ​​sand. It is a convoy consisting of more than a dozen trucks and a car.

Under the tarpaulin of a truck, Kabu, an East African geography expert, is telling his students some knowledge about the Kufra region.

"Before the 20th century, modern civilization knew nothing about the Kufra region. The extremely harsh desert environment made it a restricted area for humans. It was even more terrifying than the depths of the Congo rainforest."

"Before the advent of cars, it was almost impossible to cross this sea of ​​death formed by the desert, whether it was experienced businessmen or adventurers."

"Including Europe, in the 19th century, the only known explorer who successfully reached the heart of the Kufra region was Gustav from Germany."

"Of course, there are a very small number of Tubu people living in the area, but they basically live in isolation from the outside world."

The Tubu people are a nomadic people living in the Sahara Desert, mainly distributed in the Tibesti Plateau. As for the Tubu people in the Kufra area, it can be said that they do not live as nomads, but more like "prisoners" of the desert, trapped to death in the Kufra Oasis.

The so-called Kufra Oasis is actually a few human settlements that rely on underground springs and can grow very small amounts of crops.

In the previous life, the largest town in the Kufra Oasis, Al-Jawf City, had a population of less than 20,000 people. Before East Africa entered the area, Al-Jawf's population was only a few hundred people.

In the past, the population of Al-Jawf reached over 10,000 people, mainly due to the investment of the Libyan government. They dug deep wells to obtain abundant groundwater resources under the desert, thereby opening up a large amount of farmland, allowing the city of Al-Jawf to feed such a large population.

Kabu went on to say, "Jawf is the largest material supply point, or water source, in the entire Kufra region. Before East Africa entered the Kufra region, the local Tubu people even relied on groundwater to develop agriculture, which was also their most basic source of survival."

"In addition, there are only a handful of oases in the Kufra region, and they are not large in scale. In some places, there is not even any human activity. We discovered these areas in East Africa by relying on observations from the sky by aircraft."

In the early 20th century, East African non-governmental organizations sent a number of adventure teams to the Kufra region for investigation. Finally, the East African government came to the conclusion that, except for a few so-called oases such as Al-Jawf, the Kufra region was almost uninhabitable and there was not even a river in the area.

Only in extremely rare cases can precipitation occur, which is why East Africa was able to successfully annex nearly 500,000 square kilometers of land. Zhang Shulin, a student in Kabu, asked: "Professor, since the environment in the Kufra area is so harsh, how can the empire build the Libyan railway?"

"According to what you said before, the Kufra region covers hundreds of thousands of square kilometers, but there are only a few water sources in such a large area. Even basic water resources are so scarce. I can't imagine how difficult it will be to build this railway."

In response to the students' questions, Kabu explained: "You don't need to worry about the water source, because according to our previous investigation, the Kufra area actually has rich groundwater resources, but the Tubu people were restricted by technical conditions and it was difficult to develop these groundwater resources."

"However, as one of the most powerful industrial countries in the world, it is not difficult for us in East Africa to solve this problem. As far as I know, the Empire has already drilled more than a dozen wells hundreds of meters deep in the Kufra area."

“In the future, when the Empire builds the Libyan Railway, it can use these deep underground wells to obtain basic drinking water.”

Libya's groundwater resources are very abundant, especially in the Kufra region. As for how abundant the groundwater is.

In the past, the Libyan government had a project to solve the water shortage problem by building thousands of kilometers of pipelines to bring groundwater from the heart of the desert to the coastal towns of Libya.

According to calculations by scientists in previous lives, the groundwater resources under the Libyan Desert may even exceed hundreds of billions of cubic meters, while the water volume of Lake Baikal is only more than 20 trillion cubic meters.

East Africa does not plan to use these water resources to develop farmland or industry, or as a water source for large towns. It only plans to develop local groundwater resources to ensure the subsequent operation of the Libyan Railway and the water needs of the ecological protection zone along the railway.

Professor Kabu said: "Without the discovery of groundwater in the desert, the government would not have been able to push forward the construction of the Libyan railway project."

"In the future, there will be corresponding ecological protection belts along this railway. We have already gained rich experience in this when we built railways in southwest provinces."

"There is a water house at regular intervals to provide basic water supply for the ecological protection zone, thus preventing the railway from being eroded by wind and sand in the quicksand area."

