Chapter 1213 Third Five-Year Plan Results
When black slaves from East Africa poured into West Africa and embraced freedom and the civilized world, the East African government actually did not pay much attention to this small matter.
After all, a large part of the 800,000 black people are old, weak, sick and disabled. This has obviously become a burden rather than a wealth, so sending these black people away is in line with the wishes of the East African government.
As for East Africa's immoral behavior of driving more than 800,000 black people to British and French colonies, the East African government did not care at all. It can be said that at this time, Upper Volta and the Gold Coast were in a state of being freed by France and Britain, and the two countries simply could not take care of West Africa. The life and death of the colony.
Of course, the influx of 800,000 black people will not pose a threat to the colonial rule of the two countries. The real headaches are the black protectorates and vassal forces in their colonies.
It is conceivable that the sudden increase of 800,000 black people is bound to cause a **** storm in the Upper Volta and the Gold Coast.
After all, during more than 20 years of exploitation and oppression in East Africa, these black slaves had long forgotten the skills of survival in the wild, and the dry food distributed to them in East Africa could only last for two or three days at most. After three days, they faced shortages. Black people who are short of food have only two options to choose from, either to seek refuge with local black people or colonial forces, or to grab it directly.
The British and French colonial governments would definitely have no choice but to stare blankly. The food rations for more than 800,000 black people were not something they could solve, and even physical annihilation would not be possible.
Take France's Upper Volta Colony as an example. All the French people together only number a few hundred. Even with thermal weapons, they can only be blinded when facing hundreds of thousands of black people who suddenly appear.
Therefore, the East African government can fully imagine that the Gold Coast and Upper Volta will become a mess in the future.
Compared with the minor issue of releasing more than 800,000 black people, what the East African government is really concerned about is the adjustment and implementation of the country's Fourth Five-Year Plan and the New Economic Policy.
In 1915, the East African Third Five-Year Plan officially ended. In the past year, the East African economy has made brilliant achievements.
It was more optimistic than East Africa's estimates. At the end of 1915, East Africa officially cleared its debts to the Allies.
Due to the intensification of the British and French blockade, the Allied camp once again placed a huge order to East Africa at the end of 1915. The completion of this order directly transformed East Africa from a debtor country to Germany and Austria into a creditor country.
In the last century, Germany and Austria have been the first and second creditor countries in East Africa for many years. It was not until the beginning of this century that France overtook them.
Before the outbreak of World War I. The four major creditor countries in East Africa, in order of total debt size, are France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
Germany and Austria-Hungary ranked third and fourth respectively. Now East Africa has finally achieved the reversal of its debts to Germany and Austria-Hungary for the first time, and it will take some time to completely pay off the debts of Britain and France.
Last year, East Africa exported nearly 200,000 tons of finished steel products to Germany and Austria-Hungary in December alone, and its overall steel exports to the Allies reached 470,000 tons.
This is a quite incredible number. You must know that the Allies basically have no shortage of coal and iron ore. After all, among the four Allied countries, Germany is completely self-sufficient in coal and steel. Although the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not as good as Germany in terms of production capacity, it uses It is enough to deal with the Eastern Front battlefield. Although Bulgaria is relatively small, coal and iron ore are also distributed, not to mention the Ottoman Empire.
The main reason why East Africa was able to export so much steel to the Allies was still a matter of time.
Purchasing finished steel products from East Africa not only saves time, but also allocates more industrial workers to other production industries, or simply supports the frontline battlefield.
In the early days of the war, Germany and Austria-Hungary tended to purchase raw materials from East Africa. As the war transitioned into a stalemate, the two countries began to learn from Russia and purchase finished and semi-finished products directly from East Africa. The Basra Railway was also opened at the end of last year, which will further ensure smooth trade channels between East Africa and the Allied Powers.
In 1915, East Africa produced 36 million tons of steel and exported nearly four million tons, of which more than two million tons were exported to European countries, especially France and Italy, which accounted for the majority, while the rest was sold to Asia and Africa. countries and regions.
The export of other industrial products, such as automobiles, electrical equipment, rubber, weapons, medical equipment, etc., has reached an all-time high, and the East African economy is experiencing unprecedented prosperity.
In terms of transportation construction, at the end of 1915, the total mileage of East African railways officially exceeded 260,000 kilometers, further narrowing the gap with Europe and the United States. By the time the Fourth Five-Year Plan is completed, East African railways will inevitably exceed 300,000 kilometers.
Great achievements have also been made in highway construction in East Africa, especially in terms of asphalt roads. After the large-scale development of asphalt resources in Venezuela and other regions, East African cities and some main roads were quickly transformed.
The East African National Canal Plan is also 80% complete, at the cost of millions of black people burying their bones in East Africa. It can be said that every kilometer of the canal was built with the flesh and blood of black slaves.
In terms of shipping, during the Third Five-Year Plan period, nearly 20 modern container ports were built or renovated in East Africa, and the total tonnage of East African merchant ships also climbed to more than 6.1 million tons.
In the civil aviation industry, the Third Five-Year Plan opened three civil air routes and built five large civil aviation airports in East Africa. The civil aviation industry in East Africa has officially started. There is no doubt that the civil aviation industry will occupy an important position in East Africa's future transportation construction.
Although East Africa has made brilliant achievements in railway and road construction over the years, some areas in East Africa are destined to be difficult to reach by land transportation.
For example, the southwest region of East Africa, that is, Namibia and Botswana in the previous life, has some vast desert and mountainous terrain, very sparse railways and roads, and a very large area.
Aircraft are obviously a form of transportation that is very suitable for the southwest region, which is also of great significance to the defense of East Africa.
The land border in southern East Africa reaches directly along the Orange River, and the southwestmost city in East Africa, Orangemond, is almost isolated from the world. Its material supply and exchanges almost completely rely on sea transportation.
Although there are plans to build an Orange River Highway in East Africa to connect it with Upington in the east, it is only on the drawing board.
The hundreds of kilometers long area from Upington to Orangemond is almost no man's land. There are only a few border posts set up in East Africa. Land transportation relies entirely on two legs. Those who want to build a road here The difficulty is not small at all, and the most important thing is that it is difficult to recover the cost, so the construction of this highway has not started since the project was initiated in the last century.
But airplanes are different. With airplanes, it will become relatively convenient to travel from Orangemond to the interior of East Africa in the future, instead of relying entirely on sea transportation. What's more, Orangemond itself has a small population. If a city is built, The airport can greatly meet the travel needs of local residents.
During the Third Five-Year Plan period, East Africa's transportation construction achievements still achieved very satisfactory results. These transportation constructions also made great contributions to East Africa's economic growth.
In addition to its outstanding performance in economy and transportation, East Africa's defense industry also made great progress. In 1915, the size of the East African Standby Army exceeded 600,000 for the first time, reaching 630,000.
This was mainly due to East Africa's sudden acquisition of a large number of colonies and the rapid expansion of its navy. Throughout 1915, East Africa deployed a large number of troops in the colonies, including East Kalimantan, Mindanao, Gabon, Cameroon, Togoland and many other colonies. The local resistance forces carried out large-scale cleansing and suppression, and as many as hundreds of thousands of troops were stationed in the East African colonies.
Naturally, there is no need to say more about the navy. The number of warships has increased, and the number of East African naval personnel has also expanded in a short period of time to ensure the trade security of East Africa.
(End of chapter)