African Entrepreneurship Record

”Just over eighty million kilometers, quite unexpected indeed. It seems the visual error is quite significant.” Ernst muttered to himself while looking at the recalibrated East African coastline.

Previously unnoticed, Ernst now fully understood the geographical gap between East Africa and those maritime powers.

When compared to the future coastline of the Far East Empire, it becomes evident that East Africa holds a disadvantage. Prior to this, Ernst hadn’t noticed due to the incomplete East African coastline.

Undoubtedly, if only considering its mainland, East Africa should appear as a two-ocean country with a coastline longer than most countries in the world when viewed on a globe. However, this is not the case.

For example, the Far East Empire is a typical Pacific nation, with a straight-line span between its north and south sea ports (only considering the mainland, excluding the exterior Northeast), roughly the same as the straight-line distance from Jinzhou to Xuwen Port, about 2,600 kilometers.

Yet, the distance from the northernmost port city, Mogadishu, to the southernmost port, New Hamburg Port City (Richard Port), in East Africa, exceeds 3,700 kilometers.

However, the continental coastline of the Far East Empire exceeds 18,000 kilometers, while the coastline along East Africa’s Indian Ocean edge is only about 5,000 kilometers; including Angola and Southwest Africa (Namibia), which is East Africa’s west coast, the total coastline length is just over 8,000 kilometers.

This means that the total coastline of East Africa, despite spanning two oceans, is less than half of the coastline along only the Pacific of the Far East Empire.

From this perspective, it can be explained that East Africa’s coastline is excessively straight and lacks excellent harbors, similar to India, which faces the sea on two sides (arguably three), yet has only about 5,000 kilometers of coastline.

The problem is, however, India covers less than three million square kilometers of land area, while East Africa’s area is more than four times that.

Thus, East Africa’s land area and coastline are quite disproportionate, with many smaller countries possessing longer coastlines than East Africa, including Norway and the Netherlands (including the East Indies colony).

Another country for comparison is Canada, which boasts the world’s longest coastline, exceeding 200,000 kilometers, far surpassing the world’s largest country by area, Tsarist Russia.

However, the value of Canada’s coastline is quite low, as most of it is located in the mid- to high-latitude cold regions, filled with bays and islands, most typically Hudson Bay in the Northeast.

Conversely, while East Africa has less coastline, it is of slightly higher value, but the scarcity of naturally good harbors is a significant drawback. Currently, only four ports on the west coast are open for economic development.

These are Cabinda, Luanda, Benguela, and Whale Bay Port in Southwest Africa.

The situation is slightly better on the east coast, but not by much. For example, the Somali region of East Africa has 1,600 kilometers of coastline, yet only Mogadishu and Kismayo are available as ports.

Europe is arguably the continent with the most excellent harbors, while Asia, despite having the most harbors, has a large territory with huge inland nations, leading to uneven port distribution, with the Far East Empire being one of its outstanding examples.

”Looking at it now, although we have seized the quality coastline along the Atlantic, our country’s coastline length isn’t top-ranked in the world, especially for large countries of a similar size,” Ernst addressed the map.

Countries comparable to East Africa in size are Tsarist Russia, the Far East Empire, Canada, the United States, Australia, and Brazil.

Of these, only Brazil has a coastline of less than ten thousand kilometers, but Brazil only has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean, and it’s only about a thousand kilometers shorter than East Africa’s, which is quite exasperating when compared.

In a previous era, East Africa’s (only its mainland) coastline length ranked fifteenth globally, behind Mexico (9,330 kilometers) and ahead of Italy (7,600 kilometers).

Nonetheless, East Africa should not underestimate itself; the seafaring conditions of East Africa cannot be evaluated solely by coastline length; overall, it ranks among the world’s top levels.

The mere fact of facing two major oceans is enough to evoke envy and resentment, akin to Germany’s coastline, which isn’t short either, at around three thousand kilometers.

Today’s Germany is not the post-World War II version, which was curtailed; with East Prussia still in hand, its coastline is longer, about a third of East Africa’s.

But the German navy is trapped within the Baltic Sea, feeling suffocated, as is the case with Austria-Hungary, which has a coastline over 1,800 kilometers in Croatia alone. Including Venice and Slovenia, it totals about three thousand kilometers, but it’s stifled within the Adriatic Sea.

Thus, East Africa’s coastline advantages are also quite evident. This was demonstrated in the East England naval battle; apart from the hard-to-defend Somali region, East Africa, leveraging its maritime talent, could engage with the British navy.

Presently, East Africa’s shortfall is the lack of islands within the Indian Ocean region to serve as strategic footholds, further enhancing national security.

However, at present, the major islands in the Indian Ocean are already dominated by England and France, aside from a few nearby islands; East Africa has only the Comoros Islands barely worth mentioning.

From the side, Sivert analyzed: ”Your Royal Highness, the length of the coastline is greatly influenced by the coastal terrain; this is something we cannot change. Nevertheless, our country has largely compensated for its maritime disadvantages after seizing Angola. Once the west coast’s port infrastructure is supplemented, our commercial ships and navy can virtually navigate the Indian and Atlantic Oceans unimpeded.”

”That’s right, but we should act now, not wait. At present, ports like Luanda and Benguela can already be expanded for development. Reestablish operations in these two areas first.” Ernst pointed to the map of Angola. ”Although we’ve seized the lands of Angola, our control is unstable, so we should prioritize resolving these key coastal towns on the west coast, and then gradually absorb the inland regions.”

”In the future, Cabinda and Luanda should rival Dar es Salaam and Mombasa as East Africa’s international ports; therefore, their development should be prioritized over other areas in Angola.”

”As for inland Angola, get the railway department moving: first, construct two railways, one from Manggu City (in western Zambia) directly to the Luanda region, and another from Lubumbashi directly to Cabinda.”

These actually pertain to two western proposals of the Central Railway, with a third option being the Benguela Railway. However, East Africa’s immediate priority is solidifying control over the Angola area, particularly Cabinda, a key starting point on the west coast.

This strategy can be referenced from Mozambique, where after its conquest, East Africa no longer worries about security issues. Mozambique, surrounded on three sides by East Africa, once in its grasp, has no way to escape.

Of course, under Ernst’s plan, Cabinda’s status was elevated enormously; previously regarded by the Portuguese as a neglected border town of Angola.

But Ernst is well aware of Cabinda’s potential. As the region richest in oil in all of East Africa, Cabinda alone could ensure East Africa’s energy security for a century into the future.

This isn’t an exaggeration. In the upcoming twentieth century, if East Africa can efficiently utilize Cabinda’s oil resources, it can fully meet most of East Africa’s needs.

And East Africa cannot depend exclusively on Cabinda’s oil; exploration within other parts of the territory will not be neglected, even resorting to ”seizing” if necessary.

This is a natural advantage for East Africa, as the world’s oil reserves are mainly situated in the Middle East; between East Africa and the Middle East lies no passage like Malacca or the Suez Canal that can be blocked. As long as East Africa’s weapons are sharp enough, it can ensure its future oil security problem even at the worst.

Moreover, excluding the Middle East, oil resources in North and West Africa are also adequate. From these two regions, the East African navy can venture from the West Coast right into the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa, and North Africa directly connects by land with East Africa.