African Entrepreneurship Record

After more than a year of construction, East Africa’s first new battleship was officially launched, marking East Africa as the second country in the world to possess a Dreadnought battleship.

Although East Africa was earlier than the United Kingdom in building a Dreadnought, the United Kingdom’s formidable shipbuilding industry and extensive shipbuilding experience allowed the British Dreadnought to be completed three months earlier than East Africa’s, preventing East Africa from claiming the Dreadnought title.

Bajamojo Port.

The Perseverance Battleship, like a steel behemoth, lay across the port area. The East African Navy officially took over this battleship, filling Navy Commander Bruce and other primary naval leaders with great excitement.

Bruce lamented: ”The British Dreadnought’s overall concept isn’t much different from the Perseverance, but the British shipbuilding technology is far more advanced compared to ours, with more skilled workers, plus the British Royal Navy’s century-old heritage. Thus, although the Dreadnought started later than the Perseverance, it was completed sooner. It’s a pity, but our nation is the second after the United Kingdom to have this type of battleship.”

Navy Indian Ocean Fleet staff officer, Helwein, said: ”For nearly a hundred years, the Royal Navy has been the world’s naval benchmark. Even if our Perseverance was launched before the British Dreadnought, it might be hard to achieve the same momentum as the Dreadnought. Now, besides us in East Africa, other countries are using the Dreadnought as a standard to formulate new naval plans. It’s clear that the Dreadnought will be an epoch-making warship, and in future naval competitions, all nations will use the Dreadnought as a benchmark.”

Even if East Africa’s Perseverance was launched before the Dreadnought, it couldn’t attract the attention from other countries because previously, East Africa’s Navy was only at an average level among world navies.

The Dreadnought, however, is different. The British Royal Navy serves as a wind vane for naval development worldwide, almost leading global naval advancements for a hundred years. Therefore, any move by the Royal Navy is heavily watched by other countries. Plus, the Dreadnought was already an epoch-making creation, with the prior Russo-Japanese War as a reference, thus easily sparking a new wave of naval competition.

Of course, although the Perseverance’s launch was later than the Dreadnought, it doesn’t mean other countries haven’t taken notice.

The Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Navy Ministry sent representatives to observe East Africa’s Perseverance Battleship launch ceremony. The deep collaboration between the two countries in the naval field made the Austro-Hungarian Empire very familiar with East Africa’s naval development.

Austrian Vice Admiral Erich looked complexly at East Africa’s Perseverance Battleship and said to Bruce: ”I’m quite envious of you. Although the Perseverance was launched a bit later relative to the Dreadnought, this battleship’s performance compared to the Dreadnought might not be much apart. After all, the Dreadnought’s standard displacement is less than 20,000 tons, while your country’s Perseverance has a standard displacement of over 20,000 tons. Moreover, I’ve heard you have a Bajamojo, with many tech advances already applied. I think this Perseverance Battleship should have had significant progress based on that.”

”Once, East Africa’s Navy was established with our help. Now it’s far surpassing our navy, truly making one feel somewhat disgraced.”

For that reason, Austria’s Navy felt more bittersweet, as East Africa’s Navy can be considered Austria’s naval apprentice. Now, this teacher is stagnant, while the apprentice surpasses him; anyone would feel uncomfortable.

Bruce patted Erich’s shoulder and said: ”East Africa’s naval achievements today are heavily linked to Austria’s assistance. Also, Austria’s naval development dissatisfaction in recent years isn’t your naval department’s fault. It’s fundamentally because of money. Previously, our East African Navy faced the same issue; without funds, maintaining the original naval scale was challenging, let alone achieving something like Perseverance.”

Bruce’s consolation was ineffective, rather worsening Erich’s anger: ”It’s all because of Hungary holding us back. If it weren’t for the Hungarian parliament disapproving the increase in naval budget, the Empire Navy would have walked out of the Adriatic Sea long ago. Now, we’re tightly suppressed by Britain and France.”

Previously, Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Navy primarily faced unified Italy as its adversary. Unified Italy was naturally a European naval powerhouse, easily suppressing Austro-Hungarian Empire, a land power country.

In this timeline, Italy’s only half remaining naturally lacks the capability to participate in naval races or pose a threat to Austro-Hungarian Empire as it did earlier, which is undoubtedly good news for Austro-Hungarian Empire.

However, without Italy as a threat, the Austro-Hungarian Empire Navy’s development faced stronger repression from Hungary, thus making it naturally difficult for Austro-Hungarian Empire’s Navy to progress, akin to the prior situation of East Africa’s Navy sitting on the cold bench.

When it comes to the British and French navies in the Mediterranean, these two were already naval powers. Austro-Hungarian Empire had no ”confidence” in facing such rivals. If it was a balanced opponent like Italy, perhaps Austro-Hungarian Empire Navy wouldn’t be so decadent.

This is understandable. Post-unified Italy was undoubtedly Austro-Hungarian Empire’s enemy, whereas in history, Britain’s and France’s relationship with Austro-Hungarian Empire could be described as ”partners in crime,” despite competitive instances, cooperation was also significant. Due to the distance, Austro-Hungarian Empire’s relationship with them wasn’t as rigid as with Germany.

Bruce: ”Austro-Hungarian Empire is one of Europe’s significant power players. Your nation’s navy development surely lags behind the current naval race progress.”

In the 1990s, East African Navy seemed akin to Austro-Hungarian Empire Navy, sitting on the cold bench, yet their development core differed entirely.

East Africa outwardly refrained from large-scale naval expansion yet robustly supported its shipbuilding and military-industrial shipbuilding industries. While East African Navy’s expansion was slow, it smoothly replaced naval vessels, ensuring continuous development compared to Austro-Hungarian Empire Navy’s true stagnation.

Especially in shipbuilding, East Africa achieved ”domestic integration” in its shipbuilding industry in the 1990s, raising its domestic production rate to 71%, with military-industrial shipbuilding achieving full domestic production.

Conversely, Austro-Hungarian Empire’s military-industrial shipbuilding, though capable of manufacturing pre-Dreadnoughts, relied on imports for key components from Britain or others during peace. However, should relations be severed by the Allies like in WWI, it would severely impact Austro-Hungarian Empire’s shipbuilding capabilities.

Of course, the Austro-Hungarian Empire’s shipbuilding industry’s growth is closely tied to its national conditions. Though a world renown power, Austro-Hungarian Empire never was a traditional naval powerhouse, focusing more on army in its national development.

Simultaneously, as one of Europe’s industrial powerhouses, much like East Africa, Austro-Hungarian Empire was a semi-industrialized nation. Its European territory was broad, yet its resource situation might not vastly surpass Germany’s.

Considering Austro-Hungarian Empire’s industrial distribution, mainly in Bohemia, which was Czechoslovakia before, it was inevitable.

After all, Bohemia lies on Austro-Hungarian Empire’s border, and Austro-Hungarian Empire’s political core, Austria and Hungary, are resource-poor compared to Germany, which has not only the Ruhr District but also the eastern Silesia and western Sarland industrial areas.

Bohemia’s industrial area concentrated nearly 70% of Austro-Hungarian Empire’s industry. Should Bohemia industrial zone collapse, Austro-Hungarian Empire would face a grave disaster.

Looking at industrial distribution, East Africa and Germany’s war resilience far exceeds Austro-Hungarian Empire’s. Bohemia’s early integration with Germany allowed a substantial German presence alongside Czechs, preventing an independent Bohemia like Hungary.