African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 244: Chapter 233 Brothers Pulling Together

Austria, Schönbrunn Palace.

”Humph, what’s this! Unhappy with being Navy Commander, wanting to go back on your word, my silly brother.”

Franz mocked the newly returned East Africa Navy Commander, Ferdinand, with cold sarcasm.

Having long turned into a seasoned veteran, Ferdinand immediately retorted, ”In East Africa, even though as Navy Commander I don’t have many ships under me, it’s still much stronger than Austria’s ’bathtub’ Navy. Once the East Africa Navy develops, I’ll order the blockade of Aden Bay, banning Austrian ships from entering the Indian Ocean.”

Ferdinand’s joke did not receive a response from Franz.

Blockade Aden Bay? It seems that East Africa’s geographical location really makes it feasible. Though East Africa is on the Red Sea coast, though Djibouti and the northern coast of Somaliland don’t have ports, its northernmost point in Mogadishu isn’t far from Aden Bay, much like North Germany, which has ports facing the Atlantic but could totally be blockaded by the British in the Baltic Sea if they really wanted to.

Actually, Franz hasn’t thought of one thing: if East Africa truly intended to blockade the Red Sea, it would be impossible to rely on its so-called Navy. Comparing East Africa’s navy with Great Britain’s, trusting the East Africa Navy to blockade Aden Bay is less reliable than trusting the East Africa Army.

According to the current East African military power, the Army can pay any price to directly rush to Djibouti and Somaliland region, taking down English and French colonies in one swoop. Set up a few cannons and you can pose a serious threat to the Mand Strait. The newly planned Northern Province’s Dedradawa military post is only three hundred kilometers away from Djibouti.

The narrowest point of the Mand Strait is only 26 kilometers. At present, East Africa’s artillery largely falls short of this range. A few large-caliber coastal defense guns could potentially make it, but unfortunately cannot be moved now. Although technology doesn’t allow it now, the future is uncertain.

This is also the reason why Ernst does not occupy land on the Red Sea coast or Aden Bay. It would be too conspicuous, prone to being targeted. The British, French, Ottoman, and Egyptians are not easy foes, but East Africa has the capacity to threaten the passage.

Moreover, even if East Africa really blockades the Mand Strait, it’s likely that the British would be overjoyed. Originally, Britain was reluctant when opening the Suez Canal, driven solely by the French. Seeing the French likely succeeding, Britain came to take advantage, much like their future indecision regarding the European Union.

If the Suez is gone, at most the French would suffer. Cape Town could regain its peak status, and the British issues in the Far East with their Indian lackeys wouldn’t be easy to resolve. Britain’s military power in India has the capability to cross the sea and attack the Abysinnia Empire and attain victory, which speaks volumes for their competency.

Bear in mind that the former emperor of Abysinnia, Theodore II, though conceited, had more vision than those fools in the Far East. Expanding monarchal power, limiting the wealthy Abysinnian Church’s land holdings, paying soldiers, constructing roads, purchasing modern firearms and cannons, and attempting to abolish slavery—all these were Theodore II’s achievements. Facing defeat, he had the courage to commit suicide by firearm; merely not choosing to live ignobly in this era already marks him as a formidable ruler.

Certainly, presently East Africa does not have the ability, nor the willingness to gamble national destiny like Japan—that doesn’t mean there will be no opportunity in the future. Once East Africa becomes strong, not to mention Suez, even the entire Egypt might come over as a bootlicker. With Egypt’s climate, it can’t become a Vietnamese jungle superhuman, nor can the geography turn into Afghanistan’s graveyard.

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”How is it? Were you scared by my words?” Ferdinand boasted after gaining the upper hand.

”Humph, given East Africa’s situation, it wouldn’t reach that capacity even after fifty years of development. Look at America, established for so many years, it’s quite capable at boasting—they wish they could replace the British, yet they only dare to shout across the Atlantic.”

”Just joking! You’re taking it seriously, Franz. Seems you’re still stubbornly inflexible.” Archduke Ferdinand said.

Franz sighed and said, ”Well! Why do you have time to come back!”

”If you were serious earlier, that would be good! This time I came back, naturally to visit Mother and Lina.”

”Must be on the way! I heard you were inspecting the newly completed gunboats at the shipyard in Trieste a few days ago!”

”It was on the way, so what? You should know that going back and forth by sea isn’t easy, and I am busy every day!”

On this point, Ferdinand wasn’t exaggerating. He indeed was very busy. With the East Africa Navy in its infancy, in order for the River and Lake Team soldiers to quickly form combat power, many things required Ferdinand and the Austrian Navy’s young officers, ”exiled” to East Africa, to personally handle.

”Since you’re back to visit Mother and Lina, why come and provoke your big brother?” Franz, the conversation finisher.

”You think I want to! It’s Ernst that brat who sent me to discuss cooperation with you.”

”He talked to me about this matter a few days ago.”

”Of course I know that, but he talked only about the intention to cooperate, not the content. Here! This is the cooperation list drafted by our East Africa Kingdom—take a look!”

Ferdinand produced a large stack of cooperation lists from somewhere, and Franz took it and began to review it carefully.

Two hours later.

