African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1060: Chapter 69: Austria-Hungary Navy Seeks Assistance

It’s not a big deal for Bohemia to establish its own regime, the problem is that most of Austria-Hungary’s industries are located in Bohemia, especially the military industry. Losing the Bohemian region basically relegates Austria-Hungary to a second-rate country.

The Bohemian Province in East Africa (Zimbabwe) is actually named after the Bohemian region of Austria-Hungary, representing the most developed area of industry in East Africa. Of course, the original Matabele Province industry has been divided into two, with some industries being merged into Lorraine Province along with Bulawayo.

Moreover, besides the Bohemian Industrial Zone, the industry in other parts of East Africa is also strong, having developed several cores. Even if one industrial zone suffered a devastating blow, it wouldn’t lead to irrevocable losses for East African industry.

The dispersion in East African industry is closely related to the lack of concentration of industrial development resources in East Africa. Within East Africa, there are places where industrial resources are highly concentrated, similar to the northeastern United States, Bohemia in Austria-Hungary, or the Ruhr District in Germany, like the former Transvaal and Orange in South Africa.

If East Africa fully develops this region, undoubtedly, the industrial sectors in the South African region would rapidly rise. However, due to national strategic considerations, East Africa has invested more in industrial construction elsewhere, not only in South Africa but also in the most industrialized Dar es Salaam City and Mombasa. If East Africa concentrated resources for development, there wouldn’t still be no super large cities with populations over a million.

The industrial construction in East Africa is not only for the sake of industrial acceleration but also for regional coordinated development, thus building a unified national market and national industrial system. Dispersion of industry also helps to balance the dominance of any single area, as East Africa is a typical big government country.

Ernst, reflecting on various issues presented by later industrial developments, has tried to make East Africa’s industrial system more reasonable, avoiding extremes. More precisely, this means striving for ”sustainable development” as much as possible.

This is also reflected in East Africa’s shipbuilding industry. In the past decade, East Africa’s shipbuilding industry migrated to the West Coast and Mozambique’s coastline, where it multiplied over threefold within a short period.

With the expansion of the shipbuilding industry, division of labor has become more explicit, reducing costs in East African shipbuilding while continuously improving shipbuilding techniques. Combined with protection of the domestic market, the East African shipbuilding industry has entered a positive development phase.

The rapid development of the shipbuilding industry has also laid the foundation for further development of the East African Navy. Without this grand premise, even if East Africa proposed ambitious naval shipbuilding plans, they would be unable to be completed, having to seek assistance from other countries, like Japan, which buys warships from the United Kingdom and Germany.

Bruce said to Erich, ”Our shipbuilding industry is almost entirely state-owned enterprises, so after getting approval from the central government, various military industrial shipyards can integrate most of the resources, enabling our navy to devise ambitious development plans, whereas Austria-Hungary is evidently not the case. The national conditions of the two countries are different, coupled with the indifference to the navy in your country, making development difficult.”

The development of Austria-Hungary’s shipbuilding industry is actually quite fast, but this phenomenon is normal in most countries. Even the Ottoman Empire and the Far East Empire have achieved remarkable results through certain reforms in their shipbuilding industry.

However, economic liberalization in expanding military production capacity cannot compare to East Africa’s planned economy. To say it bluntly, East Africa’s planned economy makes minor adjustments in the event of war, almost indistinguishable from wartime economy.

Fortunately, the main objective of the East African planned economy is to enhance the nation’s level of industrialization. If it were like the Soviet Union’s first two five-year plans, centering around the development of defense industries, East Africa’s planned economy would largely resemble wartime economy.

After all, in the early stages of industrialization, the Soviet Union faced an external environment that was hundreds of times worse than that of East Africa, although both were preparing for war and preventing Western armed intervention.

East Africa doesn’t have such worries and naturally wouldn’t form a five-year plan centered around the defense industry. While the second five-year plan includes defense industry as a significant development target, its proportion certainly wouldn’t reach the kind of level seen in the Soviet Union.

