African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1592 The Center of the Three Major Political Blocs
Magna was naturally filled with contempt for Liberia because of such a corrupt regime and such a degenerate and incompetent group.

Despite their disdain, Magna and the United States behind him still want to support this country that has virtually no bottom line.

Magna stated, "East Africa is the world's second-largest power after the United States, but it is also an aggressive and barbaric nation."

"During the more than half a century that East Africa existed, most of the peoples and nations on the African continent disappeared into the dust of history."

"Before the mid-19th century, the vast lands of southern Africa were dotted with black settlements of all sizes, but now, in the 13 million square kilometers of East Africa, not a single black person can be seen."

"So, Berger, do you think the East Africans would tolerate you if your influence spread to Northwest Africa, especially Liberia?"

Magna arguably asked a very critical question: historically, East Africa has clearly not been an easy country to deal with for Black people in Liberia.

From East Africa to South Germany, then to the Abyssinian Empire, the Belgian Congo, and Togoland, wherever East Africa was under its influence, there was simply no fertile ground for Black people to live in.

This cannot be interpreted as East Africa discriminating against Black people in Africa, given that East Africa has been equally ruthless in its crackdown on white Arab forces in North Africa.

Berger was not concerned about the plight of the white Arab forces, but Magna's words sent chills down his spine.

Although they don't want to acknowledge their Black identity, East Africa clearly won't act according to the standards of American-Liberian Black people like Berger. In East Africa's eyes, they are no different from the Liberian natives.

It must be said that Berger's idea was a lucky accident. Although East Africa has changed its diplomatic and expansionist strategies since the 20th century, especially in recent years, East Africa has followed international rules for most of the time.

But this doesn't mean that East Africa has really changed.

At least Ernst himself never stopped pursuing a fundamental strategy for reducing the Black population in West Africa.

Although the countries surrounding East Africa have now been completely transformed into non-Black countries under East Africa's reforms, the large Black population in West Africa still puts pressure on Ernst.

In the previous life, at the beginning of the 21st century, the population of West Africa exceeded 400 million, with Nigeria alone having a population of over 200 million.

Ernst believes that in the 21st century, West Africa's population may be larger than officially reported. After all, given the organizational capabilities of West African countries, they are likely to have made inaccurate population statistics, resulting in a large number of people not being counted.

Therefore, it is not impossible that the black population in West Africa reached 500 million at the beginning of the 21st century.

What does 500 million people mean? In the early 21st century, the total population of Europe was about 700 million. West Africa alone could support the population of an entire continent.

Therefore, in Ernst's view, there are still too many black people in West Africa, and East Africa needs to support more non-black countries and forces in the region to compete with them for land and water resources and compress their development space.

Otherwise, if we wait until the 21st century, East Africa will experience a slowdown in population growth due to its rapid development, while a large number of impoverished Black people from West Africa will flood into East Africa, just like Latin American immigrants smuggling into the United States in the past.

Then Ernst's whole life would have been wasted!
Therefore, as long as Ernst is alive, he will continue to shrink the living space of Black Africans and Arabs.

Magna looked at the anxious Berger and said with a smirk, "So, the United States is building a military base in Liberia not only for its own interests, but also for Liberia's security."

"Your government should steadfastly follow the lead of the United States. In the future, the U.S. military in Monrovia will be your vital safeguard."

……

About five kilometers off the coast of Monrovia, in the Atlantic Ocean, the commander of the East African frigate Sunset, Thallman, was observing the construction progress of Monrovia with binoculars in hand.

"The Americans have really gone all out this time to build up Monrovia. Now, Monrovia looks different almost every month compared to a year ago."

"A year ago, this was just a fishing village. Now it has already taken on the initial form of a city, and it is also a naval port town with various modern military facilities."

It's no wonder that Thallman was amazed. Although building a military port overseas is obviously not a difficult task for the United States, it's important to remember that the United States has only just emerged from the Great Depression and is under great internal financial pressure.

The fact that the United States is undertaking large-scale construction projects overseas during this special period, including for military purposes, demonstrates the importance the US attaches to its East African strategy.

