African Entrepreneurship Records

Chapter 501 Four seas, two lakes and two inland areas

"On March 2, 1498, the Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama led a fleet to India. On the way, he passed through the "Port of Mozambique" and was warmly received by the local Sultan. The Sultan's name was Muza Aru Bik , the Portuguese heard it as "Mozambique", which was also the origin of the name of Mozambique. Mozambique still exists now, but the Port of Mozambique, the origin of the Mozambique colony, is in our hands. I don't know what the Portuguese in the city think."

  Lieutenant Colonel Roald of the East African Navy said proudly to his subordinates that the Port of Mozambique, like the Sultanate of Zanzibar, is actually an offshore island. Mombasa in East Africa is very similar to the Port of Mozambique.

Ernst didn’t quite understand this. The Arabs seemed to like occupying the islands along the coast of East Africa, so why didn’t they go further to the mainland?

To say that these islands are more livable than the mainland is definitely nonsense. Basically, the islands along the East African coast are more humid and hotter, so they are not ideal for settlement. However, these islands did facilitate the control of Indian Ocean trade routes in the past.

However, the port of Mozambique has been in a period of rapid decline. This is also due to the decline of the slave trade and the opening of the Suez Canal. Therefore, the economic value of the port of Mozambique has plummeted. However, the navy has taken a fancy to this place and it has been turned into a new naval base.

The Dutch once competed with Portugal for this place, so they built quite strong military fortifications on Mozambique Island. The East African navy can move in without too much arrangement.

Ernst is not very interested in developing Mozambique Island. In the northern Mozambique occupied by East Africa this time, there are several bays with much better port conditions than Mozambique Island.

The most important of them are Nacala and Pemba. These two areas are actually now deserted harbors, but in their previous lives they surpassed Mozambique Island to become the third and fifth largest ports in Mozambique. As for Mozambique Island, in the 20th century, Mozambique Island had many other ports in Mozambique. There will be no number in the queue at the port.

Nacala Port is located at the southern end of Bengo Island in northern Mozambique. It has the best deep-water port in South Africa. It is a large port with a channel 800 meters wide and 60 meters deep.

Pemba Port can actually be called Pemba Port. It has the same name as Pemba Island in East Africa. In fact, the bay where Pemba Port is located is called Pemba Bay.

In its previous life, Pemba Port developed very late during the Portuguese colonial era. It was first built in 1904 and later developed into a port called Port America. It has the same name as America, so the name Pemba Port was just given by Ernst. .

  Pemba Port was ranked fifth in Mozambique in its previous life. In fact, Ernst believes that Pemba Port’s ranking can be adjusted upward.

 Because the conditions here are good compared to Africa, that is, in the previous life, Mozambique's economy was too backward, urbanization was low, trade demand was weak, and there were many ports, so it was not fully developed.

If this port is placed in the Far East, it should be able to develop into a super port, not under Jiaozhou.

 First of all, the area of ​​Pemba Bay is not much different from Jiaozhou Bay, slightly smaller, but the conditions inside the bay are much better than Jiaozhou Bay, and the water conditions are better than Jiaozhou Bay. The shapes of the two are also relatively similar inland bays, with a mouth and a small belly.

Furthermore, the economic hinterland of Pemba Port is wider than that of Jiaozhou. There are mountains in the interior of Shandong Province that shield Jiaozhou from the inland economy, while Pemba Port is plateau and flatland to the west all the way to Lake Malawi.

The only pity is that the Port of Nacala and the Port of Pemba are in competition, which makes it difficult for Ernst to choose which port to focus on.

This is just like the competition between Lianyungang and Jiaozhou. Of course, Lianyungang’s economy and scale are indeed inferior to Jiaozhou.

 But these two ports in East Africa are still wastelands. If they are allowed to develop freely, it will not be clear which one is better and which one is worse. The problem is that East Africa is currently a country that attaches great importance to planning, and it is impossible to allow the two places to develop freely. Therefore, which of the two ports can rise first depends entirely on how Ernst positions the two ports.

For example, First Town was just a small town attached to Dar es Salaam in its previous life, but now it has become the political hub of East Africa.

But Ernst did not think for long, he suddenly realized that Nacala and Pemba could be developed into twin cities. Ernst was mainly afraid of causing a waste of resources, but considering the speed of development in East Africa, his worries were unnecessary.

In the future, the economic center of gravity of East Africa will definitely be the eastern region, so the coastal economy is unlikely to decline. As long as East Africa does a good job in immigration, the economic size of northern Mozambique will naturally increase.

Central Province now has the prototype of an urban agglomeration. Mozambique can also develop in this way. In the past, the Far East had three economic zones: the Bohai Rim, the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta. Similar coastal economic zones can also be developed in eastern East Africa.

In Ernst's opinion, we can do the same to capture Maputo in the future. With the help of South Africa's mineral resources and the transportation conditions of southern ports such as Maputo and New Hamburg Port, it would be equivalent to the South African version of the Pearl River Delta.

 In the middle is the central urban agglomeration headed by Pemba Port and Nacala Port, which plays the role of the Yangtze River Delta. If the Zambezi River's navigation capacity was not too poor, Ernst would definitely not do this.

In fact, the coastal urban agglomeration envisioned by Ernst also took into account many factors. For example, northern East Africa has poor environmental carrying capacity. Otherwise, Ernst would definitely focus on developing Mombasa. Now Mombasa’s development relies on the north. The industrial belt will develop in conjunction with Nairobi and the Great Lakes region. Mombasa will become a large northern city in the future, but it will never develop an urban cluster.

The three places selected by Ernst all have something in common, that is, they have many ports, flat terrain, a large economic hinterland, excellent climate conditions, and excellent comprehensive conditions that can accommodate the development of multiple cities.

Of course, if the above advantages are followed, Angola can also plan one in the future. These are the settings of coastal cities, and the inland is definitely indispensable. The conditions in the Great Lakes area are good, and the same can be done with Lake Malawi. Matabele Province (Zimbabwe) ) must be the same. Swabia and Hohenzollern can also develop together (Zambia and southern Congo).

Ernst called this layout the East African economic pattern of four seas, two lakes and two inland, with four coastal city agglomerations, two lakeside economic agglomerations, and two inland city agglomerations.

 In fact, Africa (within the East African region) in Ernst's previous life was almost the same. The biggest difference is that there is no South Africa.

In the previous life, South Africa was the most economically developed region south of the Sahara, especially the area within the former Transvaal Republic, with Johannesburg and Pretoria as its core areas.

Ernst actually divided this area into Zimbabwe and the eastern coast (mainly southern Mozambique), making it a raw material supply base for the industrial development of the two places.

As for why the local industry is not vigorously developed, in the final analysis, the local water resources are relatively scarce, the ecological environment is fragile, and over-development may cause the Kalahari Desert to expand eastward. Ernst does not want to embark on the path of consuming all the water.

Ernst is not an environmentalist, but Ernst is quite vigilant about desertification, especially grassland areas, which are most likely to become deserts due to human development.

The mining industry is inherently wasteful. If we build industry locally, the water demand will be too high. In order to alleviate the water problem here, South Africa built a south-to-north water diversion project in the past, diverting water from Lesotho. East Africa does not have this demand at all. East Africa is a vast country with many more options than South Africa.

 (End of this chapter)