Chapter 810 Coastline
“It’s only over 80 million kilometers, which is really unexpected. It seems that the visual error is indeed quite large.” Ernst said to himself, looking at the recalibrated East African coastline.
He had not noticed it before, but now Ernst completely understood the geographical gap between East Africa and those maritime powers.
Comparing the future coastline of the Far Eastern Empire, you can clearly see the disadvantages of East Africa. Before this, because the East African coastline was incomplete, Ernst did not notice this problem.
There is no doubt that if East Africa is only a two-ocean country, its coastline should appear to be longer than most countries in the world on a globe, but in reality this is not the case.
For example, the Far Eastern Empire is a typical Pacific country. The straight-line span between the north and south seaports (only the mainland part, excluding the outer northeast), that is, the straight-line distance from Jinzhou to Xuwen Port is about 2,600 kilometers.
In East Africa, it is more than 3,700 kilometers from the northernmost port city of Mogadishu to the southernmost port of New Hamburg (Port Richard).
However, the continental coastline of the Far Eastern Empire directly exceeds more than 18,000 kilometers, while the coastline of the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa is only about 5,000 kilometers. Including Angola and Southwest Africa (Namibia), which is the west coast of East Africa, the length of the coastline of East Africa is only more than 8,000 kilometers. Kilometers long.
In other words, East Africa, which sits on the coast of two oceans, has an actual coastline that is less than half of the coastline of the Far Eastern Empire, which only has the Pacific coast.
From this point of view, it can also be seen that the coastline of East Africa is too straight and lacks the characteristics of excellent ports. This is similar to India. India faces the sea on two sides (it can also be counted as three sides), but its coastline is only more than 5,000 kilometers.
Of all the continents in the world, Europe is the one with the greatest shortage of excellent ports. Although Asia has the largest number, it has a huge territory, and there are also very large landlocked countries. The distribution of ports is uneven, and the Far Eastern Empire is one of the best.
They are Cabinda, Luanda, Benguela and Walvis Bay in southwest Africa.
So the area and coastline of East Africa are quite asymmetrical. Many small countries have longer coastlines than East Africa, including Norway and the Netherlands (including the East Indies colonies).
But the problem is that India only has a land area of less than three million square kilometers, and the area of East Africa is more than four times that of India.
In fact, we can also refer to the country of Canada. Its coastline is the longest in the world, more than 200,000 kilometers, which is much more exaggerated than Tsarist Russia, the largest country in the world.
"Now it seems that although we have captured the high-quality coastline along the Atlantic coast, the length of our coastline is not ranked among the best in the world, especially among large countries of the same size." Ernst said while looking at the map. .
On the other hand, East Africa has less coastline, but its gold content is slightly higher. However, the scarcity of natural ports is a flaw. Currently, there are only four ports on the west coast that can be used for economic development.
However, the gold content of Canada's coastline is too low. Most of it is located in the cold zone of mid-to-high latitudes, and there are many bays and islands. The most typical one is the Hudson Bay in the northeast.
The situation on the east coast is slightly better, but not much better. For example, the Somali region of East Africa has a coastline of 1,600 kilometers, but the only available ports are Mogadishu and Kismayo.
The countries that can compare in size with East Africa are Tsarist Russia, the Far Eastern Empire, Canada, the United States, Australia, and Brazil.
In previous lives, the length of East Africa's coastline (only its mainland) could only rank fifteenth in the world, behind Mexico (9,330 kilometers) and before Italy (7,600 kilometers). Of course, East Africa does not need to belittle itself. The sea conditions in East Africa cannot just be judged by the length of the coastline. When considered comprehensively, it is also among the best in the world.
The mere fact of facing two oceans is enough to make people envious and jealous. For example, Germany’s coastline is actually not short, at about 3,000 kilometers.
Today's Germany is not the emasculated version of its previous life after World War II. East Prussia is still in hand, so its coastline is longer than that of its previous life, covering about one-third of East Africa.
But the German navy was trapped in the Baltic Sea and was very frustrated. The same was true for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The coastline of Croatia alone exceeded 1,800 kilometers. Counting Venice, Slovenia also had about 3,000 kilometers, but it was also suffocated. Within the Adriatic Sea.
Therefore, East Africa’s coastline advantage is also very obvious, which was reflected in the Battle of East Britain. In addition to the difficulty of defending the Somali region, East Africa was able to deal with the British navy with the help of its maritime talents.
The current shortcoming of East Africa is the lack of islands in the Indian Ocean region as strategic fulcrums, so that East Africa’s national security can be improved to a higher level.
However, the main islands in the Indian Ocean are currently controlled by Britain and France. Apart from the offshore islands in East Africa, there is only one Comoros Islands that is barely enough to see.
Sweet analyzed on the side: "Your Royal Highness, the length of the coastline is greatly affected by the coastal terrain. This cannot be changed for us. However, after our country captured Angola, it has basically made up for its maritime disadvantages. In the future By completing the port infrastructure on the west coast, our merchant ships and navy can basically navigate the Indian and Atlantic Oceans unimpeded."
"Well, that's good, but we should take action now instead of waiting until later. Luanda, Benguela and other ports can now be expanded and developed. Let's put the two places back into operation first." Ernst pointed at the map of Angola and said : "Although we have captured the land in Angola, our rule is not stable, so we should give priority to solving these key coastal towns on the west coast, and then slowly digest the inland areas."
“In the future, Cabinda and Luanda should be comparable to Dar es Salaam and Mombasa as international ports in East Africa, so the development of these two places should be given priority over other areas in Angola.”
“As for the interior of Angola, let the railway department get started and build two railways first, one from Mongu City (a city in western Zambia) to the Luanda region, and the other from Lubumbashi to the Cabinda region.”
These actually belong to the two plans for the western part of the Central Railway. In fact, there is a third plan, which is the Benguela Railway plan. However, the most important priority for East Africa now is to consolidate East Africa’s rule in Angola, especially Cabinda on the west coast. starting area.
For this point, you can refer to Mozambique. After occupying Mozambique, East Africa was not worried about Mozambique's security. Mozambique was surrounded by East Africa on three sides. After falling into the hands of East Africa, it could not escape even if it wanted to.
Of course, in Ernst’s plan, Cabinda’s status was infinitely elevated. In fact, Cabinda was just a border town in Angola that the Portuguese did not pay much attention to.
But Ernst is well aware of the potential of Cabinda. As the most oil-rich area in East Africa, Cabinda alone can solve the energy security problem of East Africa for nearly a century in the future.
This is not an exaggeration. In the next twentieth century, as long as East Africa can effectively utilize Cabinda's oil resources, it will be able to meet most of East Africa's needs.
And East Africa cannot rely solely on the oil resources in Cabinda, and there will be no shortage of exploration in other areas within the territory. No matter what happens, they can go out and "grab" them.
East Africa has a natural advantage in this regard. The world's oil is mainly distributed in the Middle East. There are no blocked channels like Malacca or the Suez Canal from East Africa to the Middle East. As long as East Africa's guns are powerful enough, no matter how bad it is, it can still ensure the country's oil security in the future.
And aside from the Middle East, the oil resources in North Africa and West Africa are not bad. In these two places, in the future, the East African navy will set off from the west coast and can directly reach the Gulf of Guinea in West Africa. North Africa is directly connected to the East African land.
(End of this chapter)