Christine, the helmsman of the Sunset, was not surprised by the American construction of the port of Monrovia. Instead, she said, "Compared to Dahra, which we are about to visit, Monrovia is truly blessed with favorable conditions."

"It has a natural bay, a good water source from the Mesurado River, abundant vegetation, and a certain population and urban foundation. Dahra, on the other hand, is too harsh, and even drinking water needs to be solved step by step."

In reality, Monrovia is a port in Northwest Africa with only average conditions. However, ports are a scarce resource in Northwest Africa, which even makes Lomé, a port controlled by East Africa, a naturally excellent port.

However, Christine is comparing Monrovia to Dahla, which East Africa recently acquired, making the former's configuration seem rather meager.

Aside from the shelter provided by Dahra Bay, Dahra has no advantages over other ports in the region, and it is not even a port at all now.

Of course, if Dahra hadn't been in such poor condition, Spain wouldn't have agreed to trade this territory to East Africa.

This involves not only the territorial deal between Spain and East Africa, but also geopolitical and international implications.

For example, if East Africa had received other places instead of Dahra, countries like Britain and France would not have so easily let it go and chosen to be selectively blind.

The poor conditions in Dahla itself were one of the initial conditions they could accept. Secondly, the Western Sahara, where Dahla is located, has a harsh environment, is sparsely populated, and is almost entirely desert, making it impossible for East Africa to penetrate into the northwestern interior of Africa through the Western Sahara.

Thallman said, "The conditions in Dahra are indeed harsh, but this is an outcome that countries like Britain and France can accept. Even further north in Morocco, or further south in Mauritania and Senegal, there is a possibility of provoking their sensitive nerves."

"From Dahra, the distance to both sides is more than 500 kilometers of desert, and there is no value in expanding inland, so we can put their minds at ease."

"However, I do think that Dahra is not without its advantages. The Empire directly bought out the fifty-kilometer peninsula in Dahra, which has become a legitimate overseas territory in the hands of East Africa."

"Even if the region becomes independent or experiences turmoil in the future, other countries will have no excuse to take Dahra back from East Africa." Dahra is not a colony, but land that East Africa bought for 40,000 Rhine guilders. This is important because East Africa has the freedom to decide how to deal with it. In addition, by acquiring Dahra, East Africa can also participate in the development of maritime rights in northwestern Africa in the future.

The most direct result is that East African fishermen will be able to participate in fishing activities in the Northwest African fishing grounds with a clear conscience in the future.

The world's four major fishing grounds are now the Hokkaido fishing ground, the Newfoundland fishing ground, the North Sea fishing ground, and the Peruvian fishing ground.

However, in the 21st century, the rankings of the four traditional fishing grounds have changed significantly due to overfishing, ecological damage, and other problems.

Among them, the Newfoundland fishing ground collapsed outright and became defunct, while the Hokkaido fishing ground and the North Sea fishing ground also fell into the ranks of regionally important fishing grounds and struggled to recover.

The four new world fishing grounds in the 21st century are the ever-strong Peruvian fishing ground, followed by the Northwest African fishing ground, the Southwest African fishing ground, and the California fishing ground in the United States, with three rising stars.

These four fishing grounds are associated with four cold coastal currents around the world: the Peruvian fishing grounds correspond to the Peru Current, the Northwest African fishing grounds correspond to the Canary Current, the Southwest African fishing grounds correspond to the Benguela Current, and the California fishing grounds correspond to the California Current.

Of the four major fishing grounds in the 21st century, the Southwest African fishing grounds are located on the southwestern coast of East Africa and are shared with South Africa. This is also the most developed area for marine fisheries in East Africa.

In addition, there is the Somali fishing ground on the east coast of East Africa, but the Somali fishing ground is not among the world's top fishing grounds, and more importantly, it is only a seasonal fishing ground.

In recent years, with the development of the economy and logistics industry in East Africa, the market has paid increasing attention to marine fishery resources.

East Africa is a superpower with a population of 200 million, so gaining access to new fishery resources is no small matter for the country.

