Chapter 1213: Results of the Three-Five Plan

Chapter 1213: Results of the Three-Five Plan

When East African slaves poured into West Africa and embraced the world of freedom and civilization, the East African government did not take this trivial matter too seriously.

After all, a large part of the 800,000 blacks were old, weak, sick and disabled, which had obviously become a burden rather than wealth, so sending these blacks away was in line with the wishes of the East African government.

As for the unethical behavior of East Africa driving more than 800,000 blacks to the British and French colonies, the East African government did not care at all. It can be said that Upper Volta and the Gold Coast were both in a state of being free-range by France and Britain at this time, and the two countries could not take care of the life and death of the West African colonies at all.

Of course, the influx of 800,000 blacks would not pose a threat to the rule of the colonies of the two countries. The real headache was the black protectorate and vassal forces in their colonies.

It is conceivable that the sudden increase of 800,000 blacks would inevitably set off a bloody storm in Upper Volta and the Gold Coast.

After all, in the 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 by East Africa could only last for two or three days at most. After three days, the blacks facing food shortages had only two options: either to rely on local blacks or colonial forces, or to rob directly.

The colonial governments of Britain and France could only choose to stare blankly. The food rations of more than 800,000 blacks were not something they could solve, and even physical elimination was impossible.

Take the French colony of Upper Volta as an example. All the French people together were only a few hundred people. Even with hot weapons, they could only grope blindly in the face of hundreds of thousands of blacks who suddenly appeared.

Therefore, the East African government can fully imagine that the Gold Coast and Upper Volta will be in chaos for some time to come.

Compared with the small issue of releasing more than 800,000 blacks, the East African government is really concerned about the adjustment and implementation of the country's Fourth Five-Year Plan and the new economic policy.

In 1915, the Third Five-Year Plan of East Africa officially ended. In the past year, the East African economy has achieved brilliant achievements.

It is more optimistic than the estimate for East Africa. At the end of 1915, East Africa had not formally cleared its debt to the Allies.

Because of the increasing blockade of Britain and France, the Allies placed a huge order to East Africa again at the end of 1915, and the completion of this order directly turned East Africa from a debtor country of Germany and Austria into a creditor country.

In the last century, Germany and Austria were the first and second creditor countries in East Africa for many years, and were not surpassed by France until the beginning of this century.

Before the outbreak of World War I. The four major creditor countries in East Africa were France, Britain, Germany and Austria-Hungary in order of total debt.

Germany and Austria-Hungary ranked third and fourth respectively. Now East Africa has finally achieved a reversal of debt 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 the overall steel exports to the Allies reached 470,000 tons.

This is a very impressive number. You should know that the Allies basically have no shortage of coal and iron ore. After all, among the four countries of the Allies, Germany can be completely self-sufficient in coal and steel. Although the production capacity of the Austro-Hungarian Empire is not as good as that of Germany, it is enough to deal with the Eastern Front. Although Bulgaria is relatively small, it also has coal and iron ore, and the Ottoman Empire needs no more to say.

The main reason why East Africa can export so much steel to the Allies is the problem of time.

Although the Allies do not lack resources and workers are barely enough, the production of steel takes time, especially the demand for special steel in the military industries of Germany and Austria-Hungary is quite large.

Purchasing finished steel products from East Africa can not only save time, but also allocate more industrial workers to other production industries, or simply support the front battlefield.

In the early days of the war, Germany and Austria-Hungary tended to purchase raw materials from East Africa. As the war transitioned to 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 the smooth trade channel between East Africa and the Allies.

In 1915, East Africa produced 36 million tons of steel and exported nearly 4 million tons, of which more than 2 million tons were exported to European countries, especially France and Italy, and the rest were sold to countries and regions in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

The exports of other industrial products, such as automobiles, power equipment, rubber, weapons, medical equipment, etc., reached historical highs, and the East African economy was unprecedentedly prosperous.

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. When the Fourth Five-Year Plan is completed, the East African railway will inevitably exceed 300,000 kilometers.

East African highway construction has also made great achievements, especially in asphalt roads. After the large-scale development of asphalt resources in Venezuela and other regions, East African cities and some main roads have been quickly transformed.

The East African National Canal Plan has also been completed by 80%, at the cost of millions of black people buried in East Africa. It can be said that every kilometer of the canal is built with the flesh and blood of black slaves.

In terms of maritime transportation, during the Third Five-Year Plan, East Africa built and renovated nearly twenty modern container ports, and the total tonnage of East African merchant ships also climbed to more than 6.1 million tons.

Civil aviation industry, East Africa opened three civil aviation routes and built five large civil aviation airports in the Three-Five Plan. 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 the future transportation construction in East Africa.

Although East Africa has made brilliant achievements in railway and highway construction in recent years, some areas in East Africa are destined to be difficult to reach by land transportation.

For example, the southwest region of East Africa, which is Namibia and Botswana in the past, has some vast deserts and high mountain terrains, and railways and roads are very sparse, and the area is very large.

And airplanes are obviously a very suitable form of transportation in the southwest region, which is also of great significance to East Africa's national defense.

The land frontier in southern East Africa goes directly to the banks of the Orange River, and the southwesternmost city in East Africa, Orangemund, is almost isolated from the world, and its material supply and exchanges are almost entirely dependent on sea transportation.

Although East Africa has plans to build an Orange River Highway to connect it with Upington in the east, it is only in the drawing state.

From Upington to Oranjemund, the hundreds of kilometers long area is almost uninhabited, with only a few border posts established in East Africa. Land transportation relies entirely on two legs. It is not easy to build a highway here, and the most important thing is that it is difficult to recover the cost. Therefore, this highway has not been started since the project was launched in the last century.

But airplanes are different. With airplanes, it will be relatively convenient to travel from Oranjemund to the interior of East Africa in the future, and no longer completely rely on sea transportation. Moreover, Oranjemund itself has a small population. If an airport is built, it can greatly meet the travel needs of local residents.

During the Third Five-Year Plan, East Africa's transportation construction achievements still achieved very ideal results, and these transportation constructions also made great contributions to East Africa's economic growth.

In addition to outstanding performance in economy and transportation, East Africa's national defense has also made great progress. In 1915, the size of the East African reserve army exceeded 600,000 for the first time, reaching 630,000.

This was mainly due to the fact that East Africa suddenly acquired a large number of colonies and the rapid expansion of the 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, to carry out large-scale clearing and suppression of local resistance forces. The garrison in the East African colonies reached more than 100,000.

The navy naturally needs no further explanation. With the increase in the number of warships, the number of East African naval personnel also expanded in a short period of time, thus ensuring the trade security of East Africa.