African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1541 Overseas Railway Business
The northern mountains of Desfull are characterized by a landscape of deep ravines and towering peaks, with endless stretches of gaunt, tan-brown mountains. The route for the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway passes through this extremely complex terrain.

East African railway engineer Trein looked out at the mountains and said, "It is a miracle that Persia was able to maintain the unity of the country for so long in such a complex terrain."

"The entire Zagros Mountains were under its control. The terrain and ethnic groups were complex, and it bordered the outside world, yet it did not have any major problems. This can only mean that Persia had its own unique advantages in the fields of culture and institutions."

"Take the Khuzestan Plain, for example. It is separated from Tehran, the capital of Persia, by such a huge mountain range. Persia was able to govern it relatively effectively, which speaks volumes."

Khuzestan is a plain in southwestern Persia, bordering Iraq and the Mesopotamian plain. The main population there is Arab.

Although this area is the birthplace of the First Persian Empire, also known as the Achaemenid Empire, Persians are now a minority in the region.

Ismail, the Persian foreman standing next to Trein, said, "Persia has been able to overcome the disadvantages of transportation due to its complex terrain, maintain the stability of a multi-ethnic country, and form a national identity over a long period of time. These are all advantages of our Persian culture."

"Regardless of which ethnic group ruled Persia in history, they eventually assimilated into the local civilization and maintained Persia's independence."

Ismail's statement is indeed true; the assimilative and inclusive nature of Persian culture is perhaps comparable only to that of the Far Eastern empires.

This is not an exaggeration. Historically, this region has been ruled by Macedonians, Arabs, Mongols, Turks, and others, but Persia has maintained its ideological and cultural independence.

Even the ancient Arab Empire, which had the deepest influence on local culture, could only adapt to Persian culture. For example, the Persian language, although written in Arabic script and using Arabic letters, had grammar and vocabulary that were independent of Arabic. Also, the Persian religion, although belonging to the Arab religion, was the Shia sect, which was a minority sect in the ancient Arab Empire.

This was still the ancient Arab Empire, which was very powerful in terms of ideology and culture. Other empires, such as the Mongols and Turks, after occupying and ruling the area, basically adopted the local political system, laws, and culture directly, and eventually became completely integrated into Persia.

In conclusion, Persia has a strong sense of national and cultural identity, which is a major reason why East Africa's attempts to divide Persia failed in the previous stage.

Previously, East Africa hoped to exert influence over Persia and then separate Persia under East African and British influence, but with little success.

The reason East Africa did this was naturally because it did not want a powerful country to emerge along the Indian Ocean coast. Persia, in terms of both size and strength, could be considered a regional power and might threaten East Africa's regional hegemony. However, East Africa ultimately abandoned this plan.

In addition to the unity within Persia, East Africa also had to consider the influence of the Soviet Union on the Middle East. At least before the collapse of the Soviet Union, Persia was still a unified country, which made it easier for East Africa to use it to hinder the southward expansion of Soviet power.

As for whether Persia might negatively impact East Africa's influence in the Middle East in the future, the threat in this regard is actually not as great as imagined.

After all, in the previous life until the 21st century, its population was less than 100 million, and it was limited by natural conditions, with high costs for industrialization and administrative governance. Its development ceiling was nothing more than a regional power.

In later generations, although some people were optimistic about Persia's territory and population, objectively speaking, Persia was not particularly outstanding in these two aspects. In terms of population, later Egypt and Pakistan had more than Persia, with the latter even exceeding 200 million.

Although Persia's territory was vast, it was mostly mountainous and desert, with relatively scarce and limited water resources. Furthermore, it had many ethnic groups, making it difficult to form a unified force.

In conclusion, Persia's potential is limited unless it can integrate the resources of the entire Middle East, like the First Persian Empire, and become a vast empire spanning Eurasia and Africa.

However, this is difficult to achieve. Even at this stage, the Ottoman Empire is more likely to accomplish this than Persia. Therefore, even if East Africa wants to suppress the development of the Middle East, the Ottoman Empire will be the first to be targeted, and only then will Persia be targeted.

Of course, these are all things that the East African government needs to consider. Treon is a railway engineer whose main goal is to assist in the construction of the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway project. He himself has no ill intentions towards Persia.