Therefore, it is worthwhile to strengthen East Africa's control over the Northwest African fishing grounds, one of the world's four major fishing grounds, through Dahra.

This means that East Africa will have two world-class fishing grounds simultaneously in the future, namely the Southwest African and Northwest African fishing grounds, thereby promoting the development of East African marine fishing industry.

Besides marine fisheries, there may also be oil and gas resources along the Dahra coast, but this is not very clear and East Africa is not currently paying much attention to it.

Thallman said, "Those leased ports, even if the treaty has been signed for a long time, will face the risk of being taken back in the future, but Dahra does not have to worry about this happening at all."

"This place is the legitimate territory of the empire, and there is no possibility of centrifugal forces breaking away from the empire."

Thallman's statement is completely meaningless, since Dahra has no local population and no large settlements in the surrounding area. Moreover, Dahra is resource-poor, and almost all its resources and supplies depend on support from within East Africa, such as food, various equipment, energy, and so on.

After listening to his words, Christine said, "What you said does make some sense, but to maintain Dahra, we will definitely have to pay a higher cost than the United States, especially in the initial construction."

“I’ve seen Dahra Bay, and there are no usable port facilities. In East Africa, it takes a lot of effort just to build a port that can accommodate warships.”

"It's far less convenient than acquiring other readily available ports, but as you said, the northern countries simply won't let us get such a place so easily."

The term "Northern countries" is actually what Eastern countries often refer to as Western countries. However, due to its geographical location, East Africa is sometimes referred to as "Northern countries" to refer to the powers of Europe and America.

Thallman said, "Actually, most of the Empire's overseas military bases are not in very good locations, but this is not a big problem for the Empire."

"Sooner or later, we will also be able to obtain better resources, especially given the backdrop of the continued decline of Britain and France."

The East African Navy has the second largest naval force deployment in the world after the United Kingdom, and the number of its military bases is second only to the United Kingdom and France.

The main reason why East Africa has fewer overseas military bases than France is that East Africa's rise to power came too late, and the best locations were basically occupied by Britain and France.

However, the overseas military bases in East Africa are not without their advantages. For example, East Africa will face the fewest problems should a global wave of national awakening and independence breaks out in the future.

Because many of the areas occupied by East Africa are sparsely populated or not strategically important, and East Africa also handles its overseas interests more tightly than Britain and France.

Like Dahra, East Africa directly bought out the ownership of this region, rather than leasing it.

Even military bases located in East African colonies are separated from their original locations to prevent these regions from claiming ownership of the military bases after they gain independence in the future.

In this way, East Africa's control over its overseas military bases is less susceptible to changes in local political situations and less likely to leave behind historical issues. However, this is all based on the consensus among East African governments that the traditional colonial era will eventually disintegrate.

Thallman said, "In the future, our port of Dahra may become a competitor to the port of Monrovia in the United States, so it is necessary to invest more resources in Dahra."

"This concerns the strategic layout of the entire Northwest Africa."

Northwest Africa holds an important position in the global strategies of both East Africa and the United States, given that it is a vast region with an area of ​​over five million square kilometers, tens of millions of people, and abundant natural resources.

At the same time, this area is located at the center of three major geopolitical regions: East Africa, North America, and Europe, and is a crossroads of three world political blocs.

Whoever controls Northwest Africa will have more initiative in the competition with the other two geopolitical blocs.

By gaining control of East Africa, the US could accelerate its penetration into Europe while significantly reducing its influence in the South Atlantic and the eastern Atlantic.

If the United States controls this area, it can curb East Africa's northward expansion and sever East Africa's connection with European countries.

As for Europe, it cannot play a greater political role through Northwest Africa until a dominant country or political organization emerges.

For example, Northwest Africa is now largely controlled by France and Britain, but their main benefit to the region is economic, namely the cheap local resources and labor.

However, Britain and France are unable to leverage Northwest Africa to exert a global influence due to their insufficient strength. Even if the two countries join forces, they can at most ensure that their interests in Northwest Africa are not harmed.

(End of this chapter)