African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1538 The World's Fourth Industrial Power
The emergence of East Africa led to the United States losing its position as the world's leading industrial power. Moreover, East Africa has a domestic market of 200 million people in the industrial sector, with a more complete and comprehensive industrial chain. Many of its emerging industries, such as automobiles, oil, tractors, electricity, and telecommunications, have put great pressure on the development of the United States industry.

Taking the automotive industry as an example, after World War I, the American automotive industry dominated the global market. In 1920, the United States accounted for more than 90 percent of the world's automobile production. At the same time, the European automotive manufacturing industry was still mainly based on small workshops and was simply unable to compete with the United States.

In this timeline, East Africa has become a major automotive industrial power, consistently ranking first in the world in the automotive industry. In the high-end automotive industry, East Africa and Germany almost completely dominate the market.

In the oil industry, which is closely related to the automotive industry, East Africa has also become a strong competitor of the United States. By deploying resources in Southeast Asia and South America to develop oil resources, East Africa is competing with the United States, even before East Africa has developed its Middle Eastern colonies.

Competition between East Africa and the United States for overseas oil-producing areas accelerated cooperation between American oil companies and the Soviet Union. Most of the imported equipment for the Baku oil field in the Soviet Union came from the United States, with a small portion coming from Britain and East Africa.

However, Britain lagged far behind East Africa and the United States in oil refining technology, and Britain was already one of the most important producers of refined petroleum products in Europe. The other was Germany, but Germany lacked oil fields and import channels, and at the same time, it imposed the strictest export restrictions and embargoes on the Soviet Union. Therefore, it was difficult for the Soviet Union to acquire German oil extraction equipment and refining technology.

As for the development of France's oil industry, it was not enough to provide experience for the Soviet Union. Before World War I, France was almost entirely dependent on imports for oil. It was not until 1924 that France established the "French Oil Company" to support French oil exploration overseas in an attempt to break the monopoly of East African, American and British oil giants.

The Soviet Union, at least, inherited part of Tsarist Russia's oil industry. Although Tsarist Russia's oil industry relied on foreign investment for construction, the Soviet Union did a very good job in reverse engineering and trained a large number of related talents. This was an important reason why the Soviet Union was able to resume production in oil fields such as Baku in the 1920s.

During the First Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union acquired a large amount of advanced equipment and technology from countries such as the United States, which enabled the Soviet oil industry to enter the world's first tier.

The Soviet Union already had the foundation of the Tsarist Russian oil industry. With the introduction and learning of technology, coupled with self-reliance and innovation, it is not surprising that the Soviet oil industry developed.

Friedrich said, "The United States, Britain and France played a significant role in the success of the Soviet First Five-Year Plan, especially Britain and France, who even set aside some ideological prejudices to support the Soviet Union."

"This choice was likely made by both countries out of fear of Germany. Before the economic crisis, the United States had a relatively tough stance on the Soviet Union, but this attitude changed fundamentally after 1929."

Ernst also found the attitudes of the capitalist world countries and the Soviet Union quite interesting. In his previous life, after World War I, the main forces opposing the Soviet Union were Britain and France, while Germany secretly cooperated with the Soviet Union.

Now the tables have turned, with Britain and France becoming key drivers of Soviet development, while Germany has become the biggest obstacle to it.

He remarked, "This is geopolitics. A powerful Germany, along with its allied bloc, is enough to instill fear throughout Europe, even more so than the Soviet Union, the red empire."

"Britain and France most likely wanted to maintain the balance of power in Europe by strengthening the Soviet Union, especially to suppress Germany's development, and ideally to put Germany and the Soviet Union in direct confrontation."

"Otherwise, if we fight another world war with Germany, it's hard to say for Britain, but France will certainly feel uneasy and insecure."

The historical grievances between Germany and France are almost impossible to resolve, but France is well aware that it is no match for Germany today. The only thing that can comfort them now is the Maginot Line.

