African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1223: Chapter 232: The Three Major Fleets

January 3, 1916.

Lome City.

Under the leadership of Colonel Brand, the slave transport fleet organized by the East African Navy set off from Falta Port in Benguela City, following the Benguela current northward. It sailed along the West Coast of Africa, made a large detour at Guinea, and finally arrived at Lome City, a colony of East Africa Togoland.

”Truly, it’s a strategic location along the Atlantic coast. Looking at the construction standards of Lome Port, it’s clear that it was modeled after important domestic military ports like Pemba Port.” Gazing at the already sizable yet unfinished military port of Lome, Colonel Brand couldn’t help but sigh.

No wonder Brand sighed. Although Lome Port holds a prominent status among East African naval ports, this was Colonel Brand’s first visit to Lome Port.

Because Colonel Brand had served in the Indian Ocean Fleet for many years, it was only due to the current shortage of personnel and ships in the East African Navy that Brand was tasked with leading several old schooners from Bemba Island, passing the Cape of Good Hope to the Atlantic, to complete this escort mission.

”Since the Empire acquired Lome Port from Germany, it has drawn significant attention from the central government and naval high command, thus its construction was carried out to the standards of a first-class military port,” said Brand’s deputy, Tara, on the side.

At this time, Lome Port was still undergoing renovation and expansion, after all, East Africa had only acquired it two years ago, but the East African Navy was eager to station itself here.

Within Lome Port, several ships of the East African Navy could be seen clearly. Besides cruisers and destroyers, the East African battleship Pelican was also docked here for rest, indicating its significance.

After all, battleships, being the main combat ships of world powers nowadays, could mostly be seen only in home waters except for long voyages.

Brand said, ”Clearly, the Atlantic Fleet considers Lome Port as an important strategic pivot. Although it’s as far from the homeland as Kundian Port, its treatment even surpasses that of Kundian Port.”

Kundian Port is the home port of the East African Pacific Fleet, but the Pacific Fleet is the weakest within the East African Navy. Additionally, due to East Africa’s scattered colonies in the Pacific, the combat capability of the Pacific Fleet is further undermined.

In contrast, neither the Indian Ocean Fleet nor the Atlantic Fleet could be underestimated in any country. To put it candidly, these two fleets could single-handedly take on any country except for the major powers.

However, the East African Pacific Fleet is quite different. Its main combat ships don’t even include a single battleship, which is why Brand was so confident in saying that Lome Port’s status was much higher than that of Kundian Port.

Actually, besides the three major East African naval fleets, there is also a regional Alaska Fleet. However, compared to the Pacific Fleet, the Alaska Fleet’s strength is even more negligible. Frankly speaking, considering the location of Alaska, any one of the countries of the U.S., Russia, Japan, or the Far East Empire that had an inkling to invade would make it impossible for East Africa to hold.

Of course, given the current international situation, these countries certainly wouldn’t want to offend East Africa for the sake of Alaska.

Although Alaska is positioned on the far edge of East Africa’s military deployment, the indigenous strength of East Africa is too strong, so it’s not worth offending East Africa over Alaska.

Receiving similar treatment are East Africa’s Southern Ryukyu Islands colony, North Hawaii Kingdom colony, and numerous colonies in Oceania.

As for the Lanfang Overseas Province in the Nanyang region, East Kalimantan, and Mindanao Island, although they are also quite distant from East African native lands, the military strength of other major powers in Nanyang is similarly weak. Additionally, the East African Indian Ocean Fleet can always assist the Pacific Fleet in the Nanyang region.

However, the situation at Lome Naval Base of the Atlantic Fleet is different. Although Togoland is also overseas, it’s actually not that far from East African native lands, especially after East Africa’s control over Gabon and Cameroon.

Even without these two regions, one could journey from Cabinda on the West Coast of East Africa and arrive at Lome Port in a single day.

Lome Port itself holds extremely prominent strategic value. It can be said to be the most important strategic pivot for East Africa on the northern shore of Guinea Bay.

Previously, although the East African Atlantic Fleet was strong, it lacked a strategic pivot in the Atlantic region, and the presence of Togoland excellently filled this gap.

With Togoland as a strategic pivot, essentially the waters of sub-Saharan Africa have become an East African naval playground, with no country being able to challenge the East African Navy in sub-Saharan Africa.

At the same time, with Togoland Colony serving as a strategic pillar, the East African Atlantic Fleet extends its reach even further. From here, East Africa could comfortably manage any invading enemy along the entire West Coast of Africa.

In terms of military presence, Guinea Bay and the East African inland sea are now almost indistinguishable. Even though West Africa hosts numerous European colonies, even their combined strength isn’t a match for East Africa.

Brand sighed, ”Once the expansion of Lome Port is formally completed, the Empire’s voice throughout the West African region will be even stronger, showing the strategic initiative of the Atlantic Fleet has already surpassed ours.”

Though the East African Indian Ocean Fleet is nothing to scoff at, it doesn’t have as easy a time in the Indian Ocean as the Atlantic Fleet has in the South Atlantic.

This is mainly because the United Kingdom can constrain East Africa within the Indian Ocean by virtue of its many colonies around the Indian Ocean region centered on India with deep-rooted foundations, which East Africa couldn’t easily manipulate.

Contrast that with the South Atlantic waters, where, without bluntness, aside from East Africa, there are merely ”insignificant countries.” West Africa is a series of colonies, and even among European and American colonies doesn’t hold a prominent place in terms of status and value.

On the other side of the South Atlantic, the countries of South America are still underdeveloped and can pose no threat to the East African Navy.

However, despite all this talk, the ambition of the East African Atlantic Fleet will not wane because of this. After all, the Atlantic Ocean still has the North Atlantic region, a place where the powerful navies of the world hide their strength and bide their time, and East African naval forces have no reliable stronghold in the North Atlantic.

This is extremely detrimental to East African naval efforts to safeguard national interests. Nonetheless, there’s not much that could be done. East Africa’s enormous success in the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic already makes the world envious.

”Speaking of which, the speed of Lome Port’s construction should be the fastest among imperial overseas bases in recent years. After all, we’ve only acquired Lome Port for two years, and even though it used to be the capital of German Togoland Colony, Lome’s scale was certainly not large before,” Tara said.

Before the 1920s, Lome was merely a small fishing village in West Africa. After the colonizers arrived, the city was built, and in the 1980s, it became a German colony, making Lome the political center of Togoland.

It’s worth mentioning that this area was also originally a Portuguese colony, demonstrating an inherent conflict between the Portuguese and the Germans. But this was inevitable, as in the era of imperialist colonial expansion, latecomer countries overseas inevitably looked for soft targets to squeeze, and Portugal was obviously one of those soft targets.

In many African countries in the previous century, the capital was located in coastal areas, a holdover from the colonial era’s political legacy. Colonization primarily involved the process of exploration and expansion from the coast inland.

Upon acquiring this excellent deep-water port, the East African Navy couldn’t wait to establish it as one of the most important Atlantic naval bases for East Africa, transforming it into a truly military port, while the civilian port was relocated to the newly developed Peme Port.

Peme Port was the second largest port in the former Togo, with phosphate exports being the primary commodity. Phosphate mining exports were one of the three main economic pillars of the former Togo, accounting for about half of Togo’s total export value.

Lome Port, on the other hand, was even more remarkable. As the only natural deep-water port in the entire West African region, it was one of the main reasons it drew the attention of the East African Navy.