Chapter 1186: Southern Hemisphere Economic System

Chapter 1186: Southern Hemisphere Economic System

Debt-financed development is the foundation of East Africa's Third Five-Year Plan and the New Economic Policy, while the European War is one of the important ways to solve the debt problem.

The main reason for the emergence of this model is that East Africa's first two five-year plans greatly consumed East Africa's capital accumulation in the first thirty years.

In the first thirty years, East Africa accumulated a lot of social wealth by squeezing its own cheap labor, taking advantage of Africa's land resources and mineral resources for free. After all, colonization itself is a small bet for a big gain. If the factor of military expenditure required for colonization is excluded, it is almost a profitable business.

It's just that East Africa, like the United States, has turned colonies into "since ancient times" land. For the development of East Africa, the interests of nearly 40 million black indigenous peoples have been sacrificed.

However, colonization cannot solve all problems. After all, East Africa cannot only patronize plunder, but also be responsible for construction issues. In the 19th century, agricultural reclamation, large infrastructure, and the construction of a national defense industrial system in East Africa all required huge expenditures.

So East Africa in the 19th century looked bright and beautiful, but it did not make much money. This is also the main reason why the scale of East Africa's first two five-year plans after entering the 20th century was far less than that of the former Soviet Union.

The development model of the 19th century could not be maintained at all. After all, by the beginning of the 20th century, the black slaves in East Africa had been almost consumed.

Looking back at the economic development of East Africa in the first 50 years, it can be roughly summarized in order as the four stages of land expansion (colonial expansion), great immigration era, agricultural construction era, and industrial system construction era.

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: "my country has made brilliant achievements in the development of the past 50 years, but this has also led to a new bottleneck in my country's development today. If we can successfully overcome the European war, then my country will undoubtedly go further and become one of the makers of the future international order. Otherwise, it may stagnate and replicate the passive situation of Germany today."

Today, East Africa is indeed prosperous, but it lacks the foundation and the corresponding international influence. This is also the dilemma faced by the United States after World War I in the previous life.

After the end of World War I in the previous life, the US 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 and its economic strength were completely mismatched.

Now East Africa has become the world's largest industrial country, so East Africa, as a late-developing country, will inevitably confront the two old empires of Britain and France after the war.

So East Africa is not completely worry-free. If a late-developing country cannot go further, even if it develops like a fish in water in the early stage, it is extremely dangerous.

For example, Germany in 1914 and the Soviet Union in 1991 were trapped in the last step. The former chose war as a last-ditch effort, while the latter chose death directly.

There are more such cases in the 21st century in the previous life. Many countries that did not cross the "middle-income trap" did not look good. The economic miracles ended up in a mess, and they could only continue to serve as leeks harvested under the Western discourse.

This is exactly what Ernst is worried about. He went on to say: "When the European war is over, the victors will have time and energy to counterattack latecomers like us, thereby continuing to maintain their position as top predators in the international order."

"So taking advantage of the gap in the European war, building an economic moat with the local area as the core is the main direction of our economy, military, politics and diplomacy at this stage."

"The so-called economic moat is an international trade system centered on East Africa, which further consolidates our advantages in the South Pacific and South America, and serves as the two wings to support our future development."

This is actually equivalent to East Africa regarding 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 mainly in the Southern Hemisphere.

With East Africa as the core, it has an innate maritime transportation advantage over South America and the eastern coast of the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific countries, and it is easy for East Africa to dominate the economy of the Southern Hemisphere.

After thinking for a while, Ernst said bluntly: "In the entire southern hemisphere, and some northern hemisphere regions near the equator, our East Africa is the most powerful economic entity."

"So it is the destiny of 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 truly world power."

The southern hemisphere economic system sounds very grand. After all, it involves three continents, Africa, South America and Oceania. From this point alone, it occupies a small half of the world's territory.

The proposal of this concept actually means that East Africa or Ernst has a preliminary idea about reshaping the international order, similar to the United States' "Monroe Doctrine" or the "Belt and Road" of the Far East Empire in the 21st century. This is a step that any world power must take.

And going further, it is an ideological concept, such as the United States' "democratic system", "Cold War thinking", etc., the Soviet Union's "communism", and the Far East Empire's "community of human destiny".

As for the latter, Ernst did not have any idea at the moment. After all, for an imperial country like East Africa to engage in ideological competition would be like King Wei of Qi in Tian Ji's horse race, with no chance of winning.

On the contrary, the vague ideological plan of the Far Eastern Empire's "community of shared destiny" is worthy of reference for East Africa in the future.

This can be regarded as Ernst's self-knowledge. No one knows the current East African patchwork imperialism better than Ernst. This is 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 a four-legged beast, which is not pleasing to both sides.

But in the final analysis, it is still a competition of strength. If you are strong, other countries will naturally move closer to you, and black can be blown into white. After East African industry is thoroughly developed and reaches a leading level, there will naturally be people willing to bring dog food and boast that East African industrial waste gas is "sweet" in the future.

And with the introduction of these concepts by Ernst, East African government officials are like chicken blood.

Today, 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 East Africa is excluded from the world market by some countries one day, it can still live comfortably by relying on this small system. After all, the lower limit of this southern hemisphere economic system is much higher than the Warsaw Pact system in the previous life.

The economy between 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 overseas territories are included, it is a three-ocean country, and the advantages of sea transportation are significant.

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, and other countries such as Australia, Argentina, and Peru are not small countries in Europe.

Of course, the economic strength of these regions today is certainly not comparable to that of European countries, but this is also conducive to East Africa's operations.

If they are not backward, East Africa will not have the opportunity to gather these countries together, and their development will instead compete for regional discourse power and become East Africa's opponents.

So for the southern hemisphere countries, East Africa should learn from the United States and force them to be dragged onto the economic chariot of East Africa through coercion and inducement.

Compared with other simple and brutal colonists, the United States in the early 20th century was the "light of civilization", but in fact, the United States was just a less black crow among the group of crows of the great powers.