Chapter 901 East African Canal Project

Of course, the construction of the "three ministries" is actually related to the overall situation of international economic development. This is to go back to the 1873 economic crisis. From the perspective of East Africa, it seems that the impact of the economic crisis has long ended, or has not occurred, and it can even be said that the positive significance to East Africa is greater than the negative significance.

In fact, the negative impact of the 1873 economic crisis has continued to this day (historical 1873-1896). Although it ended in 1879, the world economy and trade also fell into a state of depression afterwards. The specific manifestation is that free trade was replaced by trade protectionism, and Europe and the United States have not yet completely escaped the impact.

A typical example is Russia. After the end of the economic crisis, the Russian economy continued to be sluggish. After all, Russia's economic system is the worst among European and American countries. Therefore, even if the economic crisis is over, Russia's economic growth is seriously insufficient due to lack of investor confidence.

Other countries are relatively better, especially Germany and the United States. Through various economic means, the economy has recovered. As for Britain and France, they took the colonial route and transferred the crisis to the colonial areas. This is also one of the inducements of the South African War.

Unfortunately, even through war, Britain did not pry open the East African market, so Britain could only increase its exploitation of colonies such as India.

However, as time goes by, this economic crisis with the greatest impact in the 19th century will eventually end. It is now 1895, and the impact of the economic crisis in 1873 in history will end next year.

Then came the "great prosperity" of the world economy that lasted for more than 30 years. Although a "world war" broke out on the European continent in the middle, it made the United States and other countries outside the region make a lot of money.

This is also a huge opportunity for East Africa. Of course, the premise is that it can get out of the next economic crisis in advance, but it is too early for East Africa at present. It is unknown whether the first war can be fought and when it will be fought.

What East Africa needs to do is to strengthen itself in the next 30 years, under the premise that the international market is good and the demand for war economy may be strong due to the European war.

If East Africa wants to get a bigger share, it must improve its local productivity. Therefore, East Africa must complete the construction of the national market before 1900, boost the level of industrial and agricultural development in East Africa, and compete with other countries in the following time.

...

After "encouraging" the transportation and railway departments, the Minister of Water Resources came to Ernst's office without stopping.

Minister of Water Resources Yarsd placed a thick stack of documents on Ernst's desk. This was a huge canal construction plan. The cover of the document said "East African Grand Canal Plan". The "madness" of this plan can be seen from the name alone.

"We plan to connect the inland water transportation of the four major river basins of Malagara River (the largest river in Plateau Province), Zambezi River, Congo River, and Kwanza River (located in Angola)."

"Well, the idea is very bold!" Ernst could only say this. After all, no one had done this in his previous life. But think about it, the national structure of Africa in the previous life was broken into pieces, and each country was involved in countless warlords and tribal forces. Even if the productivity level in Africa was not backward, it would not be possible to do such a large project that requires overall planning.

"But what about the feasibility of this plan! I need a satisfactory answer." Ernst asked.

Yarsde pushed the legs of his glasses and said slowly: "In fact, our Ministry of Water Resources should have a plan for this plan. During the first national water conservancy construction planning period, there was a similar idea, but now the Angola region has been newly added."

"During the first national water conservancy construction, we have already carried out a relatively thorough and systematic transformation of the central and eastern rivers. During this process, the Ministry of Water Resources and experts obtained complete and detailed data on East African rivers."

"So after fully summarizing, calculating, planning, and verifying, we proposed the East African Grand Canal plan."

"The key to this plan is that the Katanga Plateau is different from the Biye Plateau, and water flows to lower places, so according to the terrain, the east If Africa wants to connect the four major river basins together, it must rely on the terrain. "

"This can be seen from the source of the East African rivers. Many tributaries of the Congo River and the Zambezi River originate from the East African Plateau, the Katanga Plateau and the Bie Plateau. Therefore, the Katanga Plateau and the Bie Plateau, which are located in the center of the four major river basins, are the key to East Africa's realization of mutual navigation between the four major river basins in the middle region of East Africa."

Yalsd said a lot, but it is not very complicated. To put it simply, the plateau terrain of East Africa can be regarded as the plains of the Far East Empire. The several major plateaus in the middle of the country are actually connected, and East Africa uses the river branches in these connected areas to connect several major rivers.

It is like the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal of the Far East Empire, which passes through the North China Plain and the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain, interspersed with some small terrains.

And the several plateaus that Yarsd emphasized can be regarded as Jiangsu Province. The northern part of Jiangsu Province is the North China Plain, and the southern part belongs to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Plain. There is actually no clear boundary between the two.

Of course, the East African Canal sounds very similar to the Far East Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, but the two are actually completely different.

After all, the Grand Canal has a distinct single waterway that is thousands of kilometers long, and East Africa obviously does not have such geographical conditions.

Yarsd also explained this: "The Grand Canal of East Africa is not a single river, but through dozens of large and small canals, by connecting the tributaries of these rivers, it indirectly forms an inland shipping network covering the entire middle land of East Africa."

The main rivers in East Africa can be said to flow in their own way. The Zambezi River flows eastward into the Indian Ocean, the Congo River flows westward into the Atlantic Ocean, and the Nile River flows northward into the Mediterranean Sea. The overall river network is scattered.

Therefore, it is impossible to connect the main trunks of these rivers together, but these rivers have thousands of tributaries in addition to the main trunks.

The Grand Canal of East Africa uses these tributaries to achieve the purpose of connecting the inland of East Africa to the sea and reduce the cost of inland transportation.

"According to our calculations, the actual length of the East African Canal may reach about 1,700 to 2,300 kilometers, and the specific value depends on the plan adopted."

"Because the East African Canal plan is actually composed of dozens of small canal plans, some trade-offs will inevitably be made in these small canal plans, resulting in data changes."

In fact, the East African Canal plan should be more appropriately called the East African Canal Network Plan. East African water conservancy experts have also formulated many alternative plans. The final plan will also depend on the specific construction situation.

For this bold idea of ​​the water conservancy department, Ernst felt bright in front of him, and he still had capable people under him.

The problem of inland waterway shipping in East Africa has always been a heart disease, but the East African Canal plan cleverly uses river tributaries as support points. Since the main roads cannot be connected, the tributaries are connected together, which is actually a roundabout tactic.

Although the tributaries are in the river channel and the water volume is slightly worse than the main stream, it is a blessing for East Africa to achieve the interconnection of the inland waterway network.

If a large ship cannot be transported, a small boat is acceptable. After all, even a small boat has a much lower cost than roads and railways. If time cost and some specific factors are not considered, water transportation must be the preferred option.

"Very good, there is no flaw in this plan as a whole, but you should also do more field investigations, summarize the possible problems before July this year, and report to me at that time." Ernst said to Yarsde.

For the plan that he fully agreed with, Ernst still chose to be cautious. After all, this plan involves hundreds of large-scale tributaries, which has a huge impact on the ecological problems in the middle of East Africa.

Of course, ecological problems are not actually Ernst's main concern. According to this logic, other countries should not build canals.

From the 19th to the 20th century, it was actually a peak period for canal construction in various countries, especially the powers such as Britain, the United States, Germany, and France. They did not see that the canals they built in the previous life had much impact on the ecology.

Of course, Ernst can only say sorry for some species that may disappear due to the construction of the canal. After all, the East African government is completely "people-oriented", and economic development is the bottom line.