”Ernst, he’s indeed suited to be a shrewd businessman, hiding this many things for so long,” Franz said with a chuckle.

”In any region, as long as the area is large enough, one can always find some resources. In my opinion, East Africa’s resource situation is far inferior to that of Austria-Hungary,” Ferdinand, the Grand Duke, remarked.

”Having such conditions is good enough; Austria is the chosen land of the Habsburg family, how can conditions be compared to such a marginal place like East Africa,” Franz said quite proudly.

Ferdinand gave his older brother a disdainful look, but East Africa indeed was lackluster; with so much territory and so few resources, it’s no wonder it hasn’t been on anyone’s radar.

As the Navy Commander of the East African Kingdom, Ferdinand was quite familiar with many situations in East Africa, and he had naturally reviewed the resource list provided by the economic department of the Heixinggen Consortium in advance.

The eastern territory of East Africa is over two million square kilometers, appearing much larger than Austria-Hungary, but its resource endowment is indeed on the same level as Austria-Hungary’s, with a large section of the northern desert as ineffective territory. Fortunately, although Somali is also a tropical desert, it has the Shebelle and Juba rivers traversing it.

Even so, the resources solely in the eastern part of East Africa reaching the level of Austria-Hungary should draw the attention of Austria-Hungary, so why is the result mediocre!

This is because Ernst tampered with the list. The list includes detailed analysis reports on some mineral resources of East Africa and the extraction plans of the East African Kingdom.

This list mainly disclosed the distribution of coal and iron mines in southern Tanzania (on the eastern shore of Lake Malawi) and the mineral resources in the Kenya region.

As for the gold mines in the Great Lakes Region, they will naturally not be disclosed, and the copper mines on the Katanga Plateau have been concealed by East Africa. That copper mine is too huge, enough to change the global copper mining industry structure, akin to how Middle Eastern oil would foster adversity in the previous life.

Copper, a scarce global resource, is simultaneously one of the most important, widespread, and largest used metals in the world.

Ever since humans discovered and utilized copper, it has always been one of the most significant metals, especially before the Iron Age, it was the most crucial metal.

Wars over copper mines are not few either; Ernst contemplated this in his previous life, questioning the reasons for the Shang Dynasty in the Far East loving to wage wars, with copper mines being an indispensable factor, just like adversity flourished with oil; copper mines were the most important strategic resource of the era.

Cooperation requires vigilance too; just the resources from Kenya alone are enough to pad Austria’s mouth with profits, as for coal and iron ores, truthfully they aren’t too attractive to Austria, as Austria-Hungary’s primary mineral resources rank prominently in Europe, completely sufficient. If their value wasn’t high, it would be more worthwhile to find solutions from the Balkans Peninsula than shipping from East Africa.

And the East African government’s plan is simple, which is to develop the three provinces in south Kenya, specifically the Eastern Province, South Prussia Province, and West Great Lake Province.

If they want to transport these resources to the port of Mombasa for export to Austria, they need to help East Africa build a railway!

This could also pull in orders for Austria-Hungary’s railway departments and companies. East Africa’s steel production cannot support such a grand project, and other equipment needs to be imported from Austria, with locomotives also provided by Austria, while East Africa repays with mineral resources.

Now that the Suez Canal is open, transport costs have been reduced too, the distance between Trieste and Mombasa is not far, quite cost-effective indeed. After all, nobody would complain about having too many ores, losing Lorraine’s iron mines serves as a French example.

Currently, the priority is developing southern Kenya while dealing with Tanzania is another question altogether. Honestly, there’s no good strategy except for agriculture, just like in the previous life where Tanzania was an agricultural nation with resource conditions inferior to Kenya, maybe slightly stronger in this life. Whether Tanzania can advance depends on Zambia’s development; if Zambia progresses, Tanzania won’t be a problem since its ports are all concentrated in the east, East Africa’s highlands’ geography is excellent, resolving transport to emulate a crossroads in East Africa like Southern Germany in the previous life is still possible.

The foundation of cooperation is profit, no need to worry about this aspect as the East African government itself is a buyer, capable of absorbing a portion of the produced mineral resources, even more than half, the rest shipped to Austria to support Austria’s development solves the issue.

The cooperation intention is clear; it’s Austria and not Austria-Hungary, Ernst has been striving to enhance the influence of the German ethnic group within Austria, especially the strength of Germans near the Adriatic Sea’s vicinity, Trieste with many Italians is risky.

Trieste is the passage between the Germans and East Africa, naturally best to be in one’s own hands, which is why the Heixinggen Consortium has been dedicated to recruiting Italian immigrants in Trieste, results can only be considered moderate; under Austria-Hungary’s rule, Trieste’s economic situation is good, the only excellent port, coupled with Austria-Hungary’s entire nation as the economic hinterland, it even radiates to Eastern Europe and Southern German regions.

Reducing Italian population has little effect, hence increasing the German population; Trieste’s food processing plant area absorbed a large batch of Germans for work.

Just because the current population issue in Trieste cannot be solved doesn’t mean it won’t be in the future. Ernst has it all figured out that, as an industrial city, Trieste will inevitably face economic crisis repercussions.