Chapter 1029 Defense Industry

This structural change is the inevitable result of East Africa's development in accordance with its national conditions. In the past, East Africa planted a large amount of wheat, which was actually affected by the source of immigrants.

The early immigrant population of East Africa came from Europe or the north of the Far East Empire (mainly the Huanghuai Plain). The grain tradition of these two places greatly affected the development of East Africa's early planting industry.

However, as a tropical country, East Africa has the conditions for growing wheat like India, but in the final analysis, it is more suitable for rice planting, but rice planting is very dependent on water sources.

The early land of East Africa was mainly Tanzania and Kenya in the past. Because many places were relatively dry or had poor water conservancy facilities, it was naturally more reasonable to plant drought-resistant crops such as wheat and millet.

Now the water conservancy construction in East Africa has been relatively complete, and with the incorporation of Zambia, Angola, Mozambique, or the Great Lakes region, which has relatively abundant water resources, into the land of East Africa, it is natural that the scale of rice planting has expanded.

Similarly, the planting area of ​​high-yield crops such as corn and potatoes in East Africa is also expanding. The overall latitude and climate of East Africa are actually similar to those of South America, so the two main South American food crops are also widely planted in East Africa.

Although Siberian potatoes are more famous for potatoes, the world's potato hometown is still South America. Peru and Chile are both famous potato kingdoms, with thousands of potato varieties alone. East Africa has naturally introduced some potato varieties. It has to be said that the Native Americans have made important contributions to modern agriculture.

In contrast, among the African natives, except for the Egyptians, only the Abyssinians have cultivated teff suitable for large-scale cultivation.

This also indirectly shows that the latitude of Africa is not an excuse for the cultivation of African agricultural crops to lag behind other continents. It's just that Africa, as a chosen place, makes the most basic hunting and gathering agricultural forms too deeply rooted, so that the African natives have no motivation to develop the planting industry.

This also led to the early food crop planting industry in East Africa, which was introduced in large quantities from other regions, and almost no local food planting varieties could be found.

In general, the change in the grain production structure in East Africa is due to the change in the domestic agricultural production situation on the one hand, and the positive feedback to the international grain demand on the other hand. The current agricultural development in East Africa has developed from being full to eating well.

Under this general situation, it is very reasonable for East Africa to introduce high-quality wheat or livestock products from Eastern Europe and South America.

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In addition to light and heavy industries and agriculture, during the First Five-Year Plan, the development of East Africa's defense industry also achieved outstanding results.

During the First Five-Year Plan, the aviation industry in East Africa officially started. From 1901 to 1904, the East African government invested in the construction of three aircraft manufacturing plants, which is one of the biggest highlights of the defense industry. The current aircraft manufacturing industry is obviously completely based on meeting military needs.

As for the civil aviation industry, even if East Africa opens a branch line, it is estimated that no one dares to take it, at least Ernst himself does not dare to, and he has to wait until the technology matures, and the current aircraft capacity does not meet the standard.

In addition to East Africa, other countries in the world also have aviation industry development. The early development of aviation industry was mainly represented by France. As early as 1784, the Robert brothers of France built the first airship in human history. In 1851, the Frenchman Giffard solved the power problem of airship and became the inventor of powered airship. In 1884, the "France" electric motor airship completed the first landing back to the take-off site, and the hot air balloon before the airship was also the first to be developed by the French.

Of course, the one who brought airships to the peak of the aviation industry in the past life was Count Zeppelin of Germany. Zeppelin airship can be said to be the only practical airship used in civil aviation on a large scale before the emergence of airplanes. In other words, the emergence of Zeppelin airship opened up the emerging industry of civil aviation.

At present, the development direction of aircraft in the mainstream industrial countries in the world is still dominated by airships, while East Africa took the lead in turning to airplanes. This is to point to different technology trees, and the gap between the two will be reflected in a few years.

At present, the main customers of East African aircraft are other government departments besides the military. At present, the Meteorological Bureau or the Ministry of Agriculture are very interested in aircraft, but they have only purchased two aircraft for trial. The military still has to pay the bulk, so the aviation industry is now completely controlled by the defense industry.

The second highlight of the defense industry is the development of automobiles and armored vehicles. East Africa's automobile manufacturing industry has developed to a relatively large scale, ranking first in the world, and leading other countries by a cliff.

As for the progress of armored vehicle research and development, it is also accelerating. It is worth mentioning that the current development of armored forces in East Africa is still relatively conservative. Although the products are relatively mature, they are a bit expensive, so they are only equipped on a small scale in the army, which also makes East African cavalry still the mainstream of mobile forces.

However, when the army infantry is equipped with automobiles on a large scale, the disadvantages of cavalry are becoming more and more obvious. At present, there are only three armored forces in East Africa, and they will definitely completely replace cavalry forces in the future.

In addition to the advanced technologies mastered by the East African Army, East Africa is also gradually improving in the production of rifles, artillery and other military industries. This is mainly because the widespread use of alloys has greatly improved the upper limit of East African military industry quality. Originally, the gap between East Africa and Europe and the United States in the basic military industry of the army was not large. With breakthroughs in East Africa's military scientific research field and abundant talent advantages, the East African Army can now be said to be the most advanced in the world.

The only unfavorable factor that restricts the development of the East African Army is "peace". Without the promotion of war, the military reform in East Africa will not be too radical. This is also the main reason why the East African cavalry can be retained.

Compared with the army, the development of the navy is not so leisurely. The navies of various countries in the world are developing rapidly, and the shipbuilding technology is also changing with each passing day. Although East Africa has not participated in the naval arms race, the naval technology competition has never been interrupted.

Moreover, the East African shipbuilding industry has developed relatively late, which also makes the East African shipbuilding industry have a lot of lessons to make up, and the same is true for the military shipbuilding industry.

The development of the military shipbuilding industry in East Africa is relatively independent, but it has only been in recent years that the gap with the powers has been truly closed. It has also enjoyed the dividends of the East African technological explosion.

The navy can be regarded as the world's top level in the manufacturing of two major military ships, submarines and battleships. However, the research and development of East African battleships is now affected by the Russo-Japanese War and is temporarily stagnant. It needs more data from the navies of Japan and Russia to infer the future development direction of naval technology.

However, this time will not be too long. According to the Navy Department's estimate, the decisive battle between the Japanese and Russian navies should be around May to June this year, which is the approximate time when the Russian Navy enters the East Asian waters.

The development direction of battleships has been tested by the Japanese and Russian navies, but there is no clear reference for submarine construction. Benefiting from the first-mover advantage, East African domestic submarines are currently the most advanced in the world, and among other countries in the world, France and Germany are most interested in the role of submarines.

Germany's main naval high-level officials want to find another way to assist battleships against the British Navy, and it is easy to make achievements with the strong strength of Germany in the field of science and technology, while France feels a little powerless in the naval competition.

Battleships are expensive, and France's opponents, Britain and Germany, have more advantages than France. As for other countries, they don't pay much attention to submarine research and development, or they are powerless.

After all, military research and development has technical and financial thresholds, and basically only the world's powerful countries can afford it.