African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1162: Chapter 171: Return to South America

As a large market, arms trade cannot do without publicity, and war is the most striking way to promote weapons.

Take, for example, the Gulf War in the previous existence, where the United States completely suppressed Soviet-style weapons, but this does not mean Soviet weapons were ineffective; rather, they had not adapted to the new tactics of the U.S. military. Also, a major reason was the poor level of the Iraqi military.

In fact, if the Soviet Union had not disintegrated, such a Great Power could soon formulate suitable solutions on the battlefield changes, but at that time, the Soviet Union no longer had this opportunity.

Many times, the performance of a weapon depends on who is using it. In the hands of an excellent military, even a fire stick can maximize its value, whereas if it is in the hands of those African countries of the previous existence, it cannot be reasoned with at all.

Bulgaria was chosen by Ernst as the unlucky candidate, of course, East Africa did not make Bulgaria suffer losses, really like the Ukraine of the previous existence, being able to find military aid from the United States and a pile of European countries is also a skill; if even the Western World abandons Ukraine, that is true despair.

Therefore, with Germany unable to extricate itself, and Bulgaria heavily relying on German weapons, East Africa can be considered Bulgaria’s ”great savior”.

After Europe was discussed, John Lier began to speak about the focus of the arms market: ”When countries in Europe are involved in European wars, the arms market in the Asian, African, and Latin American regions is the real big deal.”

”These non-European arms markets are not a single transaction. As long as we can take advantage of this gap, where Great Powers in Europe cannot extricate themselves, we can lay the groundwork for the future East African arms trade.”

”Such as the Far East, the Middle East, Central Asia, West Africa, and Latin America. Originally, these markets were divided among the world’s Great Powers, but now our only rivals are the Americans.”

Nowadays, land warfare is still in the era of rifles and cannons, and under such circumstances, the United States has a unique advantage because America is a nation that does not ban guns, so rifle production in the U.S. is a large and complete industry chain.

Furthermore, the United States has a completely liberalized market, so the U.S. almost produces all mainstream types of firearms, such as the East African version of the Mauser rifle can also be found in similar products in America.

America has a strong arms production industry, and given that the U.S. has not been caught in the turmoil of war, this increases the competitive pressure on the East African arms market.

Besides the Far East Empire, in reality, many countries do not have as strong consumption capabilities as imagined, some island nations do not even need armies, naturally need not cannons, warships, and other high-end products. Instead, the basic rifles can fulfill the needs of these small and poor countries.

Nowadays, East Africa’s foreign trade can be said to be thriving, while East Africa’s financial pressure has also been significantly relieved. Before the war, East Africa borrowed quite a bit of money from Europe and America, and now it is considered a process of repaying debts.

This is also an important reason why East Africa can receive large orders. East Africa was originally the side in debt, and now neither side of the European conflict needs to use gold reserves. They can obtain desired strategic materials from East Africa, making it a win-win situation.

If East Africa had not owed so much debt before the war, it would actually be detrimental to the export of the domestic industry. After all, without debt, Europe and America importing materials from East Africa would obviously have to use real gold and silver for exchange, which is psychologically difficult for any country to accept.

However, if countries in Europe choose to balance accounts by using materials from East Africa, it would then form a path dependency on East Africa’s exported materials, making it difficult to break away at least until the end of the war.

East Africa prepared for World War I for several years, and at this time, America had not even laid out the production lines, so there would definitely be quality differences in industrial products between the two countries, meaning East African products as a whole are higher quality than U.S. products.

For example, East African-produced pharmaceuticals and beverages entered Europe ahead of America and continued to maintain a competitive edge in products.

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October 1914.

While European wars dominated the headlines daily, East Africa unexpectedly made a significant move in South America and taught South American countries a serious lesson.

On October 1st, the East African Navy officially launched an extensive South American visit, sending a grand visiting team of five battleships, one battlecruiser, and ten cruisers.

It can be said that the East African Navy committed a considerable part of the Atlantic Fleet to execute this South American visit, or rather, demonstration.

With the outbreak of the European War, the East African Navy also made adjustments, deploying most of the country’s main naval forces to the Atlantic Ocean area. The main task was to escort national merchant ships in Europe, ensuring the smoothness of sea lanes.

After all, only by ”brandishing the sword” can England and France see East Africa’s strength and prevent them from interfering with East Africa’s maritime trade.

This is also the important reason why East African merchant ships can smoothly reach Germany. Although East Africa and America trading with Germany during this period exhibits obvious behavior of supplying the enemy, England and France can only turn a blind eye.

After all, East Africa and America, as important neutral countries potentially changing the European war situation, offending any of them could lead them into a deep abyss of suffering.

East Africa and America also tacitly maintain the right to ”free navigation”, as this benefits both countries’ profitability.

However, compared to the tacit understanding shown by both countries facing European nations, East Africa and America compete completely differently in other parts of the world.

America perceives the Americas as its backyard, and with England and France being held up by Germany.

The South America region cleared space, and the United States, with its Monroe Doctrine in mind, was naturally eager to take over England and France’s sphere of influence in South America.

However, in the view of the East African Government, this is another matter. After all, in terms of distance, East Africa is also not far from the South American continent, so East Africa certainly does not agree with parts of the Monroe Doctrine.

Thus, to contest the influence and market spheres of England, France, and other countries in South America, America and East Africa each show their abilities.

But in the end, it still comes down to who has the larger fists to force South American countries to make the most ”reasonable” choice.

This time the East African Navy’s visit to South America is on an extensive scale, even starting from Mexico in non-South America and ending in Argentina, far surpassing the scale of the previous East African Navy visit to South America.

The previous East African Navy visit to South American countries primarily focused on the five southernmost South American countries, namely Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Chile.

This time, all coastal countries are within the East African Navy’s visiting scope, and South America basically does not have inland countries, except for the two unlucky ones, Paraguay and Bolivia.

However, visiting Paraguay is also within East African Navy plans, leveraging the Paraguay River can easily reach Paraguay’s capital Asuncion.

As for Bolivia, there’s really no way; Bolivia has no coastline, and there’s no external connecting waterway like the Paraguay River, so the East African Navy naturally has no opportunity to visit Bolivia.

Of course, this does not mean Bolivia does not have a navy. Although they have no seacoast, Bolivia has the biggest freshwater lake in South America, Lake Titicaca, where the Bolivian Navy is based.

In the previous existence, Bolivia’s navy was also a global peculiarity. Despite it being just a large lake, the strength of Bolivia’s navy is stronger than that of many countries, with personnel over five thousand, far more authentic than Outer Mongolia Navy, which is also an inland nation.

That counts as one major regret of East Africa’s current naval visit to South America. If time were moved back several decades, Bolivia would still have had an ocean outlet.

Bolivia’s loss of its ocean outlet was due to the failure in the Guano War, after 1879, and at that time East African Navy was not nearly as strong as it is now. This was also East African Navy’s first visit to the West Coast of South America.