The Maginot Line could not give France complete confidence either, because they were facing a Germany that was far more powerful than in their previous life, especially in this timeline, during the 20s, when Germany had experienced the post-war "Golden Age" and its industrial strength had been greatly enhanced.

Therefore, France's covert support for the Soviet Union became an inevitable result. It should be noted that when the Soviet Union was established, it defaulted on a large amount of debt owed to Tsarist Russia, which directly led to the Allied Powers' defeat in World War I.

Given this situation, how could France not harbor resentment towards the Soviet Union? However, France still supported Soviet industrial development for the greater good, which clearly indicated that France was even more afraid of Germany.

Britain had similar considerations. In order to maintain the balance of power in Europe, Britain kept a close eye on Germany and the Soviet Union, the two most important countries on the European continent. It was Britain's consistent practice to suppress whoever was stronger. At present, Germany is obviously the most powerful country on the European continent.

Therefore, with France proving unreliable, Britain could only offer limited support to the Soviet Union in an attempt to provoke a confrontation between the Soviet Union and Germany.

However, Britain was clearly not as open as France, because the Soviet Union and Britain had direct conflicting interests.

This conflict of interests is mainly concentrated in two regions: Central Asia and South Asia, namely Afghanistan and India. Taking India as an example, the Indian Labour Party has emerged in India, while the attitudes of the Soviet Union and Indian independence activists are also ambiguous.

This is actually a continuation of the geostrategic conflict between the former Tsarist Russia and Britain. The Soviet Union also coveted the access to the sea in South Asia. Even if it did not directly occupy it, it would support proxies, allies, or puppets to achieve this.

This is not a slander against the Soviet Union, but something that actually happened in the past. For example, during the Nehru era, the cooperation between the Soviet Union and India almost helped India build an industrial system and exported a large amount of weapons and equipment to India. In addition, there is the case of the Afghan War.

Whether the Soviet Union's ambitions stemmed from territorial expansion or from a "selfless" promotion of the international labor party cause, it is impossible to deny the Soviet Union's ambitions in Central and South Asia.

Ernst concluded: "Compared to the United States, which traded with the Soviet Union purely from the perspective of practical interests, Britain and France were more driven by strategic considerations. However, even though they were more dedicated to supporting the Soviet Union, the United States played a greater role in the Soviet First Five-Year Plan."

As for why this happened, Ernst explained: "Compared with the United States, Britain and France are ultimately much weaker, especially in the fields of science and technology and industry."

"Currently, there are only three countries in the world that can be called first-class industrial powers in terms of comprehensive conditions such as science and technology, talent, and the quality of industrial development: us, Germany, and the United States."

"During the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan, American companies and personnel were highly involved in almost all industries, including steel, coal, textiles, shipbuilding, and related machine tools."

"More importantly, the trade and technology transfer between the United States and the Soviet Union in automobiles, tractors, communication equipment, petrochemicals, and power equipment further advanced Soviet industry." "It is no exaggeration to say that the construction and production of these emerging industries in the Soviet Union directly made the Soviet Union the second largest industrial power in Europe, even surpassing established European powers such as Britain and France."

After all, Britain and France were relatively weak in the development of emerging industries. Now, the emerging industries that American companies helped the Soviet Union establish directly were only found in Germany across Europe.

This also means that by the time the Soviet Union's second Five-Year Plan is completed, Soviet industry will have surpassed most European countries and will be second only to Germany.

With the exception of Germany, the industrial powers of Europe mainly focused on traditional industries. However, the Soviet Union not only made up for some of its shortcomings in traditional industries, but also possessed a whole set of emerging industries, which most European countries did not have.

Ernst said, "The Soviet Union's industrial scale is not yet fully developed, but they have already acquired the technology and equipment for subsequent industrial development."

"Therefore, the Soviet Union could even break away from other countries and develop its own industry independently, only still needing to import in some areas and receiving technical support."

It must be noted that the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan did rely heavily on Western technology and machinery, but the Soviet Union was able to quickly overcome this predicament.

