Chapter 1326 Ambition

The fact that the Third Fleet can place its headquarters in Fujairah is very telling. Fujairah is on the land of the Arabian Peninsula. Phuket, where the Fourth Fleet is located, is only separated from the Indochina Peninsula by a narrow road. strait.

Among the seven fleets in East Africa, only the headquarters of the Seventh Fleet is placed on Kalimantan. However, Kalimantan is not only East Africa, but also has British colonies in the north. This is why the Seventh Fleet is preparing to move to Belitung Island. One of the reasons.

The Seventh Fleet is under the jurisdiction of the Pacific Fleet. There are many locations to choose from in the area under the jurisdiction of the Pacific Fleet, which is unmatched by the other two fleets in East Africa.

So looking at it this way, Qatar, as a small peninsula, has more advantages than the location of most naval bases in East Africa.

"Qatar!" Lomach said: "This is a good choice. Qatar's port conditions are much better than the several military ports we have now, and there are many excellent ports in Qatar. Of course, the most important thing is Qatar has a natural deep-water port that the Beibu Gulf territory does not have. If we can occupy Qatar, we can rely on Qatar to build a large military port for berthing of battleships and other large warships. "

The Third Fleet is naturally very familiar with the countries in the region, so the commanders of the Third Fleet, such as Lomach, know the natural conditions of Qatar very well.

Prato said: "The only thing we need to worry about is whether if we send troops to Qatar, it will arouse the fear of the British and trigger unnecessary diplomatic and military conflicts."

Lomach said negatively: "Probably not. Although Qatar is a British protectorate, it is actually a very poor place. If it were not for maintaining the stable order of Qatar, the British would probably not want to deal with this place."

How poor Qatar was at the beginning of the 20th century. It is no exaggeration to say that the living standards of Qataris were not as good as those of the indigenous people on the African grasslands.

There are three main pillars of Qatar's economy. The first is the small and pitiful nomadic industry, the second is the fishing industry that is very important to it, and the last is the pearl mining industry, which is Qatar's most important economic income.

Nomadism is the old profession of Arabs. In most Arab countries, the land is barren and there is no rich and stable pasture. Therefore, in order to maintain the growth of livestock, they can only continue to find sparse grassland during migration to develop grazing and breeding.

There are a small number of oases in Qatar, which were the basic guarantee for the early survival of the Qataris. However, Qatar is small and these oases are not enough to support its development and growth. Even with the fishing industry, it can only maintain the survival of a small population.

According to intelligence data from East Africa, the total population of Qatar is only about 20,000. As we all know, Arabism is a religion that encourages fertility. Looking at the population of Qatar, we can know the cruel living environment that Qataris face.

In fact, according to Qatar's current population size, this is already a lot. If it only relies on nomadic herding and fishing, Qatar can only maintain the level of 10,000 people.

The reason why Qatar's population can reach 20,000 mainly depends on two things, namely pearl fishing and robbery.

Pearl fishing is one of the important industries along the Persian Gulf. In the past, pearls could only be obtained through collecting. Thousands of people in Qatar lived by collecting pearls. By collecting pearls, they traded with surrounding areas in exchange for necessary pearls. Prepared survival supplies.

Robbing families and homes is even simpler. Piracy is prevalent in the Persian Gulf. This is also one of the traditional industries of the Arabs. The Beibu Gulf territory in East Africa was known as the pirate coast in the past, and neighboring countries such as Qatar and Bahrain are not surprising.

Before the 1970s, piracy was a very promising job for the Arabs along the coast of the Arabian Peninsula.

At that time, it was still the era of sailing wooden-hulled ships. Even the warships of European naval powers could not be said to be very advanced, and commercial ships were even more fragile. This made piracy very popular around the world.

Especially in the Arab region, where living conditions are harsh and there are certain navigation skills, pirates are most likely to occur, and Qatari pirates are one of them.

Relying on the piracy business, Qatar's population has grown to today's scale, but this is already the limit of Qatar. After all, even in the age of sails, Qatar's shipbuilding industry cannot be very developed. After all, they themselves lack the raw materials needed for the shipbuilding industry.

Before the 1970s, Qatari pirates were still active in the Persian Gulf in small boats. When the era of ironclads came, this method was completely ineffective.

Lomach said: "The reason why the British turned Qatar into their own protectorate was to suppress the development of piracy in Qatar, maintain the stability of the Qatari regime, and thereby reduce the breeding ground for piracy."

"In the last century, pirates along the Persian Gulf were capable of causing harm to the shipping business in the Persian Gulf under British control."

"However, times have changed now. Even ordinary merchant ships are getting faster and faster. If Qatari pirates want to continue to develop, they must make a breakthrough in the shipbuilding industry."

"But Qatar has no way to do this. Most of Qatar's areas are deserts. It cannot even be self-sufficient in lumber for the production of large ships. It is also very poor and cannot afford to import slightly advanced ships from countries such as Ottoman or Oman."

"Even if they can really do this, the development of the navies of various countries has exceeded their imagination. The price of a large ship is not cheap. If it is sunk by the navies of other countries escorting it, the gain will outweigh the loss."

"Qatar, which has lost its piracy business, has already had big problems in its survival, not to mention that their most important source of income, the pearl mining industry, is also under huge threat."

The reason why the pearling industry is threatened is the emergence of the artificially raised and cultivated pearl industry in the early 20th century, which caused the price of natural pearls to plummet.

Just like the price of natural diamonds plummeted after the emergence of the artificial diamond industry, of course, some people may say that the price of diamonds in the previous 21st century, especially in the jewelry industry, is still very high, but this is mainly because international capital has forcibly assigned diamonds financial attributes.

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Just like real estate in previous lives, a pile of reinforced concrete was speculated to a very high price, but in fact, the more houses are produced, the cheaper the price should be. After all, according to normal thinking, most commodities are "scarce things are rare". "Expensive", more and more houses are built, but prices increase instead of falling, until supply completely exceeds demand. This process is obviously the result of artificial manipulation.

If this process is "reasonable", then there should be no economic crisis in the world today. From the establishment of East Africa to the present, the world has gone through multiple rounds of economic crises. It is precisely because of the unlimited production capacity of industrial countries such as European countries, the United States and East Africa. Caused by blind expansion of production.

This is one of the reasons why this round of European wars is more intense and bloody than the original wars in history. East Africa has become a world industrial power, further intensifying the involution of the world capital group.

As for the main source of income for Qataris, no one in the pearling industry would use it as a financial product to raise prices. Therefore, after the birth of the artificially cultivated pearl industry, Qatar's pearling industry had only a dead end.

Lomach said: "From all angles, it may be easier than we think to capture Qatar. The British do not value Qatar, so even if Qatar is a British protectorate, we do not need to care too much. What's more, the UK has no time to take care of Qatar's security."

"Not just the United Kingdom, but throughout the entire Persian Gulf coast, no one will plead grievances for a small and backward country like Qatar, so it is completely feasible for us to acquire Qatar, and using Qatar as a base, we can build two to three military ports. This way This will leave room for the expansion of the Third Fleet in the future.”