Chapter 1248 Phuket

September 7, 1916.

Lamu Port.

The Indian Ocean Fleet of East Africa is officially preparing to take over the ceded area of ​​Siam. The East African government named the area separated from Siam as the Isthmus of Kra Territory.

Vice Admiral Collet of the East African Navy said to a group of officers and soldiers: "Phuket Port should become the strategic fulcrum of our navy in the East Indian Waters. We will build an overseas base for the Indian Ocean Fleet here, so that our navy's sphere of influence will truly affect the entire Indian Ocean."

Although the Indian Ocean Fleet of East Africa is very famous and is known as the strongest navy in the entire Indian Ocean, East Africa's influence on the Indian Ocean is not the case.

The main reason for this is that East Africa lacks territory in the East Indian Ocean region.

In the past, in the North Indian Ocean, roughly the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea and the Persian Gulf, East Africa also faced this situation. However, with the establishment of the Beibu Gulf Territory, East Africa has truly gained a foothold in the North Indian Ocean. In addition, the North Indian Ocean is not far from the East African mainland, so even if the Beibu Gulf Territory has poor environmental carrying capacity, there is no big problem.

This is not the case in the East Indian Ocean. In the past, East Africa did not have a piece of territory or a naval base in the East Indian Ocean, which made the East African Navy's influence in the region far less than that of Britain and France.

Now the emergence of the Isthmus of Kra has greatly solved the problem of the Indian Ocean Fleet's lack of strategic fulcrum in the East Indian Ocean region.

East Africa's division of the East Indian Ocean is also very simple, that is, the southernmost tip of India is the dividing line. The vast sea area east of India, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra Island, Java Island and west of Australia is the approximate range of the East Indian Ocean.

Important sea areas or sea transportation routes such as the Bay of Bengal, the Burmese Sea, the Strait of Malacca, the Timor Sea, and the Great Australian Bight all belong to this sea area.

Although East Africa has many overseas territories in the South China Sea, these overseas territories belong to the Pacific Ocean, not the Indian Ocean region.

So Colletz, an old general from the East African Navy, was very excited about East Africa's acquisition of the Isthmus of Kra.

He said: "The location of Phuket Port is right between the Strait of Malacca and the Burmese Sea. Building it into a naval port and stationing a fleet here can effectively deter the East-West trade routes."

In fact, the East African Navy originally wanted to obtain Langkawi Island, southeast of Phuket Port, but this island had long been occupied by the British, so it had to settle for the second best and choose Phuket Port.

After all, for the navy, although the conditions of Phuket Port are superior, it is backed by the mainland of Indochina, while Langkawi Island is a large island in the west of the Strait of Malacca.

The defensiveness of the island is generally easier to defend and difficult to attack, and there is a strait between Langkawi Island and the Malay Peninsula, which makes it safer. The conditions on the island are also good, with abundant fresh water resources and a considerable land area, which can accommodate a large population. At least it is relatively easy to station a squadron.

However, except for the first point that Phuket Port is not as good as Langkawi Island, it has almost no shortcomings, and the threats on land are nothing more than Myanmar and Siam. As long as East Africa does not decline, their threats can basically be ignored.

In fact, Phuket Island, where Phuket Port is located, is also an island. It is also the largest island in Siam in the past and a world-renowned tourist destination. However, because it is too close to the mainland, its island characteristics cannot be reflected on the large-scale map.

If you choose a more professional special map, you can see that there is also a strait between its north and Siam, but the narrowest part of the strait is only a few hundred meters away, which is enough to slide a wooden board from the mainland.

"Phuket Port does not belong to the Kra Isthmus Territory. The government and the navy's arrangements for Phuket Island are directly governed by the central government and mainly serve the navy."

"This action is probably similar to the central government's arrangements for the Lanfang Overseas Province and the East Kalimantan Colony."

The Lanfang Overseas Province and the East Kalimantan region can actually be regarded as a whole, but the East African government did not intend to merge the two places after acquiring East Kalimantan.

After all, generally speaking, many countries like to merge several colonies when they colonize overseas, so as to save colonial administrative and management costs.

For example, the British Indian colony even included several countries in the previous life, and the Dutch East Indies colony was also the same. In fact, without the two colonizers' forced integration, it would be impossible for the unified India and Indonesia, two regional giant countries, to appear in the previous life.

The most typical example is the French Indochina colony in the previous life. After Vietnam defeated France in the previous life, it wanted to inherit other areas of the French Indochina colony, such as Laos and Cambodia, which caused Vietnam to stir up trouble in Southeast Asia in the previous life.

It can be seen from this that the influence of colonial activities on the world politics in the previous life is far-reaching. After all, according to the normal development logic, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and other regions should be divided into many small countries, but the colonizers integrated them together, thus a group of large unified countries emerged.

The East African government and navy separated Phuket from the Kra Isthmus Territory, which also had this influence.

In Ernst's view, East Africa is unlikely to localize the Kra Isthmus Territory in the future. After all, East Africa is not for poverty alleviation in the past, just like the United States is unwilling to absorb Mexico, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico.

Therefore, with the exception of the Lan Fang overseas province, the colonial activities in East Africa in recent decades have not designated areas far away from the mainland as provinces.

East Africa has various purposes for the Isthmus of Kra, including supporting a pro-East African country in the Isthmus of Kra in the future, building a new "Rhine" homeland, expanding East Africa's influence in the region, etc.

Since there is no plan to include the Isthmus of Kra territory into the East African governance system, East Africa also does not plan to invest in the comprehensive development of the Isthmus of Kra region.

After all, the area of ​​the Isthmus of Kra territory is as much as 50,000 square kilometers, which is almost equivalent to the area of ​​half a province of the Far East Empire in the previous life.

It is completely different to separate Phuket. The area of ​​Phuket is only more than 500 square kilometers, and East Africa's demands on the local area are more military and strategic.

This will become the regional center of the East African Indian Ocean Fleet in the East Indian Sea, and will be built into a large-scale comprehensive sea, land and air multi-purpose military fortress.

The construction of military ports, airports, military camps and other facilities will form a huge deterrent to the South Sea countries, India, Myanmar and so on in the region.

On land, it can directly threaten Siam and Myanmar, on the sea, it can threaten the Strait of Malacca and the surrounding waters, and in the sky, the scope is even greater, of course, the premise is to wait until the air force officially rises.

After controlling Phuket and waiting for the construction of the Phuket military fortress, East Africa's voice in the Indian Ocean will be unprecedentedly strengthened, and the security of East Africa's territory in the South Seas can be ensured.

For example, the Strait of Malacca was once an important tool for Britain to clamp down on the two major fleets in the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean in East Africa. Once the construction of the Phuket military fortress is completed, it will become East Africa's encirclement of the British colonies in the Strait of Malacca from both sides.

The importance of Phuket is far more than that. Although it is not as important as the Strait of Malacca, especially the Strait of Singapore, it can ensure that East Africa screens and strikes all ships passing through the Strait of Malacca and maintains the safety of East African merchant ships.

This is similar to the city of Dire Dawa in East Africa. As long as the city of Dire Dawa is in the hands of East Africa, East Africa can threaten the security of British Somaliland and French Djibouti, and even the Italian Red Sea colonies.

This is a strategic balancing method commonly used in East Africa. After all, the history of East African countries is too short, so in the post-colonial era, they can only choose those "unowned lands" as their strategic fulcrums.

This method was actually often used by the Far Eastern Empire in the past. For example, when important waterways such as the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal were controlled by Western forces, the Far Eastern Empire chose to make some secondary strategic locations as a second choice.