Trein said, "Persia's long history and culture have played a huge role in its continued existence as a regional power in the Middle East, and have been able to maintain continuity. In contrast, ancient Babylonian, Assyrian and other Middle Eastern civilizations have disappeared into the long river of history, leaving only a bunch of historical relics."

"Therefore, I believe that your country still has the opportunity to revive in the future, although such revival will be very difficult and will require adapting to the development of modern society."

"The Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway is an opportunity for Persia. Once it opens, it will strengthen trade within Persia in the economic field and will also facilitate the spread of modern civilization in the cultural field."

The Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway, as far as Trein is concerned, can indeed fulfill the function that Trein mentioned, but it is not without its drawbacks.

The biggest problem is that this railway adopts East African standards entirely, while the existing railways in Persia include those built under British leadership and those built under the leadership of Tsarist Russia in the past, and the track gauge of British and Tsarist Russian railways is different from that of East Africa.

This means that the Caspian Railway in the Persian Gulf cannot actually be connected with the Persian domestic railway network, forming its own independent system, which also reflects East Africa's ulterior motives.

However, in terms of transportation in Persia, before the construction of the Caspian Railway in the Persian Gulf, Persia's modern transportation was basically non-existent. Although there were a few railways, they were far from reaching the level of a "railway network." Only a few relatively economically developed areas had short railway lines.

Therefore, the Caspian Railway in the Persian Gulf still plays a significant role in promoting the development of Persia at this stage. However, if Persia wants to unify its railway standards and form a coherent railway network in the future, it will have to make trade-offs and choose a single railway standard.

If we consider economic and transportation factors, then without a doubt, the railway standards of the Soviet Union (Tsarist Russia) or Britain are more suitable than those of East Africa.

It's not because the rail transit systems of the two countries are more advanced than those of East Africa, but rather because of Persia's geographical location. It is situated on the Eurasian continent, and Persia is even one of the important transportation hubs in Eurasia.

Both Soviet and British standards facilitated Persia's integration into the Eurasian market, thereby promoting its economic development. However, considering national security, the British standard was most advantageous to Persia, as the Soviet Union posed too great a threat.

Therefore, the Caspian Sea Railway in the Persian Gulf, which was mainly built by East Africa, may seem to have promoted the development of Persian civilization, but in fact, the East African government has planted a "hidden mine" in it. If Persia wants to unify the national railway standards in the future, it will have to dismantle this railway with East African standards.

Of course, Persia could adopt East African standards for its entire railway system, but this would hinder its integration into the Eurasian market and its ability to connect with other Eurasian countries. Trein, as a railway expert, was well aware of this, but he didn't see anything wrong with it.

After all, the Persian Gulf Caspian Railway was essentially a business deal, and Persia's own choices played a role in its construction.

Moreover, as an East African, Trein naturally hopes that East African railway standards can be exported to the world. In recent years, East Africa has made good progress in this regard, with East African standard railway lines being built in the Middle East, North Africa, West Africa, Southeast Asia, and South America.

In the Middle East, the Basra Railway was built using East African standards, and there are also railways built by East Africa itself in the Persian Gulf territories. If you count them all, East African standard railways account for more than half of the railways along the Persian Gulf coast.

After all, there are only five countries along the Persian Gulf: Oman, East Africa, the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain (Bahrain, Kuwait), and Persia.

In addition to the East African Persian Gulf territories, the Ottoman Empire, and the current Persian Gulf Caspian Railway, three countries have adopted East African standards for their railways. Oman may also build such a railway in the future.

In reality, Oman currently has no need for railway construction. Its territory is small, its population is small, and it has a long coastline. Therefore, a combination of road and sea transport can meet its development needs.

In its previous life, Oman did not develop railway transportation until the 21st century due to economic diversification considerations.

In contrast, the Ottoman Empire and Persia were both large countries with vast land territories, thus having a great demand for railways and sufficient freight volume to support the development of railways along the Persian Gulf.

Ismail places even greater emphasis on the economic value of the Caspian-Persian Railway, stating, "For us in Persia right now, the most important thing is to connect the Caspian coast and the Persian Gulf through this railway, while simultaneously driving economic development in the central mountainous region."

