African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1628 Lieutenant Colonel Lara's Resentment
The North African railway has impacted the northwestern region of East Africa, a relatively underdeveloped area with limited industrial and agricultural output, where maritime transport offers greater competitiveness. For example, the region possesses abundant forestry resources, including the Congo rainforest, but exporting timber as a bulk commodity via sea is clearly more suitable.

The highly developed economic and industrial region on the west coast of East Africa, formerly known as Angola, still relies mainly on sea freight for its exports. Moreover, exporting goods from there via the North African Railway is not much more convenient than sea freight.

Lieutenant Colonel Lara said, "For Spain's future business activities in East Africa, the focus will still be on the west coast of East Africa, so we don't need to worry about the impact of the North African railway."

"Besides, this is not something we should be concerned about right now. If we don't overthrow the Republican government, the fate of Spain will be none of our business. So, as long as East Africa can provide us with practical support, that would be the best we can do."

"I don't care whether the aid supplies provided by the Italians are produced in their own country or purchased from East Africa. If it's the latter, it's actually more beneficial to us, since the quality of goods from East Africa is generally much better than that from Italy."

In 1936, Italian-made goods were already labeled as "cheap," "inferior," and "counterfeit," so it's no wonder that Lieutenant Colonel Larra, a Spaniard, looked down on Italian products.

Admittedly, at this stage, Spain's industry was even inferior to Italy's, but it wasn't for many years that Italy's industry completely surpassed Spain's.

At the same time, although Spain's domestic industry is not strong, they have a wide selection of goods. France is nearby, and Britain is not far away. Goods from the United States, East Africa, and Germany are also very common in Spain. Italian goods have no advantage compared to these industrial powers.

The rise in brand value of Italian goods didn't occur until after the 20s, and it wasn't until the end of the 20th century that Italy truly solidified its position in the luxury and high-end customization sectors. Only then did people associate Italian goods with "luxury," "high-end," and "art."

However, setting aside Italy's poor industrial level, which leads to a serious inconsistency in the quality of its products, the word "Italy" itself carries a seriously negative connotation internationally, thus affecting people's impression of Italian goods.

Italy's industrialization occurred later than that of major industrial powers, resulting in a weak industrial base and relatively outdated technology. Its exports primarily consist of light industrial products such as textiles, inexpensive toys, and glassware, as well as agricultural products. Italian goods are generally inexpensive, of inconsistent quality, and poorly designed, failing to project a high-end image.

After Benito came to power, with the unification of Italy and the establishment of a unified domestic market, Italian industry had a chance to "breathe." The Benito government supported the development of domestic industrial enterprises through protective policies.

However, due to its weak industrial base and short development period, Italy still cannot shake off the label of "imperialism of the poor" and, like Japan, is at the bottom of the great powers.

Now, Italy is firmly labeled as a "counterfeit superpower." In the late 19th century, this label belonged to Germany, and in the early 20th century, it belonged to East Africa. However, after the 19s, both East Africa and Germany reversed their brand image through their own efforts.

The main competitors for this title naturally fall to other countries, with strong contenders including Italy, the Soviet Union, and Japan.

However, although the Soviet Union's industrial level was relatively backward, its exports were small, and the materials used were solid, so the products could only be described as relatively rough. Moreover, due to the special nature of its economic system, the Soviet Union was not as good at copying and manufacturing "counterfeit goods" as Italy.

In Europe, Italian goods are relatively "popular" because of their market liquidity, leading to the copying of products from other established industrial powers and the creation of counterfeit brands.

This is also closely related to Italy's economic organization model. Italy is characterized by an extremely abundant labor force, resulting in many family-run workshops. The products produced by these family-run workshops are inherently difficult to guarantee in terms of quality and lack supervision.

As for Japan, to put it bluntly, their products are considered by Western countries to be no different from "junk" and have no competitiveness whatsoever; they only have a market in Asia.

This is a huge disadvantage for Italian industry and brands today, and the reason why Italians have reinforced this impression is due to Italy's large overseas immigrant population.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, large numbers of Italian immigrants migrated to the Americas and various European countries.

