African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 691 The Situation in South Africa

"Railway is the core of our military corridor in East Africa. By surrounding the entire railway system, we can transport troops to where they want to be as much as possible. Just like the Franco-Prussian War, Prussia continuously transported troops from the rear to the front line through the railway. As for the French being difficult to deal with!" the East African General Staff made the same judgment.

 The East African Army learned from Prussia. Although it is a bit "awry" now, the core content is still the same.

  After all, the national conditions of East Africa are very different from those of Prussia or even Germany as a whole. East Africa is vast and its railway system is destined not to be as dense as that of Germany.

"In fact, after the construction of the Hessian Railway is completed, our total railway mileage in East Africa has only exceeded 15,000 kilometers. This is still counting many branch lines and mining area railways, as well as the Hessian Railway that is currently under construction. That is to say So far, our railways are at the same level as Russia's," said Chief of General Staff Sweet.

“If we can’t reach it, the Russian railway exceeded 30,000 kilometers in 1880. It may be more now, and it should be twice as long as ours.” Merk said.

“But don’t forget that the land area of ​​Tsarist Russia is also twice that of our country, so the two countries are at the same level in terms of railway density, unless it is excessive railway construction like the United States.”

 After the outbreak of the economic crisis in 1873, American railway construction did encounter setbacks in a short period of time. Railway companies went bankrupt and stock prices plummeted.

 However, within a few years, the construction of railways in the United States was even more vigorous than before the crisis. By 1880, the total mileage of railways in the United States exceeded 90,000 kilometers.

This is also a manifestation of how countries respond to the economic crisis. For example, Germany and Austria-Hungary implemented railway nationalization, and then accelerated national investment in railways to stimulate domestic demand, promote upstream and downstream development, and ensure employment. Other countries are not so extreme, but they also have similar practices.

 So during the middle and late stages of the economic crisis, railway construction progress accelerated, and East Africa was certainly no exception. Large-scale railway construction began at the same time as the economic crisis broke out.

“If we want to give full play to the advantages of railways, we need the close cooperation of the railway department, just like Germany did when it was in a state of war, concentrating all its transportation capacity to deal with it.” Merk said.

 So the railway construction in East Africa is far less exaggerated than that in the United States and Germany. The current railway mileage in East Africa can only be compared with that of a "small" island country like the United Kingdom. The railway mileage in the United Kingdom is just over 18,000 kilometers.

Of course, the most exaggerated one is Germany, which has more than 30,000 kilometers and is the second largest railway network in the world. However, it should be noted that Germany is much smaller than the United States. Therefore, Germany’s railway density is second only to the British mainland, and it is worth noting that the British mainland is now If the whole of Ireland is included, the railway density is actually not much different.

But even a major artery like the Central Railway is less than 5,000 kilometers long. Including the Hessian Railway, which is still under construction, it is only more than 6,000 kilometers long.

 The total mileage of the Northern Railway, the second largest artery, is more than 3,000 kilometers, and the total mileage of the two together is less than 10,000 kilometers.

 Only East Africa and Tsarist Russia share the same disease, but East Africa’s financial situation is much stronger than that of the Tsarist Russian government. This is why East Africa’s railway mileage quickly catches up with Tsarist Russia.

 Britain's railways are basically saturated, Germany has the potential to double that, and the United States may continue to build an exaggerated railway network as it did in previous lives and then scrap most of it.

"It's not that extreme. The railway must be connected with the military, but it cannot affect domestic production and life activities, especially when the intensity of the war may not be as great as we thought." Sweet retorted.

 So far, as long as the war does not break out, East Africa is not sure where the scale of the war will develop.

Because the enemy is mainly divided into three forces. One is the Transvaal people. Although the Transvaal people have the smallest territory and the weakest strength, the ones that can be concentrated are the essence.

The Transvaal people are more martial and virtuous than the British and the Portuguese, and the Transvaal people have the deepest hatred for East Africa. After all, East Africa was a war to destroy the Transvaal Republic, so that now the Transvaal people The Wa can only reside on the land of the "brotherly" Orange Free State. It is true that the Transvaal people have now taken the lead in the Orange Free State, but in order to restore the country, the Orange people are still their main targets.

So the Transvaal people have a promise to the Orange people, that is, after the restoration of the country, the Transvaal people will take the initiative to return the dominance of the Orange Free State to the Orange people.

This may be just an "excuse", after all, it is not easy to spit out what has been swallowed, and the Transvaal people also need the former Transvaal Republic and the Orange Free State to merge.

Because compared to the United Kingdom, East Africa, and the Portuguese, the Boers' territory is too small and the population is too small. If they are divided into several countries, they will not be able to concentrate their strength to compete with several major forces. In that case, the Boers will only repeat what happened in the Trans The Republic of Vanuatu was destroyed by East Africa.

 With the destruction of the Transvaal Republic and the Grigualand Republic by East Africa, there are actually two Boer states still existing today.

One is the Orange Free State, and the other is the Republic of East Grigualand. The Republic of East Grigualand has little sense of existence, but it still exists.

The extinct Republic of Grigualand in East Africa, which was the former British Bechuanaland, should be called the Republic of West Grigualand. There is actually a very small East Grigualand on the west side of the British colony of Natal. The Republic is also one of the countries established by the Boers.

However, the concept of Boers is probably only remembered by the Transvaal people now. First of all, the Orange people can no longer be as harmonious with the Transvaal people as they were in the past, and the two have actually split.

  Secondly, the Republic of East Grigualand does not want to participate in such games and disputes between "big powers". After all, no force can be provoked by the Republic of East Grigualand, including the current Transvaal people.

Of course, this kind of alignment cannot be avoided by the Republic of East Grigualand if it wants to. As early as 1879, they became a "vassal state" of Cape Town like the Orange Free State.

 The Republic of East Grigualand was able to survive the disaster, thanks to the British colony of Natal for isolating them from East Africa, so it did not border on East Africa.

In fact, East Africa is not very interested in the land of the Republic of East Grigualand. Its location is southeast of Lesotho, which is the mountainous location of the Drakensberg Mountains.

East Africa has long completed its military layout in the Drakensberg Mountains and the Lesotho region. East Africa controls the north and the Natal colony in the south. It is impossible to launch an attack on East Africa from a high position.

As for the poor Kingdom of Lesotho, it has long been carved up by East Africa, the Orange Free State and the Natal Colony.

 Speaking of the Boers, followed by the Portuguese, the Portuguese are not as united as imagined. At least Angola and Mozambique, separated by East Africa, have a certain degree of competition.

This is mainly a dispute over resources between the two parties. Both parties have their own interests and demands. They hope to be protected by the kingdom's mainland and avoid the vicious hands of East Africa. Therefore, at this point, the two colonies are the same and the mainland can be more biased towards their own side. Obviously The Angolan colony is currently more favored by the locals.

 Finally, there is the British. The situation of the British is much better than the first two. At least the British have to listen to what they say. This is also the benefit of British hegemony.

  If the British hegemony was gone, then India, Australia, Canada and others would have become independent long ago, so the British hegemony is still extremely stable, and cooperation between the mainland and the colonies outweighs the contradictions.

 (End of this chapter)