Because the Soviet Union had a very strong industrial base, it experienced rapid economic growth before the First Five-Year Plan. In addition, it inherited the legacy of Tsarist Russia, and its industry ranked among the world's top before the First Five-Year Plan.

It was roughly in sixth or seventh place, which is equivalent to Austria-Hungary. However, after the completion of the First Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union's industrial strength had surpassed that of Austria-Hungary, ranking among the top five in the world, and was comparable to that of Britain and France.

By the time the Second Five-Year Plan was completed, the Soviet Union's industrial strength would have been firmly among the top four in the world, and in terms of scale, it might have surpassed Germany to rank third in the world.

"The Soviet Union simply had a large population, so its industrial data, especially the average data, wasn't very impressive. However, in wartime, total industrial output is more effective."

"The same principle applies to our country. East Africa is the world's largest industrial power, and even a strong one. However, its urbanization level is only in the middle to upper range among the major powers. The per capita output of many industrial products is not particularly high."

"Take automobiles for example. my country's per capita automobile data is not as good as that of the United States, and it can only rank second in the world. That's because we have nearly 80 million more people than the United States."

"However, no country in the world dares to say that it is more powerful than the Empire in the industrial field. Once the total volume reaches a certain scale, the average data becomes less important."

"The Soviet Union will also be in this situation in the future. In fact, the Soviet Union's current industrial size can rank among the top five in the world, higher than that of Britain and France without counting colonies. That is to say, the scale of the Soviet Union's new industries is slightly insufficient."

Even before the implementation of the First Five-Year Plan, the Soviet Union was already a major industrial power in the world, and it had developed rapidly for nearly a decade based on the industrial assets inherited from Tsarist Russia.

A country with a strong industrial base could acquire new technologies, equipment, and talent. This meant that Soviet experts and technicians could quickly digest the technologies and knowledge introduced during the First Five-Year Plan, and then reverse engineer them to make them their own.

Soviet researchers were quite capable; they simply lacked some knowledge and experience. After all, during the Tsarist era, Russians were able to build steel mills, textile factories, mine coal, refine oil, produce warships, artillery, explosives, and construct railways, among other things. As their successor, the Soviet Union could naturally do the same, and even further develop upon that foundation.

Having absorbed advanced foreign technologies and experiences, and possessing its own independent research and innovation capabilities, it was entirely feasible for the Soviet Union to transition from an agricultural country to an industrial country through two five-year plans.

Moreover, once the Soviet Union completed its industrialization, it naturally became one of the world's most powerful industrial nations, not just an ordinary industrial power.

In fact, even the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Japan can be called industrial powers because there are too few industrialized countries in the world.

Crown Prince Frederick said, "We certainly cannot ignore the strength of the Soviet Union. Assuming that the Soviet Union can maintain this rate of development, it is only a matter of time before it becomes one of the world's top three industrial powers."

"However, the Soviet Union was a labor party country, and it was also subject to sanctions from the capitalist world as a whole. Without these sanctions, the Soviet Union might have developed even faster."

"At the same time, the completion of the Soviet Union's First Five-Year Plan also shows that these sanctions and blockades have basically had no effect."

"From this point of view, the Soviet government was indeed more efficient than the original Tsarist government and was able to mobilize the enthusiasm of most Soviet people to participate in national construction."

"This capability enabled the Soviet Union to create almost a miracle in world economic history during its economic development. However, if the Soviet Union had invested this capability in the military field, it might have been even more terrifying!"

The Soviet Union was able to mobilize all its resources to invest in economic construction and create an industrial development miracle, which also meant that the Soviet Union had enormous military potential.

He could mobilize a larger, more combat-effective, and more organized army than Tsarist Russia, and could provide this army with ample weaponry.

Therefore, Friedrich lamented, "Now no one can limit the development of the Soviet Union. All countries in the world should be prepared to deal with the Soviet Union in the long run in international politics."

"The only thing that could defeat the Soviet Union was probably itself. If no internal problems arose, given the Soviet Union's current military strength and geopolitical environment, it would be difficult for other countries to pose a threat to it."

(End of this chapter)