They often have low social status, and the Italian goods they carry reinforce the impression of being "cheap" and "low-end".

Italy's image abroad is actually worse than in the previous life. The root cause of this is that Italy was unified later in this timeline, and without a strong "mother country" to support it, Italian immigrants find it difficult to gain respect overseas.

This can be seen in the case of the Germans. After the Franco-Prussian War, Germany achieved initial unification, and the status of Germans living abroad was greatly improved.

At that time, East Africa liked to use the name "Germany" in its foreign exchanges in order to gain some advantages.

With the rise of East Africa, the reputation of Germans in the world has been further enhanced. For example, many people naturally equate Germans with their ability to develop industry and technology, diligence and meticulousness have become common labels for Germans, and German has become a world language that can rival English.

In contrast, before Benito, Italians were generally considered a marginalized and unwelcome group overseas.

In the United States, Italians as a whole are labeled as "born criminals" or "violent" because of organizations such as the Mafia.

Immigrants from southern Italy are mostly poor and poorly educated, and they do the hardest, lowest-paying jobs, such as railway construction, canal digging, and factory work. They live in crowded "Little Italy" communities and are regarded as "others" who cannot be assimilated by mainstream society.

Furthermore, the Italian lifestyle is quite different from that of Americans. For example, Italians are fond of noise, value family, have religious beliefs, and have their own unique food culture.

This last point wouldn't happen in East Africa, because East Africa actually shares many similarities with Italy. Of course, the Italians who immigrated to East Africa have long been assimilated and lost their own unique characteristics.

After all, East African governments do not allow Italian immigrants to have independent communities like they do in the United States.

In South America, Italians were also very unpopular in the past. Many Italians worked in plantations or farms in a manner close to slavery, living in extremely poor conditions. They were seen as a source of expendable labor or as tools to "launder" the population.

In Europe, primarily in countries like Britain, France, Germany, and Switzerland, Italians are also seen as cheap labor willing to do dirty and dangerous work, and are often resented for taking jobs away from locals.

In conclusion, Italian immigration is now associated with cheap, low-quality, and dangerous people. After the unification of Italy, the attitudes of South American countries towards Italy have changed to some extent. After all, a unified Italy is a powerful and influential country in South America.

Among Italian immigrants, only those who went to East Africa in the past have lived a good life, such as Nairobi, the former textile capital of East Africa.

The only cost was that Italian immigrants completely "faded" in East Africa, integrating into the larger East African community, and the Italian culture they brought with them became part of East African culture. A prime example is East African cuisine, which has absorbed a significant amount of Italian influence.

Colonel Valdes said, "Italy used to be far inferior to Spain, but now it has surpassed us and become one of the great powers, and its overall strength is far ahead of ours."

"The culprits behind all this are the so-called liberals, Labour Party members, and Republicans in Spain. These people do nothing but argue endlessly every day and do nothing of substance. It would be strange if Spain hadn't been surpassed by Italy."

"Therefore, Spain also needs a strong government like Italy or Germany to unite Spain as one and reduce internal friction."

"Given our conditions in Spain, even if we don't reach the level of Germany, East Africa, or the United States, we should surpass Italy and catch up with France."

Colonel Valdes did not dare to be too bold in his vision for Spain's future, given that Spain's situation was too dire and it had lost much of the basic conditions for development.

If it were still the Spanish Empire of several hundred years ago, with a large number of overseas colonies, then perhaps it could have challenged the current United Kingdom.

However, Spain lost almost all of its overseas colonies, and the few that remained had little economic value.

Therefore, Spain can only rely on its own territory in future international competition, which places demands on Spain's land area and population.

However, although Spain has a lot of land, the actual usable land is far less than that of European countries of similar size. It faces a serious water shortage problem, with many places being arid or even desert. This was an important reason why the Arab world was able to gain a foothold in Spain in the past.

