African Entrepreneurship Records 2

Chapter 1635 Territorial Exchange
The East African government did not pay much attention to the German government's performance after the Olympics, but the East African people were ecstatic about the results of the Berlin Olympics.

In fact, this was not the first time East Africa had participated in the 1936 Berlin Olympics. However, in previous Olympics, the East African government did not attach great importance to it and only sent a small number of athletes to participate symbolically.

Before the Berlin Olympics, the Olympics were not a particularly high-profile sporting event.

The 1936 Berlin Olympics was a significant turning point, as it became a political tool in the power struggles among many nations.

The Adolf government in Germany viewed it as an unparalleled global propaganda stage and a golden opportunity to showcase Germany's image of "peace and strength" to the world.

The German government invested enormous resources in this effort, employing the most cutting-edge technology and media methods available at the time to promote the Berlin Olympics.

This made the Berlin Olympics the first time a regime had used it so systematically as a tool for national propaganda. This "politicization," due to its controversy and impact, actually attracted more global attention.

For example, in response to Germany's racist remarks, East Africa and the United States increased their support for the Olympics, which directly turned the Berlin Olympics into an arena for competition among the world's three superpowers.

East Africa, Rhine City.

Ernst was now happily summarizing his takeaways from the Berlin Olympics.

"I think Adolf must be very satisfied with the gift we prepared for him this time. He's probably furious and gritting his teeth right now."

Seeing his father's gloating expression, Crown Prince Frederick asked, "Father, have you been harboring this wicked idea for a while now, to cause trouble for Germany?"

Ernst did not deny it, saying, "I had a plan in place when I realized that Germany wanted to use the Berlin Olympics to promote itself."

"In fact, sports have become a tool for political propaganda. It's just that before the Berlin Olympics, the influence of the Olympics was not so great, so I was not in a hurry to play this card. The returns would not be high enough, and the impact on the world would not be significant enough."

"Ordinary people prefer comeback stories or unexpected events. This time, we used the stage set up by Germany to show an unexpected comeback of national image."

Prior to the Berlin Olympics, sports in East Africa were already highly developed, but East African sports had relatively limited international influence.

Therefore, the world's perception of East Africa's sports development is that East Africa is a sports powerhouse, but not much different from countries like Britain, France, Germany, and the United States.

This laid the groundwork for East Africa's stunning debut at the Berlin Olympics.

Conversely, if East Africa had already shone in previous Olympics, it wouldn't have achieved the same effect as the Berlin Olympics. Moreover, if East Africa had performed too strongly in previous Olympics, it would have been uncertain whether Germany would have been so eager to host the Berlin Olympics.

After all, Germany's purpose in hosting the Berlin Olympics was to showcase its own strength and racial superiority, not to make East African countries, which they looked down upon, shine.

It was precisely because of East Africa's previous low profile that Germany made a misjudgment, thus preventing Germany from achieving the brilliance it had anticipated at the Olympics.

Even without East Africa, Germany would likely be in an awkward position this time, as the United States alone is enough to give Germany a headache.

Crown Prince Frederick said, "Through this Berlin Olympics, we have indeed achieved a remarkable effect, greatly enhancing East Africa's influence in the international community."

"We also want to thank the Germans for their tremendous efforts in making this Games possible. Without Germany, this world stage would not have been built."

If the Olympics were held in East Africa, it might cause a worldwide sensation, but it wouldn't be worthwhile.

Ernst said, "The Olympics is a great platform to showcase a country's development and enhance its international image. East Africa will also bid to host such an international event in the future, but we have no such plans for at least the next five years."

"Because World War II could break out at any time, all the focus would be on the war itself."

"Speaking of war, how is the reconstruction of Gwadar progressing?"

Ernst suddenly changed the subject, mentioning an important strategic area: Gwadar Port in East Africa.

Crown Prince Frederick responded, "Our renovation of Gwadar Port is underway, but there is a major problem that needs to be addressed."

Ernst asked, "What's the trouble?"

Crown Prince Frederick began by saying, "It's about the water supply in Gwadar. After all, Gwadar is located in an area with very little rainfall, and Gwadar itself is not very large, so water resources are extremely scarce."