The Southwest Province Railway is also the earliest desert railway built in East Africa. The conditions there are only slightly better than those in the Kufra area because, due to its proximity to the Atlantic Ocean, there is at least some precipitation.

As for the Kufra area, the water vapor from the Mediterranean Sea basically cannot reach it, and the only thing that can be relied on is the local groundwater, which was also called "fossil water" in the past.

Fossil water, as the name suggests, is a rare groundwater resource. Before the advent of industrial civilization, these groundwaters were not utilized or developed except in a few oases such as Al-Jawf. They were stored deep in the rock strata under the desert.

Afterwards, Professor Kabu continued to tell the students about various knowledge about the Kufra area, including the ancient human civilization sites discovered in East Africa.

There are many murals in the Kufra area, which depict many scenes of hunting and life of the ancient primitive inhabitants of the Kufra area, including various animals such as giraffes, cows, lions, etc.

Kabu said: "These findings show that in ancient times, the climate in the Kufra region was very different from today. At that time, there may have been a lot of grasslands in the Kufra region and a large number of primitive tribes developed."

"These primitive tribes eventually disappeared in the long river of history as the climate deteriorated. It was not until thousands of years later that they reappeared before the eyes of the world due to the empire's investigation of the local area."

"In addition to these primitive civilizations that are almost impossible to trace, there are also some fragments of civilizations from other ancient regions in the Kufra area, such as pottery fragments from Egypt and Arabia, which shows that ancient civilizations such as Egypt also tried to open up trade routes, but ultimately failed to take shape."

"After the completion of the Libyan railway, the Kufra region will regain some vitality. In the future, it will be one of the most important land trade routes for trade between the empire and Europe."

"It's a pity that if it weren't for the British obstruction, we wouldn't have chosen this route to establish a new trade route with Europe."

Compared with Libya, Egypt is obviously the best choice for building a railway directly connecting East Africa to the Mediterranean. After all, there is the Nile River, and there is a large population along the Nile River, so the conditions for railway construction are more favorable.

However, the British obviously did not want a railway to be built in East Africa that would pass through Egypt and bypass the Suez Canal.

There is no doubt that if the North African railway can really be built through Egypt, it will be of great benefit to the economies of both Egypt and East Africa. Although the Suez Canal can also bring benefits to Egypt in the future, the Nile River is obviously the center of Egypt, and the Suez Canal that flows through the Sinai Peninsula cannot benefit more people.

Given the great reputation of East Africa, or the notoriety spread in the Arab world, even without the British factor, Egypt might have objections to the construction of the North African railway. After all, the colonies in East Africa have carried out many "genocide" activities.

Of course, East Africa no longer cares about the railways in Egypt and North Africa. The Libyan railway project has been approved and the initial construction has begun. After the construction of this railway is completed, Egypt may consider it again only when it begs East Africa for help in the future.

These have nothing to do with Professor Kabu and his team. The convoy is still heading towards Al-Jawf. As long as they arrive in Al-Jawf, their work will officially begin.

Al-Jawf is one of the important nodes in the construction of Libyan railways, and in the future it may also be the most lively town along the Libyan Railway in the Kufra region.

In addition to serving the railway, it also involves the future military deployment of East Africa. After East Africa occupied the Kufra region, this also made Al Jawf the closest town to Europe controlled by East Africa.

With the town of Al-Jawf as the center, the straight-line distance to most parts of Europe is within 5,000 kilometers. For example, the straight-line distance from Al-Jawf to St. Petersburg and Edinburgh (England) is about 4,000 kilometers, and to Berlin, Paris, and London is only more than 3,000 kilometers.
This distance also means that, by building an airport, some southern European countries will be within the combat radius of East Africa's most advanced military aircraft.

And this is only the early stage of the development of East Africa's aviation industry. In the future, with the increase in aircraft range, East African military aircraft will be able to reach most parts of Europe with Al Jawf as the starting point.

In addition, Al-Jawf Town can also radiate to many areas in the Middle East and North Africa. For example, the straight-line distance between Istanbul and Al-Jawf Town is less than 2,000 kilometers.

Therefore, in addition to the construction of the Libyan railway, East Africa will also build some military facilities in the Kufra area, which also means that East Africa's military power will be further extended northward.

To be honest, East Africa has always tried every means to bring its military forces to the Mediterranean coast, but unfortunately it has never been realized. The emergence of aircraft and the rapid advancement of technology have allowed East Africa to move one step closer to this goal.

(End of this chapter)