The Arab world once dominated the Iberian Peninsula for nearly 800 years, which is closely related to the climate and environment there. Therefore, the economic development model of the Arab world is somewhat compatible with the Iberian Peninsula.

In terms of population, Spain cannot compete with European countries of similar size. Even France, which has a significant population disadvantage, has more than 10 million more people than Spain. Spain's population is just over 25 million, while France's is about 41 million.

Italy also has a population of over 40 million, and lower labor costs.

Therefore, in terms of economic development, Spain faces a significant disadvantage in competing with other countries based on its population.

Even though Spain's former overseas colonies were mainly in South America, Spain itself held no appeal for them.

This can be seen in the case of the three colonial powers: Britain, France, and East Africa. Undoubtedly, the mainland of these three countries was very attractive to some of the colony populations. Therefore, Spain, with its small mainland population, found it difficult to attract and utilize the populations of its former colonies.

Colonel Valdes said, "It will be difficult for Spain to surpass Italy economically again in the future, because they have a much larger population than us."

"We can only look for other ways to develop our economy, especially in the industrial sector. Spain has more resources than Italy, a deeper cultural heritage, and more profound ties with the Americas."

Lieutenant Colonel Lara nodded and said, "It is precisely because of Spain's decline that we have lost our leading role in the Spanish-speaking world. Only after the Republican government is resolved can Spain regain what we have lost."

The Spanish-speaking world, that is, Spain and its former colonies, is in an awkward position because such an influential group lacks a strong nation.

Even Spain, the former colonial power, has now fallen to the ranks of second-rate countries, and even Argentina and Mexico have the strength to challenge Spain.

Of course, it is highly unlikely that Mexico will establish authority in the Spanish-speaking world. After all, it has been suppressed too much by the United States. How can a country that is bullied by its neighbors at every turn expect other countries to respect it? It would be shameful to be a subordinate.

If Mexico were to become the big brother of the Spanish-speaking world, an embarrassing situation would likely arise: "Look, that guy who got beaten up by the US is our big brother!" That would be too humiliating, so Mexico's chances of becoming a leader are basically slim.

Then there's Argentina. Argentina is the most likely country to replace Spain, but that's just wishful thinking for Argentinians. In South America, they can't subdue Brazil, and their relations with neighboring Spanish-speaking countries are also very poor. Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, and Bolivia don't really like Argentina.

Moreover, despite Spain's significant decline, in terms of hard power, Spain far surpasses Argentina. Argentina is arguably the richest country in the Spanish-speaking world, but this wealth is entirely based on agriculture, making it still a relatively purely agricultural country. Spain, at least, has its own industry.

Without intervention from other countries to pit Spain and Argentina against each other, Argentina would only be brutally beaten by Spain.

Of course, this difference in economic structure is also closely related to the geographical environment of the two countries. Spain has richer mineral resources than Argentina and is located on major world trade routes.

Argentina lacks basic industrial resources such as coal and iron ore, and is far from other major regions of the world, making it one of the most remote countries in the world.

Therefore, Colonel Valdes's vision of Spain returning to the throne of the Spanish-speaking world was not just empty talk. In fact, Spain was the only developed country in the Spanish-speaking world in his previous life. Even though Spain did not do well in Europe, none of the former colonies in the Americas could surpass Spain.

Lieutenant Colonel Lara wasn't particularly interested in the former overseas colonies. He said, "You have to be strong yourself to succeed. Those countries that broke away from us had to pay a price. Over the years, few of them have developed properly, especially Argentina. A few years ago, they were all high and mighty, but after the economic crisis broke out, they made a complete fool of themselves."

"And Mexico is an even bigger clown. The foundation we laid for them back then was not much worse than that of the United States, yet they have been bullied by the Americans at will ever since."

"However, the Americans and British deserve it too. They are now suffering the same fate in East Africa as they did to Spain back then."

Lieutenant Colonel Lara harbored deep resentment towards the Americans and British, after all, these two countries were the ones who contributed the most to the loss of Spain's American colonies, and were even the ones who directly overthrew them.

(End of this chapter)