Gwadar, a piece of land in East Africa purchased from the royal family of Oman, is only about 800 square kilometers in size. This area is not too small, but Gwadar's environment is too harsh, with the territory mostly consisting of desert or barren mountains.

Gwadar is backed by the Makran Mountains, also known as the Makran Coast Mountains, and Gwadar is located in a narrow strip of land between the Makran coast and the Indian Ocean.

From this perspective, Gwadar is quite safe, after all, it has the Makran Mountains as its base, which can isolate Gwadar from the extremist forces in Balochistan.

However, the Balochistan region is currently under British control and is relatively stable, with the Karat Khanate representing local power.

One of the main reasons for the frequent unrest in Balochistan in its previous life was the lack of a regime that represented local interests, which led to it becoming a region of fierce conflict between Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

Therefore, even the weak Karat Khanate could still be considered a relatively independent state, maintaining stability in the region.

However, the main reason was that the British behind the Khanate of Qarat did not want to have a conflict with East Africa here.

Admittedly, Britain, as a world-renowned troublemaker, often harbors ill intentions towards countries like those in East Africa. However, in the Indian Ocean region, no matter how many schemes Britain may have, it will choose to exercise restraint.

Because East Africa's overall influence and strength in the region have far surpassed that of Britain, reaching an unshakeable level, some conspiracies and intrigues will not only fail to weaken East Africa, but may even end up with Britain feeding East Africa. For example, Britain is currently the de facto manipulator behind the Khanate of Qarat, but they would never be so foolish as to hide behind the scenes and incite conflict between the Khanate of Qarat and East Africa.

This would be tantamount to handing the pretext for war to East Africa, which could then legitimately expand the Gwadar region.

Of course, Britain wasn't really worried about the Khanate of Qarat being eroded by East Africa, but rather that East Africa would overturn the table and attack the Pakistani region behind the Khanate of Qarat, which was one of Britain's core interests in India.

Crown Prince Frederick said, "Gwadar is not small in size, and there is enough land for construction. However, if the water problem cannot be solved, then no matter how many military facilities we build in Gwadar, we will not be able to use them at all."

“Guadal receives less than 100 millimeters of rainfall annually and has limited groundwater resources. Without solving the water problem, Guadal cannot even establish a large-scale troop presence.”

Ernst was well aware of the question raised by Crown Prince Frederick, as he himself had a certain understanding of world geography.

Gwadar is located on the coast of the Gulf of Oman, and its climate is not much different from that of the coastal areas of Oman and Iran, or even worse. After all, Oman and Iran at least have some oases.

"Do you have any solutions for the water problem?" Ernst asked.

Crown Prince Frederick said, "After our staff's research and the survey by water conservancy experts, there is indeed a feasible plan. However, it will be difficult to implement. Not only will it require a large investment, but it will also require overcoming some political and territorial obstacles."

Ernst gestured for Crown Prince Friedrich to continue.

"The plan is to build a reservoir in the Makran Mountains north of Gwadar, so that during Gwadar's rainy season, a large amount of fresh water can be stored and then supplied to the port of Gwadar through pipelines."

"Although rainfall is extremely scarce in Gwadar, the mainland to the north, especially in the Makran Mountains, can still intercept some moisture due to the terrain."

It's worth noting that the location of Gwadar Port is actually quite similar to an open umbrella extending into the Indian Ocean. Gwadar Port is situated on the canopy of this "umbrella" and connected to the mainland via the handle.

In other words, Gwadar Port is located on a very small peninsula with extremely low rainfall. However, the mainland part of the Gwadar region, especially the Makran Mountains, can receive up to 200 millimeters of rainfall at certain times.

Of course, if this rainwater is not collected, it will mostly seep into the ground or evaporate, and therefore cannot be used.

Crown Prince Frederick said, "Now, our plan is to build reservoirs in the low-lying areas of the Mokran Mountains where rainwater collects, to collect the meager rainfall from Gwadar."

“Our experts have identified three suitable locations for building the reservoir. They have also suggested that we divert water from some rivers into the reservoir area, which should basically meet the water needs of Gwadar Port.”