“Our Persian capital, Tehran, is close to the Caspian Sea coast. Although it has the best industrial and agricultural base and favorable natural conditions, Tehran’s disadvantage is that it is far from the ocean, and the Caspian Sea is more like a giant inland lake.”

"Furthermore, most of the region was controlled by the Soviet Union, so trade with the Soviet Union could only be developed. However, once the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway was completed, Tehran and the Caspian coast could establish trade relations with other parts of the world through this railway."

"At the same time, this railway will connect Khuzestan and the Caspian Sea region, the two richest areas in our Persian economy, and will also strengthen the linkage of domestic economic development."

The Caspian Sea region was the heart of the Persian economy, but Khuzestan also had good agricultural conditions, advantages in maritime transport, and local oil development, making it a wealthy region in the Persian economy. These were the two most developed regions in Iran's previous life.

Therefore, the Persian Gulf-Caspian Railway, which connects these two regions, was indeed of great significance to the Persian Kingdom government.

……

The construction of the Caspian Sea Railway in the Persian Gulf is an important project under the background of exporting East African railway standards. However, it is not considered very important to the East African government. In comparison, East Africa pays more attention to overseas railway investments in the two major regions of Africa and South America.

In addition to East Africa, other African countries such as the Belgian Congo colony, the Kingdom of South Germany, the Togoland colony in East Africa, the Darfur colony, and Libya all have railway construction projects in East Africa.

This also means that East African railway standards will have an absolute advantage in the future, forming the foundation of East African railway standards. Relying solely on this foundation, East African railway standards will be able to compete with other railway standards.

South America, including Venezuela, Paraguay, Peru, Bolivia, and Uruguay, has railway construction projects in East Africa, making it the most important overseas market for East African Railways.

This is even more true in Southeast Asia. Although there are many colonies in East Africa in Southeast Asia, they are mainly islands, which limits the construction of railways.

Currently in Southeast Asia, only Borneo has a railway built in East Africa to connect Lanfang with the inland areas of East Borneo. Mindanao, the second largest island in East African colonies, has no railway due to population and cost constraints, let alone other East African colonies in Southeast Asia.

In the Southeast Asian region, East Africa mainly focuses on port and airport construction, especially airport construction, which has received considerable attention in recent years.

However, it is undeniable that East Africa's overseas railway construction has experienced explosive growth in recent years, and this explosive growth will lay the foundation for East Africa's railway standards to become the second largest in the world in the future.

Of the seven continents in the world, all except Antarctica have railways built in East Africa. Africa and South America go without saying. The railways built in East Africa are concentrated in the Far Eastern Empire, along the Persian Gulf coast, and in North America, including the Alaskan territory in East Africa. Therefore, the local railways are naturally consistent with those in East Africa.

In Oceania, East Africa invested in the Western Australian Railway to develop local iron ore resources.

Finally, there's Europe. The railways built in East Africa were mainly concentrated in the Dalmatian Kingdom of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Of course, some of the railways in the aforementioned regions were invested and constructed in East Africa and may not have adopted East African standards, just like the railways of the Far Eastern empires.

Even so, East African railway standards are second only to British railway standards (standard gauge) in terms of global share, ranking second in the world.

In fact, the construction of railways within East Africa alone is enough to support the East African railway standard to occupy this position. After all, the East African railway network is the second largest railway network after North America and Europe. The European railway network, due to the large number of countries, is simply impossible to unify. The railways of the Soviet Union and the Iberian Peninsula are different from those of other countries. There are also oddities like the Austro-Hungarian Empire, where even the internal railways have not yet reached a unified standard.

The lack of uniformity in railway standards is also a peculiar case in the UK. For example, the UK uses standard gauge, but Australia has three gauges: standard gauge, 1600mm broad gauge, and 1067mm narrow gauge. India uses 1676mm broad gauge, 1000mm meter gauge, and 762mm and 610mm narrow gauge.

In summary, the world's railway standards in the early 20th century were quite chaotic. However, the standard gauge was the most important, used by most countries in Europe and North America. The East African gauge was the second most important, followed by the Soviet gauge, the Iberian Peninsula gauge, and so on.

The East African railway standard can be strongly exported because of the growing military, economic and influence of East Africa in recent years, and overseas railway construction is also one of the important means for East Africa to cope with the economic crisis.

(End of this chapter)