Chapter 1186 Southern Hemisphere Economic System
Debt-funded development is the foundation of East Africa's Third Five-Year Plan and the New Economic Policy, and the European War is one of the important ways to solve the debt problem.
The main reason for the emergence of this pattern is that the first two five-year plans in East Africa greatly consumed the primitive capital accumulation of the previous thirty years in East Africa.
In the first thirty years, East Africa accumulated a large amount of social wealth through various means such as squeezing its own cheap labor force and squandering African land and mineral resources. After all, colonization itself is about making big gains with small things. If the military expenditure required for colonization is excluded, It's almost a profitable business.
It's just that East Africa, like the United States, turned colonies into "since ancient times" land. For the development of East Africa, the interests of nearly 40 million black indigenous people were sacrificed.
However, colonization cannot solve all problems. After all, East Africa cannot just plunder, but it must also be responsible for construction issues. In the 19th century, agricultural reclamation, large-scale infrastructure, and the construction of a defense industrial system in East Africa required huge expenditures.
Therefore, East Africa in the 19th century looked glamorous, but it did not make much money. This is the main reason why after entering the 20th century, the scale of East Africa's first two five-year plans was far less huge than that of the Soviet Union in the previous generation.
The development model of the 19th century could not be maintained forever. After all, by the beginning of the 20th century, the number of black slaves in East Africa had been almost exhausted.
Looking back at the economic development process of East Africa in the first fifty years, it can be roughly summarized in the following order: the four stages of land expansion (colonial expansion), the era of great migration, the era of agricultural construction, and the era of industrial system construction.
In 1914, East Africa had basically completed the construction of its own industrial system, forming a huge industrial system covering the three major industrial fields of defense industry, heavy industry and light industry.
So Ernst said: "Our country's development in the past fifty years has made brilliant achievements, but this has also led to a new bottleneck in our country's development today. If we can successfully overcome the European war, then our country will undoubtedly go further. To become one of the shapers of the future international order, otherwise it may stagnate and reproduce Germany’s current passive situation.”
Today, East Africa is indeed very beautiful, but it lacks sufficient foundation and corresponding international influence. This was also the dilemma faced by the United States after World War I in its previous life.
After World War I in the previous life, the U.S. economy was so dazzling, but at the post-war conference, Britain and France were still able to control the United States. It can be said that at that time, the international status of the United States was completely inconsistent with its economic strength.
Now East Africa has become the world's largest industrial country, so East Africa is also a latecomer country and will inevitably compete with the two established empires of Britain and France after the war.
Therefore, East Africa is not completely worry-free. If a late-developing country cannot make further progress, even if it develops like a fish in water in the early stage, it will be extremely dangerous.
For example, Germany in 1914 and the Soviet Union in 1991 were stuck in the last step. The former chose war as a last-ditch effort, while the latter simply chose to die.
There were many more cases like this in the 21st century. Many countries that failed to escape the "middle-income trap" had poor results. Their economic miracles ended up in ruins, and they could only continue to be harvested leeks under the Western discourse.
This is exactly what Ernst is worried about. He went on to say: "When the European war is over and the victors free up time and energy, they will inevitably counterattack against latecomers like us, thereby continuing to maintain their position in the international order. Apex predator status.”
"So taking advantage of the gap of the European War to build an economic moat with the local area as the core is the main direction of our country's economy, military, politics and diplomacy at this stage."
This is actually equivalent to East Africa treating many countries and regions in the Southern Hemisphere as its own sphere of influence. After all, geographically speaking, East Africa's territory and economy are still dominated by the Southern Hemisphere.
With East Africa as the core, South Pacific countries have innate maritime transportation advantages over South America and the east coast of the Indian Ocean, making it easy for East Africa to dominate the southern hemisphere economy. After thinking for a while, Ernst said bluntly: "In the entire southern hemisphere, as well as parts of the northern hemisphere near the equator, we in East Africa are the most powerful economic entity."
"So it is destiny for us in East Africa to establish a southern hemisphere economic system with East Africa as the core, so that we can transform from a regional power to a true world power."
The economic system of the Southern Hemisphere sounds very grand. After all, it involves the three continents of Africa, South America and Oceania. From this point of view alone, it occupies a small half of the world's territory.
The introduction of this concept has actually meant that East Africa, or Ernst’s initial idea of reshaping the international order, is similar to the “Monroe Doctrine” of the United States, or the “One Belt, One Road” of the Far Eastern Empire in the 21st century. This is any A step that all world powers must take.
Going one step further, there are ideological concepts, such as the "democratic system" and "Cold War mentality" of the United States, the "communism" of the Soviet Union, and the "community of a shared future for mankind" of the Far Eastern Empire.
Regarding the latter, Ernst had no idea at the moment. After all, if an imperial country like East Africa engaged in ideological competition, it would be like King Qi Wei in Tian Ji's horse racing, with no chance of winning.
On the contrary, the vague ideological plan of the Far Eastern Empire’s “community of destiny” is worth learning from in East Africa in the future.
This can be regarded as Ernst’s self-awareness. No one understands the weird imperialism in East Africa today better than Ernst. Speaking of which, this is still very similar to the Far Eastern Empire in the previous life. After all, after the combination of planning and market, the Far Eastern Empire has become completely different. , both sides are unhappy.
But in the final analysis, it is still a competition of strength. When strength is strong, other countries will naturally move closer to you, and black ones can also be praised as white. When East Africa's industry develops completely and reaches a leading level, there will naturally be people who are willing to bring their own dog food to praise East Africa in the future. The industrial waste gas is "sweet".
With Ernst's introduction of these concepts, East African government officials were as if they had been injected with blood.
Today's world hegemony is definitely a delusion, but hegemony in the southern hemisphere is much easier. By controlling the economy, trade, culture, politics, and military of the southern hemisphere, East Africa can build a huge regional market.
In this way, even if one day East Africa is excluded from the world market by some countries, it can still live a prosperous life relying on this small system. After all, the lower limit of this southern hemisphere economic system is much higher than the previous Warsaw Pact system.
The economy among the Warsaw Pact countries relies on land transportation, and the cost is far less than that of the southern hemisphere economic system. After all, East Africa is a two-ocean country. If you include overseas territories, it is a three-ocean country, with significant advantages in maritime transportation.
The size of the southern hemisphere economic system described by Ernst is obviously not comparable to that of the Warsaw Pact, and the upper limit is much higher. After all, Brazil alone has a land area of more than 8 million square kilometers. Others, such as Australia, Argentina and Peru are not small countries in Europe.
Of course, the economic strength of these regions today is definitely not comparable to that of European countries, but this is also conducive to East African operations.
If they do not fall behind, East Africa will have no chance to bring these countries together, and when they develop, they will compete for regional voice and become East Africa's rivals.
Therefore, for countries in the southern hemisphere, East Africa should learn from the United States and use coercion and inducement to forcibly drag them onto the East African economic chariot.
The United States at the beginning of the 20th century was the "light of civilization" compared to other simple and crude colonists, but in fact the United States was just the less black one among the crows of the great powers.
(End of chapter)