There are some rivers in northern Gwadar, especially in the Makran Mountains and the north, but these rivers are mostly dry, and only during heavy rains can they barely have water in their channels for a short period of time.

"This raises another issue: many of these rivers are not located in the Gwadar region, but belong to the Khanate of Qarat."

"On this point, we may need to communicate with the Khanate of Qarat. Of course, the best solution would be to merge the areas where these rivers are located into the jurisdiction of Gwadar Port, thus solving the problem once and for all."

"This is what I mean by political trouble. Although East Africa can disregard the attitude of the Khanate of Qarat and directly occupy the northern region, this is ultimately a poor strategy. It would be best to achieve our goals through negotiations."

"At the same time, the Khanate of Qarat is backed by the British, and we also need to take into account the British attitude. If they really want to make a fuss about this issue, it will indeed cause us some unnecessary trouble."

Ultimately, the problem stems from Gwadar's insufficient size. If Gwadar were 8,000 square kilometers instead of 800,000, East Africa wouldn't need to worry about this issue at all.

Oman was able to acquire Gwadar because of its defeat in the civil war. An Omani prince fled there, and the then-Khalat Khanate ruler granted Gwadar to him as a refuge.

As for why the Khanate of Qarat did this, the reason is quite simple: at that time, the Omani prince still had a chance to turn the tide, so the Khanate of Qarat wanted to make a political investment in the prince.

This leads to another issue: Oman back then was not like it is today. It was a dominant regional power with immense influence throughout the Indian Ocean and the strength to rival Western colonial powers.

Therefore, the ruler of the Qarat Khanate hoped that after this prince successfully ascended the throne, he could leverage Oman's powerful strength to secure greater benefits for the Qarat Khanate.

This is similar to the situation during the Spring and Autumn Period in the Far Eastern Empire, when Duke Huan of Qi came to power. During the reign of Duke Xiang of Qi, he was licentious and immoral, and the political situation was chaotic. His brothers were afraid of being harmed, so they fled abroad for refuge. Prince Jiu fled to the State of Lu, while Prince Xiaobai, who later became Duke Huan of Qi, fled to the State of Ju.

Later, when Duke Xiang of Qi was killed by his ministers, both the states of Lu and Ju immediately took action to escort the prince they supported back to his country to succeed to the throne.

The actions of the Qaraq Khanate at that time were no different from those of the states of Lu and Ju, while Oman was equivalent to the powerful state of Qi.

In fact, this is similar to the current situation where various countries take in exiled governments of other countries. For example, when the United States took in Polish Zionists, if Poland had successfully re-established itself, the United States could have used those who were grateful to the United States to build a chain of interests in Poland and seek political and economic benefits for the United States.

Furthermore, East Africa took in the exiled government of Tsarist Russia. Although Ernst never expected the remnants of Tsarist Russia to succeed in restoring the country, he did use the exiled government to attract a large amount of capital and wealth brought by the former Tsarist remnants to contribute to the development of East Africa.

Gwadar was originally just a refuge provided by the Khanate of Qarat to the Omani prince. Its size and environment were naturally not much better. In fact, the Khanate of Qarat did not consider Gwadar to be of much value at the time.

Even though Gwadar has excellent conditions for deep-water port construction, the Khanate of Qarat does not have the corresponding port construction capabilities. Now that Gwadar Port has become East African territory, there is no possibility for the Khanate of Qarat to take back Gwadar Port, since it is legal land that East Africa purchased from Oman.

Ernst said, "Since the project is feasible, we can try to contact the Khanate of Qarat first. If they are willing to accept our proposal, that would be great. If they do not agree to our conditions, we will consider it further."

“We value the strategic importance of the Gwadar region more than building a larger city and accommodating a larger population there.”

At this point, Crown Prince Frederick said, "Father, our experts have made a suggestion: to exchange territory with the Khanate of Qarat in exchange for the water source we need."

"After all, we are more concerned about the water source, and the land in Gwadar, apart from the area where the port is located, is not very important to us."

(End of this chapter)