This can be seen from East Africa’s industrial investment. During the second five-year plan period, at least forty percent of East Africa’s industrial funds are allocated to the development of light industry. After removing a batch of heavy industry unrelated to defense industries, funds genuinely allocated for defense industry development are relatively not much.

Mainly because defense industry and heavy industry involved deeply, the boundaries are blurred. Take tractor manufacturing for example, a tractor manufacturing plant can produce tanks, but in the current East African second five-year plan, tractor manufacturing is deemed as absolute civilian industry. In addition to enhancing East African defense industry levels, it can also significantly and positively impact industries closely related to people’s livelihoods such as transportation, shipping, and agriculture.

Erich has heard a little about East Africa’s economic system, nothing to criticize, since from the external perspective, East Africa is seen as the private property of the Rhein Royal Family, essentially established through colonial plunder, unlike the Soviet Union, which was established by overthrowing original social orders from the bottom up. Therefore, although East Africa is a planned economy country, it wouldn’t incur aversion from external countries like the Soviet Union.

Instead, Bruce’s description of East Africa’s military industrial shipbuilding industry incited great envy in Erich. He said, ”If the Imperial Navy could receive ample resources like East Africa, then the eastern Mediterranean would have long become the Imperial Navy’s private preserve!”

From Erich’s perspective, East Africa’s Navy possesses immense autonomy, unlike Austria-Hungary’s Navy, severely restricted by various forces. Despite Hungary’s parliament being the main barrier to naval funding, without Hungary’s parliament, the army would also suppress naval development.

The national conditions of East Africa and Austria-Hungary are different. Although East Africa’s land is vast, it has some favorable coastlines and numerous overseas colonies. Although East Africa’s overseas territories aren’t major transportation routes, their strategic positions are still above average.

Under such circumstances, the status of the East African Navy within the East African Army is evidently more privileged than that of the Austria-Hungary Navy.

Furthermore, East African shipbuilding industry can fully serve its domestic navy. In Austria-Hungary, to develop a navy requires much more cash. Typically, assistance is solicited from various shipyards for design according to military needs. Shipbuilding resources are procured through the market, and price fluctuations are likely to severely slash the original budget. Meanwhile, in East Africa, resources can be allocated nationwide through directives and planning.

In such conditions, if East Africa was a country prone to military intervention, its national industry could sufficiently support the East African Government, establishing a military size akin to Russia’s.

Of course, Erich’s understanding of the East African Navy isn’t comprehensive. Even among capitalist countries, Austria-Hungary’s bipartite system is quite peculiar. If this issue is resolved, further progress for Austria-Hungary’s navy isn’t impossible. Not to mention developing like the German Navy; at least it wouldn’t face such massive resistance as now.

Erich said, ”Currently, my country’s navy is in an awkward situation. The emergence of your and Britain’s new battleships has rendered our in-progress Radetzky obsolete. If adjustments aren’t made, even when launched, this battleship may struggle to fulfill its duties.”

The most embarrassing isn’t just the backwardness of this Pre-Dreadnought, but also Austria-Hungary Navy’s budget. Austria-Hungary Navy’s budget is already quite tight, and another significant sum of money is needed for modification of a new warship. Temporary modifications of Radetzky’s original design could hardly achieve effectiveness, as its original design was a typical Pre-Dreadnought, and even a modification would at most turn it into a ”Quasi-Dreadnought.”

Under such circumstances, Austria-Hungary Navy naturally can only take a shortcut, which is to seek help from East Africa. East Africa already has one ”Quasi-Dreadnought,” Bajamojo, and also the world’s second ”Dreadnought,” Perseverance.

If relevant data could be obtained from East Africa, the modification plan for Radetzky would undoubtedly proceed more smoothly. Certainly, Austria-Hungary would also have to purchase related components and equipment from East Africa, such as the steam turbines and fire control systems for Dreadnoughts, currently only available in Britain and East Africa.