African Entrepreneurship Record

Archduke Ferdinand and Tirpitz had a very pleasant conversation. After all, birds of a feather flock together, and being both in the navy, they had many common topics to discuss.

”By using a large number of submarines to attack enemy sea transport routes, the stealth capabilities of submarines can perfectly achieve such effects, and they can silently break through enclosed sea areas...” Tirpitz described his own vision of the future for submarines in warfare to Archduke Ferdinand.

”Submarines, huh! According to what you said, they indeed have a certain role. However, during our training of the submarine fleet, we discovered many problems, such as the inability to clearly distinguish ship categories, which leads to misjudgments. But at the last moments of war, I fear that no one will care about international morality. Perhaps in such a situation, submarines can play a significant role,” said Archduke Ferdinand.

Archduke Ferdinand’s prediction was rather reasonable. In hindsight, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare did not achieve much success partly due to too many ”accidental injuries.”

However, it is undeniable that German submarines dealt a heavy blow to the Allies during the war and achieved accomplishments that other types of warships could not.

As a more traditional naval commander, Archduke Ferdinand did not particularly value submarines. Of course, this did not affect Ernst’s emphasis on submarines, so the East African Navy’s submarine fleet not only was established but also received substantial support and may even become the main combat force of the East African Navy in the future.

This is Ferdinand’s view, but Ernst would certainly plead innocent, as his emphasis on submarines is correct, and it is also correct that the East African Navy’s submarine fleet received the most support in the coming years.

But this is a special handling method given the current tight fiscal situation in East Africa. After all, battleships are too costly. Ernst’s view is actually a ”comprehensive” naval thinking, that neither battleships, submarines nor future aircraft carriers can solely dominate the world.

However, within Ernst’s ”no major wars for the next ten years” mindset, the current primary goal of East Africa is still to focus on economic development, so the military resources are relatively limited.

”Your thinking has some merit, at least for the German Navy, this is a good option, but our East Africa and Germany have different national circumstances, and the two countries have completely different external environments in relation to the ocean,” said Archduke Ferdinand.

East Africa faces two major oceans directly, so the East African Navy generally will not encounter a blockade, unless the entire British Royal Navy is deployed, which might achieve such an effect, but such a situation is impossible to happen.

So, in Archduke Ferdinand’s view, the development of a large surface fleet is the future goal of the East African Navy. Likewise, due to geographical reasons, the East African Navy is not easily blockaded, which also means the East African coastline is easily attacked, and East Africa lacks nearby islands or island chains as natural defenses.

The Seychelles, regarded by the East African Navy as a thorn in their side, is most typical. This island, relative to East Africa, is like the Hawaiian Islands to the United States.

Of course, these hypothetical conditions still depend on the specific strength of one’s navy. The Far East Empire originally had very favorable maritime conditions, with Hainan Island to the south, the Ryukyu Islands to the east, and Korea to the north as natural shields. However, they have not been utilized due to modern neglect of naval defense.

Tirpitz sighed and said: ”East Africa’s maritime situation is also quite excellent on a global scale. Compared to this, Germany and Austria-Hungary’s maritime conditions are quite poor, surrounded by many adversaries, and even small nations in the Baltic Sea and Mediterranean have comparable naval strength. In the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic, East Africa can be considered the dominant power.”

Archduke Ferdinand waved his hand and said: ”That’s too exaggerated. Although around East Africa there are mostly uncivilized countries, the influence from various powers cannot be overlooked. Take the Indian Ocean area as an example: from Egypt to British Somaliland, then Yemen, Oman, the Persian Gulf, India, the Malacca Strait, where British warships are everywhere. We in East Africa can only put on a show at our doorstep, whereas West Africa is now the major hunting ground for various countries, and it’s impossible for us in East Africa to have much effect. In South America, the British are even stronger.”

The situation of the East African Navy is not very good; at least until the decline of the British Navy, the East African Navy is unlikely to play a significant role in the surrounding areas.

Tirpitz smiled and said: ”Precisely because of this, Germany and East Africa should cooperate sincerely, especially in the naval field. Our German industry and technology are the top in the world, while East Africa has enormous potential and advantageous geography. Cooperation between the two navies can achieve the global hegemony of the German nation.”

The beautiful vision described by Tirpitz was quite tempting to Archduke Ferdinand, but it was limited to a fantasy.

”The cooperation between the navies of the two countries is an inevitable trend. After all, it benefits both East Africa and Germany. However, I’ve already stepped back from affairs, so you still need to discuss with Ernst to achieve your goal. If you had come a few months earlier, it might not have been so troublesome. At that time, East Africa had not relocated its capital, and going to First Town City was very convenient, but the new capital, Rhein City, is located in the inland hinterland, and just traveling by train might waste a lot of time.”

”For me, this is not bothersome. After all, just traveling by sea for this cooperation took a long time, and I have many domestic affairs that couldn’t be handled. By the time I return, I probably won’t be able to extricate myself,” Tirpitz said with a smile.

This also reflects the importance Tirpitz and Germany attached to this East African trip. If cooperation with East Africa can be achieved, it will have a huge driving effect on Germany’s maritime activities, making it worthwhile to spend more time in this situation.

To be honest, Germany is actually very envious of East Africa’s geographical location and conditions. If the two countries could merge into one, it would be even better. Without any hesitation, if the two countries could unite, their momentum would be no less than today’s British Empire.

Under the governance of the Heixinggen Royal Family, the potential East Africa is now showing is by no means inferior to the United States; however, it is limited to potential, and whether it can become the next United States remains to be seen, especially with Brazil as a counterexample.

This is the ”conservative” estimate of the outside world regarding East Africa. If East Africa’s true situation were exposed, probably many people would not sleep well.

The population data of East Africa alone has already reached the standard of a great power, yet the population data has never been made public. In this situation, other countries are optimistically speculating that East Africa’s population might be around forty to fifty million.

Primarily because the coastal areas of East Africa cannot reflect the true national situation. Compared to Europe and America, and even the Far East Empire, the coastal areas of East Africa are still relatively ”desolate,” although there are large cities like Dar es Salaam and Mombasa that cannot be underestimated even on a global scale.

But who knows the situation in the East African interior? It might be similar to Brazil, where the population is mainly concentrated along the coast.

This non-objective conclusion was derived from the personal experiences of various countries in West Africa. West Africa is now in chaos, but it is undoubtedly true that colonial activities of various countries focus mainly on coastal areas, while vast inland regions receive less investment.

So by considering things from a different perspective, many people do not believe the interior situation of East Africa is better than the coastal areas. The actual situation is that the interior is more livable, and the total population far exceeds that of coastal areas.

Although the East African coastline is long, its population is mainly concentrated in clusters around twenty to thirty major cities and their surroundings.

Furthermore, the coastal climate is more hot and humid, making it easier to trigger diseases like malaria. This was also the main reason European colonial activities early on were hindered in Africa.

European colonial activities mainly started along the coast, but African coasts are not very habitable, and East African coasts, unlike West Africa, lack gold and other minerals, which is why early African colonial activities were not very active.

One of the important standards for early Spanish and Portuguese colonization was to determine whether there were gold mines in an area through trade and communication with the locals. The presence or absence of gold mines was a crucial factor for colonizers in assessing the colonial value of a place.

Like in India, America, and South America, this was often the case, while most gold mines in East Africa are located inland, the nearest to the coast being the Heixinggen Province (Transvaal Republic), but they are blocked by the Drakensberg Mountains and are almost uninhabited.